Here are a few I have come across the last week or so.
Note: Each link is followed by a title and a few paragraphs. For the full article click on the link above title of the article. Note also that full access to some links may require site registration or subscription payment.
General Comment
The big news of the week has been the resignation of the Secretary of the Department of Health, Martin Bowles. Given his clear support for the myHR over his tenure this may (or may not) be a watershed event. Time will tell.
Lots of private sector activity this week as well.
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Before smart cities are built and citizens are 'Uberised', a trust framework for data sharing needs to be established in Australia, according to the non-profit body representing IoT in Australia.
Issues around technical standards, data sharing, and application interoperability require the government's attention if Australia wants to effectively grow smart infrastructure and smart cities using the Internet of Things (IoT), according to not-for-profit body IoT Alliance Australia (IoTAA).
Estimates by the IoTAA using industry data indicate that the wide-scale use of internet-connected devices could drive up to AU$120 billion of new economic activity in Australia in less than a decade. The main industries to benefit from the deployment of IoT are logistics, public health, retail, transportation, and worksite automation, according to the alliance.
But establishing an interoperable and secure framework for open data sharing across all levels of government and industry is an urgent step that needs to be taken to ensure smart cities can be built efficiently and with maximum impact, the IoTAA believes.
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21 August 2017
Interoperability, or more precisely our healthcare system’s lack of it, costs an average GP about $57,000 a year in lost income.
Most GPs aren’t convinced they know what is meant by the term. If you ask, you’ll get something reasonably sensible in response such as “how our practice talks to specialists, pathology and allied health … how we get test results”.
The fact many practices still have piles of paper building up near their fax machine, and PDF documents falling off the end of the printer, and staff still spend time processing paper into desktop patient management systems, continues to raise concerns among practice managers and owners. Yet, interoperability does not generally worry most GPs.
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23 August 2017
Severe interoperability problems in the healthcare sector are holding back efficiency, massive cost savings for government, and, most importantly, patient safety.
Each year it is believed that as many as 18,000 deaths are caused or at least expedited in Australia by medical errors. A lot of these errors have their origins in a digital ecosystem beset by bespoke secure communications systems that simply that don’t talk to each other.
In general practice, there are about 18,000 fax machines, which currently do most of the grunt work of secure messaging for things such as referral letters to specialists and hospitals, and, at times test results. That gives a very clear picture of how stuck in the dark ages healthcare messaging and data sharing remains.
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It looks like we’ve entered a new chapter in the Australian digital health story. After several rocky episodes it seems the force is with us and Australia’s digital health record system is on the road to recovery. At the same time there are challenges ahead.
When it comes to the national electronic My Health Record (formerly PCEHR) there is no shortage of scepticism among health professionals. Many have disengaged after unsuccessful encounters with earlier clunky versions of the system.
A lot of work has been done to make the interface easier to use. Accessing the system and uploading a shared health health summary has now become a fairly simple process – as it should be.
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August 26, 2017
Edwin Kruys has posted a typically thoughtful and reasoned post suggesting the the Australian Government’s e-health record ‘My Health Record’ may be saveable.
I can’t share his optimism and here’s why I think that this is $1.5billion and counting that will go the way of the NHS’s spectacular, health failure of several years ago.
Hi Edwin, Thoughtful as ever. Wish I could agree but I’m struggling. I can’t see this being any more than as useful as a chocolate teapot. I’ve been “signed up” as a user of My Health Record for a few years now and even signing up was a nightmare. And I LIKE technology and I’m persistent. Heaven knows how long it would have taken John & Mary public to quit and go have a cuppa. After finally ‘getting in’ what did I find? Absolutely NOTHING. A giant black hole. A blank excel spreadsheet would look more inviting.
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Wants fairer playing field for small providers.
The federal government has unveiled a tough new stance on procurement that will cap IT contracts at $100 million and free up a further $650 million for Australian small to medium enterprises each year.
