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
Lots of news with an apparent change at the top of the private e-Health sector .
Otherwise we see all sorts of issues as well in the Government sector.
It’s really getting complicated all over.
Enjoy!
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Telstra could sell health unit
- The Australian
- 12:00AM September 1, 2017
Bridget Carter
Scott Murdoch
Telstra is expected to start considering the future of its struggling health business as it looks to cover its $3 billion revenue black hole and the forgone benefits of its NBN earnings securitisation plan.
NBN Co’s decision to stop Telstra fast-forwarding the delivery on its NBN payments means the telco will forgo about $5.5bn.
The revenue was not officially accounted but was a major part of its future plans and the telco was keen to lock in the payments. Under the existing plan, Telstra will still receive the annual payments of $1bn for the next 30 years.
The move by NBN to say no means that Telstra’s future buyback programs will be put on hold, along with debt-reduction plans, in yet another decision that is likely to displease Telstra’s already weary investors.
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Electronic medication management to be delivered to hospitals in rural NSW by end 2018
Replacing paper medication charts, it will roll out to 18 hospitals, spanning all six Local Health Districts by the end of 2018.
29/08/2017
eHealth NSW plans to roll out Electronic medication management (eMeds) to hospitals in rural New South Wales (NSW) in 2018.
eMeds is intended to provide a smart, safer and better way of managing medications for patients in hospitals. It will replace paper medication charts. Paper based medication charts are all hand-written and have a variety of shortcomings. From difficulty in deciphering handwriting to missing details and being misplaced from the folders where they are supposed to be, using paper charts is cumbersome.
And transcribing and writing handwritten medication sheets, that can be really long and lengthy, is not just tedious for clinicians, but also consumes valuable time they could spend on taking better care of patients. Probably most importantly, eMeds will reduce errors and improve accuracy.
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30 August 2017
Uncovering Scandinavia’s health-data secrets
I’d just crumpled onto the couch at home when an unknown number flashed up on my mobile. “It’s Christian Nøhr calling from Denmark,” said a warm voice down the line. I did the awkward phone-to-shoulder contortion as I scrambled for a pen, notepad and dictaphone.
I wasn’t expecting this call.
My half-hour chat with Professor Nøhr, a health informatics expert from Denmark’s Aalborg University, opened a small window into what I’ve decided to call “data heaven”.
Until very recently, Australian researchers have had to beg federal, state and territory governments for linked health data and could wait years to gain access.
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RCH’s big bang success story proves EMRs save lives
Lynne Minion | 28 Aug 2017
As they brought their teenage daughter into the emergency department, the girl’s family was placing its faith in the expertise of the hospital’s clinicians, but behind the scenes was another life-saving contributor to her care. Without it, she would have died.
Just as MRIs, CAT scanners and other devices are seen as essential medical equipment, the ground-breaking EMR system implemented at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne has shown itself to be a lifesaver.
“I'm quite sure in the old paper world she would have died,” RCH’s Chief Medical Information Officer, Professor Mike South, told Healthcare IT News Australia.
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Growing range of aids boosts shared decision making
Authored by Sarah Colyer
A GROWING array of decision aids is making it easier for doctors and patients to discuss treatment and screening options using the best available evidence.
Professor Lyndal Trevena, cohead of the Discipline of General Practice at the University of Sydney, is the co-author of a recently updated Cochrane review examining whether patient decision aids (PtDAs) – including booklets, videos and web-based tools – are associated with better medical decisions and decision making processes.
“There is a feeling among the Cochrane review authorship that there are already enough randomised controlled trials for us to know that PtDAs work … implementation and quality assurance are probably the more important things at this stage,” Professor Trevena told MJA InSight.
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Tim Kelsey: My Health Whisperer
Lynne Minion | 25 Aug 2017
Experience wrangling Middle Eastern dictators wasn’t in the job ad for the head of Australia’s digital health agency, but the skills that saw Tim Kelsey outwit Colonel Gaddafi have no doubt stood him in good stead in his dealings with the disparate interests of the local healthcare sector.
Journalist, digital evangelist and health data innovator, the CEO responsible for the roll out of an online health record to every Australian by next year moved from the UK’s NHS to take on a job many thought of as a poisoned chalice.
