Quote Of The Year

Timeless Quotes - Sadly The Late Paul Shetler - "Its not Your Health Record it's a Government Record Of Your Health Information"

or

H. L. Mencken - "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."

Wednesday, June 05, 2013

The Government Has Introduced A New Portal To Access The NEHRS / PCEHR.

I spotted this a few days ago when going to have a look at my NEHRS record
Suddenly we had a new colourful portal.
You can see for yourself.
Before you create an account you may wish to check out the Terms of Use.

Terms of Use

Version 1.0

1. Introduction

These terms describe your rights and responsibilities as a user of the my.gov.au website (myGov). To create a myGov account, you must accept these terms. myGov is operated by the Commonwealth Government Department of Human Services (the department).
Once you have established your myGov account, you will be able to access member services, which include Centrelink online, Medicare online, Child Support online, DVA Services online and eHealth online (collectively and individually, the member services). The member services are provided by the department, the Department of Veterans' Affairs and the Department of Health and Ageing (each of which is an Agency). Additional member services (provided by other agencies) may be added over time.
The department may make changes to myGov and these terms at any time. If those changes affect your rights or responsibilities, the department will notify you and you will be asked to accept new terms of use. If you are notified of new terms of use, you must accept the new terms before accessing your myGov account.

2. Your Responsibilities

2.1 General

You must:
  • not access or seek to access any other person's myGov account;
  • not permit any other person to use your user name and password;
  • keep your myGov account user name, password and your secret questions and answers secure at all times; and
  • let the department know immediately if you suspect that the security of your myGov account may have been compromised eg: your password or username has been lost or stolen. Contact the department using the details at contact us.
You should:
  • change your password regularly; and
  • keep your details updated.

2.2 Lawful purposes

You agree to use your myGov account only for lawful purposes and in a manner that does not infringe the rights of or restrict or inhibit the use and enjoyment of myGov by any third party. This includes conduct which is unlawful or which may harass or cause distress or inconvenience to any person, the transmission of obscene or offensive content or disruption to myGov.
You must not post or transmit via your myGov account any unlawful, defamatory, obscene, offensive or scandalous material, or any material that constitutes or encourages conduct that would contravene any law.

2.3 Information that you provide on myGov

If, within your myGov account or the member services, you are asked to provide information, the information you supply must be complete and accurate. You acknowledge that if you supply incomplete, inaccurate or false information, the department may decide to suspend or terminate your myGov account.

2.4 Other Agency terms

When you link to and use member services, you may be required to accept and comply with the separate terms of use of those member services. Those terms of use are in addition to these terms and, where they relate to the member services and your use of them, take precedence over these myGov terms.
Your use of myGov and having a myGov account does not:
  • affect or reduce any obligation any Agency owes you in respect of the provision to you of member services; or
  • affect or reduce any obligation you owe to any Agency in respect of your receipt of member services.

2.5 Your myGov account

If your myGov account is not available for any reason, alternative access to member services may not be available through the relevant Agency's website. However, you can communicate directly with the relevant Agency in writing, by telephone or in person.
You may close your myGov account at any time.

3. Our Responsibilities

3.1 General

The department will take reasonable care in providing information and services through the myGov website. However, the department does not accept liability for any loss, damage, cost or expense (to any person or property) including consequential or indirect loss or any loss of profits, data or revenue that could arise as a result of your use of myGov, including your use of your myGov account.

3.2 Privacy Statement

This statement applies to personal information provided to the myGov website. The department is required to comply with the Privacy Act 1988.
The department collects personal information that you give it through myGov, such as your email address. We will use your personal information to establish and administer your myGov account.
If you wish to link your myGov account to a member service's online account, the department will transfer you to that member service's website landing page to undertake an authentication process to ensure that your myGov account is linked to the correct record.
The department will only use your personal information, or disclose it to another organisation, or government agency, for a different purpose if you consent to that other purpose, or that other purpose is required or authorised by law.
The department also collects information about how you use the myGov website (such as browsing and searching patterns). The department collects this information to improve its website service. In doing this, the department will not identify you, or your use of the website, unless authorised by law.
If you wish to access your personal information, or discuss privacy issues associated with myGov, please call the department's Customer Relations on 1800 050 004 or the TTY phone on 1800 000 567.
For more information about our privacy practices, see our privacy statement.

