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."

Monday, July 23, 2018

Weekly Australian Health IT Links – 23rd July, 2018.

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

Opt-out Week 1 and what a fiasco – there is little else to say.

Note that Commentary will be covered in a second posting tomorrow.

-----  Opt-Out News Start.

Breach 'inevitable' in digital health records

By Ben Grubb & Jennifer Duke
15 July 2018 — 10:38pm

Talking points

  • You'll automatically be signed up to a digital health record unless you opt out
  • About 5.9 million Australians already have a My Health Record
  • Approximately 2900 practitioners currently have access to the system
  • An estimated 6.5 million clinical documents have been uploaded to date
  • Security and privacy experts have concerns about GPs having inadequate security
Serious concerns have been raised by doctors and security experts about the federal government’s My Health Record system that will create a shared digital medical record for every Australian unless they opt-out in a three-month period starting Monday.
Using the system will allow records to be accessed by 12,860 health organisations and up to 900,000 health professionals, with no certainty the system won’t be compromised, potentially leaving sensitive information like HIV-status or past abortions at risk.
-----

My Health Record: what you need to know

By Justin Hendry on Jul 16, 2018 6:45AM

Three month opt-out window starts.

Australians who do not want a personal electronic health record created for them have three months from today to opt out of the federal government’s My Health Record scheme.
Individuals will have until October 15 to withdraw their consent from the scheme that switched from opt-in to opt-out last year to address poor rates of adoption.
After this date – and 30 days for the reconciliation of paper opt-out forms – an e-health record will be created for every Australian by default.
The official date being given for the creation of records is November 13.
-----

My Health Record opt-out period begins, but privacy concerns remain

ABC Science
By national medical reporter Sophie Scott and technology reporter Ariel Bogle
The Federal Government's digital health agency has moved to reassure Australians that their online My Health Record data will be safe, as the opt-out period begins.

Key points:

  • The Government says patients' online health data will be safe
  • It's up to patients to set their own privacy and access settings
  • Cyber security experts warn no system can be 100 per cent secure
From today, people who do not want their medical records stored on the national electronic database will have three months to opt out.
Steve Hambleton from the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) said after October 15, there would be a month of auditing who was in and who was out.
-----

My Health Record: privacy, cybersecurity and the hacking risk

Health bodies say the digital record will improve care but privacy advocates say it is an ‘uncontrolled’ data dump
The digital medical record My Health Record will be automatically set up for every Australian unless they opt out before 15 October. Photograph: Cultura/REX/Shutterstock
From Monday, Australians will have three months to opt out of a new digital medical record that can hold on to information for up to 30 years after they die.
The digital record, called My Health Record, will be automatically set up for every Australian unless they opt out before 15 October.
It will track Australians’ allergies, medical conditions, previous or current medication, test results and anything else that is uploaded by your doctor – and share it between medical providers.
-----

My Health Record opt-out window opens

Closes on October 15 this year
George Nott (Computerworld) 16 July, 2018 08:53
Australians will have a My Health Record created for them by the end of the year, unless they opt-out during a three month window which starts today.
The opt-out period ends on October 15. If an individual has not opted-out by then, a record will be created but will be made “unavailable” in the system with health providers unable to access it.
Following the opt out period, for those that have not opted out, a record will be created but it will empty until it is ‘activated’ by its owner or by their healthcare provider when they access it for the first time. At this point it is filled with the previous two years' worth of Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) data.
-----

People trying to opt-out of My Health Record find they already have one

Once created can't delete, only ‘deactivate’
George Nott (Computerworld) 16 July, 2018 14:34
A number of Australians attempting to opt-out of having a My Health Record automatically created for them are reporting that a record already exists in their name without them knowing.
Today marks the first day of the three month opt-out period, during which individuals can stop a My Health Record being automatically created for them.
After the end of the opt-out window, which ends on October 15, a My Health Record will be created but can’t be deleted, only cancelled.
Cancelling the record means it is made “unavailable”, meaning healthcare providers cannot access it or upload documents to it. It is, however, kept for 30 years after and individual’s death or, if the date of death is unknown, for 130 years after their date of your birth.
-----