Successive governments had spent years and over a billion dollars on what critics described as an expensive folly, but Kelsey’s background could be the key to delivering Australian healthcare’s most substantial digital infrastructure revolution.
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Alan Tudge urged to act following Department of Human Services fraud allegations
Steven Trask
Published: August 31 2017 - 2:45PM
The need for a Senate inquiry into bungled government IT projects has been vindicated following allegations of fraud at the Department of Human Services, the Labor party says.
On Thursday Fairfax Media revealed that as many as 50 IT subcontractors were under investigation in a fraud probe at the government's largest department.
The allegations related to fake invoicing practices and the use of false CVs and qualification records to secure government contracts.
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Medicare data breach: government response ‘contemptible’, says former AFP officer
Nigel Phair says response to patient information being sold on dark web means fewer people ‘will trust government with their health details’
A Guardian Australia investigation revealed in July that a darknet vendor was selling access to anyone’s Medicare card details. Photograph: AAP
Friday 1 September 2017 15.54 AEST Last modified on Friday 1 September 2017 15.55 AEST
The federal government’s response to a Medicare data breach that led to patient details being sold on the dark web was “disappointing, confusing and often contemptible,” according to a former detective who headed the Australian federal police’s investigations into high-tech crime.
Nigel Phair, now an adjunct professor at the University of Canberra’s Centre for Internet Safety, told a Senate inquiry the government’s response to data breach concerns meant “less and less people will trust the government with their health details”.
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Government response to Medicare card data saga disappointing and messaging contemptible: Centre for Internet Safety
A propensity to spin messaging coupled with a lack of education in cybersecurity leaves the University of Canberra body disappointed in the Australian government and its ministers.
The Centre for Internet Safety (CIS) at the University of Canberra has slammed the government's response to revelations that Medicare card details of Australians were being traded on the dark web.
Writing to the Australian Senate Finance and Public Administration References Committee, CIS managing director Nigel Phair said the response from the Department of Human Services and its overseeing minister Alan Tudge was disappointing.
"The messaging was confusing and often contemptible," Phair wrote [PDF]. "Unfortunately we are plagued by a culture at all levels of government to 'spin' the message, including events related to cybersecurity.
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Fitbit unveils health-focused Ionic smartwatch
Selina Wang
Published: August 30 2017 - 8:17AM
Fitbit desperately needs a hit.
The company unveiled its first smartwatch this week, hoping that the health-focused features of the device will reverse the hardware maker's declining influence in the wearables market.
The smartwatch, called the Fitbit Ionic, costs launches in Australia in October at $449.95. It has a square touchscreen similar to the one on the Apple Watch. It includes a heart-rate monitor, GPS tracking and four-day battery life. The watch, which is water resistant up to 50 metres, can make wireless payments and store music offline with 2.5GB of space.
Fitbit recently lost its position as the top seller of wearable devices, falling behind Apple and China's Xiaomi. Since going public two years ago to much fanfare, the novelty of its wrist-worn devices have waned.
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Privacy Commissioner to probe Australian government agencies on compliance
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner will be conducting assessments of government agencies over the coming year to confirm their compliance under privacy obligations.
Australian Information and Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim has said his office will be conducting assessments of Australian government agencies over the next 12 months in accordance with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner's (OAIC) commitments under the Privacy Act 1988.
Under the nearly 30-year-old Act, the OAIC has the power to conduct an assessment of any business or Australian government agency to help them understand their privacy obligations.
As mentioned in the OAIC's Corporate Plan 2017-18, the probe will require the commissioner to encourage agencies and businesses to "respect and protect" the personal information of citizens that they handle.
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Why participate in the #FHIR Community? (Individuals & Standards)
Posted on September 1, 2017 by Grahame Grieve
This blog is the first of series I’m going to run in the lead up to the HL7 San Diego meeting looking at the question of why to participate in the FHIR community. For this first blog, I’m going to look at the question of why to get involved in standards at all at the individual level.
A couple of days ago, I was speaking to a well-known high-profile member of the Australian Health Informatics Community – someone who’s given considerable time to the development of the profession, both academically, and to the community. I asked him why he wasn’t involved in standards development. “Not standards!”, he said, with a definite frown.