3.3 Security

The department has responsibilities relating to the security of your myGov account information and will use all reasonable endeavours to meet these responsibilities.
Your myGov account information can only be accessed by department officers who are authorised to access this information. All access by the department to myGov is audited and monitored by the department and officers are trained on a regular basis about their privacy obligations.
The department will use all reasonable endeavours to ensure that your information is not corrupted or changed. For more information please see our security statement.
The department is responsible for:
  • the security of information while it is collected by, stored on or passing through the myGov systems; and
  • the security of the links from the department's systems to systems under the control of Agencies.
Agencies are responsible for the security of information while it is collected by, stored on or passing through systems within their control.

3.4 Linked websites

The department takes all reasonable care in operating your myGov account but the Agencies are responsible for authenticating you for the purpose of accessing the member services. The department accepts no responsibility in respect of how the member services operate (other than member services that the department operates). The department makes no representation that the material on any linked website does not infringe the intellectual property rights or any other rights of any person. The department does not authorise or accept responsibility for the reproduction of any material on myGov or any linked website.

4. General

4.1 Suspension or termination of your myGov Account for breach of terms

If you breach these terms of use, the department may decide to suspend or terminate your myGov account.

4.2 Severance

If any of these terms of use are held to be invalid, unenforceable or illegal for any reason, the remaining terms will continue in full force.

4.3 Governing law

These terms of use are governed by the laws of the Australian Capital Territory, Australia and you agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the Australian Capital Territory.
----- End Terms.
Initially what worried me was that the portal seemed to want to have be accept these terms on each login. However I noticed on the screen that somehow it was my first login when it was actually my second:

Welcome

-----
Fortunately on the third log-in things were much smoother and less time wasting - although it is still slow and annoying with steps that could be avoided with a dedicated portal.
Of course the PCEHR is still also slow and annoying while I must say the myGov portal is a model of responsiveness in terms of speed and screen painting. Maybe the MyGov team there could chat to the PCEHR team?
David.

AusHealthIT Poll Number 170 – Results – 5th June, 2013.

The question was:

Should DoHA Be Fully Disclosing Both Registration Levels and Usage Levels of the NEHRS / PCEHR?

Of Course 85% (57)
Probably 3% (2)
Possibly 1% (1)
No It Should All Be Secret 6% (4)
I Have No Idea 4% (3)
Total votes: 67
This is as clear an outcome as one is likely to see. We need more transparency full stop.
Again, many thanks to those that voted!
David.

Tuesday, June 04, 2013

The Evidence That The NEHRS / PCEHR Is Not Fit For Purpose Seems To Be Building.

The following appeared a few days in the Pharmacy News.