Health Minister Greg Hunt defends My Health Record amid opt-out faults

Hunt defends My Health Record - says it can't be accessed by Centrelink

  • The Australian
  • 3:30PM July 16, 2018

David Swan

The rollout of Australia’s electronic health record system has been plagued by delays and technical faults, as Health Minister Greg Hunt declared Australians need to stick with the system.
The government today opened a three-month opt-out window for My Health Record — ending October 1 — for people who do not want a record created for them.
With My Health Record both patients and doctors can upload medical data including prescriptions, allergies and medical summaries, and the records can be viewed by law enforcement and third parties.
Today’s launch of the ‘opt-out’ process has suffered an array of problems, with some users reporting the procedure via telephone hotline took over an hour and a half.
-----

Technical chaos and privacy backlash as My Health Record opt out period begins

Lynne Minion | 16 Jul 2018
It has been a dramatic start to the Federal Government’s My Health Record opt out period, with tech meltdowns, call centre chaos and some Australians discovering a My Health Record had already been created for them without their knowledge or consent.
After 17 years, $2 billion and a communications campaign many months in the planning, the Australian Digital Health Agency has apparently been caught unprepared for the level of traffic.
The myGov website suffered a glitch this morning, followed by the My Health Record online opt out platform soon afterwards. People calling the opt out phoneline were met with waits of over an hour and a half to get through before it too went down.
-----

My Health Record systems collapse under more opt-outs than expected

When citizens rush to opt out of an Australian government service, it says something about their levels of trust. When the system falls over under heavy load, it proves them right.
By Stilgherrian for The Full Tilt | July 16, 2018 -- 06:40 GMT (16:40 AEST) | Topic: Security
Australians attempting to opt out of the government's new centralised health records system online have been met with an unreliable website. Those phoning in have faced horrendous wait times, sometimes more than two hours, often to find that call centre systems were down as well, and staff unable to help.
The Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA), which runs the My Health Record system, is reportedly telling callers that they weren't expecting the volume of opt-outs.
"On hold with @MyHealthRec for over 1.5 HOURS to opt out without providing my drivers license/passport number. Turns out their entire backed system has crashed and they are telling support staff to just punch peoples details into the website. Confidence inspiring!" tweeted one caller.
-----

First day deluge for My Health Record opt-out

By Justin Hendry on Jul 16, 2018 6:30PM

Users struggle as systems crash.

Australians trying to opt out of the My Health Record have been confronted with issues using the dedicated opt-out portal, forcing many to spend hours waiting to speak with a call centre operator.
The first day problems began as the opt-out window for the e-health record system began on Monday, with many individuals wasting no time attempting to withdraw their consent.
Many trying to opt-out took to social media to vent their frustration with the portal, including its ability to verify identity credential.
-----

Stay or go? My Health Record opt-out met with fierce debate

The three month opt-out period has begun for the My Health Record database amid digital security and privacy concerns.
Updated 17 July, 2018
From today, Australians have three months to opt-out of being part of the country’s electronic health record, a system which has sparked cyber security and privacy concerns.
Almost six million people have signed up for the digital medical history so far – it has been in operation for six years.
The public has until October 15 to declare they do not want their medical records stored on Australia’s My Health Record.
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Delivering better healthcare through My Health Record

Monday, 16 July 2018
Almost six million Australians already have a My Health Record with patients benefiting from the secure summary of their key health information, which can help their health professionals deliver better care and may save their life in an emergency.
The secure My Health Record has been in operation for over six years and from today all Australians will be able to decide if they want a My Health Record with individuals who wish to opt out able to do so at any time by visiting the My Health Record website or calling 1800 723 471 for assistance via phone.
Additional support is available for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people from non-English speaking backgrounds, people with limited digital literacy, and those living in rural and remote regions.
-----