Indeed, why be involved in standard development?
In some ways, it’s easier to say why it’s better not to be involved: standards work is slow, and involves arcane and myopic focus on small details in the presence of considerable contention about what should be done. Often must deal with toxic people in difficult circumstances – it’s kind of baked into the process. And progress is slow – actually, it’s often opaque whether you’re making any progress at all. What success you do have is often not appreciated outside the standards community (no appreciated, that is, by the people with money who fund your participation one way or another).
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Aged care virtual clinic named Australia’s business of the year
Lynne Minion | 31 Aug 2017
It’s described as a “practice in your pocket” for GPs working in aged care, and now the online platform GenWise Health has been named Telstra Australian Business of the Year.
A virtual clinic started four years ago by Adelaide GPs Sebastian Rees and Troye Wallett, GenWise now has 40 doctors, nurse practitioners and specialists delivering care to about 4000 older Australians in residential facilities.
For co-founder Dr Sebastian Rees, last week’s announcement was recognition of the company’s efforts to improve the standard of care for older people.
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My Health Record clinical safety program
The My Health Record clinical safety program aims to improve quality, safety and efficiency in the Australian healthcare system through the My Health Record system. Consumers can control the content of, and access to, their healthcare record, and share health information with their clinicians.
The Australian Digital Health Agency (the Agency) was established on 1 July 2016 and is the My Health Record System Operator.
The Agency appointed the Commission to undertake a clinical safety program for the My Health Record system and national digital health infrastructure for 2016–2018. This includes:
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August 30 2017 - 9:48AM
Pregnancy patch that aims to cut interventions wins NSW government Medical Devices Fund grant
Kate Aubusson
As Sarah McDonald recovered from the "traumatic" birth of her second child, the mechatronics engineer knew there had to be a better way to help manage the risks and uncertainties of pregnancy and labour.
Four years later, Ms McDonald's innovative real-time monitoring pregnancy patch is one major step closer to becoming a reality, winning $1.47 million to bankroll its development thanks to the NSW government's Medical Devices Fund.
On Tuesday night at Parliament House, the "Oli" was one of four promising new medical devices awarded a share of $6.61 million in funding grants to bankroll their commercial development.
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Queensland govt stakes its claim to AI
By Staff Writers on Aug 28, 2017 1:03PM
Preparing to benchmark itself on world scale.
Queensland is hoping to set itself up as an artificial intelligence hub in both development and adoption.
Job advertisements placed in all capital cities last week seek an AI specialist to benchmark the state’s current place in the AI market both domestically and internationally, and recommend ways to improve.
The specialist has six months to present a paper to “the Chief Entrepreneur and the Director General” of an unnamed “large government department” in Queensland.
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- Aug 27 2017 at 12:36 PM
MLC Life to expand Best Doctors service
by Alice Uribe
More than a quarter of people who seek a second opinion on a health condition are told to change their treatment and one in 10 are told they have been misdiagnosed, according to analysis of an innovative life insurance product.
Best Doctors, a platform used by 40 million people globally and founded by Harvard medical school professors in 1989, gives users access to experts around the world and allows Australians the chance to submit medical questions to a panel of local doctors.
MLC Life has offered the service to selected customers since 2009 but plans to expand it further this year. So far 3500 people, including 10 per cent of the insurer's staff, have accessed Best Doctors, with 27 per cent being recommended a change in treatment.
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Medibank see benefits from policy system overhaul
New SAP platform helping deliver more personalised interactions with customers, CEO says
25 August, 2017 11:48
Medibank’s investment in a new core policy management system, dubbed DelPHI, is starting to pay off, the health insurer said today.
“DelPHI is now embedded and we have successfully navigated through a rate change and tax statement cycle on the new platform without issue,” Medibank CEO Craig Drummond this morning told an investor briefing.
“DelPHI is enabling us to be more personalised and proactive in our interactions with customers, providing faster product development, greater ability to segment our customer base and improve our retention capability,” the CEO said.
