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This weekly blog is to explore the news around the larger issues around Digital Health, data security, data privacy, AI / ML. technology, social media and any related matters.
I will also try to highlight ADHA Propaganda when I come upon it.
Just so we keep count, the latest Notes from the ADHA Board were dated 6 December, 2018 and we have seen none since! It’s pretty sad!
Note: Appearance here is not to suggest I see any credibility or value in what follows. I will leave it to the reader to decide what is worthwhile and what is not! The point is to let people know what is being said / published that I have come upon, and found interesting.
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https://digitalhealth.org.au/blog/partnership-to-advance-digital-health-workforce/
Partnership to advance digital health workforce
Oct 22, 2022 | Advocacy, AIDH news, Australian Health News, Community of Practice, Workforce
The Institute is working with the Australian Digital Health Agency on strategies to deliver digital health capability across the health workforce. The Capability Action Plan (CAP) enables Australia’s health workforce to develop the skills needed for healthcare delivery in the digital world.
Agency CEO Amanda Cattermole said:
“Workforce strategy development and planning requires consultation, including with professional colleges, universities and educators and employers in the public and private sectors. Coordination of effort is also vital, and the AIDH, with its strong existing knowledge, relationships and independence in this area, is well positioned to take on this role.”
AIDH CEO Dr Louise Schaper said the Institute’s primary focus for the last four years has been advancing the digital capability of the health workforce. She said:
“The Institute, its Fellows and Members, already work with many health professions on workforce advancement, through accreditation and training, with programs that start with the basics of digital health to more advanced workforce-based programs. The nursing and midwifery workforce has started to upskill by assessing capability in public and private sectors and creating a starting point to build programs for education and training. It’s time to take this to all health professions on a larger scale.”
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https://www.innovationaus.com/struggling-privacy-watchdog-searches-for-systemic-changes/
Struggling privacy watchdog searches for ‘systemic’ changes
Joseph
Brookes
Senior Reporter
20 October 2022
Australia’s privacy and information watchdog failed to meet key performance criteria around freedom of information and privacy investigations, as its workload jumped and staff attrition rate doubled the public service average.
The disappointing results from last financial year have led to warnings from the regulator about its resourcing and a call for government agencies to more proactively disclose information to the public.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner on Wednesday tabled its annual report, revealing it had achieved less than two thirds of its key performance indicators, blaming several of the misses on an increase in the complexity and volume of its work.
More than a quarter of Freedom of Information (FOI) complaints it handles now take more than a year to be resolved, while the overall average is now 10.5 months.
Last financial year, the regulator, which was without a dedicated FOI commissioner for most of the period, received 215 complaints about actions taken by agencies when handling FOI requests, an increase of 42 per cent compared to 2020–21.
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https://www.innovationaus.com/renewed-calls-for-public-sector-privacy-laws-in-wa/
Renewed calls for public sector privacy laws in WA
Justin
Hendry
Editor
21 October 2022
The Western Australian government is facing renewed calls to introduce public sector privacy laws following a spate of high-profile data breaches in the private sector and questions over data retention practices at WA Police.
WA is one of only two jurisdictions in Australia without dedicated privacy legislation, the other being South Australia. Attempts to introduce it date back to 2007, when the former Labor government tried and failed to pass an information bill.
The government has been working to develop dedicated privacy and data sharing legislation since 2017, as was recommended in the 2016 Data Linkage Review chaired by the state’s Chief Scientist Professor Peter Klinken.
The review said that while “WA has a long and highly successful history of linking data” there was “evidence to suggest that other states and countries are hesitant to share data with WA due to the lack of privacy legislation”.
“With this concern, coupled with the requirement for a whole-of-government model where data from numerous government agencies can be access and linked, there is a strong need for privacy legislation,” the report said.
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https://www.hinz.org.nz/news/619545/IT-integral-to-new-hospital-for-Wellington-children.htm
IT integral to new hospital for Wellington children
Monday, 17 October 2022
NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth
Three thousand data outlets, 200,000 metres of cable and
a technology refresh is enabling the latest models of ICT equipment to support
the newly opened Wellington Children's Hospital.
