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
An interesting week with people noticing some issues with the myHR and a few rather dodgy web sites being outed.
Enjoy browsing.
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Human Services admits privacy breach.
The Department of Human Services has admitted it uploaded sensitive Medicare claims records to the wrong recipient’s electronic health records 86 times in the 12 months to 30 June 2016.
DHS, which is responsible for the operation of the Medicare medical rebate scheme, is obliged under law to report any data breaches related to the national My Health Record system to Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim.
It said it identified the privacy breaches during data-based checks on Medicare compliance.
The Medicare mix-ups form the bulk of the 94 individual health record breaches, affecting 103 people, that were reported to Pilgrim and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner in 2015-16.
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Federal bureaucrats have inadvertently filled the MyHealth Records of almost 100 people with Medicare data from other patients, it has emerged.
These included five patients whose newly-created My Health Records were populated with somebody else’s MBS and PBS history because the other person had similar identifying details, such as the same name or birthdate.
Another 86 patients had somebody else’s Medicare claims added to their record.
Mistakes by the Department of Human Services affected 96 patients in the last financial year, compared with only 12 patients in the year before, according to a new report from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
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16 November, 2016
Medicare has revealed multiple cases of patients’ claims data being uploaded to the wrong My Health Records because of mix-ups over individuals with similar identifying information.
In the year to last June, Medicare discovered five cases of “intertwined” customer records arising from confusion over patient identity, a Department of Human Services spokesperson said.
“Intertwined Medicare records can occur as a result of human error. However, it is important to highlight that when considering the number of Medicare records that exist (in excess of 23 million), the occurrence of this error is very rare.”
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Australia’s senior citizens, many of them grandparents, are taking to Internet surfing with great gusto, according to new research which reveals that there is an explosion of smart device and increased access to fast broadband by our older Aussies.
The research, commissioned by the operators of the National Broadband Network, NBN Co, reveals that the majority of tech-savvy grandparents — dubbed the "GranTechies" — say they couldn’t imagine their life without the Internet (72%) with the majority (93% ) admitting to jumping online every day.
The research also found that the seniors are shopping, streaming and Skyping non-stop, now using access to fast broadband for a range of tasks, including using email or Skype to connect with family and friends (85%), online shopping (59%), and downloading or streaming video and music content (24%).
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16 November, 2016
The Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine is offering all GPs and practice staff a free course on using the power of digital tools to strengthen chronic-disease management in a program backed by the digital health agency.
ACRRM’s director of Strategy and Development, Vicki Sheedy, said the course was designed to give GPs, nurses and practice staff a structure for employing the various available forms of eHealth to raise the quality of care and improve patients’ experience.
“In terms of content, it has an emphasis on rural and remote practice – a setting where there are very few specialists, limited numbers of allied health professionals and an increased respect for and reliance on practices nurses,” Ms Sheedy told The Medical Republic.
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By Technology Decisions Staff
Wednesday, 16 November, 2016
The findings from the national consultation will be used to develop a national digital health strategy for delivery to the federal government in 2017.
Medical software vendors, entrepreneurs and technology companies are well placed to help provide an understanding of what the community wants from a modern healthcare system. It will be possible to offer comment as to how Australia might best take advantage of the opportunities that new technologies offer to improve health and care.
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Australia's Privacy Commissioner has said the de-identification of data is an area requiring regulation, and that agreed industry standards could be useful to fill the public with confidence.
A successful data-driven economy needs a strong foundation in privacy, and accordingly, good privacy management and great innovation go hand in hand, Australian Information and Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim has said.
Speaking at a data sharing and interoperability workshop during the GovInnovate summit in Canberra on Wednesday, Pilgrim said that by and large, people do want their personal information to work for them, provided that they know about it. He also noted that when there is transparency in how personal information is used, citizens should feel a sense of clarity, choice, and confidence that their privacy rights are being respected.
For Pilgrim, building trust with the public is key to the challenges big data presents for organisations, including government, and highlighted that trust is further challenged by the nature of secondary uses of data.
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Experts lock horns in Canberra.
A schism has opened up between Australian privacy advocates and the research community over what level of risk the public will stomach in pursuit of benefits hyped by open data champions.
The contest threatened to boil over on Wednesday morning in Canberra, where the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner hosted experts to wrestle over the issue of successful data de-identification.
