The Thoughtful Academic Paper Everyone Is Discussing - Time For Some More Information!

I was alerted to this by Karen Dearne within moments of it appearing!

'My [Electronic] Health Record' – Cui Bono (for Whose Benefit)?

Danuta Mendelson

Deakin University, Geelong, Australia - Deakin Law School

Gabrielle Wolf

Deakin University, Geelong, Australia - Deakin Law School
December 7, 2016
(2016) 24 Journal of Law and Medicine

Abstract:     

We examine the operation of Australia’s national electronic health records system, known as the “My Health Record system”. Pursuant to the My Health Records Act 2012 (Cth), every 38 seconds new information about Australians is uploaded onto the My Health Record system servers. This information includes diagnostic tests, general practitioners’ clinical notes, referrals to specialists and letters from specialists. Our examination demonstrates that the intentions of successive Australian Governments in enabling the collection of clinical data through the national electronic health records system, go well beyond statutorily articulated reasons (overcoming “the fragmentation of health information”; improving “the availability and quality of health information”; reducing “the occurrence of adverse medical events and the duplication of treatment”; and improving “the coordination and quality of healthcare provided to healthcare recipients by different healthcare providers”). Not only has the system failed to fulfil its statutory objectives, but it permits the wide dissemination of information that historically has been confined to the therapeutic relationship between patient and health practitioner. After considering several other purposes for which the system is apparently designed, and who stands to benefit from it, we conclude that the government risks losing the trust of Australians in its electronic health care policies unless it reveals all of its objectives and obtains patients’ consent to the use and disclosure of their information.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 14

Keywords: electronic health records system, privacy, Big Data, surveillance, control

JEL Classification: L18, K19, K39

Here is the link:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2881787

The conclusion says it all!

CONCLUSION

The My Health Record system and the legislation that establishes and supports it have fundamentally changed understandings of the functions of clinical records. No longer created and used simply to provide health care to patients, health practitioners’ records of their treatment of patients have become property for use by government and commercial entities for a variety of purposes well beyond serving patients’ therapeutic needs. Patients’ lack of control over their electronic records and derivation of minimal, if any, benefit from the My Health Record system will ultimately engender distrust in the system. To have any hope of restoring the community’s faith in electronic health records, the Australian Government will need to ensure that the My Health Record system genuinely serves patients’ interests, be completely transparent about all of the objectives of the system, and obtain patients’ agreement to the collection, use and disclosure of their health information for purposes that may not benefit them personally. In other words, the government operating the My Health Record system needs to be mindful of Immanuel Kant’s second categorical imperative to “act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end”.124

Really worth a close read. I am assured the authors are genuine experts in the areas of big data etc.
The bottom line is that these authors believe that this initiative is a wrong headed, intrusive and unjustified policy intervention

Enjoy.

David.

Both Here And Overseas There Are Concerns With The Quality And Utility Of Health Apps.

This appeared last week here:

These are the best medication reminder apps

Rada Rouse

5 December 2016

A LOT of the available medication reminder apps for mobile phones lack useful functionality or are of poor quality, reviewers say.

A team led by the George institute for Global Health has reviewed 272 apps designed to improve medication adherence, of which only 6.6% had at least nine of the 17 features they say are desirable.

The median number of features per app was just three, and in more than half of the apps flexible scheduling and medication tracking history were the only two features present.

Other common functions included customisable alert sounds, data exporting/sharing, and languages other than English, which were available in less than third of the apps.

Other desirable features nominated by the reviewers included refill reminders (19.5% of apps), data security (11%), adherence statistics and charts (10.7%), and adherence rewards (1.8%).

The reviewers sought out all the relevant apps available in the Australian iTunes store and Google Play then divided them into ‘basic’ apps, or ‘advanced’ apps which tracked taken and missed doses. Then they ranked them using the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS) tool.

There is more here:

http://www.medicalobserver.com.au/professional-news/these-are-the-best-medication-reminder-apps

From the US we have research discussed here:

Research of mHealth Apps Reveals Significant Gaps in Quality

December 7, 2016

by Rajiv Leventhal

An evaluation of 137 patient-facing mobile health (mHealth) apps revealed subpar findings, including that few apps address the needs of the patients who could benefit the most, according to research in December’s issue of Health Affairs.