It’s time to decide if you want to opt out of new My Health Record

THE government has defended the security of its electronic health record system as a surprisngly high number of people tried to opt out on day one.
news.com.au July 16, 2018 8:54am
A NEW system of digitised, comprehensive medical records for everyone in the country is set to come into effect but Australians are being warned about potential privacy and security issues.
By the end of the year, the Federal Government’s new My Health Record system will create a personal medical file for every Australian. People’s medical records will be stored on a national database under the scheme, to be viewed by patients, doctors and other medical staff at any time. That is, unless you opt out — which you can do for a three-month period beginning this week.
The scheme has been a long time coming and medical professionals are quick to point out the potential benefits to patient care it will provide. However advocacy groups such as Digital Rights Watch have expressed concerns about the security of the My Health Record initiative, and are urging everyone to opt out.
-----

Top myths revealed as deadline looms: My Health Record

The three month opt-out window begins July 16.
The three-month countdown to opt out of the government’s My Health Record began on Monday, yet many Australians know very little about the e-health system and how it will affect them.
From myths about e-records for newborns and migrants, to questions about data security, the switch to an online system is not as straightforward as it would seem.
“Though the Australian Medical Association supports My Health Record and its benefits, many GPs are concerned there may be a current lack of public awareness about what it is and how it works,” AMA president Dr Tony Bartone told The New Daily in June.
From Monday, Australians can opt out of the government’s My Health Record by visiting the official website or by calling the helpline on 1800 723 471.
-----

My Health Record stats only by end of year, says agency

Australians will know exactly how many among them have chosen to opt out of the My Health Record system only by the end of the year, a spokesperson from the Australian Digital Health Agency says.
In response to a query from iTWire as to the extent of opt-outs on Monday, the first day of a three-month period for Australians to do so, the spokesperson said the ADHA had no target as to how many Australians would have a record.
"Following the end of the three-month opt-out window, there will be a 30-day reconciliation period for the processing of paper forms arriving by mail," the spokesperson said.
-----

Rush to opt out of My Health Record crashes website

'I don't think it's gone well,' says Associate Professor Chris Pearce
17th July 2018
The My Health Record website crashed on Monday after patients flocked to the site to opt out of having a record automatically created for them come November.
According to reports on social media, people were ejected from the website or simply blocked by a message saying: "Sorry, this webpage could not be displayed."
People also reported on Twitter that the My Health Record phone helpline was overwhelmed, with hold times of more than an hour.
A spokesperson for the Australian Digital Health Agency said the My Health Record website had faced technical issues due to high numbers of people trying to access it.
-----

Controversial My Health Record Opt out period begins amid privacy concerns

Beginning today Australians will have three months to opt out of the government’s controversial $2 billion digital health record system – My Health Record. If they do not deliberately opt out by October 15, 2018, they will have a permanent digital record created by the end of the year.
The ehealth scheme claims to improve medical treatment by creating a centralised health record for patients and doctors, but critics argue the system fails to address privacy and security concerns.
The chair of the Australian Privacy Foundation (APF) Health Committee is advising Australian’s to take the limited opportunity to opt out.
“The government has a lot of questions to answer,” an APF spokesperson told Which-50.
-----

‘I want out’: Aussies rush to opt out of new My Health Record

A RUSH of Aussies going online to opt out of the government’s new electronic health record system has seen some users find difficulties with the system.
Nick Whigham and Debbie Schipp
news.com.auJuly 17, 20187:37pm
USERS have experienced difficulties with the federal government’s new My Health Record website as Australians rush to opt out of having their medical records added to a national digital database.
Users on Monday reported experiencing technical difficulties when they tried to opt out saying they were unable to complete the process.
Others using the telephone hotline faced long waiting times, and many found once the wait was over, call centre workers were unable to help because of systems crashing or slowing.
There are waits again today, with more reports the process can’t be completed online.
-----

Opt-out period begins with ‘disaster’