Pharmacy linked to PCEHR problem

28 May, 2013 Nick O'Donoghue
A community pharmacy is believed to be the source of an error in a journalist’s Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR).
Kate McDonald, a reporter with Pulse+ IT, revealed that she had discovered two prescriptions, for conditions she did not have, had been erroneously added to her PCEHR.
“The prescriptions were written on 12 March 2012, and came with a number of repeats for each drug,” she said.
“Two of those repeats scripts were dispensed from my local pharmacy on 4 January 2013, and the details then found their way onto the PBS section of my PCEHR in February, although there were no corresponding MBS items on my record showing that a consultation had taken place.”
After initially publishing an article highlighting the error, Ms McDonald said she was contacted by the Department of Human Services (DHS), who conducted an investigation, which revealed that the scripts had been dispensed from her regular pharmacy.
More here:
This report follows mentions I have made on the blog with a range of anomalies in the state of my record - duplication and missing data - and the apparently random changes in my name over the last 12 months or so.
I am also hearing that we two are not the only ones who have noticed anomalies and inconsistencies.
Further we seem to have extended down time recently:
“There will be a planned outage to the PCEHR Production environment starting at 12 am on 25th May 2013 for system maintenance.
Outage Window: Saturday 25th May 2013 12am – 6pm AEST – PCEHR Consumer Portal
Saturday 25th May 2013 12am – 7am AEST – All other PCEHR Portals/Channels.”
Interestingly there have also been all sorts of issues and problems with the IHI service recently.
One example here:
From: CO_HI_Service
Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2013 4:12 PM
To: CO_HI_Service
Subject: Department of Human Services Advice: Healthcare Identifiers (HI) Service - 22 June 2013 Release Update [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
Dear software developer,
On Tuesday, 14 May 2013, the Department of Human Services (the department) advised you of three changes to Healthcare Identifiers (HI) Service technical specifications and WSDLs that would be included as part of the 22 June 2013 release. The department would like to advise you that in response to feedback from a number of HI software vendors, we have revised the release date to implement any WSDL changes to September 2013.  The department will continue to work with software vendors to limit any impacts to their software products.
The 22 June 2013 release will now add additional functionality to the recent release of TECH.SIS.HI.31 and TECH.SIS.HI.32 by providing batch capability through TECH.SIS.HI.33 – Search Provider Individual Batch Asynchronous and TECH.SIS.HI.34 – Search Provider Organisation Batch Asynchronous.
All other clarifications and updates will be outlined in the HI Service – Change Guide June 2013 Release when it is published with the updated draft Licensed Materials shortly.
If you have any questions regarding these updates please contact the HI Vendor Operations team via email hi.vendor.operations@humanservices.gov.au for further information. The department will notify all software developers of any further updates to the 22 June 2013 release.
Regards
Online Technical Support Liaison
eHealth and Government to Business Systems Branch
Department of Human Services
----- End E-Mail
Clearly code for ‘we have messed up a bit and need to regroup’.
And success was claimed for an availability of the PCEHR of 98.9% in a recent Senate Estimates Questions on Notice Response from DoHA. The claim was that this was comparable to Hospital systems. (A very badly run one I must say).
This availability implies a full 4 DAYS off line each year! Hardly acceptable for what is claimed to be vital national infrastructure that has cost close to, if not more than, one billion dollars.
All in all we seem to have data errors, system unreliability and, despite recruiters running around everywhere, only limited take up and unproven benefit.
Their effect is documented here:

PCEHR milestones

Personally controlled e-health records:
  • Users (4 March): 73,648
  • Users (22 May): 173,726
  • Average enrolments per day: 3175
  • First 50,000 enrolments: 213 days
  • Second 50,000 enrolments: 60 days
  • Third 50,000 enrolments: 37 days
Source: Department of Health and Ageing
See here:
Still can't see anywhere near the 500,000 target by the end of the month. I wonder how that will all be explained?
Enjoy exploring and do check the contents of your record if you have one. Someone may just misinterpret erroneous data to your profound disadvantage if there is some present!
David.

Monday, June 03, 2013

Weekly Australian Health IT Links – 3rd June, 2013.

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

Good to see all these people signing up to have a NEHRS / PCEHR. I wonder when we will discover just how many useful clinical outcomes are being achieved.
The Qld Health Department Payroll issue is droning along - surely it will end soon!
Lots of other stuff also on National Cloud Policy, data breech legislation and some fun tech news bits at the end.
-----

PCEHR uptake doubled in two months

28th May 2013
IT MIGHT not reach the Department of Health and Ageing’s benchmark of 500,000 users by July 2013, but personally controlled electronic health record (PCEHR) enrolments have soared over the past two months, with numbers more than doubling.
After embarrassing reports that enrolments were little better than one-tenth of the 500,000 target more than six months after the July 2012 launch, the department confirmed numbers had been “rapidly increasing” in recent weeks — up from 73,000 in early March to 173,726 late last week.
There are now an average of 3175 people registering for a PCEHR every day, with 22,000 new records registered last week as MO went to print.
-----