Researchers from University of Michigan Medical School, the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and elsewhere noted that key stakeholders, including medical professional societies, insurers, and policy makers, have largely avoided formally recommending apps, which forces patients to obtain recommendations from other sources. As such, the researchers evaluated apps that were intended for use by patients to manage their health, that were highly rated by consumers and recommended by experts, and that targeted high-need, high-cost populations.

They found that there is a wide variety of apps in the marketplace but that “few apps address the needs of the patients who could benefit the most. “We also found that consumers’ ratings were poor indications of apps’ clinical utility or usability and that most apps did not respond appropriately when a user entered potentially dangerous health information. Going forward, data privacy and security will continue to be major concerns in the dissemination of mHealth apps,” the researchers stated.

To identify apps that target high-need, high-cost populations, the researchers conducted a systematic search for mHealth apps in the Apple iTunes (iOS) and Google Play (Android) app stores. They also systematically searched for app suggestions on medical professional society websites. They further solicited recommendations for apps through telephone interviews with experts in mobile technology, vulnerable populations, and patient advocacy, and then identified additional health apps based on personal experience. Each selected app was assigned for review to both a clinician and a non-clinician. Apps available for both iOS and Android were reviewed on both platforms.

The app analysis focused on nine variables: the target population for each app; each app’s types of functionality related to patient engagement; app store rating; clinical utility; usability; the app’s reactivity to information that could indicate health danger; the presence of a privacy policy; the mechanism of data sharing; and the cost model. Many apps were designed to serve multiple high-need, high-cost populations, and eleven of them were deemed general enough to be useful across all such populations.

More here:

http://www.healthcare-informatics.com/news-item/mobile/research-mhealth-apps-reveals-significant-gaps-quality

And here:

Most mHealth apps aren't effective for chronic conditions

by Evan Sweeney

Dec 6, 2016 7:30am

An explosion of new mobile health apps offers consumers an unprecedented level of choice, but clinical utility is still lacking for those with chronic conditions.

Although there is a rapidly growing market of mHealth apps targeting high-cost, high-need health conditions, the majority of those apps are unable to go beyond a basic level of patient engagement that would be clinically effective in helping consumers manage specific chronic illnesses, according to a study published in the December issue of JAMA.

Of the 137 mobile health apps evaluated by researchers targeting illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity, arthritis, and depression and bipolar disorder, very few offered functionalities like providing guidance based on user-entered information or rewarding behavior changes. Researchers also discovered that user ratings offer a poor indication of the apps clinical impact, an indication that patients and clinicians value certain functionalities differently, and echoing previous findings that app reviews aren’t trustworthy.

More here:

http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/it/study-most-mhealth-apps-fail-to-effectively-manage-chronic-conditions

Each of these is worth following up. The key message, for now, appears to be Caveat Emptor.

David.

Remind Me Please Of The Evidence That The myHR Is Fit For Purpose For Complex Patient Care Management.

Dr Edwin Kruys has kindly provided a table from the DoH covering the requirements for the Health Care Home Trials

Here is the link to his blog and some good commentary on the general care home issue:

https://doctorsbag.net/2016/12/11/health-care-homes-not-yet-where-the-heart-is/

In a nutshell these trials aim to test using a capitation payment approach where a GP or practice undertakes to provide holistic care to patients with chronic disease.

Here is the link to the Government release:

http://health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/health-care-homes

Practices have to apply to be part of the trials (applications now close Dec 22, 2016)  and as you read the requirements you will notice a considerable emphasis on the myHR.

Table: Health Care Home requirements

(Source: Department of Health)

A general practice or Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service applying to be a Health Care Home must be within one of the ten selected PHN regions and needs to:

• be accredited and maintain accreditation, or be registered for accreditation, against the RACGP Standards for general practices;
• participate in, or be prepared to participate in, the Practice Incentives Program (PIP) eHealth Incentive;
• register and connect to the My Health Record system and contribute to their enrolled patients’ My Health Records;
• participate in the stage one HCH training program;
• use the patient identification tool to identify the eligible patient cohort in their practice or service, assess individual patient eligibility and stratify their care needs to one of three complexity tiers according to their level of risk;
• ensure that all enrolled patients have a My Health Record;
• contribute up to date clinically relevant information to their patients’ My Health Records;
• develop, implement and regularly review each enrolled patient’s shared care plan;
• provide care coordination for enrolled patients;
• provide care for enrolled patients using a team-based approach;
• ensure that all team members have roles that utilise their qualifications and allow them to work to their scope of practice;
• provide enhanced access for enrolled patients through in-hours telephone support, email or video-conferencing, as well as access to after-hours care where clinically appropriate;
• ensure that all enrolled patients are aware of what to do if they require access to after-hours care;
• collect data for the evaluation of stage one and for internal quality improvement processes.