Assistant Minister for Digital Transformation Angus Taylor today released a long-awaited report [pdf] from the ICT procurement taskforce to reform how government buys from industry.
“The taskforce found a culture of risk aversion in government procurement had undermined the freedom to innovate and experiment,” Taylor said in a statement.
“If we are to reward the entrepreneurial spirit, a new procurement culture is necessary.”
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21 August 2017
The clinical value of e-records and other e-health tools has been argued for years, but one of the lesser discussed issues is what impact they have on the art of general practice.
As GPs everywhere will tell you, making a diagnosis is only part of the job – being able to connect with patients is just as important.
So three US academics decided to find out how e-records affect doctor-patient interactions.
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25 August 2017
If you’ve been watching the ABC in the last few weeks you could be excused for starting to feel a little nervous about your future as a doctor if artificial intelligence (AI) starts to take on in the manner their reporters are suggesting it might.
On one night, they suggested that if you’re male and in a trade or profession – they didn’t delineate which sector of either – two thirds of those jobs will be done by computers within the decade and you stood a great chance of being unemployable in the not too distant future. Thanks ABC.
The situation isn’t helped by a string of consulting firm media stars appearing adding to the hype, nor does voodoo demographer Bernard Salt, with his predictions of an ageing population creating a healthcare Armageddon.
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- Anthony Wong
- The Australian
- 3:46PM August 23, 2017
The very nature of artificial intelligence (AI) as the emergent field it’s becoming is that we cannot possibly comprehend the impact it will have in 20, 10 or even five years time. AI is advancing so rapidly, and with such open-ended potential, that it is impossible to canvas the number of ways different industry sectors and society will be impacted.
Which is why news stories that espouse doomsday scenarios are so popular. Touted by luminaries like Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking, these often refer to The Singularity, where AI becomes not just a tool for humanity, but its master or its undoing. Such stories play into science-fiction tropes which we’ve happily gorged ourselves on for over a century (see Metropolis for a wonderful example from 1917).
AI remains so central to our imagination because it is, ultimately, prescient — we will in time build machines with an intelligence so advanced it will be indistinguishable from our own. We will have achieved a dream akin to the ultimate expression of creativity: we will have created a form of life in our own image.
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ACHI has announced the launch of the Australasian Health Informatics Fellowship Program (AHIFP). This dynamic training program will help meet the current community demands for highly trained individuals, capable of taking leadership roles in health informatics.
The AHIFP is designed to increase leadership capability in the health informatics workforce as well as create career pathways for health informatics professionals. It involves a three-year full-time health informatics doctorate, one year of paid work experience, plus supplementary learning (with a part-time equivalent). This is the first program of its kind in Australasia.
ACHI is working closely with industry, government agencies and departments, NGO’s and universities to create work placement and specialist training opportunities for health informatic research PhD students.
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In an effort to drum up business, a group of hand surgeons in WA have created a neat clinical resource for healthcare professionals.
The Perth-based surgeons have cleverly named their app Handoc.
It provides practical clinical guidance for dealing with hand injuries, including lacerations, fractures, burns and more.
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HISA has won the bid to host MedInfo 2021 in Sydney!
The decision was announced in Hangzhou, China, yesterday during MedInfo 2017, the 16th World Congress on Medical and Health Informatics hosted by IMIA, the International Medical Informatics Association.
HISA CEO Dr Louise Schaper presented the bid with Renee Hall, from Business Events Sydney, supported by an Australian contingent including board member Phil Robinson and Victoria committee member Dr Mark Merolli. Her presentation included a pitch video with major contributions from leading Australian digital health experts and health informaticians.
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Lynne Minion | 18 Aug 2017
In an Australian first, Epworth Healthcare has gone live with a bespoke end-to-end technology infrastructure for the management of its clinical trials, including the ethics review and governance of all research conducted across the organisation.
The Velos eResearch platform frees up researcher time by simplifying clinical trial administration and was developed to suit the Australian clinical research environment in collaboration with Epworth’s experts.