The Health Minister has defended My Health Record as having Defence-level security, as the Shadow Minister declares the beginning of the opt-out period “shocking”

And experts have highlighted a number of areas of concern around privacy, with one calling the record “a major honeypot of health data, waiting to be hacked”.
Health Minister Greg Hunt has told Fairfax Media that the system, which has been active for six years – though has only become opt-out recently following a trial in two parts of the country – has military-grade security and has never been breached.
The My Health Record system has multiple layers of security to protect access to the system, including defence level encryption, secure gateways and firewalls, authentication mechanisms, and malicious content filtering, he said in a statement this week.
-----

Minister defends health data security

He says people should stick with it
17th July 2018
Australia's electronic health record system has military-grade security and people should stick with it, says Minister for Health Greg Hunt says.
Almost six million people have signed up for a My Health Record — a digital medical history — over its six years of operations.
But there are fresh concerns of possible cyber-security threats and privacy breaches.
-----

Turnbull backs digital health record while thousands opt out

By Jennifer Duke
17 July 2018 — 7:20pm
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has committed to having his own My Health Record, while tens of thousands withdrew in the first day of the opt-out period despite a technical hitch that left calls unanswered for lengthy periods of time.
Australians have three months to choose whether or not to opt out from the federal government’s digital medical record program, which Prime Minister Turnbull described as having the “highest security” in an interview with radio 3AW on Tuesday.
On Monday, 20,000 people opted out online, while those trying to withdraw on the phone took to social media to complain of wait times in some cases longer than an hour. Prime Minister Turnbull blamed this on a "glitch".
-----

Australian Government’s controversial My Health Record system slammed as failure

CRITICS have warned the government’s new health database could have a “chilling effect” after it ignored warning signs from the UK’s failed rollout.
Stephanie Bedo and Nick Whigham

Digital Rights Watch flags privacy concerns with government health system

EXPERTS are brutally slamming the Australian Government’s new health record system they say has been oversold and is so insecure the risk of using it greatly outweighs any benefits.
Australians were invited to choose whether to have their health and medical records added to the new My Health Record on Monday, and have three months to make their decision before records are automatically added to the database.
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Doctors back My Health Record as the way of the future

18 July, 2018
Steve Price
A peak doctors group is confident there are sufficient cyber-security protections in place for a new digital health record database.
More than 20-thousand people have already opted-out of the My Health Record.
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) Chairman Doctor Nathan Pinskier tells Steve Price it will be a useful tool for patients and doctors.
“There are some fantastic use cases, particularly in the after-hours world.
-----

Concerns My Health Record could expose sex workers, people living with HIV to prosecution

PM
Ninety per cent of sex workers are planning on opting out of the My Health record scheme due to fears it could increase stigmatisation, and in some cases lead to criminal prosecution.
That number comes from the Sex Workers Outreach project, who surveyed 500 sex workers to find out if they were planning to participate in the scheme.
Similar concerns also exist in the transgender community and amongst people who are HIV positive.
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Union may urge e-health system withdrawal

The Electrical Trades Union has written to the federal government seeking assurances about the My Health Record system.
Updated 19 July, 2018
A major trade union says it will urge its members to opt out of Australia's electronic health record system unless its concerns are addressed.
The Electrical Trades Union has written to Health Minister Greg Hunt asking that the current provision in the My Health Record system allowing insurers and employers' doctors to view records be amended to automatically exclude access for workers compensation and for pre-employment reasons.
-----

E-health withdrawals won't sink system: PM

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says the government's My Health Record won't be sunk by large numbers of people opting out of the system.
Matt Coughlan
Australian Associated Press July 20, 20189:54am
Malcolm Turnbull says mass withdrawals from Australia's electronic health records will not kill the system.
An online My Health Record will be set up for every Australian unless they opt out by October 15, with thousands withdrawing amid security concerns.
-----