-----  End Extract.

Now I have no problem with the idea of patients being supported by a nominated and responsible practice that they have found works for them and the Government using whatever reasonable payment approach for the care provided they choose but mandating the use of the myHR, really.

The myHR was never designed as a multidisciplinary care co-ordination system – is pathetically time consuming and clumsy in use (I went through the latest demos last week to check) – and worse there are much better products to address this task.

As just one example – endorsed by the RACGP for care-coordination etc.- we have cdmNET.

Here is the link to their home page:

http://precedencehealthcare.com/cdmnet/

The what does it do says it all:

What does cdmNet do?

cdmNet makes it easy to:

Communicate

Effortlessly communicate and collaborate with the care team

Plan

Create and share best-practice health assessments and care plans

Follow up

Ensure that every action, health assessment and care plan is followed up and reviewed

Manage

Track and monitor patient progress and actions across the whole care team

Support

Send reminders to patients to help them stay on track

Comply

Be guided through Medicare requirements and ensure safe Medicare audits

Document

Create, electronically sign, and distribute all documentation and referrals

I am sure there are others and additionally virtually all the mainstream practice management systems (BP, Medical Director etc. etc.) have significant complex care management and follow-up capabilities and functionality.

Demanding use of the myHR (and its huge pile of unsearchable .pdfs) is totally potty – to be polite!

This is yet another example of DoH snatching defeat from potential victory. I wonder when they might learn and face up to the fact the myHR is a useless lemon? Next year maybe.

David.

Weekly Australian Health IT Links – 12th December, 2016.

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

It seems that the ‘silly season’ is rapidly winding up as Australia goes away for  a Christmas slumber, and e-health news and happenings wind down.

Still a few worth listing for the week but I think, unless real drama emerges – which I don’t expect, the blog will be back in the New Year.

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http://www.medicalrepublic.com.au/healthcare-data-breaches-less-stick-carrot/

7 December, 2016

Data breaches: less stick, more carrot?

Posted by julie lambert

Concern remains that a threat of heavy financial penalties could deter healthcare providers from reporting errors in electronic health records.

New privacy legislation before parliament provides penalties for breaches of up to $1.8 million for organisations and $360,000 for individuals, giving the Office of the Australian Privacy Commissioner plenty of clout to enforce tight data protection standards.

Dr Nathan Pinskier, chair of the RACGP’s eHealth and Practice Systems Committee, told The Medical Republic the college had argued against stiff fines for fear they might work against errors being corrected in My Health Records.

“Our concern is about wrong information getting into people’s records,” Dr Pinskier said. “We want to make sure in the private sector the penalties are not so onerous that people are deterred from reporting because it will be too much of a financial headache.”

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https://theconversation.com/why-artificial-intelligence-has-not-revolutionised-healthcare-yet-69403

Why artificial intelligence has not revolutionised healthcare… yet

December 8, 2016 5.35am AEDT

Author

1. Olivier Salvado

Group Leader Biomedical Informatics, CSIRO

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are predicted to be part of the next industrial revolution and could help business and industry save billions of dollars by the next decade.

The tech giants Google, Facebook, Apple, IBM and others are applying artificial intelligence to all sorts of data.

Machine learning methods are being used in areas such as translating language almost in real time, and even to identify images of cats on the internet.

So why haven’t we seen artificial intelligence used to the same extent in healthcare?

Radiologists still rely on visual inspection of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or X-ray scans – although IBM and others are working on this issue – and doctors have no access to AI for guiding and supporting their diagnoses.