In one corner, cryptologist and privacy champion Dr Vanessa Teague said she was "skeptical" that any method of de-identification exists that could guarantee the safety of sensitive health or welfare data sets.
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14 November 2016
AHPRA is developing an online portal to make it easier to lodge complaints about doctors and other medical practitioners.
The regulator hasn’t made a formal announcement, but references to the plan are disclosed in a submission to the ongoing Senate inquiry into medical complaints processes.
“We will soon launch a portal to enable complaints and concerns to be made online,” the submission states. Acting CEO Kym Ayscough also referenced the portal when she appeared before the inquiry this month.
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Clancy Yeates
Published: November 15, 2016 - 12:15AM
Two-and-a-half years ago, the financial world was full of hype about a great new system that would lead to cheaper loans for customers who paid their bills on time.
The idea was that Australia – like most developed countries – would allow businesses to access much more information about their customers' credit histories, rather than limited data, such as customer defaults or bankruptcies.
This sharing of information would help bank rivals and fintech businesses offer lower-priced products to better compete with the big banks.
How much of that promise do you think has been fulfilled?
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- The Australian
- 12:00AM November 16, 2016
Supratim Adhikari
The Internet of Things (IoT) will have to become the ‘Internet of Caring Things’ as we start living longer with the interaction between humans and machines the last mile ripe for development, says IBM master inventor Susann Keohane.
Ms Keohane, a senior technologist at IBM, says technology is going to force us to redefine our idea of care as sensor-driven technology at home starts to deliver a better quality of life for elderly.
But the focus will need to extend beyond pure monitoring over time where an ecosystem of non-intrusive technology empowers users, giving them greater autonomy within the comfort of their homes.
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The seven-figure cost to make any code change.
The man in charge of replacing Australia’s most complex IT systems hopes the billion-dollar initiative will end the haemorrhaging of resources that is draining the nation's welfare agencies.
According to Department of Human Services deputy secretary John Murphy, even “relatively simple” welfare policy changes take between 6 and 12 months - and a seven-figure sum - to code into the government’s Centrelink payments system.
The bulk of the expense goes to regression testing that makes sure changes don't do downstream damage to a code base that has evolved over 30 years.
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- The Australian
- 12:00AM November 14, 2016
Sarah-Jane Tasker
A “dream job” studying airflow through jet engines has led to an innovative lung imaging system that Professor Andreas Fouras is convinced will disrupt a $25 billion a year global industry and dramatically change healthcare outcomes.
The Australian father of five, who has relocated his family to Los Angeles to progress his venture, says he has found his opportunity to make a difference.
With his team at 4DX, he has devised a new way of imaging the lungs by showing in real-time motion how air flows through them, pinpointing the areas that aren’t working well and those that are.
Professor Fouras says given the best technology for imaging the lungs is 50 years old, his innovation, which relies on computer software and four-dimensional imaging technology, is the next generation of care.
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Mach7, a US company which provides diagnostic imaging solutions to medical enterprises, has announced the completion of a AU$9 million capital raise.
Enterprise imaging company Mach7 Technologies has completed a AU$9 million capital raise via an equity placement to sophisticated and institutional investors, of which AU$6.9 million is new funding. The existing AU$2.1 million of private debt will be converted to equity.
The AU$6.9 million in new funds, which includes AU$600,000 in cash from Mach7's board of directors and senior management, will be used for investment into sales and marketing resources, customer support services, new product development, and working capital requirements.
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Wednesday, 16 November 2016
In September 2016, I was invited to speak at HISA Queensland’s workshop for Health Data Interoperability, held at Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital. As the title suggests, the workshop brought together clinicians, technologists and other health informaticians to discuss various approaches to making interoperability within digital health services a reality. Such interoperability is universally recognised as a key component for an effective, user-friendly service.
In my talk, I focussed on the need for interoperability with the My Health Record system and recent, positive advancements with this capability. In the past, consumers could only access their My Health Record via the secure MyGov website on their desktop, but recent improvements to the portal’s user interface mean that it can now also be viewed in a browser on your smartphone – a capability which meets growing consumer demand to access personal health data in an easy, safe and secure manner.
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Created on Friday, 18 November 2016
In a new video blog, Dr Monica Trujillo, Chief Clinical Information Officer and Executive General Manager, Clinical and Consumer Engagement and Clinical Governance for the Australian Digital Health Agency, talks about how putting data and technology safely to work for patients, consumers and the healthcare professionals who look after them can help Australians live healthier, happier and more productive lives.