“It reduced duplication and manual handling, and also provided us with a systematised ‘one stop shop’ for research,” Epworth Group Manager of Finance and Operations Alan Taylor told Healthcare IT News Australia.
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Telemedicine provides new paradigm of care for CAFAT patients
Aug 05, 2017
In April, Ramsay Health Care commenced its new encrypted imaging video conference program Coviu – allowing Ramsay doctors in Australia to collaborate with multi-disciplinary teams in New Caledonia and view large encrypted files such as MRIs in seconds.
“Effectively, it allows doctors to make a decision on the spot in the treatment of patients with life-threatening conditions,” says Dr Francis Chu, Liver Surgeon at St George Private Hospital who frequently travels to New Caledonia to conduct clinics with physicians in Noumea.
“This means collaboratively the team can make a better informed decision on whether a liver cancer for instance is operable or non-operable; or for cardiac patients what type of bypass procedure is more suitable. In the past, the scans would usually come days later with the patient due to privacy concerns. This way the process is sped up; decision making is instantaneous. It’s almost like being at the bedside. At the same time, the information is encrypted assuring patient privacy.”
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Australia’s public healthcare system must acknowledge the limitations of the current ‘one-size-fits all’ mentality
Following the approval of Australia’s National Digital Health Strategy for 2018-2022, the health services ecosystem now has a mandate for transformation to digital healthcare. As healthcare moves to harness the power of digital and implement digital strategies like providing easy access to My Health Record, the Government and healthcare practitioners are critical enablers to ensure new technologies will provide consumers with improved control of their own health and wellbeing.
According to Accenture’s Person-Centric: Reimagining Australian Digital Healthcare report, Australia’s public healthcare system must acknowledge the limitations of the current ‘one-size-fits all’ mentality and embrace a more ‘person-centric’ culture; enabling a more manageable, realistic and effective system.
Digital healthcare that is person-centric has been shown to decrease medication error rates, reduce length of stay in hospital and reduce re-admission to hospital. By focusing on the needs of distinct segments, policy-makers, payers and service providers can optimise resources and deliver the right services, at the right time, in the right way.
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by Alok Patel
If the government wants to pave the way for innovation that will change our lives, it must stop dreaming up big schemes and start opening itself up to smaller private sector initiatives at state and especially local levels.
It isn't sexy and it isn't "announceable", but redesigning procurement processes, rethinking PPP contracts and working through privacy concerns to share government data will all be far more effective than trying to turn Canberra into Silicon Valley.
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- The Australian
- 12:00AM August 25, 2017
Rebecca Urban
A digital news site that provides gay men with tips on picking up at the gym, improving their Grindr rating and reviews for kinky sex toys was established with a federal government grant intended for health promotion.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has ordered an urgent review of the Emen8 website, a joint initiative of ACON (formerly the AIDS Council of NSW) and the Victorian AIDS Council, after The Australian brought to his attention its sexually explicit content. The site includes at least one reference to schoolboys engaging in sex acts with older men.
A recent Emen8 article titled “Who’s the perfect daddy for you?” provides an analysis of the relationships that can occur between mature and younger men. It asks: “Does your fantasy include some condomless after-school action with your papa”, despite the site being restricted to adults.
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We are excited to announce upcoming webinars being held for SNOMED CT-AU terminology, Australian Medicines Terminology (AMT) and National Clinical Terminology Service (NCTS)! The webinars will be held in September, October and November 2017, find out more information and register now in the links below!
Webinar 1 - Introduction to SNOMED CT-AU terminology - 4 and 5 September 2017
Webinar 2 - Introduction to the Australian Medicines Terminology (AMT) - 3 and 4 October 2017
Webinar 3 - Introduction to the National Clinical Terminology Service (NCTS) - 1 and 2 November 2017
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By Australian Hospital + Healthcare Bulletin Staff
Tuesday, 22 August, 2017
Automatic blood pressure devices are prone to significant errors, sometimes leading to the prescription of blood pressure-lowering medications to patients who don’t actually need them.