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Australian Digital Health and Life Sciences Delegation explores partnerships in digital health in India
adminon: August 29, 2017In: National Business No Comments
New Delhi: A 30-member Australian digital health and life sciences delegation is currently in New Delhi. As part of the Australian digital health and life sciences delegation’s visit to India a session on Australia-India Digital Health Dialogue was organised in New Delhi today by The Australian Trade & Investment Commission (Austrade), Australian Government
Session on Australia-India Digital Health Dialogue
The session focused on the digital health sector in India and some of the key issues discussed at this session included developing a road map for a technology-enabled healthcare ecosystem; defining the future of health through use of technology; transforming India through technology enabled care and innovations in digital health & medical devices.
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MedicalDirector shows an old dog can learn new tricks
Lynne Minion | 28 Aug 2017
Providers of patient management systems in Australia are in a race to sign up GPs to cloud-based platforms, with leading medical software provider MedicalDirector leveraging its market reach to gain the inside track.
With its server-based systems in 4800 practices and servicing close to 17000 GPs, the company launched its Helix cloud system in May, with 200 doctors so far taking up the technology.
It’s a considerable risk and substantial investment for a company that began in 1997 with a DOS-based quick script program and was last year sold by Primary Health Care to private equity group Affinity for $155 million.
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Senate Order 192 (Murray Motion) on Australian Digital Health Agency Contracts for the 2016/2017 Financial Year
On 20 June 2001, the Senate agreed to an Order requiring Ministers to table a letter, stating that all Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (Cth) (PGPA Act) agencies, falling under their responsibility have placed on the internet a list of contracts of $100,000 (GST inclusive) or more which are current or entered into during the previous twelve months (the Senate Order).
In 2002 and 2007, the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration completed two inquiries into the operation of the Senate Order. These inquiries resulted in changes to the Senate Order reporting requirements.
The Senate Order was amended to apply to corporate Commonwealth entities (CCEs), effective 1 July 2017. The Australian Digital Health Agency (Agency) was established under the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability (Establishing the Australian Digital Health Agency) Rule 2016 as a corporate Commonwealth entity. As a CCE, the Agency is required to place on its internet website, information in relation to its contracts and their use of confidentiality provisions.
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Healthcare Sector Playing Catch-up On Tech
Aug 31, 2017, 3:30pm
The local healthcare sector has a reputation for spending big on some types of innovation but lagging when it comes to back-end systems and other applications. Electronic record keeping is gaining ground but paper and fax machines remain popular. However, according to a study by analysts Technavio, the global healthcare cloud computing market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of over 20% over the next four years.
Service provider ITonCloud's CEO Andrew Tucker said, “Many healthcare providers utilising some form of cloud computing, even if it’s for data storage or using cloud-based software. But we are also seeing a surge in the number of healthcare businesses going completely to the cloud and doing away with costly on-premise servers all together".
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Stroke patients 'improve' with brain-computer interface
- 01 September 2017
- Written by Sam Varghese
Scientists at the University of Adelaide have used a brain-computer interface to treat stroke patients and report a 36% improvement in motor function of a stroke-damaged hand.
They said a "proof-of-principle" study had been conducted and the results published in the Royal Society Open Science journal.
The interface measures electrical signals from the brain on the surface of the scalp. Every time a subject imagines performing a specific motor function, for example grasping an object, the BCI takes those electrical signals and transmits them to a computer.
An advanced mathematical algorithm then interprets the brain signals and supplies sensory feedback via a robotic manipulator.
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Global Health delivers profits and pays dividends, yet under the radar
07:53 31 Aug 2017
Global Health Ltd (ASX:GLH) remains under the radar to many investors, with the company's focus as a provider of e-health solutions.
The company supports the business, clinical and operational needs of healthcare providers to manage chronic diseases and health promotion programs.
In a nutshell - Global Health replaces the need for paper-based processes with electronic systems.
Global Health derives revenue through the sale of software annual subscriptions and product-related professional services to these sectors.
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Digital Health in Australia: What works, and future directions
29 Aug 2017
CREATORS
This report provides an overview of the outcomes of a stakeholder workshop exploring the potential of Digital Health Technologies.