Te Wao Nui, which opened on September 30, has 50 inpatient beds and another 101
outpatient beds, and will provide care for babies and children up to the age of
16.
Chief digital officer for Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand Capital and Coast,
Hutt Valley and Wairarapa district, Martin Catterall, says most the ICT
technology in the new building has been refreshed to provide the latest models
of equipment to compliment the new build.
"This is about future proofing, making sure new technologies are scalable
going forward," he says.
A new digital communication tool, Vocera, has been
implemented to enable staff to communicate more easily and to engage with other
staff in what is a much larger building than they previously had. Staff wear
the wireless devices around their necks and they are voice and touch activated.
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Corporate Australia’s cyber dream turns to a nightmare
2:24PM October 21, 2022
Cyber security and data management is now seen for what it is: a lot more complex than some had hoped, and a nightmare for corporate Australia and government amid the promise of data driven productivity gains to boost the economy.
The seeming conflicts see an inexorable push for wider consumer data rights to boost competition against new regulation on digital platforms like Google and the government and business’s insatiable demand for more data.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers is due to respond by the end of next week on the ACCC’s push for more regulation of digital platforms including a code of conduct. Next week’s budget may well delay his response but it is coming soon.
CDR (consumer data right) is the rightly much lauded vehicle to encourage competition by giving you, the consumer, the right to share your data with a potential rival provider, be it a bank, phone company or gas supplier.
The idea is to break down barriers to entry in markets like banking, electricity and telecoms using your data rights.
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Companies face new penalties for customer data breaches
Companies could face much harsher penalties if their customer data is compromised in cyber security breaches following a move by the government.
October 22, 2022 - 11:06AM
NCA NewsWire
The federal government will aim to pass legislation making companies far more culpable in the event of a customer data breach.
Under the proposed changes, companies involved in serious or repeated breaches could face penalties of up to $50m – compared to the current $2.2m cap.
Penalties could also take the form of 30 per cent of a company’s adjusted turnover for the relevant period or three times the value of any benefit obtained through the misuse of information.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said recent major data breaches at companies, including Optus and Medibank, had shown current measures to be insufficient.
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https://developer.digitalhealth.gov.au/events/msia-agm-summit-2022
MSIA AGM & Summit 2022
Thursday, 3 November 2022 - 8:45am to 6:00pm
Online Webinar
Annual General Meeting for MSIA members.
Note times are AEDT
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/opinion/come-on-8-billion-in-fraud-this-fake-news-will-harm-medicare-former-psr-director/
Former PSR director says $8 billion Medicare rort claims are fake news
21 October 2022
The headlines that $8 billion in Medicare claims are fraudulent are classic cases of fake news.
The evidence for this dramatic accusation was from a ‘Medicare expert’ who, Google Scholar reveals, has published only five articles.
An analysis of the expert’s publications reveals one is a review of previous literature (presumably the introduction to her thesis), another is a survey of 27 practitioners (not a particularly large sample size given we have 160,000 medical practitioners in Australia) and another a survey of ‘stakeholders’ she feels are responsible for medical education.
Unfortunately, only three of the 18 medical schools were surveyed, and the Australian Medical Council — the largest ‘medical school’ in Australia — was also not surveyed.
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Thursday, 20 October 2022 13:33
Medical data of 3.9m Australians at risk as Medibank faces ransom demand
Medical insurer Medibank Group says its shares have entered a trading halt after it was contacted by an individual who claims to have stolen 200GB of data from the company during a network attack which it reported last week.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the company said the individual in question had provided a sample of records for 100 policies. "...we believe [this] has come from our ahm and international student systems," it said.
The company provides private health insurance and health services to more than 3.9 million people in Australia.
"That data includes first names and surnames, addresses, dates of birth, Medicare numbers, policy numbers, phone numbers and some claims data," Medibank Group said.
"This claims data includes the location of where a customer received medical services, and codes relating to their diagnosis and procedures.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/medibank-confirms-hackers-have-customer-data-586727
Medibank confirms hackers have customer data
By Richard Chirgwin on Oct 20, 2022 2:01PM
Diagnoses and procedures part of the breach.