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http://www.itwire.com/internet-of-things/76098-wearables-growing-commercial-and-health-use.html

Wearables' growing commercial and health use

• 08 December 2016
• Written by  Ray Shaw

ANALYSIS Do smartwatches and fitness bands have a commercial, health or other use? The short answer is not so much at present, but it is heading that way.

At present a fitness band is basically capable of measuring activity via a three-or-more-axis accelerometer/pedometer – forward, back, left, right, up-down, etc. Some better ones have altimeters (stairs/elevation), barometer, gyroscope, continuous or interval heart monitor, GPS, galvanic skin response (hydration), UV monitor, and more sensors to come.

A smartwatch adds the ability to run applications and use more notifications. Their commercial or health use comes from the fact that they are relatively unobtrusive devices that sit on your arm and do what they are designed to do – gather data and transmit telemetry to another smart device.

So, to extend their use will require either the addition of more sensors, like a blood “prick” for glucose or cholesterol measurement, oxygen saturation (SO2), pulse oximetry, etc. Regrettably, these devices cannot yet be miniaturised to fit the smartwatch format although there is work being done on a larger scale “vitality detector” that may link to a smart device.

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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/life/health-wellbeing/anatomics-pioneering-surgery-aided-by-3d-printers/news-story/4df48e0bdf63a629c1233880f7fb7c01

Anatomics: pioneering surgery aided by 3D printers

• Leanne Akiki
• The Australian
• 12:00AM December 9, 2016

Richard Stratton sits anxiously in a Melbourne surgeon’s waiting room. It’s 2006 and the 24-year-old is looking for a miracle. He has always known that his jaw is wrong, his smile crooked and his face out of synch.

He is worried that his face is getting worse and that his jaw will continue to grow distorted.

But Stratton is sent home and the advice is that surgery won’t help. The surgeon jokes that if he gains a little weight he won’t even notice.

Fast-forward 10 years to January last year and Stratton is again in a doctor’s surgery. He is in agonising pain. It’s a struggle for him to chew and to talk, the result of every muscle overworking for the missing joint in his jawbone.

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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/microsoft-launches-virtual-reality-joy-for-hospitals/news-story/ef8c1c2e3ffb40d33019e35dbc2ff2ea

Medibank launches virtual reality ‘Joy’ for hospitals

• The Australian
• 12:40PM December 5, 2016

Chris Griffith

Hospital patients will be able to escape boredom by immersing themselves in virtual reality..

Medibank today launched the VR experience which is being made available on the new Google Daydream View VR headset platform. The insurer says it’s one of the first health products to launch on Daydream View globally.

It says its VR experience called “Joy” will be available in select partner hospitals across the country in time for Christmas, a time when many hospital patients can experience intense loneliness and disconnection from the festive season.

Medibank quotes ACA Research which says Australians who had been hospitalised for an extended time felt loneliness was particularly prevalent during a hospital stay.

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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-06/can-your-smartphone-track-your-mental-health/8093880

Your smartphone knows a lot about you, but what about your mental health?

Opinion

The Conversation

David Ireland and Dana Bradford, CSIRO

Smartphones come with an assortment of sensors that can track behaviours such as our internet search and browse history, where we go, what music we listen to, who we speak to, just to name a few.

The habitual nature of people means this data could be used to give insight into our mental wellbeing. Acute changes in behavioural patterns may indicate a need for support, and the use of any health diaries on a smartphone may enable us to monitor chronic conditions more effectively.

But despite good intentions, innovations can sometimes go awry when not thought through thoroughly enough. This was seen with the Samaritan Radar app, which applied a detection algorithm for suicidal keywords in Twitter postings.

Users who signed up to the app were notified via email when one of their followers triggered the detection algorithm. But the followers had not provided consent for the screening and detection.

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https://onfhir.hl7.org/2016/12/07/new-fhir-milestone-publications/

New FHIR Milestone Publications

HL7 is pleased to announce that yesterday, the FHIR team published of a new set of Milestone releases. Included in this release:

• A new release of the FHIR specification itself
• US Implementation guides: Core, DAF, CCDA, and (draft) Medications

FHIR Specification

This release is the Candidate version for the 3rd release of FHIR – technical, STU3. We’ve done much of the reconciliation following the September ballot, and this is in effect, the candidate for STU3 for technical review post ballot. In addition, this publication serves as:

• The stable base for the upcoming connectathon in San Antonio
• The stable base for the open ballots on implementation guides (see below)

We’ll take QA and implementation feed back on this version, apply a new round of edits, and publish the final version of release 3 towards the end of February 2017.