Wednesday, 16 November 2016
Driving through the streets of Inala, a south-west Brisbane suburb, is always memorable. The 1950s style brick-and-stucco housing is clear evidence of Inala’s origins as a post-war social housing experiment. Through the decades, disadvantage has continued to dominate the area, populated by the elderly and predominantly African, Middle Eastern and Asian communities – in particular Vietnamese, who were among Australia’s first wave of ‘Boat People’ and made Inala their home. Indigenous art work in the local parks reflect one of Queensland’s largest agglomerations of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Island and Pacific Island peoples.
Standing adjacent to Inala’s main shopping precinct is a Centrelink, legal service offices and an array of healthcare providers, including a discoloured Whitlam-era community health building – buried at the back of which is Inala Primary Care, or ‘IPC’ for short. A charitable general practice, IPC won the Australian General Practice (AGPAL Accreditation) of the Year in May 2016, not from benefits derived from the latest design and building scale of its Indigenous Health neighbour, nor from being the recipient of a ‘Closing the Gap’ largesse or government ownership. I believe that the prestigious acknowledgment was the result of IPC’s reliance on the development and innovation of its digital systems.
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Brisbane, AU
Job description
The Australian Digital Health Agency was established July 1, 2016. This Agency will be responsible for the strategic management and governance of the national digital health strategy, innovation, design, development, delivery and operations of the digital health ecosystem. The new Agency reports to a skills-based Board reflective of the health community.
Reporting to the EGM Core Services Operations, the General Manager Cyber Security Centre is responsible for developing and maintaining the overall Cyber Security Strategy, plans and operations, to safeguard the national Digital Health systems and services, and to appropriately protect individuals’ privacy.
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Big security role on offer at ADHA.
One of the highest-stakes cyber security jobs in the federal government is up for grabs as the Australian Digital Health Agency looks for an executive to take on responsibility for securing the national e-health records system.
The My Health Record platform is on the cusp of becoming a fully national data store as the government prepares to make registration opt-out in a move that will create accounts for most Australians.
It means the My Health Record system, which is operated by the ADHA, will very quickly turn into one of the largest and most sensitive databases in the country - and a big target for cyber criminals looking to capitalise on the risk.
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18 November, 2016
GPs will be asked to generate more data to measure the “quality improvement” of their patient care under a new Practice Incentive Payments scheme.
The PIP redesign will result in a simplified model as of May next year, with only four of the 11 existing payments to remain unchanged under current proposals. They are the rural loading, the after-hours incentive, the teaching payment and the eHealth incentive.
A new quality-improvement incentive was proposed to streamline the system, driven by continuous data sharing and feedback, a Health Department consultation paper said.
“A redesigned PIP is likely to require general practices to frequently provide de-identified data (to a yet-to-be-determined entity) from their practice software systems,” it said.
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The doctor-patient relationship isn’t like finding the best latte.
16/11/2016 12:56 PM AEDT | Updated 16/11/2016 12:57 PM AEDT
"The unique nature of the doctor-patient relationship needs a unique approach."
I use AirBnB to book apartments, AirTasker to get furniture assembled, and Uber to get across town. So why not use an app to find the best doctor?
Whitecoat is the latest in a run of disruptive technologies allowing consumers to make decisions based on reviews. It was created by health insurance giant NIB (more on that in a moment).
For many afflicted with illness, this is wonderful news. I know. I was once a cancer patient. When choosing a doctor I was wracked by uncertainty. One surgeon had a pretty straightforward treatment plan on offer, the second more complicated. When facing a real possibility of death, which way to go?
Three health websites are among dozens of 'fake news' sites detailed on a list drawn up by a US academic in the wake Donald Trump's election to the presidency.
The list was released by Associate Professor Melissa Zimdars, a professor of communication and media at Merrimack College in Massachusetts, as part of the post-election debate around the role of fake news in putting Mr Trump in the White House.
Professor Zimdar's list entitled False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and/or Satirical 'News' Sources includes 133 websites that she says contain false or misleading information that is shared on Facebook and other social media.