Government proposes mandatory data breach alerts

Date May 29, 2013
Businesses and government agencies will be forced to disclose privacy breaches under draft laws to be introduced to Federal Parliament on Wednesday.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said there have been some "spectacular" recent examples of data breaches where names and personal information have been disclosed publicly – via Sony PlayStation, Australia Post, Vodafone and Telstra.
He said the draft laws to be introduced on Wednesday could pass through Parliament before the September election.
-----

Proposed mandatory data breach notification bill read in Parliament

Government agencies, businesses would be required to inform customers if personal, credit and tax file number information is breached
The Privacy Amendment (Privacy Alerts) Bill 2013 has received its first reading in Parliament by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus.
If passed, the legislation will come into effect on 12 March 2014 alongside the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).
The Bill will require government agencies and businesses to notify customers of serious data breaches in relation to personal, credit reporting, credit eligibility or tax file number information.
According to the amendments (PDF) contained in the Bill, the entity involved must give a data breach statement to the Privacy Commissioner, Timothy Pilgrim, publish a copy of the statement on its website and in at least one newspaper circulating in the state or territory.
-----
Gilbert + Tobin
Privacy law is once again on the Government’s legislation reform agenda with the introduction on Wednesday of the Privacy Amendment (Privacy Alerts) Bill 2013.
The Bill if passed will amend the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) to introduce a new mandatory data breach notification scheme for entities regulated under the Federal Act, including public sector agencies, private sector organisations (other than small business), credit reporting bodies and credit providers.
Under current Australian privacy law, there is no legal requirement for an entity to notify either affected individuals, or the Commissioner, if personal information the entity holds is compromised. The Federal Privacy Commissioner – part of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner - actively encourages voluntary notification by entities in accordance with the OAIC’s guide Data Breach Notification: A guide to handling personal information security breaches.
-----

Privacy war looms over wearable computers

Date May 28, 2013

Nick Bilton

Protectors of privacy and propriety are beginning to speak out.
Perhaps the best way to predict how society will react to so-called wearable computing devices is to read the Dr Seuss children's story The Butter Battle Book.
The book, which was published in 1984, is about two cultures at odds. On one side are the Zooks, who eat their bread with the buttered side down. In opposition are the Yooks, who eat their bread with the buttered side up. As the story progresses, their different views lead to an arms race and potentially an all-out war.
Well, the Zooks and the Yooks may have nothing on wearable computing fans, who are starting to sport devices that can record everything going on around them with a wink or subtle click, and the people who promise to violently confront anyone wearing one of these devices.
-----

IT pros ignorant about privacy laws

  • by: Andrew Colley
  • From: Australian IT
  • May 29, 2013 12:00AM
TECHNOLOGY professionals are still not getting the message when it comes to ensuring that company systems are compliant with privacy legislation.
System privacy specialist and consultant Stephen Wilson said that most technicians and engineers still believed that privacy was still primarily a concern for company lawyers.
Most did not understand how easily that how easy it was to fall foul of Australia's privacy regulations which set a "very low bar" when it came to breaches.
-----
29 May 2013 - 10:01pm | posted by Steven Raeburn |

“Important step forward” as Government launches combined online portal for Australians

The Federal Government has launched its new myGov online portal, described as “an important step forward in service delivery for Australians.”
The portal combines access to Centrelink, Medicare, Child Support and eHealth details, allowing Australians to link services, make claims, view their payment histories and update their personal details.
The Government said its aim was to provide Australians with easier, faster access to secure digital government services.
-----

South Australian practice leads the way in eHealth records

Created on Tuesday, 28 May 2013
South Australian practice manager Dr Sim Hee Neoh is leading the way towards the future of eHealth, registering more patients to the personally controlled electronic health (eHealth) record system than any other general practice in the country.
“From the first time we heard about the potential for eHealth we decided it was in our patients’ best interests and we had to get them involved."
We owe it to our patients to keep their records accurate and accessible and this is the best way we can do it,” Dr Neoh said.
-----