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http://www.medicalobserver.com.au/professional-news/these-are-the-best-medication-reminder-apps

These are the best medication reminder apps

Rada Rouse

5 December 2016

A LOT of the available medication reminder apps for mobile phones lack useful functionality or are of poor quality, reviewers say.

A team led by the George institute for Global Health has reviewed 272 apps designed to improve medication adherence, of which only 6.6% had at least nine of the 17 features they say are desirable.

The median number of features per app was just three, and in more than half of the apps flexible scheduling and medication tracking history were the only two features present.

Other common functions included customisable alert sounds, data exporting/sharing, and languages other than English, which were available in less than third of the apps.

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http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/611078/security-researchers-warn-government-over-data-re-identification-law/

Security researchers warn government over data re-identification ban

Privacy Act changes could hit research into de-identification flaws

Rohan Pearce (Computerworld) 05 December, 2016 10:54

A group of security researchers who exposed flaws in the de-identification of government health data has called for changes to a proposed law that would criminalise re-identification.

Attorney-General George Brandis in late September suddenly announced that the Coalition would introduce laws to criminalise re-identification of supposedly de-identified data sets released by government departments and agencies.

The government’s announcement was made ahead of the release of University of Melbourne research that revealed data released by the Department of Health had been improperly de-identified.

As a consequence the department pulled offline datasets drawn from the Pharmaceutical Benefits and Medicare Benefits schemes (PBS/MBS) that were published on the government’s open data portal, data.gov.au.

------

http://www.smh.com.au/national/public-service/can-the-government-really-protect-your-privacy-when-it-deidentifies-public-data-20161204-gt3nny.html

Can the government really protect your privacy when it 'de-identifies' public data?

Chris Culnane, Benjamin Rubinstein and Vanessa Teague
Published: December 5, 2016 - 11:45PM

In 1897, the Indiana legislature considered a bill for "introducing a new mathematical truth", a clever procedure for "squaring the circle". The procedure didn't work; for one thing, it assumed that the value of pi was 3.2 (it isn't). The bill didn't pass but, if it had, it wouldn't have changed the value of pi – it just would have made the Indiana legislature look a bit silly. Parliaments can change a lot of things, but not the laws of mathematics.

The Australian Parliament is now considering amending the Privacy Act. Attorney-General George Brandis introduced the amendments, saying "there is a strict and standard government procedure to de-identify all government data that is published. Data that is released is anonymised so that the individuals who are the subject of that data cannot be identified." But the bill specifies a two-year jail term for re-identifying people from those data sets. Usually, acts that are impossible don't need to be banned.

Well, what is de-identification exactly? And does it work?

There are good mathematical reasons for doubt. Computer scientists have successfully re-identified "de-identified" data sets of health, social networks, online ratings and web searches, and shown high levels of uniqueness in telecommunications metadata and payments data – a key step towards re-identification.

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https://www.agedcareguide.com.au/talking-aged-care/technology-in-aged-care-recognised-in-industry-awards

Technology in Aged Care recognised with industry awards

A medication management app and an online platform where consumers can find and hire local care and support workers are among the winners of the recent Information Technology in Aged Care (ITAC) 2016 awards.

December 5, 2016

As well as receiving the best consumer friendly product or system deployment award, Baptist Care’s YouChoose.org.au website achieved the accolade of overall winner. Its pioneering website enables customers to customise their home care package online, choosing from services that are divided into four areas: Your Health, Your Home, Your Community, Your Independence.

BaptistCare's Chief Information Officer, Daniel Pettman, says he was thrilled with the accolade. "These awards acknowledge that not only are we passionate about providing life-transforming care, but we are committed to developing innovative solutions that empower and support our customers," he says.

Winner of the best solution providing ongoing consumer independence went to Better Caring. It’s simple web platform connects those who need community care directly with a community of care workers. This provides those who are able to manage their own level of care genuine choice and control around who comes into their home, and what services they provide.