Malcolm Turnbull defends insurers’ access to health records

  • The Australian
  • 9:51AM July 20, 2018

Rachel Baxendale

Malcolm Turnbull has defended the right of insurance companies to access Australians’ health records, amid privacy fears over the government’s My Health Record scheme.
Within a day of the three-month opt-out period beginning on Monday, 20,000 Australians had contacted My Health Record to have their personal medical details taken out of the scheme.
The Prime Minister defended the scheme, saying six million Australians had already opted to be part of it.
-----

Delivering better healthcare through My Health Record

Almost six million Australians already have a My Health Record with patients benefiting from the secure summary of their key health information, which can help their health professionals deliver better care and may save their life in an emergency.
Page last updated: 17 July 2018
Almost six million Australians already have a My Health Record with patients benefiting from the secure summary of their key health information, which can help their health professionals deliver better care and may save their life in an emergency.
The secure My Health Record has been in operation for over six years and from today all Australians will be able to decide if they want a My Health Record with individuals who wish to opt out able to do so at any time by visiting the My Health Record website or calling 1800 723 471 for assistance via phone.
Additional support is available for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people from non-English speaking backgrounds, people with limited digital literacy, and those living in rural and remote regions.
-----

Matthew has a serious medical condition, yet he's opting out of My Health Record

By Andrew Brown
22 July 2018 — 12:00am
Matthew Toohey is no stranger to hospitals. The Canberra resident said he's experienced three rounds of brain surgery and many MRI and CT scans due to a neurological condition.
"I have a condition called hydrocephalus, which basically means that I have too much fluid in my brain," Mr Toohey said.
"It can cause severe headaches and other symptoms as well. I had four days in Canberra Hospital because I had a migraine that was so bad [doctors] thought I had a stroke."
-----

Doctors outraged that police, ATO can access My Health Record

Sue Dunlevy, National Health Reporter, News Corp Australia Network
July 22, 2018 12:00am
Subscriber only
EXCLUSIVE
Police and the Australian Taxation Office could get access to your sensitive online My Health Record, a situation senior medicos have blasted as ”utterly outrageous” and undermining trust in the health system.
A leading global cybersecurity firm Centrify has warned the My Health Record is not secure and creates a huge ‘honey pot’ of sensitive information that will “attract the bad guys” of cybercrime.
It comes as Singapore’s General and Children’s Hospitals were hacked and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s health records were stolen along with the records of about 1.5 million other patients.
-----  Non Opt Out News

Privacy Commissioner to release delayed data breach report next week but My Health Record adopts a different definition

Lynne Minion | 20 Jul 2018
As the My Health Record fallout continues, the Federal Government’s delayed quarterly data breach notification report will be released next week, with the number of reported breaches in Australian healthcare expected to have skyrocketed.
The previous quarterly report, which was issued on 11 April, was the Office of the Information Commissioner’s first since the notifiable data breach reporting legislation came into effect on 22 February, and in the first six weeks of the scheme showed a stark jump in reported breaches – 24 per cent of them in the healthcare sector.
Of the 63 Australian organisations affected, including government agencies, health information was involved in 33 per cent of cases, with the scheme unearthing breaches that may otherwise have remained secreted away.
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Multi-million spend for 'deteriorating' patient flow at Canberra Hospital

By Daniella White
17 July 2018 — 5:47pm
ACT Health has spent almost $5 million to improve the flow of patients at Canberra Hospital and the new University of Canberra Hospital Rehabilitation Hospital.
The $4.75 million contract signed with health IT business Alcidion will see the installation of an Electronic Patient Journey Board which is hoped to cut down the average stay of patients in hospital.
The technology has been licensed territory wide and will initially be rolled out at more than 800 beds at the Canberra Hospital and the new University of Canberra Hospital.
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Computer failures cause widespread delays in GP exam

Some were made to wait up to 90 minutes before they could get started
17th July 2018
The RACGP is apologising to exam candidates after a string of computer failures caused widespread disruption to fellowship exams around the country over the weekend.
Registrar groups say candidates sitting the Applied Knowledge Test (AKT) were made to feel “unnecessarily distressed” due to repeated freezes and delays with computers at multiple sites on Saturday.
The AKT — which costs $2190 to sit, includes 150 questions and has a pass rate of just 70% — is the first major hurdle prospective college fellows must pass in order to gain vocational registration.
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Is your pharmacy safe from a cyber-attack?