New health informatics course launched in China and Adelaide

Over 100 students in China and a few dozen in Australia will this year complete a new Health Informatics course taught by Mark Brommeyer, an international eHealth Consultant, working with NEHTA as eHealth Supply Chain Reform Manager.
Fifty students will attend the first course, which starts at Nankai University in Beijing next week, with another hundred students attending courses in Guangzhou and Shanghai in coming months.
Brommeyer, who trained as a nurse and also holds formal education qualifications at both Graduate Diploma and Masters level, is an adjunct lecturer in Flinders University’s Health Sciences Faculty and travels regularly to China where he teaches in the Flinders-Nankai University Master of Hospital Administration program.
-----

Medicare Locals to face review under new government

27 May, 2013 Kate Cowling
Medicare Locals will face a formal review to prove they're fit for purpose if the Coalition gets elected in September.
The new threat, made by Federal Opposition health spokesman Peter Dutton, comes a year after he pledged to ditch them altogether, dubbing them an “unnecessary bureaucracy”. 
The newly announced review would focus on reducing administration costs, duplication and bolstering the groups' interaction with local hospital.
-----

5CPA to be audited

28 May, 2013 Nick O'Donoghue
The $15.4 billion Fifth Community Pharmacy Agreement (5CPA) is set to be put under the microscope by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO).
-----

Pharmacy linked to PCEHR problem

28 May, 2013 Nick O'Donoghue
A community pharmacy is believed to be the source of an error in a journalist’s Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR).
Kate McDonald, a reporter with Pulse+ IT, revealed that she had discovered two prescriptions, for conditions she did not have, had been erroneously added to her PCEHR.
“The prescriptions were written on 12 March 2012, and came with a number of repeats for each drug,” she said.
“Two of those repeats scripts were dispensed from my local pharmacy on 4 January 2013, and the details then found their way onto the PBS section of my PCEHR in February, although there were no corresponding MBS items on my record showing that a consultation had taken place.”
-----

Department of Health and Ageing tenders for text-to-speech software

The department requires the software to cover 55 of its websites that come under its portfolio
The Department of Health and Ageing has issued a request for tender (RFT) for the provision of text-to-speech software for its websites.
To further meet the federal government’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, the department wants to extend its use of text-to-speech software so that people with visual impairments or who have reading difficulties can easily access its online services and information.
Having already been implemented on its main website, the department requires the software to cover 55 other websites that come under its portfolio, in addition to intranets, e-learning modules and blogs. Also, the provider will need to allow for an increase in the number of websites over three years.
-----

Health calls tenders to add disability aids to websites

Tender Watch
Christopher Jay
30/05/2013
The federal Department of Health and Ageing is acting to improve access to government-funded internet websites by persons with disabilities, starting with text-to-voice technology for the vision-impaired and people with reading difficulties on its own cluster of about 55 websites.
The Australian government requires all government-operated and funded websites to meet the legal requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992. Under the act, they are enjoined to ensure information and services are provided in a non-discriminatory, accessible manner.
The relevant implementation reference is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, from the World Wide Web consortium.
-----

Conroy launches national cloud computing strategy

Communications minister launches government's strategy for promoting Australia's cloud services sector
Communications minister Senator Stephen Conroy today used the CeBIT trade show in Sydney as the venue for unveiling the government's national cloud computing strategy.
The strategy is intended to boost adoption of cloud services and promote the cloud services sector within Australia.
“Cloud computing has reached its tipping point. It is no longer a trend,” the minister said.
Conroy told the conference that Australia “cannot rely on the resource-based boom times to last forever.”
-----

National cloud plan to boost innovation

Date May 30, 2013 - 10:02AM

Lia Timson

IT Pro Editor

Government agencies will move their public-facing websites to the cloud as part of the Federal Government's new push to increase the use of cloud computing in both the public and private sectors.
The strategy, revealed by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy at CeBIT Australia in Sydney on Wednesday, aims to promote cloud computing among individuals, businesses and government departments in the hope of boosting productivity, Senator Conroy said.
Cloud computing allows data and applications to be stored and accessed on the internet rather than on local servers.
-----