The scale of the Medibank data breach continues to worsen, with the insurer now confirming customer data, including medical claims information, is in the hands of the attackers.
In a financial filing [pdf], Medibank said it had been contacted by an individual or group that claims to hold 200GB of data.
The company said it has been shown “a sample of records for 100 policies which we believe has come from our ahm and international student systems."
“That data includes first names and surnames, addresses, dates of birth, Medicare numbers, policy numbers, phone numbers and some claims data," it said.
The claims data includes some of peoples’ most private medical information: “where a customer received medical services, and codes relating to their diagnosis and procedures.”
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Privacy breach fines will be the least of Medibank’s worries
Australia has tough laws governing breaches of health data privacy, but they don’t appear to apply in the Medibank data breach.
John Davidson Columnist
Oct 20, 2022 – 4.16pm
Medibank Private executives will likely avoid prison sentences and the company will only face fines of “virtually nothing” following a data breach that exposed the ultra-sensitive health records of some of its customers, a data privacy expert said.
On Thursday, Medibank revealed it may have had as much as 200 gigabytes of health insurance data stolen in a cyberattack, including “first names and surnames, addresses, dates of birth, Medicare numbers, policy numbers, phone numbers and some claims data” of customers of its ahm and international students services. Ahm is Medibank’s low-cost insurance brand.
Crucially, that claims data “includes the location of where a customer received medical services, and codes relating to their diagnosis and procedures”, Medibank said in a statement to the ASX.
“I know that many will be disappointed with Medibank and I acknowledge that disappointment,” Medibank chief executive David Koczkar said.
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ANDHealth’s The Awakening Giant Report: Australia to Become a Global Destination for Digital Health – but only with the Right Investment
Australia
must commit to sustained digital health investment to position itself as a
global destination for digital health innovation and commercialisation,
according to ANDHealth’s latest State of the Industry report, The Awakening
Giant: The Rise of Australia’s Evidence-Based Digital Health Sector.
“Australia’s evidence-based digital health sector has evolved significantly
since 2020, with both the number and maturity of companies in ANDHealth’s
pipeline increasing substantially,” said ANDHealth CEO and Managing Director,
Bronwyn Le Grice.
“By bringing together our world-class health and medical research capabilities,
and our growing technology expertise, Australia has the opportunity to
capitalise on the global digital health sector – predicted to reach US$660
million by 2025 – and build a high-growth industry that sees Australia’s
health innovators and their innovations remain onshore.
“A thriving digital health sector will deliver jobs, exports and critical
healthcare improvements for providers and patients, but The Awakening Giant
report highlights that for evidence-based digital health technologies to make
it to market, we need dedicated programs, larger investment pools, and clearer
reimbursement pathways.”
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Founders turn to offshore investors to fill ‘viability gap’
Yolanda Redrup Reporter
Oct 19, 2022 – 12.06pm
A “viability gap” is forcing would-be Australian digital health success stories to either move offshore or tap overseas investors for much-needed funding, the CEO of ANDHealth Bronwyn Le Grice says.
New data from ANDHealth, a national digital health organisation which supports more than 600 businesses, revealed the median amount of funding raised by start-ups in 2021 was just $278,500, despite the increasing maturity of companies in the sector.
In total 449 digital health companies raised $524.8 million in dilutive and non-dilutive funding, with the most common funding sources being family friends and angel investors, or government grants.
In the next 12 months, 85 per cent of the 569 digital health start-ups surveyed planned to raise capital.
But Ms Le Grice said there was a “viability gap” in the sector where start-ups could find seed or late-stage funding when the business was more mature, but there was a dearth of support for companies still trying to navigate clinical trials and commercialising their venture.
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Woolworths admits MyDeal needed improved cybersecurity
Carrie LaFrenz, Paul Smith and Tess Bennett
Oct 19, 2022 – 1.20pm
Retail giant Woolworths Group says it knew when it bought MyDeal.com in May the bargain website needed investment in a number of areas including cybersecurity.
The nation’s largest grocery retailer this week is seeking to contact 2.2 million customers of its MyDeal online marketplace, which sells electronics to baby goods, after their data was accessed by an unauthorised user using “compromised” credentials.
