Note: I have excluded any commentary taking significant funding from the Agency or the Department of Health on all this to avoid what amounts to paid propaganda. (e.g. CHF, RACGP, AMA, National Rural Health Alliance etc. where they were simply putting the ADHA line – viz. that the myHR is a wonderfully useful clinical development that will save huge numbers of lives at no risk to anyone – which is plainly untrue) (This signifies probable ADHA Propaganda)
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- Updated Aug 23 2018 at 11:29 AM
Digital wealth: How to have the final say about your online assets when you die
by James Whiley
"Digital wealth" constitutes a far greater proportion of our estates than many realise, with our personal and business lives becoming increasingly digitalised and online.Yet a survey for the NSW Trustee and Guardian found 83 per cent of Australians have not discussed what will happen to their social media accounts when they die and only 3 per cent of Australians with a will have given directions regarding their social media accounts.
Digital wealth needs to be included in estate and succession planning, so that on death or incapacity assets are protected and this wealth is dealt with tax effectively.
Even if you do not own an online or virtual business, this digital wealth may have the ability to produce income or be sold, but will be of no value if nobody knows it exists. Not to mention potential sentimental value where the account includes photos, memories or messages.
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My Health Record - improving health care for seniors
24th Aug 2018 12:41 PM ADHA Propaganda
SANDRA Johnston has a number of chronic conditions which is why she finds having a My Health Record invaluable.
"I see a wide variety of health professionals including six different specialists. Now I have My Health Record, when I visit the GP I don't have to worry about remembering medications and test results because I know it's available." Sandra said.
Six million Australians already have a My Health Record, an online summary of their key health information. By the end of this year all Australians will have a record, unless they choose not to have one.
71-year-old Clint Ferndale has been in the health business for quite some time. He created a My Health Record last year because it was 'the way of the future.' He finds the system easy to use.
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RBA warns on digital identity mess
By Julian Bajkowski on Aug 24, 2018 12:07PM
"Separate and unconnected" will be painful.
The Reserve Bank of Australia has staked its claim on the unfolding debate over how Australia’s digital identity regime will be run, warning that multiple uncoordinated builds will be inefficient and leave security holes.
Australia’s central bank on Thursday frankly set out its ambitions and concerns, revealing there will be no pullback from moves by the powerful Payments Council to have a credential fit for use with the New Payments Platform as it comes online.
The entry of the RBA into the digital identity debate is highly significant because it has the potential to steer millions of consumers and businesses towards a payments-related digital identity build.
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Health Data – the ‘Swiss Army Knife’ of Data
By Leonard Kleinman, Chief Cyber Security Advisor – Asia Pacific Japan, RSA
The underlying rational behind the introduction of the Notifiable Data Breach (NDB) scheme was to allow businesses to take the necessary actions to change and/or re-secure themselves in the event that personal information and company data had been illegally accessed, disclosed or lost. To ensure organisations report data breaches, significant penalties exist for non-compliance with the law.
Notifiable Data Breaches Quarterly Statistics Report 1 April – 30 June 2018
The second NDB quarterly report, published by Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, has provided further light on the issue of data breaches in Australia. Immediately what’s evident is a 300% increase in reported data breaches across Australia since April (284.1% to be specific). However, I do accept that the first report covered a shorter reporting period, somewhat accounting for the significant differential.
Whilst a 300% increase is a concern to Australian businesses, it’s also encouraging as it demonstrates Australian organisations, and the wider community, are aware of the legislation and obligation to report on data breaches.
Additionally, it is worth noting some salient points:
- Health maintained rank one for the most reported data breaches
- Malicious or criminal attacks jumped 14.56% to 59%
- The reverse was true for data breaches caused by ‘human error’ – dropping 14.79% to 36%
- In regards to malicious attacks – 77% of cyber incidents were related to compromised credentials of some sort
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Think: Digital Futures
Audio.
Think: Digital Futures. How You Were "Nudged" by My Health Record. 00:00 29:30.
2Ser – FM 107.3
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My Health Record fears are misplaced, says insider GP
Are our concerns about privacy more important than two million adverse drug events, asks the Australian Digital Health Agency
Dr Chris Moy ADHA Propaganda
23rd August 2018
Adelaide GP Dr Chris Moy is the clinical reference lead for the Australian Digital Health Agency, which is in charge of My Health Record. Here, Chris argues that the pros of My Health Record (health and safety) far outweigh the cons (risk to personal privacy).
How much do you value your privacy? Would you rather die than risk it being compromised? Or is privacy so important to you that you would accept it over your child or parent coming to harm?
In standing back to look at the controversy that has surrounded My Health Record recently, what has been interesting is that it has incited a battle over values. Well, one value — privacy — which has dominated the discussion, while little oxygen has been spent examining another important value our patients might hold dear — their health.
While the risks of IT systems have been well publicised, the current reality of genuine harm created by our disconnected health system has not.
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Peter Dutton’s record as health minister a major weakness
- August 23, 2018
Peter Dutton’s biggest weakness is health policy. If the Liberal Party does not recognise that, its election chances will flatline and any new government will be dead on arrival.