Avatars help silence schizophrenia's voices

Date May 30, 2013 - 11:46AM
People who didn't respond to medication learned to control hallucinatory voices with the aid of a computer program, a study found.
LONDON: People with schizophrenia who didn't respond to medication learned to control hallucinatory voices with the aid of a computer program that used an avatar of their imagined persecutor, in a study by British researchers.
The Wellcome Trust, the world's second-largest biomedical charity, said on Wednesday that it is giving scientists at University College London and King's College London £1.3 million pounds ($2.04 million) to test the avatar therapy in more patients.
-----

Healthdirect donates thousands to Libs, Labor

31 May, 2013 Paul Smith
The national health call centre company set up, owned and funded by Federal and state governments has donated more than $20,000 of taxpayers money to Australia's main political parties.
Healthdirect was originally formed back in 2006. through the Council of Australian Governments. to manage the 24/7 nurse triage helpline and more recently the GP after-hours helpline.
Its sole source of income — other than interest — is from taxpayers via grants received from the Commonwealth and a number of state governments.
-----

Former Qld health minister 'unaware' Qld payroll was so complex

When asked if he knew whether his department had one of the most complex payroll requirements in the government, Lucas said he did not
  • AAP (CIO)
  • 30 May, 2013 14:32
Queensland's former health minister says he was unaware how complex the department's payroll requirements were when he was considering an automated system that ultimately failed.
Lucas, also the former deputy premier, has been cross-examined by Queensland's health payroll inquiry on Thursday over the state's most costly IT fiasco.
It resulted in thousands of pay errors under his watch and is expected to end up costing taxpayers $1.2 billion.
-----

Bligh defends 'judgment call' on health payroll

Date May 27, 2013 - 4:22PM

Amy Remeikis

State political reporter

The impacts on the state's health workers outweighed any possible gain from suing IT contractor IBM over the payroll system, former Premier Anna Bligh said.
Ms Bligh, appearing at the final stage of the Health Payroll System Commission of Inquiry, said she had considered suing IBM, but ultimately decided, at the time, it was not worth the loss of "goodwill" and what that could mean fixing the system.
Under questioning from Counsel Assisting Peter Flanagan SC, Ms Bligh said she made a "judgment call" not to launch legal action based on the advice and material provided to her at the time.
-----

Former Queensland premier Anna Bligh faces health payroll inquiry

FORMER Queensland premier Anna Bligh has insisted she took a politically unpopular decision when she agreed her government would not sue IBM over the failed health payroll system.
Legal action against the company was deemed to be too risky, she said.
Ms Bligh, who lost office in the Liberal National Party's electoral victory in March last year, is giving evidence to an inquiry into the bungled rollout of the Queensland Health pay debacle.
The rollout was plagued with problems, with 83,000 current and former staff members not paid, underpaid or overpaid after the March 2010 rollout.
-----

No guarantee in Queensland versus IBM: Bligh

Bligh is being cross-examined about her government's dealings with IBM, which was contracted to roll out a new Queensland Health payroll system
  • AAP (CIO)
  • 27 May, 2013 13:47
Former premier Anna Bligh has told an inquiry into Queensland's most costly IT disaster she decided not to sue IBM because there was no guarantee the state would win.
Ms Bligh is being cross-examined about her government's dealings with IBM, which was contracted to roll out a new Queensland Health payroll system.
The system, which went live in March 2010, resulted in thousands of pay errors.
Ms Bligh told the inquiry on Monday she was given legal advice in 2010 that the state had a case against IBM for breaching its contract.
-----

Bligh to front health payroll inquiry

Date May 27, 2013 - 10:19AM
Former Queensland premier Anna Bligh is due to front an inquiry into the state's health payroll bungle on Monday.
Ms Bligh is expected to be cross-examined about her government's dealings with IBM, which was contracted to roll out the system.
-----

Scam website targeting doctors

30th May 2013
GENERAL practices are facing a wave of billing scams, with some practices being charged thousands of dollars for directory listings.
The AMA issued the warning yesterday, just a week after MO revealed another company suspected of similar behaviour was under investigation by NSW Fair Trading after complaints by several practices.
The AMA said the scam involved several practices being charged up to $5200 for listing in the Australasian Health Professionals Directory.
-----