Description
Digital health technologies have attracted much attention in the popular media and medical, health services and public health literature. While digital health technologies hold potential for improving health and medical care, there are many issues to be resolved in facilitating their
provision and efficacy, and managing the sensitive health information generated from their use. Eliciting the views and experiences of the diverse constituents in the digital health ecosystem is important. As a step towards this objective, a digital health stakeholder workshop was held in Canberra, Australia, in June 2017.
provision and efficacy, and managing the sensitive health information generated from their use. Eliciting the views and experiences of the diverse constituents in the digital health ecosystem is important. As a step towards this objective, a digital health stakeholder workshop was held in Canberra, Australia, in June 2017.
As part of a living lab approach using social design methods, the workshop participants engaged in hands-on activities addressing two key questions:
1) What is currently working and not working in digital health? and;
2) Where should digital health go in the future?
The workshop outcomes demonstrated the complex relations between individual consumers and healthcare providers, social groups, organisations and the digital health technologies that are currently used in Australia.
1) What is currently working and not working in digital health? and;
2) Where should digital health go in the future?
The workshop outcomes demonstrated the complex relations between individual consumers and healthcare providers, social groups, organisations and the digital health technologies that are currently used in Australia.
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NBN chief Morrow rules out any changes to prices
- The Australian
- 12:00AM September 1, 2017
NBN Co boss Bill Morrow has ruled out any immediate changes to the high wholesale prices crippling the quality of NBN services.
He used yesterday’s release of the broadband network’s latest corporate plan to reiterate that the problems faced by many customers was a result of telcos choosing to sell slower speeds.
According to Mr Morrow, the big four NBN service providers (Telstra, Optus, TPG Telecom and Vocus) were still caught up in selling services the old-fashioned way.
“The ADSL model before, on average, delivered speeds of nine megabits per second, with 50-gigabyte data caps, with limited usage,” he said.
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- Aug 31 2017 at 4:51 PM
Can Bill Morrow make the NBN numbers add up?
Bad luck Andy Penn, bad luck Telstra. NBN Co chief executive Bill Morrow says his business has a greater responsibility to its own shareholders – the citizens of Australia.
And as far as NBN Co is concerned, anything that adds to uncertainty or complexity means unnecessary risk for no value.
After all, NBN Co already has plenty of risks attached despite its latest corporate plan Thursday demonstrating the roll-out of a national broadband network is on track to be finished in 2020.
By the 2021 financial year, it's supposed to be very modestly cash flow-positive ($100 million) on revenue of $5.4 billion.
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NBN congestion woes won't go away just because providers increase spending
Angus Kidman
Published: August 30 2017 - 9:16AM
Internet service providers are promising they will spend more money to ensure higher speeds for customers using the National Broadband Network, but it remains unclear how much difference that will actually make.
Users of the high-speed network have become increasingly vocal about congestion problems, especially during evening periods when thousands of people are watching streaming services like Netflix. That problem can occur even if customers are paying extra for one of the faster speed tiers the NBN provides.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has ordered providers to start promoting more realistic speeds in their advertising, specifying evening peak speeds rather than quoting the theoretical maximum speed, which is hardly ever achieved.
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Things to consider when making the switch to the NBN and what to expect
August 29, 2017 6.22pm AEST •Updated August 30, 2017 12.04am AEST
Author
David Glance
Director of UWA Centre for Software Practice, University of Western Australia
With all of the negative press about Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN), consumers who have the option to switch to the NBN from a working broadband connection might be forgiven for being cautious. After the NBN is made available in an area, residents have up to 18 months to switch from their current plans to one provided on the NBN. Once it is available in an area however, residents are usually deluged with offers from various internet service providers (ISPs) about switching, making it hard to ignore.
Moving to NBN on HFC
In my area in Western Australia, I have had HFC from Telstra for many years and so changing to the NBN does not involve a change in the underlying technology. Although some researchers have classified HFC as being an inferior technology to Fibre to the Node, it is actually capable of delivering speeds of 100 Mbps down and 40 Mbps up. Within the next one to two years HFC will be capable of 1 Gbps speeds with the roll out of DOCSIS 3.1.
HFC connections may still suffer if ISPs do not adequately provision the capacity on the NBN but HFC does not have the same limitations as Fibre to the Node with regard to the distance from the node. There is also a possibility that the NBN will see more homes connected to a node than was the case when Telstra ran the network. This may also impact performance.
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Enjoy!
David.
