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
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Again a pretty quiet week with ACT Health releasing a 10 year Digital Health Strategy which rather hopes to lift ACT Health from a truly pathetic HIMSS sophistication rating (1.5/7) over a decade. Not an ambitious effort!
Google is trying to make a mental health difference – which has to be a good thing!
Enjoy.
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Government ‘too incompetent’ for digital health
8 May, 2019
When it comes to digital health records, the public isn't worried the government has anything sinister in mind. They just think it's incompetent.
Mistrust of the government’s ability to manage large scale digital infrastructure projects is making people reluctant to sign up to programs like My Health Record, research has found.
Professor Deborah Lupton from the Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Research Centre at UNSW says highly publicised digital fails like the 2016 Census crash and Centrelink’s Robo-debt disaster have eroded public faith in the government’s technical ability.
The Australian Digital Health Agency wants to eventually enroll every Australian in the national electronic health record system but more than one in ten have chosen to opt out, according to agency figures.
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NSW hospital trials iPads, iPhones for real-time pathology results
To improve decision making in high pressure environments.
One of NSW’s major regional hospitals has begun trialling Apple devices to deliver real-time pathology results and risk indicators to emergency department clinicians.
The project, which is taking place at the state's 325-bed Wagga Wagga Base Hospital, is intended to improve clinical decision making in time-pressured environments.
It is one of two proof-of-concept projects currently being progressed by the digital arm of NSW Health and the Murrumbidgee Local Health District with the assistance of industry partners.
“We want to give clinicians fast access to meaningful data insights which can help them to identify patients at risk of deterioration, and provide more timely mobile access to pathology results and X-rays,” Wagga Wagga Base Hospital’s emergency department director Dr Stephen Wood said.
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Wednesday, 08 May 2019 11:27
Optus partners with Ramsay Health on patient digital network services
Optus Business has sealed a multi-year partnership for digital network and telecommunications services with private hospital group, Ramsay Health Care.
Under the agreement Optus will provide voice and data services for Ramsay’s facilities across Australia, serving over one million patients and 30,000 employees.
Optus says the strong communications platform will secure a range of benefits and enable healthcare professionals to provide a “seamless experience that meets patients’ current and future needs”.
And, the telco says Ramsay will also benefit from the Optus network which will deliver “high-speed data services, smooth network migration transitions and enhanced, accurate billing systems”.
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New A$5M research project to treat ‘untreatable’ cancers in Australia
Treatments successfully designed in the project will be trialled locally in Australia through GenesisCare's clinical network, giving Australian cancer patients access to new treatments sooner.
By Dean Koh
May 07, 2019 02:17 AM
Australia’s national science agency CSIRO and GenesisCare, one of Australia’s largest cancer care providers, today announced a A$5.1M research partnership which focuses on an emerging area of science called theranostics to develop new therapies against some of the most fatal and difficult-to-treat cancers affecting Australians.
What’s it about
According to the Theranostics Australia website, theranostics uses specific biological pathways in the human body, to acquire diagnostic images and also to deliver a therapeutic dose of radiation to the patient. A specific diagnostic test shows a particular molecular target on a tumour, allowing a therapy agent to specifically target that receptor on the tumour, rather than more broadly the disease and location it presents.
Treatments successfully designed in the project will be trialled locally in Australia through GenesisCare's clinical network, giving Australian cancer patients access to new treatments sooner, rather than waiting for treatments to be developed and trialled overseas first.
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Singapore programme to assess use of exoskeletons in rehabilitation care
Led by Temasek Foundation and Trailblazer Foundation, the initiative will evaluate the use and scalability of exoskeletons in rehabilitation care across various healthcare institutions including a local hospital, nursing home, and stroke support group.
A new pilot in Singapore will assess the use and scalability of exoskeletons in rehabilitation care across various healthcare institutions, including a hospital, nursing home, and stroke support group. Led by the Temasek Foundation and Trailblazer Foundation, the programme aims to extend adoption of the technology within the local community and help more patients regain their mobility.
Called Improving Mobility Via Exoskeletons (iMOVE), the clinical study will deploy three exoskeletons--manufactured by Ekso Bionics--across five sites under the National University Health System (NUHS): Alexandra Hospital, NTUC Health, St Luke's Eldercare, St Luke's Hospital, and Stroke Support Station.
"It will study patient outcomes and assess the viability and potential for scaling-up the use of robotic exoskeletons across the continuum of rehabilitation care from hospital to community," said Ekso Bionics, which added that the trial would focus on patients suffering from stroke and spinal cord injuries, in particular, the elderly.
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Pros and cons of MSIA CEO wearing two hats
May 8, 2019
Will the appointment of the Medical Software Industry Association (MSIA)CEO to the board of the ADHA bear fruit, or conflict?