With the introduction of My Health Record and advanced health web and mobile applications, ensuring pharmacies are safe from a cyber-attack is now more important than ever

According to an Australian Cyber Security Centre 2016 study, 90% of Australian businesses have been victims to a cyber security breach or threat, with a rise of breaches in recent times.
CEO of cyber security consultancy firm Hivint, Nick Ellsmore said that hackers in reality are far from the stereotypical profile. 
“One of the great myths of cyber security is that hackers are tucked away in their basements, wearing hoodies, hunched over laptops.  It’s more likely that they’re neatly dressed, in a home office, just going about their business.  And their business, is stealing from your business,” Mr Ellsmore said.
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Artificial intelligence poses critical question for Australia

By Alan Finkel
20 July 2018 — 6:51pm
A few weeks ago I took my mother and her best friend Aunty Rosa, both aged in their nineties, to lunch. I decided to tell them about AI: artificial intelligence.
First, I pulled out my iPhone and demonstrated a few tricks with Siri. Then I spoke of what’s next: Google Duplex. Duplex won’t just call the restaurant, or hair salon. It can chat in a natural voice to the receptionist who answers. It could be your natural voice, if Google held your voice-print.
It’s amazing, I said, how much information we’ll give up in exchange for convenience. I’ve got colleagues who hand over all their email accounts to AI personal assistants. Think of the temptation to hack those AI assistants to reveal the juicy details, or steal the identity of a person in a position of power.
-----
16 July 2018

MHR: It’s a matter of trust

Posted by Emma Hossack
“All humans have three lives: public, private and secret.” – Gabriel Garcia Marques
Privacy has come out of the shadows and into the mainstream in Australia. The level of reporting has not been seen in the media since the original Australia Card which led to the introduction of Australia’s Privacy legislation 30 years ago. Cambridge Analytica and re-identification of health information versus the productivity gains and excitement around digital innovation have all sectors considering the vital but fragile balance between improving services and crossing the line over to what privacy experts Cukier and Viktor Von Shoenberger have famously termed “creepy.”
Nowhere is the potential of data sharing more tantalising than in health where globally budgets are being stretched by unprecedented chronic disease and the need for improved aged care. So, what’s it to be? Privacy and autonomy or the public good and efficiency? Can we have it all?
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Government left red-faced by health privacy commissioner's website bungle

By Jenny Noyes
17 July 2018 — 11:29pm
The National Health Practitioner Ombudsman and Privacy Commissioner’s website was unavailable for several hours on Tuesday evening, leading to concerns of a serious data breach and embarrassment for the government as it attempts to quell privacy concerns over its new digital health record system.
A "misconfiguration" of the web server hosting the site led to the homepage displaying an index of all the files hosted on it, including what appeared to be a number of databases, back-ups and log-in credentials.
Alastair MacGibbon, head of the Australian Cyber Security Centre, said late on Tuesday evening that his immediate understanding was that "the website has not been hacked - it was being updated and obviously they didn't check it", resulting in the error.
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15 bright ideas in e-health that patients might actually like

17 July 2018

TECH TALK

The Australian Digital Health Agency never sleeps; it appears.
It is currently managing the opt-out process for patients who don’t want to be part of its My Health Record revolution before they are automatically signed up at the end of the year.
But it has also been looking into the future, presumably to a time when the promises of the My Health Record have finally been delivered and the criticisms and noise about wasted billions have ceased.
The agency has revealed details of its ‘test beds’ plans: a list of 15 innovative IT ­projects it will trial, with the idea of transforming some of them into nationwide projects by 2022.
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18 Jul 2018 1:37 PM AEST