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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-07/public-sector-responsible-for-high-profile-failures/8100382

Federal public service responsible for 'some incredible high-profile failures', advisor says

By political reporter Henry Belot

December 7, 2016

One of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's most trusted advisors has warned the federal public service is at risk of "a fatal combination of ignorance and arrogance".

Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet head Martin Parkinson said the public sector was responsible for "some incredible high-profile failures" during 2016 and needed to improve.

In a speech to the Institute of Public Administration Australia, Dr Parkinson said many of the Government's policy failures could have been prevented, including the much-criticised VET FEE-HELP program.

The Government's overhaul of the scandal-ridden vocational education sector passed Parliament last week in a bid to end one of the worst chapters in Australian education history.

"We knew the lessons to be taken from some of the other programs such as the home insulation program, e-Health, this year's census, or the failure to effectively de-identify health records," he said.

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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/health/online-service-supplies-drugs-not-yet-available/news-story/16477ec183aa71b37a016db5f6baf223

Online service supplies drugs not yet available

• The Australian
• 12:00AM December 5, 2016

Sarah-Jane Tasker

A Dallas Buyers Club online start-up is offering Australian breast cancer, leukaemia and Parkinson’s patients access to US and European-approved drugs not available in Australia.

If a patient has a doctor’s prescription and the medicine is for personal use, The Social Medwork can source and import the drug via Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration’s personal importation scheme.

The main drug Australian patients are searching for is one approved by the US regulator that could slow the progress of advanced breast cancer by an extra 10 months. The drug, Ibrance, is not approved in Australia.

The Social Medwork is also able to help Australian patients access a Melbourne-developed drug for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, as well as an EU-approved treatment for Parkinson’s disease, which helps patients’ dopamine levels, shortening their “off periods” by almost two hours.

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http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/611148/security-policy-101-how-develop-security-policies-your-business

Security policy 101: How to develop security policies for your business

Part two of Computerworld’s guide to developing cyber security policies based on ISO 27000

Nikolai Hampton (Computerworld) 07 December, 2016 07:30

Read part 1 of this series: Unsecured and unaware: Why your business needs cyber security policies now!

Why create policy?

Documented and easy to understand security policies are essential for securing your organisation against cyber attack.

While a targeted attack can bring down even a sophisticated organisation, preparation will help reduce your ‘attack surface’, and help you better understand what you’re trying to protect, and how to minimise the risk (and impact) of a security breach.

In part one, we discussed the reasons for developing your security capabilities, the changing tide of privacy awareness and new data breach legislation being introduced by the Australian government.

A major theme from part one was that “many security threats are relatively unsophisticated and rely on unmaintained systems, social engineering and poor business policies and processes”.

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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/sleep-pioneer-unveils-next-generation-devices/news-story/28da248e2514ad56e1b8aec736fcbe70

Sleep pioneer unveils next generation devices

• The Australian
• 12:00AM December 7, 2016

Sarah-Jane Tasker

He led the world in analysing sleep and now Australia’s David Burton says he is on the cusp of releasing the next generation of sleep monitoring devices.

Mr Burton, who has an engineering background, developed Australia’s first computerised sleep centre in the late 1980s at Epworth Hospital in Melbourne. He submitted his first sleep patent in 1985 and today he has more than 100 patents in his company Compumedics’ sleep portfolio.

The sleep monitoring systems he developed have been used by NASA, Olympians and patients around the world.

“When they opened the centre at Epworth it created some fanfare — we were on the cover of Time magazine — it was crazy times,” Mr Burton said.

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http://www.itwire.com/health/76096-qld-brain-institute-speeding-up-research-with-brocade-deployment.html

Qld Brain Institute speeding up research with Brocade deployment

• 08 December 2016
• Written by  Peter Dinham
• Published in Health

The Queensland Brain Institute has migrated its systems to Brocade’s Gen 6 fibre channel storage network in a move designed to accelerate its work on brain research.

The Institute, part of the University of Queensland, will deploy Brocade G620 switches to provide the speed and performance it needs to eliminate data bottlenecks and accelerate research into preventing brain diseases such as dementia, Alzheimer’s, motor neuron disease, anxiety, depression and schizophrenia.

Jason Baden, senior director ANZ for Brocade, a global network solutions provider, says Brocade’s Gen 6 Fibre Channel delivers a “huge leap in performance for organisations with demanding big data environments like the Queensland Brain Institute, particularly in the face of its rapidly evolving brain imaging technology and increasing data needs”.