This should come as no surprise to anyone, but the Liberals are sometimes so blinded by self-confidence that they miss the vital signs.
The Coalition has not recovered from Dutton’s 15 months as health minister. He didn’t just tarnish its record, he left massive cracks that threaten the government’s very survival.
At the last election, Bill Shorten and the Labor Party campaigned with great success on Medicare. Clearly, they overreached, and Malcolm Turnbull overreacted, but they based their “Mediscare” tactic on Dutton’s ill-fated pursuit of a GP co-payment (among other things).
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And let us not forget he also brought us the Royle Review and opt-out.
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Denham Sadler
August 22, 2018
Govt changes to MHR unveiled
Greg Hunt: Introduced substantial changes to My Health Record regime
The federal government has revealed amendments to the My Health Record service that it says “strengthen its already robust privacy framework” following the launch of a senate inquiry last week.
The My Health Record Amendment (Strengthening Privacy) Bill 2018 was introduced to the Parliament on Wednesday morning by Health Minister Greg Hunt, a day after offering his resignation following his support of former home affairs minister Peter Dutton in the Liberal Party leadership spill.
Mr Hunt said that through the amendments law enforcement and agencies required to obtain a warrant before they can access information stored on MHR. The changes also require the Australian Digital Health Agency – the operator of the MHR – to permanently delete any data if a user cancels their account.
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Medibank wants to give health advice and your My Health Record would help
By Esther Han
23 August 2018 — 12:05am
In numbers
- 1.5 million - Medibank wants to triple its annual number of interactions with customers by 2020.
- 25% - Medibank has a large grip on the health insurance market.
- 1200 - It employs a large number of health professionals, including nurses and GPs.
Health insurer Medibank says it wants to "become a broader health company", revealing it has embedded registered nurses in its customer support teams to ramp up its delivery of health advice to members in a move that has concerned doctor groups.
In an interview with Fairfax Media, Medibank's chief customer officer, David Koczkar, said it was aiming to triple the annual number of "meaningful", health-related interactions with members to 1.5 million in 2020.
Asked whether Medibank was making moves to access My Health Record – the national digital record system dogged with privacy and security concerns – Mr Koczkar didn't issue any denials, saying "there's a long way to go and we will watch and see what happens".
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Canberra chaos: Health Minister offers to resign, is rebuffed and introduces My Health Record privacy amendments
Lynne Minion | 22 Aug 2018
Hours before he was introducing amendments to My Health Record in the House of Representatives and with a new Senate inquiry into the national health database calling for submissions, the Federal Minister for Health offered his resignation as part of the ongoing Coalition leadership crisis, only for it to be knocked back.
At a crucial juncture for the $2 billion health infrastructure project, Health Minister Greg Hunt has joined in efforts to oust the Prime Minister, offering to vacate his front bench post. Turnbull rejected the offer from Hunt and nine other Cabinet ministers in the interests of “unity”.
Hunt has faced more than a month of controversy as data privacy and security concerns have continued to surround My Health Record since the opt out period began.
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August 21 2018 - 10:56AM ADHA Propaganda
My Health Record, Indigenous people encouraged to opt in
“My Health record will help to close the gap by being available for people across health providers, when they travel, go into hospital or see a specialist,” the Australian Digital Health Agency’s CEO, Tim Kelsey said.
Indigenous people are being encouraged to create their own My Health Record.
According to leading health practitioners, My Health Record plays a positive role in improving health outcomes for Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander people.
“Having a My Health Record can be particularly beneficial for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who may have chronic health conditions, those who move around a lot and those who live in remote areas of Australia,” professor Meredith Makeham, chief medical adviser at the Australian Digital Health Agency said.
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Pirate Party Australia Supports Opting Out from Federal Government’s MyHealth Record System
Pirate Party Australia supports moves by Australian Citizens to opt out of the Federal Government’s MyHealth Record System. Many flaws within the system have been exposed by the Australian media since the Opt Out period began on 16 July, 2018.
While Pirate Party Australia supports a national system of electronic health records in principle, the MyHealth Record systems fails to provide the basic privacy safeguards that should be enforced for such a system, combined with a mandatory Opt Out system rather than Australian Citizens being asked to opt in.
“The MyHealth Record system as it was initially rolled out looks like a lazy and poorly thought out IT project,” stated Pirate Party President Miles Whiticker. “This is a continuation of the Federal Coalition Government’s shocking record on IT infrastructure and privacy matters. It should only ever have been an Opt In system,”
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Want to hack the WA government? Try ‘Password123’
WA government agencies get annual whipping over lax security
Rohan Pearce (Computerworld)21 August, 2018 18:06
A staggering 60,000 out of 234,0000 active accounts at a range of WA government agencies were potentially at risk of a dictionary attack due to their weak passwords, a review by the state’s auditor general has found.
The state’s auditor general today upheld a venerable WA government information security tradition, slamming agencies for poor practices when it came to passwords and other protective measures.
