Note: I have excluded (or marked out) 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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Our bodies and minds are not datasets
Why sharing health data with governments might not be such a great idea. Roz Bellamy writes
I have wanted to keep authorities away from my body since the age of 15, when I heard a Rabbi compare abortion to murder. When I turned 20, I read that Pope John Paul II had said that as society shifts away from God and the family, individual rights are “reduced to self-centred demands: the growth of prostitution and pornography in the name of adult choice, the acceptance of abortion in the name of women’s rights, the approval of same sex unions in the name of homosexual rights”. These words troubled me for many reasons, not least that I had recently come out as queer, and certainly as a feminist.
That same year, my first pap smear was done by doctor who held deeply conservative, religious and homophobic views. I tried to find inclusive health practitioners who respect their patients’ privacy and are responsive to their individual needs. I became very wary about sharing information about my sexuality, gender identity and mental health with authorities. This was difficult as psychiatry, psychology and even basic medical care all involve divulging personal information.
For this reason, I chose to ‘opt out’ when the federal government launched My Health Record. While some friends and colleagues who work in public health, medicine or the pharmaceutical industry think that it is a good idea, I am fearful.
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While the government has made changes to My Health Record requirements, many experts argue that a risk to personal privacy remains. By Ben Grubb.
My Health and privacy
For a decade now, Dr Robert Walker has provided confidential health care to students. Two days each week, the Tasmanian GP or one of his colleagues at the Lindisfarne Clinic on the eastern shore of Hobart’s Derwent River packs up the equipment and travels to Rosny College.
“It’s the best day of the week for me,” Walker tells The Saturday Paper.
Rosny is a senior secondary college with about 1100 students in Year 11 and Year 12. Walker’s team has conducted thousands of consultations at the school in that time, covering a wide range of youth health issues.
“We get there, and kids roll in and it is sort of low-level chaos but that’s what it is,” he says. “It’s all free, it’s bulk-billed. Yes, the college do support us by making a grant available from their health and welfare budget but we don’t make any money from it. It just breaks even – at best – because the doctors have to cover their costs.”
As a result, Dr Walker says his team has managed to significantly reduce the teenage pregnancy rate, stopped the spread of sexually transmitted infections, and helped many students with mental health issues.
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My Health Record Has Huge Potential
05 Oct 2018 – Pretty Propagandaish
In order to restore public confidence in My Health Record, it is critical that privacy issues are addressed.
That was one take home message the AMA has provided the Government in its submission to the Senate Community Affairs References Committee Inquiry into the My Health Record System.
The submission noted, however, that the additional privacy protections set out in the proposed My Health Records Amendment (Strengthening Privacy) Bill 2018, go a long way towards achieving this.
This comes as a direct result of AMA President Dr Tony Bartone securing a commitment from Health Minister Greg Hunt to fix the privacy concerns.
The Bill substantially reduces any discretion that the My Health Record System Operator has to disclose health information in the My Health Record. The limits are substantially tighter than the controls that apply under the Commonwealth’s Privacy Act 1988 to patient data stored in the clinician’s own patient records.
The AMA would like My Health Record to succeed because the clinical benefits are considerable, and it has the capacity to save lives. But the system will need to be continually improved.
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Mike McRae on where health and education overlap
By Sally Pryor
6 October 2018 — 12:00am
For Mike McRae, being a scientist is all very well. But what if you can’t communicate what you know to others? What if the knowledge you have could help someone on their journey through life, or from one state of being to another?
It was the experience of watching people, day after day, whose lives had suddenly changed as the result of a medical diagnosis, that inspired him to become a teacher. He was working in Brisbane, as a clinical scientist in a medical laboratory back in the late 1990s, examining specimens and taking blood from patients.
“I'd often be the first person to know when something was really wrong,” he says.
“And think that affects you in a way, when you're the very first person to look at a result and think, this person's life is going to change. Your story changes, and that's what grief is, pretty much, your future story changing.
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E-chatting about digital health to vulnerable populations
Neelima Choahan 5/10/2018 2:02:53 PM
Dr Melinda Choy is hoping her research will make a difference.
Dr Melinda Choy believes it is important that we don’t leave vulnerable people behind as we try to improve health systems.
What attracts Dr Melinda Choy to research is doing things that haven’t been done before, and making a difference in healthcare.
Dr Choy has been awarded the RACGP Foundation/IPN Medical Centres Research Grant, which supports GPs and general practice registrars to conduct medical research into primary healthcare and develop research career pathways.
Titled, eHealth and disadvantage: A mixed methods study exploring how patients with chronic disease experience eHealth, Dr Choy’s project is an extension of the work she has been doing during her academic post at the Australian National University.
‘I’m interested in the therapeutic relationship and vulnerable populations,’ she told newsGP. ‘The project I’m doing at the moment as part of my academic post … is looking at e-chat, which is a digital health tool.
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Who can access children's medical records?
The answer is not always straightforward. We look at issues that can arise where parents are divorced, families are separated and when the child’s views should be considered.
Parent’s rights generally
Generally speaking, a parent or guardian is entitled to access their child’s medical records. This is because they have parental responsibility provided by the common law and the Family Law Act 1975.