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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/dinosaur-tail-found-encased-in-amber/news-story/554c62adf916ac2ec37e0def8ecba7d4

Dinosaur tail found encased in amber

• The Australian
• 4:00AM December 9, 2016

John Ross

In the movie Jurassic Park, scientists extract dinosaur DNA from the bellies of prehistoric mosquitoes preserved in amber. Now researchers have done away with the middle man.

Palaeontologists have found the feathered tail of a 99 million-year-old dinosaur encased in a piece of amber at a jewellery market in Myanmar. The discovery, outlined today in the journal Current Biology, marks the first confirmed find of a dinosaur fossil trapped in the resin.

It is also the first time scientists have been able to observe intact dinosaur feathers, gleaning vital clues about their structure and colour. Co-author Ryan McKellar said while amber ­pieces could capture only “tiny snapshots” of ancient critters, they were invaluable. “They record microscopic ­details, three-dimensional arrange­ments and labile tissues that are difficult to study in other settings,” said Dr McKellar, of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Canada.

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Enjoy!

David.

The Boss Of The Commonwealth Public Service Calls Out Just How Bad The Public Service Is At IT! E-Health Cited As An Example Of Failure!

This appeared last week from the ABC.

Federal public service responsible for 'some incredible high-profile failures', advisor says

By political reporter Henry Belot

December 7, 2016

One of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's most trusted advisors has warned the federal public service is at risk of "a fatal combination of ignorance and arrogance".

Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet head Martin Parkinson said the public sector was responsible for "some incredible high-profile failures" during 2016 and needed to improve.

In a speech to the Institute of Public Administration Australia, Dr Parkinson said many of the Government's policy failures could have been prevented, including the much-criticised VET FEE-HELP program.

The Government's overhaul of the scandal-ridden vocational education sector passed Parliament last week in a bid to end one of the worst chapters in Australian education history.

"We knew the lessons to be taken from some of the other programs such as the home insulation program, e-Health, this year's census, or the failure to effectively de-identify health records," he said.

"We know, but we keep making the same sorts of mistakes and we have to keep asking ourselves why."

The Rudd Government's botched home insulation program has been the major focus of a public service rethink this year, with senior bureaucrats accused of withholding frank and fearless advice from ministers.

Health Minister Sussan Ley was forced to apologise after a leak of Medicare data and the Government has been heavily criticised for allowing the Census website to be taken down by four denial-of-service attacks.

Dr Parkinson said the public policy was being damaged by a failure to embrace risk and a belief that failure was unacceptable.

"Our weak capacity to evaluate potential success and impending failure suggests to me we've got a capability gap," he said.

"The fact we keep repeating this does seem to me that we've got some problems around project management capabilities.

"We've got some weakness around risk management and frankly, we're not being sufficiently open in putting on the table what we see as the real risks around an issue."

More here:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-07/public-sector-responsible-for-high-profile-failures/8100382

There is a transcript of the speech found here:

http://www.themandarin.com.au/73396-martin-parkinson-innovation-risk-successful-attributes/

Parkinson: stop flogging dead cats and take innovation seriously

By

Martin Parkinson

07.12.2016

This section of the speech that caught my attention is this:

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Complacency still too widespread

The Prime Minister has been absolutely forthright in his belief that the generation of ideas is the key to our economic success, and that we must make innovation and disruption our friend if we are to keep pace with the world.

We’ve heard that phrase many times: “disruption and innovation”. I’ve talked about in speeches in the last couple of years, I’ve talked about what it means for our economy, and our organisation — the APS. I’ve espoused it on panels where I’ve robustly suggested that APS staff embrace it.

I’ve realised recently that I’ve never really spoken in detail about what it means for the APS. And that’s why I shouldn’t be surprised by my conclusion when I look back over the course of the year.

In my first year as head of the public service, I’ve been very impressed by a whole range of things that I’ve seen, but one thing that’s surprised me has been complacency – and I don’t use that word lightly. I really do mean complacency, which many in the public service have in regard to the disruptive forces that are operating around us and operating on us.