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Implant gets paralysed monkeys walking
A device that restores movement of a paralysed leg in monkeys as early as 6 days after spinal cord injury is reported in an article published in Nature. The implantable, wireless brain–spine interface uses components that have been approved for research in humans, and is now one step closer to entering clinical trials to test the efficacy of this approach in people with paraplegia. Previous studies have shown that it is possible to use signals decoded from brain areas involved in planning and executing movement to control movement of a robotic or prosthetic hand and, in one case, the patient’s own paralysed hand. However, whether this approach can be used to restore the complex leg muscle activation patterns and coordination involved in walking has not previously been investigated.
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November 14, 2016
PowerHealth Solutions partners with Adaptive Insights
PowerHealth Solutions, developer of market-leading healthcare products, has announced that it has partnered with Adaptive Insights, the only pure-play cloud vendor to be named a leader in strategic?cloud corporate performance management (CPM), to transform the budgeting, planning, reporting and performance management processes of healthcare organisations. The agreement enables PowerHealth Solutions to combine Adaptive Insights’ sophisticated modelling and planning environment with PowerHealth’s leading costing and billing products to provide a comprehensive, agile business planning solution.
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The electronic Record for Intensive Care (eRIC) will be implemented in up to 43 adult, paediatric and neonatal ICUs across NSW
SYDNEY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--iMDsoft®, a leader in clinical information systems, is proud to announce that intensive care patients in New South Wales (NSW) will now benefit from MetaVision®, designed to revolutionise the quality of care they receive in a hospital’s most complex environment. In mid-October eHealth NSW’s eRIC (electronic Record for Intensive Care) Program implemented the MetaVision clinical information system in the ICU at the pilot site - Port Macquarie Base Hospital (PMBH).
“This includes ICU clinicians and staff at PMBH who have continued to deliver the highest quality of care for their critically ill patients – all the while undertaking planning, testing, training and a range of other activities over the past six months”
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New Zealand healthcare solutions provider Orion Health has extended its agreement with health tech provider Philips for the integration of its rhapsody integration engine across various Philips solutions.
The agreement extends the longstanding collaboration between Orion and Philips with rhapsody which Orion says achieves rapid interoperability between healthcare systems, enabling connected solutions in less time at a lower cost.
The initial agreement was signed in 2010 and since then, both companies have worked together to achieving healthcare transformation and interoperability goals.
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Kate Richardson has been awarded the SHPA Medal of Merit at Medicines Management 2016, the 42nd SHPA National Conference.
Professor Michael Dooley, President of SHPA, announced the award, saying that Richardson was nominated for her “outstanding contributions to hospital pharmacy at local and national levels.”
“She has made diverse and significant contributions to the practice of hospital pharmacy and to the professional development of pharmacy in the rapidly expanding e-Health sector,” he said.
“Kate is currently employed at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney as an electronic Medication Management (EMM) Pharmacist.
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Alex Kidman
Published: November 14, 2016 - 1:59PM
The rollout of the National Broadband Network continues, with NBN Co (that's the company building the NBN, and yes, it's confusing) patting itself on the back recently having hit the target of having a third of the country ready, with quarterly revenues hitting $181 million. That's worth celebrating, no?
Turns out a large quantity of Australians are largely blasé about the whole deal. Research from finder.com.au found that of the Australians who don't currently have a connection, 31 per cent aren't fussed about getting one. Thirteen per cent haven't even bothered to check and 7 per cent don't even know how to check when the NBN might be coming to their homes.
While the rollout is national, Victorians are the most likely to have not bothered to connect up even when an NBN service is available, while folks in Western Australia are the least likely to know how to check service availability or NBN future plans. While those are survey results, they dovetail nicely with NBN Co's own figures that suggest that nearly two million households are NBN-ready but are yet to actually connect. Clearly, something is up with how we perceive the entire NBN project, and it's not hard to see what it is.
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NBN has been loaned AU$19.5 billion by the Australian government to complete its rollout, rather than having to secure funding privately.
The Australian government has announced that it will be providing the extra AU$19.5 billion needed for the National Broadband Network (NBN) company to complete its rollout of high-speed broadband across the nation.
NBN was originally given AU$29.5 billion in equity by the government, with the remaining AU$19.5 billion to be sourced through private debt funding by NBN itself once the government's funding ran dry.
However, under the surprise decision by the federal government, NBN will not need to go to market to fund the remainder of the fixed-line broadband project.
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Enjoy!
David.