Here be Dragons

Posted on May 27, 2013 by Grahame Grieve
Keith’s got a post up entitled “Here be Dragons“:
Where the real dragons are is in MAY, or PERMITTED content.  In this, danger abounds.  Because it says MAY, people are free to ignore it.  The MAYs in a specification are the places where you can do cool stuff, and where new capabilities can be explored.
I was reminded of this post’s title when I was looking at a proposed conformance requirement for using SNOMED-CT (taken from somewhere, the source doesn’t matter):
If the application supports displaying Snomed-CT concepts that have been received from another system, it shall display the Original Text associated with the code in order to be faithful to the original semantic context. If the originalText  is not available, it shall display the displayName instead. When the application displays both displayName and originalText, it shall be clearly labelled so that the user can clearly distinguish between the Original Text and the Preferred Term.
-----

NASA's Curiosity proves Mars trip would blast humans with radiation

Today's radiation-shielding technology can't protect humans in deep space
Radiation measurements sent back from NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission as it delivered the rover Curiosity to Mars last year is giving scientists the information they need to protect astronauts on future deep space missions.
NASA researchers will use the radiation measurements to design protective systems to shield humans from radiation exposure on deep-space expeditions, such as planned journeys to Mars.
Initial research into the measurements shows that the radiation exposure on a trip to Mars, using current shielding technology, would exceed NASA's career limit for its astronauts.
-----

Lisa Randall’s Guide to the Galaxy

The famed cosmologist unveils her latest theories on the invisible universe, extra dimensions and human consciousness

Lisa Randall is telling me she may have a clue to the next great mystery in cosmology.
We are having lunch in a restaurant at the Charles Hotel, not far from Harvard where she teaches theoretical physics, with specialties in particle physics, string theory, mathematics, astrophysics and cosmology. Randall, a slender woman, now 50, reminds one of a younger Joan Didion— light-years of consciousness behind her eyes.
She is a star professor of the stars, a cosmological celebrity, and only in part because she is the first female theoretical physicist tenured at Harvard . It was really her conjecture in the late ’90s about string theory’s “extra dimensions” that gained her prominence in the field. She garnered more attention for her explication of the Higgs boson quest, and for her subsequent writings attempting to explain to the rest of us what she does and how exciting it is to do it, most recently Knocking on Heaven’s Door.
-----

Start button to return to Windows 8

Date May 31, 2013
Where to Start? The Windows 8 launch screen.
  • Start button returning in Windows 8.1
  • Option to boot directly to traditional desktop
  • Update to be released later this year
Microsoft is bringing back the Windows Start button among a slew of improvements aimed at winning over tablet users and placating PC customers alienated by Windows 8.
Windows 8.1, a free update to be released later this year, represents Microsoft's concessions to long-time customers taken aback by the dramatic changes to an operating system that had become a staple in households and offices around the world during the past 20 years. Research group IDC has blamed Windows 8 for accelerating a decline in PC sales.
-----
Enjoy!
David.

Sunday, June 02, 2013

Interesting Developments On The NEHRS Front. An App For Nippers and Their Parents And Disclosure Of Little Clinical Use Of The NEHRS.

This popped up today.

Australia launches child's e-health record app

Xinhua | 2013-6-2 10:38:01
By Agencies
Australian Minister for Health, Tanya Plibersek, on Sunday launched a new mobile app that allows parents to keep their children's important health, growth and development information at their fingertips.
Plibersek said the My Child's eHealth Record app lets parents add and monitor information like immunisations, height, weight, and development milestones.
"There's a lot of health information that parents need to keep track of in the early years of their child's growth, including immunisations, their growth rates and their development milestones, " said Plibersek.
"The app connects parents to their child's eHealth record, which is a new function added recently as part of the ongoing rollout of the government's national eHealth record system."
Developed in Australia, the My Child's eHealth Record app is the first smartphone app developed for the Australian government's eHealth record system.
Before downloading and using the app, parents must have registered their child or children for a personally controlled eHealth record.
The app then allows parents to view and add information to the Child Development part of their child's eHealth record.
This includes personal measurements for a baby or young child's head circumference, height and weight, information and reminders about immunisations and child health checks, and observations by parents about their children's personal growth and achievements.
Full article is here
Here is the press release:

MyChild's eHealth Record app puts children's health information at parents' fingertips.