Denying access to their child’s records without a valid reason may lead to a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. This office administers the Privacy Act 1988. Together with corresponding State and Territory legislation, this act regulates the disclosure of information, including medical records.
Where a request for access is made from a divorced parent, consideration should be given to the terms of any parenting order issued by the Family Court. These orders set out the responsibilities and roles of each parent. Where there is no order, both parents retain parental responsibility and have a right to access the record.
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Opinion Digitising social services could further exclude people already on the margins
04 Oct 2018
Siobhan O'Sullivan and Christopher Walker
People who are most dependent on social services are also the least able to easily transition into the digital age.
Digital or e-government has been prominent on Australia’s political agenda for at least a decade. It has led to improvements in e-services that allow you to pay rates online, submit a digital tax return, or claim rebates for medical bills.
But while e-services can make life more convenient for those who have access, there are signs that transacting with the state digitally is fast becoming mandatory. The My Health Record opt-out system, for example, assumes everyone will participate in this digital initiative unless they take deliberate action to do otherwise.
Our research suggests those who will not, or cannot, engage with the state online, may find themselves without basic government services – and even more alienated from government in the future.
People are being left behind
There are many reasons why citizens may not be able to engage digitally, including poverty, digital illiteracy and lack of digital infrastructure.
Research suggests that the so-called digital divide is shrinking in Australia, with 97% connectivity among households with children under 15 years.
But the same research shows that an inability to connect digitally is fast become a very serious force for compounding social exclusion. Those who are left behind, are being absolutely left behind – the gap is narrow but deep.
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Parliamentary library was pressured on My Health Record advice, emails reveal
The health department complained that the library’s advice contradicted Greg Hunt’s assurances on police access
Wed 3 Oct 2018 18.22 AEST Last modified on Wed 3 Oct 2018 18.23 AEST
Pressure from the health department prompted the parliamentary library to remove then amend advice issued in June that contradicted the health minister Greg Hunt’s assurances about police access to My Health Records, new correspondence reveals.
Emails produced under freedom of information reveal that the chief operating officer of the department, Matt Yannopoulos, complained that the advice by the library’s director of foreign affairs, defence and security, Nigel Brew, was “misleading and/or inaccurate”.
The emails show that the health department was concerned about media reports summarising the advice contributing to a backlash against the My Health Record and the library at first resisted the complaint before caving to pressure by removing controversial elements.
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Why Australia is quickly developing a technology-based human rights problem
Human rights advocates have called on the Australian government to protect the rights of all in an era of change, saying tech should serve humanity, not exclude the most vulnerable members of society.
Artificial intelligence (AI) might be technology's Holy Grail, but Australia's Human Rights Commissioner Edward Santow has warned about the need for responsible innovation and an understanding of the challenges new technology poses for basic human rights.
"AI is enabling breakthroughs right now: Healthcare, robotics, and manufacturing; pretty soon we're told AI will bring us everything from the perfect dating algorithm to interstellar travel — it's easy in other words to get carried away, yet we should remember AI is still in its infancy," Santow told the Human Rights & Technology conference in Sydney in July.
Santow was launching the Human Rights and Technology Issues Paper, which was described as the beginning of a major project by the Human Rights Commission to protect the rights of Australians in a new era of technological change.
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How Health officials muscled Parliamentary Library into deleting My Health Record analysis
By Harley Dennett • 03/10/2018
Parallels to the ABC’s Emma Alberici could not be more obvious: the minister was embarrassed, officials were incensed, but the independent Parliamentary Library stood firm in the accuracy of its analysis.
Journalists and privacy advocates were quoting the FlagPost article, titled Law enforcement access to My Health Record data, to claim the government was being dishonest with the public during a crucial opt-out period.
Then, suddenly, the offending analysis was removed from the library’s website, and eventually replaced with a version more agreeable to the government.
Newly published correspondence reveals the pressure brought to bear, but also suggests Parliamentary Librarian Dr Dianne Heriot wasn’t explicitly forced to take down the article, as critics of the government were asserting.
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What do primary health networks do? They channel billions of health dollars, that's what
Health department figures show $4 billion in grant money has been dished out to PHNs in one year
2nd October 2018
Australia's primary health networks are collecting more than $4 billion in Federal Government grants, even though many GPs aren't certain what they do.
The Department of Health has published a full list of its major contracts for the past financial year, revealing that some of its biggest grants were directed towards the 31 primary health networks (PHNs).
The report details the total value of active contracts between the department and outside organisations during the 2017/18 financial year, including multi-year arrangements.
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October 1 2018 - 10:30AM
My Health Record information sessions
· Jake Dietsch ADHA Propaganda
A team of My Health Record experts are coming to inform communities about the benefits of My Health Record.
By the end of this year, every Australian will have a digital My Health Record, unless they choose not to have one.
The record will serve as a summary of a person’s important health information such as allergies, current conditions and treatments, medication details and pathology reports.
WA Primary Health Alliance Country acting manager Jodie Green said My Health Record would contribute to better patient outcomes and improved patient care.
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Comments welcome!
David.