For the report, the WA Office of the Auditor General obtained encrypted password data from 23 Active Directory environments across 17 agencies. Using a selection of password dictionaries it found that tens of thousands of users had chosen weak passwords including “Password123” (1464 accounts), “password1” (813), “password” (184), “password2” (142) and “Password01” (118).
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Government on track with digital transformation, but room for improvement: report
- 21 August 2018
- Written by Peter Dinham
The Australian Government’s digital transformation strategy is satisfactory, but there is still room for improvement, according to a newly published poll which found that only 7% of respondents in both the public and private sector believe the government is making significant strides on digital transformation.
The poll, of 143 mid- to senior managers in the public and private sector, conducted by Australian ASD certified cloud provider Vault at the 12th Annual Technology in Government Australia event held in Canberra this month, revealed that just 40% of the interviewees believe there is still room for improvement in the Government’s digital strategy.
The poll also found that more than 38% of respondents indicated that digital transformation could be defined as automating repetitive tasks to reduce efforts and errors and enhancing customer experience (37%).
And when it comes to leading the digital transformation charge, respondents believe that chief technology officers (32%) and chief executives (31%) should be responsible overall – while only 9% of respondents said chief information officers should be spearheading all digital transformation initiatives.
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Why My Health Record is flawed
A politically-designed or influenced centralised database with widespread access is problematic.
Marie Johnson (CIO)21 August, 2018 11:49
As the former chief technology architect of the Health and Human Services Access Card, I opted out of My Health Record on day one. Here’s why.
The politically designed or influenced model of a centralised database with widespread access at the edge is deeply flawed. This was the Access Card model and it’s being done again with My Health Record.
Everything else that flows from that defective model is problematic and unresolvable: legislation; operational performance; privacy; security; informed consumer choice; and highly contested value proposition.
Politically driven or influenced design – in any domain - usually always ends in failure or compromised outcomes. Access Card was terminated on political grounds, notwithstanding alternative architecture models presented and some of which have now been implemented elsewhere.
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Forget data breaches, this is why I am finally ready to quit Facebook
By Melissa Singer
21 August 2018 — 12:00am
The message popped up on my phone innocently enough. "Evening to you, Melly, how's your week been thus far?"
"Sorry, do I know you?" was my initial thought. Of course, I didn't write that.
After a few messages, it became clear that I had never met or communicated with my new admirer, who later confessed that we share contacts and "curiosity killed the cat".
I asked him whether he contacts women like this often (he doesn't) and the last book he read (Freakonomics).
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Is Consent a moral dilemma or a mere medicolegal formality ?
Doctors, and specifically GPs, have for many decades considered the concept of Informed Consent an integral and mandatory part of the interactions with their patients.
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The regulation of medical devices is flawed and another scandal is inevitable: health advocates
By the Specialist Reporting Team's Alison Branley and medical reporter Sophie Scott
21 August, 2018
More catastrophic failures of medical devices are "almost guaranteed" to happen because there's been no significant reforms to the way Australia regulates such implants, health advocates say.
Key points:
- Regulation of medical devices in Australia is so flawed another scandal is inevitable, health advocates say
- Key issue for regulators is knowing exactly how many of each make and model are implanted
- The Therapeutic Goods Administration said its "top priority" was patient safety
The warning comes after the ABC revealed dozens of women who have suffered complications from a permanent contraceptive device called Essure have signed up to be part of a class action against pharmaceutical giant, Bayer.
Since then, the law firm Slater and Gordon has been contacted by more than 300 individuals seeking to join the class action, and at least 100 women have joined a Facebook group called Essure Problems Australia.
Chief executive of the consumer group Health Issues Centre, Danny Vadasz, said device regulation in Australia was so flawed at every step of the chain that another device scandal was inevitable.
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Lax security culture in hospitals could affect My Health Record privacy, insiders fear
ABC Health & Wellbeing
August 21, 2018
By technology reporter Ariel Bogle and health reporter Olivia Willis
All Australians will get a My Health Record unless they opt out by November 15.
Healthcare workers say existing concerns about patient privacy are likely to extend to My Health Record.
A national digital health records database, the program promises to provide clinical benefits by making it easier for patients to share more health data with more medical practitioners than ever before.
But experts have claimed this also raises the risk of inappropriate access.
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- Updated Aug 20 2018 at 7:00 PM
Personal data the most targeted by cyber attackers
by Mark Eggleton
This content is produced by The Australian Financial Review in commercial partnership with ACS.
Australians are completely unaware as to how susceptible their personal information is to a cyber attack, according to most participants at The Australian Financial Review and ACS roundtable on Cyber Resilience.
Furthermore, just as the federal government continues its rollout of its My Health Record digital health scheme, it is the one sector continuing to see the most data breaches here and overseas. According to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), out of a total of 242 breach notifications from April 1 to June 30 this year, 49 were reported by the health sector.
This was also reflected in Chubb Insurance's global claims data report which tracked the number of cyber incidents over the last decade. Chubb's report found 38 per cent of cyber incidents occurred in the health sector with professional services second at 16 per cent.
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Comments welcome!
David.