New mobile app allows parents to keep their children's important health, growth and development information at their fingertips.
02 June 2013
The Minister for Health, Tanya Plibersek, today launched a new mobile app that allows parents to keep their children’s important health, growth and development information at their fingertips.
Ms Plibersek said the My Child’s eHealth Record app lets parents add and monitor information like immunisations, height, weight, and development milestones.
“This App will mean that parents can have vital information about their children’s health, like their immunisation status, at their fingertips all of the time,” said Ms Plibersek.
“It doesn’t replace the Blue Book or its equivalents, but if a parent is asked by a childcare centre about their child’s immunisation status, they are very likely to have their mobile with them even if they are not carrying the blue book.
“There’s a lot of health information that parents need to keep track of in the early years of their child’s growth, including immunisations, their growth rates and their development milestones.
“The app connects parents to their child’s eHealth record, which is a new function added recently as part of the ongoing rollout of the Government’s national eHealth record system.
“The My Child’s eHealth Record app is yet another way for parents to keep track of their family’s key health information, and adds to the clinical and personal information the eHealth record system can already hold for an individual,” the Minister said.
Developed in Australia, the My Child’s eHealth Record app is the first smartphone app developed for the Australian Government’s eHealth record system.
Before downloading and using the app, parents must have registered their child or children for a personally controlled eHealth record.
The app then allows parents to view and add information to the Child Development part of their child’s eHealth record.
This includes personal measurements for a baby or young child’s head circumference, height and weight, information and reminders about immunisations and child health checks, and observations by parents about their children’s personal growth and achievements.
“While a baby’s measurements should be taken by a trained healthcare professional, parents can add this information directly to their child’s eHealth record via the app,” Ms Plibersek said.
“The eHealth record system is designed to hold more and more health information as a child grows. So registering a baby or young child is a practical step parents can take that means their children will have a lifetime health record available electronically.”
Information about the My Child’s eHealth Record app is available from www.ehealth.gov.au, including links to download the app.

eHealth key facts:

  • The total number of people who have registered for an eHealth record is 215,813 – current at Friday May 31.
  • In the past week, more than 30,000 people have registered for an eHealth record.
  • More than 3,300 healthcare provider organisations have now signed on to the eHealth record system.
  • And there are 4,265 individual doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers throughout Australia who have been authorised by their organisations to access the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR) system.
  • As of 31 May, more than 15.25 million documents had been uploaded to the PCEHR system. This includes:
    • 2,315 clinical documents (shared health summaries, discharge summaries, event summaries)
    • 17,266 consumer documents (consumer health summaries, notes, advance care custodian)
    • 15.23 million Medicare documents (MBS/DVA/PBS, ACIR, organ donor)
    • 200 Child eHealth record documents
    • 91 Prescription and Dispense View (National Prescription and Dispense Repository).
Further information about registering for an eHealth record is available from www.ehealth.gov.au or 1800 723 471.
Link is here:
I look forward to comments on the app. It looks to me to be very much like a desperate attempt to have something up and working to prevent the whole thing being shut down after the election.
It is also interesting that this could all be seen as scope creep given there was no real mention of the functionality being introduced here, in the Final ConOps.
The usage data on the NEHRS really shows there is bulk Medicare Data and zilch in the way of any other information presently in the system. 200,000 patients registered and about 2000 clinical documents! They are spinning this information like a top in my view.
Amazingly little clinical use for a billion dollars a year after the so called launch that actually wasn’t.
David.

Senate Estimates Hearing Alert : Wednesday June 6, 2013 NEHTA - 7:15pm To 8:15pm.

Here is the link to the program:
Doubtless there will be some fun had for one and all with the election so close!
Check the timing during the relevant day for exact timing.
David.