The recent appointment of Emma Hossack, CEO of the Medical Software Industry Association (MSIA), to the board of the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) caused some digital health stakeholders to immediately cry ‘conflict of interest’. Stakeholders seemed to divide into those who felt the MSIA and ADHA were formalising some form of pre existing and co-operative relationship (conspiracy theorists), and those who were arguing that Hossack couldn’t possibly marry her objectives as the Association head with those of the ADHA in a manner that would ultimately benefit MSIA members.
Here’s one comment that appeared on a popular health tech blog post in response to the ADHA press release on the new board members that was fairly typical of the naysayer crowd.
“Well done Tim, nicely manoeuvred, not only did you kill off those who would dispose of you for your charade but you have also managed to make MSIA and wing of the Government just like to CHF” – Anon, Australian Health Information Technology Blog, April 3.
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Google backs Australian 'world-first suicide surveillance' AI project
Google.org giving $1.2 million grant and support to Turning Point, Monash University effort
Australian addiction treatment and research centre Turning Point has been named as one of 20 organisations globally to take a share in US$25 million funding from Google’s charitable arm, Google.org.
The A$1.21 million will be used by the centre for a three-year project to establish a “world-first suicide surveillance system”, with Monash University and the Eastern Health Foundation.
The work will use artificial intelligence related techniques to make coding of national suicide-related ambulance data more timely and cost-effective. The resulting data will help inform public health prevention, policy and intervention, as well as identify “emerging trends, hidden populations and geographical hotspots” for targeted responses relating to suicide.
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Australia’s cyber tsar MacGibbon resigns
Will return to the private sector.
Australia’s national cyber security advisor Alastair MacGibbon has handed in his resignation to return to the private sector.
MacGibbon - who is also head of the Australia Cyber Security Centre - will leave the high-profile role on May 28.
He has headed up the centre since January 2018, when former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull moved ACSC within the Australian Signals Directorate.
Before that, he spent just over a year-and-a-half as Turnbull’s top cyber security advisor, a position that was created through the 2016 cyber security strategy.
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Ultrasound key to autonomous robotic surgery, researchers say
Ultrasound imagery processed with machine learning could allow robots to splice and stitch without a human at the controls
Surgery carried out with the help of robots is already well established, with machines like the Da Vinci Surgical System being used at a number of hospitals in Australia.
Operations see human surgeons use hand grips to control the robot system – which is kitted out with arms capable of fluid movement, high-definition cameras, X-ray and CT scanners and custom surgical tools – to splice and stitch with incredible precision.
The Da Vinci machines at Macquarie University Hospital, Royal Prince Alfred and Concord Repatriation Campus have already helped hundreds of patients, specialising in prostate cancer operations. They reduce the invasiveness of procedures, meaning faster recovery time for patients.
“For the last 100 prostate cancer operations we have performed across the Royal Prince Alfred and Concord Repatriation Campus, we found that robot surgery meant less blood loss, shorter hospital stays and less opioid usage compared to open surgery,” explained urological and robotic surgeon Associate Professor Ruban Thanigasalam from the University of Sydney last week.
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The ACT Releases A Digital Health Strategy – 2019 – 2029.
Enabling exemplary person-centred care through digital innovation
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Australia, China partner to develop point of care testing device
Nathan Eddy | 10 May 2019
The Australian and Chinese governments are partnering to fund a Joint Research Centre (JRC) tasked with developing a next-gen point-of-care testing device to help identify markers of genetic disorders, infections and cancers.
The development of the device, which would be able to detect minute quantities of disease biomarkers in a patient’s bloodstream, will capitalise on research strengths of both countries in nanobiotechnology, diagnostics and rare earth elements.
The low cost, user-friendly device is designed to be used in point-of-care settings such as GPs’ surgeries and patients’ homes and will integrate a miniaturised microscope, with microsensors on a chip, and smartphone readout to detect the trace amount of circulating nucleic acids in the blood stream.
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AIA Australia launches digital health coach for cancer patients
Nathan Eddy | 10 May 2019
Insurance provider AIA Australia announced the launch of its CancerAid Health Coach Program, a digital health management system provided to AIA Australia customers while they receive cancer treatment.
Designed to run in conjunction with the CancerAid application, the program educates patients on how to better manage their care while empowering them to actively participate in decisions around their health management.
Based on the concept of participatory health, the platform is designed to help patients and caregivers make behavioural changes, thereby driving improved clinical outcomes through access to evidence-based tools, and additional support for patients.
“We recognise that better health outcomes can be achieved if we offer services early,” Damien Mu, chief executive of AIA Australia and New Zealand, said in a statement.
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Cheap USB sticks may be the key to better discharge summaries
9th May 2019
Hospital discharge summaries are still the bane of too many GPs’ professional lives.
An up-to-date electronic health record might help, but as My Health Record has shown, these systems aren’t easy to implement.
Irish GPs, fed up with these problems, have declared “it is time to return to basics”.
By this, they mean novelty USB sticks. They handed out key-shaped USBs to 63 patients during hospital discharge.
When the patient saw a GP, they could plug the USB into the GP’s computer to unlock a secure link to the summary in the hospital’s system.