1st Group Ltd announces maiden H1FY19 guidance following strong FY18 results         

1st Group Limited (ASX: 1ST), the Australian online health, media and technology group, made several positive ASX announcements today: 
  • Maiden guidance for H1 FY19 upon releasing continued positive growth detailed in the latest quarterly and full year update.
  • Revenue for the year up 51%, to $3.4m
  • Annualised Contract Value for subscription fee products up 54%, to $4.3m
Follows continued strong site growth, and successful upsell of new additional products increasing the revenue derived per site.
Klaus Bartosch, Managing Director and Co-Founder highlights, “FY18 was a critical and successful year for 1st Group. We built our online health patient engagement platforms for scalability and sustainable success, achieving dominant market shares in our chosen verticals. We validated our value proposition to our customers, based on driving convenience, patient education and engagement. It is pleasing to see strong growth in adoption and engagement as we enter FY19 with confidence and momentum”.
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UK trust saves millions with GS1 barcoding

Thursday, 19 July 2018  
eHealthNews editor Rebecca McBeth
A Scan4Safety initiative using GS1 barcoding to track patient activity has saved millions at an NHS trust in England.
Keith Jones is director of clinical surgery at Royal Derby NHS Trust in England which
started a GS1 barcoding initiative at the end of 2013. He visited New Zealand in June to talk about implementing the technology and the benefits his organisation has seen.
He says the trust identified £2.7 million in savings related to the scanning initiative in the 2017–18 year.
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openEHR Basic Meta-Model (BMM) and syntax major upgrade

Posted on by wolandscat
The openEHR Basic Meta-Model (BMM) that has been in use in some form for nearly 10 years now was recently upgraded to version 3.0.0 (from 2.x), with the persistence format (now called P_BMM) being backwards-compatibly upgraded to version 2.3. The purpose of the upgrade was to improve the separation of class and type, and to greatly strengthen the semantics of generic types and classes.
BMM is not a required formalism for openEHR, but it has turned to be pretty useful. Indeed it has no openEHR-specific semantics in it; it is in the category of useful side-effect technologies from a main project, like PV cells from the NASA space programme.
It is a functional replacement for (the endlessly painful) XMI format, for data-oriented models (it doesn’t yet represent methods and function objects). Unlike XMI (and UML), it gets generics right and also properly separates class and type.
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Enjoy!
David.

The Bipartisan Approach To The myHR Just Died.

Here is the release from Labor.


The game is now very serious - and we have a chance to get it right maybe!

David.

Wouldn’t You Have Expected A Press Release From The ADHA On the Singapore Breach Rather Than On Union Discussions?

As we are now all aware there was a rather large and possibly State-Sponsored Cyber Attack on Singapore Health A few weeks ago that has just been revealed.
See here:

Hackers steal 1.5 million people's personal data in cyber attack on Singapore's health service

More than a quarter of city state's population illegally copied by hackers 'looking for embarrassing information about prime minister'

More than a quarter of the city state’s population was affected by the “deliberate, targeted and well-planned” attack, in which data on patients who visited clinics between May 2015 and 4 July this year was illegally accessed and copied.
“It was not the work of casual hackers or criminal gangs,” the government said, adding those responsible had been looking to obtain personal details about the prime minister and the medicines he had been proscribed.
“The attackers specifically and repeatedly targeted Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loon’s personal particulars and information on his outpatient dispensed medicines,” said a joint statement by the Health Ministry and the Ministry of Communications and Information.
In a statement on his Facebook page, Mr Lee said: “I don’t know what the attackers were hoping to find. Perhaps they were hunting for some dark state secret, or at least something to embarrass me.
“If so, they would have been disappointed. My medication data is not something I would ordinarily tell people about, but there is nothing alarming in it.”
More here:
You would have thought there would have been comment like, we have noted the incident and are working with the Singaporean Authorities to understand exactly what happened and if there are any implications for the myHR. That would be a reasonable response from an accountable organisation I reckon.
Sadly we have releases on other matters instead – as of 6pm 22/7/2018.
David.