Woolworths chief security officer Pieter van der Merwe told The Australian Financial Review he was confident in the technology and cybersecurity due diligence the retailer undertakes on any potential new businesses.
“This due diligence is undertaken by our internal IT experts in conjunction with our external advisors,” he said. “With MyDeal, we identified areas for investment in the IT space during due diligence and the MyDeal team had started implementing these.
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Cyber breaches show companies are playing data roulette
You could be forgiven for thinking Australia was suddenly under cyber assault, but the reality is that it has been this way for ages, with firms gambling that their customers won’t be the next exposed.
Paul Smith Technology editor
Oct 18, 2022 – 4.52pm
Thanks to the widespread public and political anger that followed the data breach at Optus last month, the cat is well and truly out of the bag that consumers have been putting misplaced trust in companies to protect their personal data.
Online wine subscription service Vinomofo is the latest in a string of organisations to hit the headlines since, with mea culpas about data being lost to online crooks.
It followed on from a weekend alert from Woolworths that its recently acquired MyDeal division had lost some details of 2.2 million users, and Australia’s biggest health insurance company Medibank revealing it has been fighting off an attempted cyberattack.
You could be forgiven for thinking Australia was suddenly under cyber assault, but the reality is it has been this way for ages, it is just more people are paying attention now.
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https://au.news.yahoo.com/connectivity-lifeline-bush-patients-023021910.html
Connectivity a lifeline for bush patients
Tue, 18 October 2022 at 1:30 pm3-min read
When Marco Giuseppin was working as a doctor in rural Queensland, he got a call about a motorbike accident at an outback station.
A lack of mobile reception meant Dr Giuseppin had to offer medical advice over a landline phone call, which was then relayed to the crash site via two-way radio.
Another time, he was unable to treat a child suffering minor burns after a video call dropped out due to poor connectivity.
"The family had to drive a significant distance for a face-to-face consult, which could have been avoided had I been able to complete the consult via telehealth," Dr Giuseppin told AAP.
"It really is a lifeline for the bush."
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https://www.ama.com.au/media/poor-digital-connectivity-affecting-health-rural-australians
Media release
Poor digital connectivity affecting health of rural Australians
Published 18 October 2022
The AMA says poor digital connectivity is affecting the health of rural Australians and preventing rural doctors from providing quality digital healthcare in rural and remote Australia.
With flooding and other climate disasters continuing to affect rural communities, the AMA is calling on the government to improve mobile phone coverage and internet connectivity and enhance the resilience of telecommunications infrastructure to natural disasters.
AMA President Professor Steve Robson said too many Australians living outside metropolitan areas are missing out on life-saving telehealth consultations and other care due to poor internet connectivity and digital infrastructure.
“Regional, rural and remote Australians often struggle to access the health services that urban Australians see as a basic right. These inequalities have led to lower life expectancy, worse outcomes on leading health indicators, and poorer access to care compared to people in major cities.
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Fear not, AI is a means to enhance human prosperity
Nick Dyrenfurth and Adam Slonim
11:00PM October 17, 2022
In 2019, former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer issued a blunt warning: “In the 21st century, power will be determined not by one’s nuclear arsenal but by a wider spectrum of technological capabilities … Those not at the forefront of artificial intelligence and big data will inexorably become dependent on, and ultimately controlled by, other powers. Data and technological sovereignty, not nuclear warheads, will determine the global distribution of power and wealth.”
Events in Europe such as Vladimir Putin’s nuclear sabre-rattling against Ukraine and Australia’s signing up to the AUKUS security pact do not mitigate this reading.
Front of mind for many Australians, however, is the Terminator-like threat AI poses towards jobs. For too long this narrative has been uncritically accepted. As the five-month-old federal Labor government finds its feet, it’s time to adopt an AI narrative not grounded in science fiction. The Terminator is not coming to a workplace near you. AI is little closer to achieving human-level intelligence than it was 20 years ago and, even if it were, it is unable to tackle tasks such as plumbing, painting and paving. Yet Australia is missing out on the productivity benefits AI enables. While our competitors race ahead, we lie immobilised by fictional fears.