Now, researchers have developed a method to more accurately measure systolic blood pressure.
Based at the Jerusalem College of Technology and the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Israel, the research team has developed a device — using a technique called photoplethysmography — that uses a pressure cuff wrapped around the arm and an electro-optic probe on the finger.
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Thursday, August 24, 2017 - 15:30
The ASX-listed Citadel Group has announced revenue growth was up 27.8% to $A98.8m for FY17, which included the initial $A24.8m contract with a large federal government agency. The company says it has a strong pipeline of work for its cloud based information management solutions, integration services in Defence and federal government agencies, and e-Health initiatives.
Citadel Group CEO Darren Stanley said: “It has been a strong year for the Group and we’ve delivered on our promises. We’ve also successfully exited the vocational education training business and prioritised delivering secure enterprise-level information management solutions.
“The investments we have made, particularly in secure cloud-enabled products, will ensure we are well placed to meet the growing demand for cloud first solutions in governments and large enterprises.”
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High tech hospital of the future touts driverless robots, electronic tags, automated pharmacy system and other tech delights to shake up the healthcare environment
From stainless steel high-tech robots that can talk to lifts, doors and portable phones and carry goods around the hospital to a pneumatic tube system that transports specimens to 74 stations, the new Royal Adelaide Hospital is promising to be a genuine ‘high tech hospital of the future.’
For starters, the hospital is implementing the use of electronic tags keeping track of equipment and patients, a digital instrument tracking system, wireless patient nurse call system, electronic bedside devices, distributed medical imaging; and self-service electronic kiosks.
And those are just some of the technology innovations on display at the hospital, which is set to open its doors on September 5, according to SA Health executive director eHealth and CIO Bill Le Blanc, who has helped steer the IT ship on this colossal multi-pronged project.
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23 Aug 2017, 12:46 p.m.
PROBLEMS: Residents have been warned of problems with medical-alert pendants as the new broadband network is rolled out.
Medical-alert pendants, favoured by elderly and sick people, may be rendered useless by the new broadband network in a blackout.
The pendants have previously relied on phone connections to residents homes to operate effectively.
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- Updated Aug 22 2017 at 5:29 PM
Can Rod Sims really achieve what Bill Morrow and the telco companies seem unable to manage?
But the potential punishment of "naming and shaming" by the regulator doesn't resolve the fundamental issue. That is that most consumers expect the arrival of the national broadband network to produce a big increase in broadband speed for around the same cost they currently pay.
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Scammers who pretend to be from the NBN Co are duping people out of money, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has warned.
The competition watchdog said its Scamwatch site had received 316 complaints so far about people impersonating NBN Co staff, resulting in about $28,000 being lost.
The three common scams reported were:
- Signing up victims to fake accounts – scammers would ring victims to "connect" them to the NBN for a low price. They would often demand payment through iTunes gift cards.
- Gaining remote access to computers – scammers pretending to be from NBN Co would call a victim with claims there were problems with their computer. This ruse was used to gain remote access to the victim’s computer and steal personal information, install malicious software or demand payment to fix "problems" they have discovered.
- Scammers impersonating NBN Co would call victims to steal valuable personal information like their name, address, Medicare number, or driving licence number. The scammer may tell the victim they’re entitled to a new router, for example, and say they need these personal details to confirm the victim’s identity.
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- The Australian
- 1:01PM August 21, 2017
Anthony Klan
Telcos selling the National Broadband Network are engaging in “extremely poor” advertising by spruiking speeds which can rarely be obtained by customers and the competition watchdog has introduced a tough set of guidelines to stamp out the problem.
Responding to media reports of widespread overselling of NBN connections, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims today said telcos would be requested to advertise “typical minimum speeds” during peak times, rather than misleading “up to” speeds.
“This is a very unusual step for us, we are being prescriptive and we aren’t usually,” Mr Sims said.
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Enjoy!
David.