Sunday, July 22, 2018

Yet Another Reason To Stay Well Away From The myHR. It’s Essentially Useless!

This was published a little while ago.

Tenth Clinical Safety Review of the My Health Record System


June 22, 2018
Patient care is improved by enabling clinicians to efficiently identify and utilise relevant information and documents within a patient record. A well-designed user interface to access this information is therefore important for clinicians, particularly when dealing with complex records and large document volumes. Difficulties in navigating and searching large volumes of clinical documents in any paper-based or electronic system can potentially impede appropriate decision-making and management.
The objective of the tenth clinical safety review was to examine the current presentation of clinical documents and clinical information in the My Health Record system via connected Clinical Information Systems (CISs). The review offers usability-focused presentation and design recommendations to enhance clinicians’ interactions with the system in providing patient care.
Here is the link:
The ADHA takes 4+ months to review a 22 page authorless document and when you read it you know why.
Among the most interesting things you read are:
1. Almost all displays of myHR data are simple lists and nothing more.
2. Many of the document titles – which you have to open one by one – are not clear and don’t reflect document content.
3. While filtering and sorting functionalities assist with navigating clinical documents, it remains difficult for clinicians to determine which documents contain the information they require. It can be time-consuming to repeatedly open separate clinical documents to find specific information. This is particularly problematic where a patient record contains a large number of clinical documents, especially for chronically ill or polypharmacy patients.
4. The Shared Health Summaries often don’t reflect the data in the GP System.
5. “Some clinicians interviewed expressed concerns that usability-related feedback, provided during the development of the clinical document list specification, was not incorporated by the Agency. In addition, these clinicians indicated that they do not feel the My Health Record system readily supports their workflow or day-to-day activities.
The Department of Health and, since 1 July 2016, the Agency have undertaken a range of consultation processes with representatives of the health sector, software vendors and the broader community to inform future design of the My Health Record system and usability enhancements. While consultation is an opportunity to engage with the key stakeholders, it will raise design expectations for those having direct input to the process. It is acknowledged that there will always be potential differences among stakeholder groups in terms of workflow requirements and the challenges in adopting new workflow arrangements when moving from a paper-based system to an electronic system. Based on clinician feedback it is important that the Agency undertake a feedback process on the outcomes of the implemented design and apply this more consistently going forward.”
In summary the thing does not support clinical workflow and advice, over years, to fix it is just ignored!
6. You can’t easily identify new or update clinical information.
7. You have to open each document individually, and slowly, to know what it contains.
There is little point going on. The myHR is clearly, after six years, not fit for clinical use and the Agency does not have a plan to make it so that anyone is aware of. Read, at your leisure, all the other issues identified. I wonder why the authors are not credited - they are clearly aware what junk the myHR really is!
Basically it is just an overgrown document management system vintage circa 1995. Leave the thing alone until it is made useful and safe…if ever. It is hard not to blame the rather low-level incompetents who conducted the Royle Review for Minister Dutton for not recognising a lot more was needed than the move the opt-out. It needed a fundamental rethink as I have argued for years
David.

An Amusing Cartoon On Data Leakage and myHR Opt-Out.

Love it!

David.

AusHealthIT Poll Number 432 – Results – 22nd July, 2018.

Here are the results of the poll.

Do The Patient And Government Benefits Of The Opt-Out myHR System Outweigh The Risks (Privacy, Discrimination, Data Breach, Security, Inaccuracy etc.)

Yes 6% (12)

No 94% (205)

I Have No Idea 0% (1)

Total votes: 218

Basically most think the diverse risks are too much – by a large margin!

Any insights welcome as a comment, as usual.

A really, great turnout of votes! Largest ever I believe…

It must have been a very easy question as only 1/218 readers were not sure what the appropriate answer was.

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

David.