As the looming federal budget dominates national debate, it’s time we tackled the AI job destruction myth. Automation entails the ability of machines to perform jobs typically performed by humans – such as the advent of the car displacing thousands of jobs in shovelling horse manure from the streets. Yet post-industrial revolution era jobs were better paid and more numerous. Focusing on the relatively few jobs lost in a bygone era is misguided.
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https://www.afr.com/technology/zuckerberg-s-metaverse-looks-like-a-colossal-fail-20221017-p5bqaj
Zuckerberg’s metaverse looks like a colossal fail
Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to rename Facebook Meta, after the metaverse, could have been a mistake. The company’s new social world is almost empty.
Aaron Patrick Senior correspondent
Updated Oct 17, 2022 – 12.55pm, first published at 12.36pm
A year ago, Mark Zuckerberg changed Facebook’s name to Meta. Even though the Facebook social network had changed the way humans communicate, young people were doing their digital socialising elsewhere.
Facebook was being taken over by the ageing and middle-aged, who used it to post photos of their kids and grandkids, community groups – which used it to share information and police aberrant behaviour – and human rights-busting regimes such as Myanmar, which used it to share information and police aberrant behaviour.
Zuckerberg wanted the company’s identity to reflect a new project: an online social network that looked like a video game. Instead of communicating through writing, or by posting videos, people would move a computer-generated character around a digital world and speak to and interact with other people. Zuckerberg called it the metaverse.
“Over time, I hope we are seen as a metaverse company,” he said.
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https://www.crn.com.au/news/national-digital-health-plan-flags-technology-fragmentation-586588
National digital health plan flags technology fragmentation
By
Amelia
Norris
Oct 17 2022 5:30PM
The fragmentation of technology in Australia’s health system has been reiterated in a new National Digital Health Capability Action Plan (cap).
The CAP, a collaboration between the Australian Digital Health Agency (the Agency) and the Australasian Institute of Digital Health (AIDH), outlines a seven-year program for to supporting healthcare workers to deliver virtual and connected care.
While the focus is on digital frameworks and skills, the report also notes the “wide variety of systems and technology across the sector.”
The document states that “the reality that there is little consistent adoption of similar systems nationally, and technologies are likely to change over time and across different settings, workforces and regions.”
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https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/how-scrapped-iso-requirements-impact-telehealth
How scrapped iso requirements impact telehealth
The end of COVID isolation also means fewer exemptions to the 12-month telehealth rule.
The telehealth item for COVID antivirals will continue, but most patients will need to have had an in-person appointment with their GP or practice in the past 12 months to claim a Medicare rebate.
17 Oct 2022
In
the most recent COVID-19 primary care webinar
on, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Michael Kidd highlighted that
telehealth item numbers will be tightened alongside the removal of isolation
for COVID infection.
The level C telehealth item for assessment and consideration of COVID
antivirals will continue, but apart from that and some exemptions, patients
will need to have had an in-person appointment with their GP (or practice) in
the past 12 months in order to claim a Medicare rebate.
It means patients with respiratory symptoms or confirmed COVID-19 are no longer
able to claim telephone rebates if they have not seen their GP in-person in the
past year, unless they are potentially eligible for antivirals.
Aside from those seeking an antivirals assessment, the established relationship
requirement also does not apply to:
- children under the age of 12 months
- people who are homeless
- patients receiving an urgent after-hours (unsociable hours) service
- patients of medical practitioners at an Aboriginal Medical Service or an Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service
- people isolating because of a COVID-related state or territory public health order, or in COVID-19 quarantine because of a state or territory public health order
- people living in a flood-affected area, defined as a state or territory local government area which is currently declared as a natural disaster area due to flood by a state or territory government.
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National Digital Health Capability Action Plan
The Capability Action Plan is a two-year program of work that sets out the initiatives including working towards standard capability frameworks, guidelines, resources and tools identified through previous work, planning, and ongoing sector consultation to equip Australia’s health workforce for a connected, digitally-enabled future.