Disruptive forces like the fundamental shift to public expectations of government; consumer directed demand for government services; and the ever-changing capacity of technology to support and improve service delivery are certainly not unique to the public sector. They impact on our work as much as they impact on the work of the private sector.

Despite this, it seems that many in the APS think that disruption is something that is happening to other people. Conversely, we have a view that innovation is either a buzzword or something that is nice to have.

I want to be clear, that’s a false reality, and a dangerous one. It feeds into a concern I’ve expressed previously that we in the APS are at risk of a fatal combination of ignorance and arrogance.

So what do I mean when I talk about innovation in the APS, what does it look like on a day-to-day basis for a graduate doing a rotation, for an EL2 in HR, for the secretary of the department?

First, we have an organisation that stops working at the word ‘failure’. I know we’ve had it ingrained in us for so long that failure is inexcusable, that we’ve either risk managed the life out of decisions, or we’ve simply refused to admit when we are taking risks.

Look at our reality: we’re an organisation with some incredible high profile failures. I’ve already mentioned VET-FEE HELP, which was entirely preventable. We knew the lessons to be taken from some of the other programs, such as the home insulation program, e-Health, this year the Census, for failure to effectively de-identify health records.

We know, but we keep making the same sorts of mistakes and we have to keep asking ourselves why. What is it that about the way we think about doing things that’s leading us to repeat these issues?

Acceptable level of failure

There is an acceptable level of failure.

I’m not suggesting to anyone that you go rogue and you go out and adopt the ‘rather seek forgiveness than permission’ mantra. Because that’s often just an excuse for poor preparation or a disregard for due process. We have to do our due diligence. We have to base decisions on a solid evidence base and we have to operate within some kind of structure.

But if we’re truly going to create a safe space for people to innovate, take risks, we need to create better frameworks to test ideas.

Better still, to emulate General Electric, we should be able to fail fast and then decide to persevere or pivot. That is based on data analytics, and clear-eyed judgement. Did we make a mistake at the outset and this is not something we can rectify? Or is this something that if we take a step back and fine tune it, is this something we can continue and persevere with?

We have to learn and we have to recognise early what are we seeing. Is it an unacceptable level of failure or a situation where something is absolutely OK and rectifiable if we do a bit of fine tuning of our project?

Our weak capacity to evaluate potential success and impending failure suggests to me we’ve got a capability gap. The fact we keep repeating this does seem to me that we’ve got some problems around project management capabilities. We’ve got some weakness around risk management. And frankly, we’re not being sufficiently open in putting on the table what we see as the real risks around an issue.

So how do we deal with that? First thing, we need to be honest. Honest analysis. Honest ability to assess risk and development of risk mitigation and minimisation strategies. They have to become core skills for us if we’re going to successfully venture into this brave new world of disruption and innovation. We don’t have any choice. We’re going to be dragged into it whether we want to do or not, so we’d better arm ourselves.

Yes, innovation can take courage. But increasingly it’s going to be expected of everyone in the service. I’ve got a Prime Minister who is an early adopter of technology and puts a lot of stick into its ability to transform the way in which we work.

----- End Extract.

It seems to me that somehow the Department of Health has a number of problems and is failing to learn from its mistakes. It is worth noting Dr Parkinson is calling out 2016 failings!

That this comes from the Head of the Public Service should focus the team at ADHA to fundamentally assess what they are doing and, actually based on evidence of success, move forward.

Time to remove the ostrich’s head from the hole in the ground!

David.

AusHealthIT Poll Number 348 – Results – 12th December, 2016.

Here are the results of the poll.

Should The myHR Be Modified / Re-Engineered To Support Functions Such As Prescription Repeat Requests, Appointments, Clinician Communication, Results Access Etc. To Improve Value For Patients?

Yes 4% (5)

No 79% (92)

Yes, But It Is Not Architecturally Doable 16% (19)

I Have No Idea 1% (1)

Total votes: 117

A huge majority seem to think there is no need to make the myHR more useful for patients!

I am not sure I asked the right question here as I had expected people would have wanted to make the myHR more useful for patients. However the response was a decisive NO!

I am interested in perspectives / explanations of this result. Is it that people just want the whole thing to go away or do they feel it should just be for clinicians or what?  Comments needed please!


A very large turnout of votes.

Again, many, many thanks to all those that voted!

David.