Download the Capability Action Plan (PDF, 1.22 MB)
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/opinion/telehealth-is-a-godsend-but-it-certainly-has-its-shortcomings/
Telehealth is a godsend, but it certainly has its shortcomings
17 October 2022
About 50 doctors in the UK (16 GPs) are known to have died from COVID-19 in the line of duty since the start of the pandemic.1
This has resulted in an increase in the use of telehealth there and the advent of Medicare-funded telehealth here in Australia.
This is fantastic for us, as all those urgent late-evening calls for grossly abnormal pathology results and the like can finally be claimed via the MBS — letting us leave behind years of pro-bono work on the phone.
But during the pandemic, GPs in the UK were lambasted for hiding behind telephones and patients ‘never’ being able to ‘see’ a doctor for their ailment.
Even specialists jumped on the bandwagon, highlighting cancer red flags that could be missed when doctors used telehealth.2
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AI could help with suicide prediction, prevention
Friday, 07 October, 2022
Around nine Australians take their own life each day, with suicide the leading cause of death for Australians aged 15–44. Some estimates suggest that suicide attempts occur up to 30 times as often as deaths.
Identifying individuals at risk of suicide is essential for preventing and managing suicidal behaviours. However, risk prediction is difficult.
In emergency departments, risk assessment tools such as questionnaires and rating scales are commonly used by clinicians to identify patients at elevated risk of suicide. Those classified as low risk are typically discharged.
A post-mortem analysis of people who died by suicide in Queensland found that of those who received a formal suicide risk assessment, 75% were classified as low risk, and none were classified as high risk. Previous research examining the past 50 years of quantitative suicide risk prediction models also found they were only slightly better than chance in predicting future suicide risk.
Karen Kusuma, a UNSW Sydney PhD candidate in psychiatry, and a team of researchers at the Black Dog Institute recently investigated the evidence base of machine learning models and their ability to predict future suicidal behaviours and thoughts. They evaluated the performance of 54 machine learning algorithms previously developed by researchers to predict suicide-related outcomes of ideation, attempt and death.
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Conversational AI employed to teach clinicians empathy
Thursday, 13 October, 2022
Conversational AI is being used to build virtual patients that will teach medical students how to be empathetic, as part of a University of Auckland research project.
An empathetic consultation is one where the clinician validates the patient’s feelings and develops a treatment plan in partnership with the patient, informed by their individual experiences.
“Empathy leads to better outcomes for the patient — better adherence to the treatment plan. It also reduces stress and burnout for healthcare professionals and improves their job satisfaction,” doctoral candidate Monika Byrne said.
Byrne is currently reviewing existing research and developing the training program, using a model of empathy with elements that can be taught and assessed.
“I think the way empathy works is we learn throughout life how things feel in our bodies,” Byrne said. “Then we build this cognitive library of human experiences and emotions that go with them — what it’s actually like to be in emotional pain, for example, to lose a partner or to fail.”
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https://www.miragenews.com/researchers-receive-brilliant-women-in-digital-875686/
17 Oct 2022 10:22 am AEDT
Researchers receive Brilliant Women in Digital Health Awards
Awards celebrate contributions to digital health and technology throughout Australia
Two University of Wollongong (UOW) researchers, Tara Alexander and Ping Yu, have been recognised in the 2022 Brilliant Women in Digital Health Awards presented by Telstra Health to celebrate women finding ground-breaking digital solutions in the sector.
Tara Alexander is the Data Manager and Statistician for the Australasian Rehabilitation Outcomes Centre (AROC), headquartered at UOW. She was instrumental in establishing AROC and has created a purpose-built IT system, which is used across Australia and New Zealand to track and improve patient outcomes.
Mrs Alexander said, “I am proud of my vision to design and build an online system that enables real-time data collection and upload and provides live analysis plus the ability to download comprehensive national benchmarking reports. These data can be used to further medical rehabilitation research and, when used in data linkages, can lead to policy change and advocacy for rehabilitation services.
Professor Ping Yu is the Director of UOW’s Centre for Digital Transformation in the School of Computing and Information Technology. She also leads the Group of Digital Health and Digital Aged Care in Smart Infrastructure Facility at UOW.
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David.
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