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eHealth NSW partners with industry to trial digital tools for improved patient care
eHealth NSW and Murrumbidgee Local Health District are partnering on two PoC projects which combine the expertise of Alcidion, CSIRO and Evidentli and use Apple products.
By Dean Koh
May 09, 2019 04:51 AM
eHealth NSW in Australia has announced that it will be working with a number of industry partners to enhance the safety and quality of patient care, with clinicians at one of the state’s major rural hospitals harnessing the power of digital tools in two proof-of-concept (PoC) projects.
At the 325-bed Wagga Wagga Base Hospital in the state’s south-east, eHealth NSW and Murrumbidgee Local Health District are partnering on two PoC projects which combine the expertise of Alcidion, CSIRO and Evidentli and use Apple products.
PoC 1: Mobilising data to improve the safety and quality of care during a patient’s hospital stay
The first PoC project is exploring how critical test results can be shared securely and in real time via mobile devices to support enhanced clinical decision-making.
For Dr Stephen Wood, Director of Wagga Wagga Base Hospital’s Emergency Department (ED), this PoC has the real potential to assist clinicians with making decisions about the diagnosis and treatment of patients in time-pressured ED environments.
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10 May 2019
Could this be Australia’s first health software unicorn?
Australia’s medical software industry, though peppered with some great talent, interesting start-ups, and high potential emerging software platform plays, isn’t where you’d normally be looking for the next IT unicorn. But we may just have one which has been under our nose (and on the nose) for a few years now.
If you had to nominate a list of Australian software health companies that might one day make unicorn status ($1 billion capitalisation) you might at a stretch produce this list and reasoning:
- Best Practice (BP) Software – the largest footprint of a doctor platform that sits over the most important and interesting healthcare data transactions, given our trajectory from acute to chronic care management, the potential of open APIs and the cloud, and the march of patient power through Apple and other global platforms. And it’s part-ownership by Sonic, a global parent with lots of smarts, and primary ownership by driven and knowledgeable locals and doctors.
- Genie Software Solutions – maybe just edging out Medical Director (see next) because it owns the specialist market, is spending big on the right technologies (cloud, open API, FHIR), is run by people with a lot of experience in cloud transition (MYOB), and is backed by one of our largest private equity funds (ie, they have the intent and the money)
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Landmark White forecasts $2.3m loss from data hack
May 6, 2019 — 11.10am
Landmark White said it would post a net loss after tax of $2.3 million in the year to June as the result of a crippling data breach that made customers desert the valuation firm and caused chief executive Chris Coonan to resign.
The troubled company on Monday said revenue would fall by up to $7 million in the current financial year, as a result of work lost when its bank clients suspended it from valuation panels and higher IT security costs, pulling the company well below its previous guidance of a net profit after tax of $2.8 million.
Landmark White said EBITDA earnings for the current year would be a loss of $1. 5 million, after previously predicting EBITDA earnings of $5.3 million. The company also said it could also face an additional impairment charge in the second half on the carrying value of assets, as a result of the data breach late last year that resulted in 137,500 unique valuation records sitting on a dark web forum for as long as 10 days.
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LandMark White drops revenue forecast by $11.5m after data breach
Property valuer expects FY19 loss
ASX-listed property valuer LandMark White says it estimates a data breach has already cost it $5-6 million in revenue, and that it expects to take an additional $1 million hit to its income. Today it revised downwards its full year revenue forecast to $43.5 million from $55 million.
The company now expects negative EBITDA of $1.5 million and a net loss after tax of $2.3 million; previously it forecast EBITDA of $5.3 million and net profit after tax of $2.8 million.
LMW in February revealed that a range of client data was inadvertently exposed through an S3 bucket. In the wake of the breach, which led to customer data being posted on a ‘darkweb’ forum, Australia’s major banks suspended their use of the firm’s valuation services.
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NBN Co revenue growth slows as rollout nears completion
Almost 5.1 million households sign up for NBN services
NBN Co has reported revenue of $2.04 billion for the first three quarters of its financial year, compared to $1.41 billion for the same nine-month period last year.
The revenue for the nine months ended 31 March represents an increase of 45 per cent on revenue for the comparable period last year — which was a 112 per cent increase on the first nine months of 2017.
As of 31 March, more than 8.83 million households and businesses were able to connect to the National Broadband Network, up 36 per cent from 12 months earlier, and active premises hit almost 5.1 million (also up 36 per cent).
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Monday, 06 May 2019 11:54
No fanfare as NBN Co reports 3Q revenue rise of 45%, mounting losses
The NBN Co has quietly released its third-quarter results for the 2018-19 financial year, showing a growth of 45% in revenue to $2.0 billion year-on-year, but still continuing to bleed red ink with a loss of $2.7 billion for the financial year so far. This takes the accumulated losses to $20.7 billion over the lifespan of the company.
The loss for the third quarter alone was $995 million, up from a figure of $937 million for the corresponding quarter a year ago.
The average revenue per user was still stuck on $45 for the quarter, the same figure as reported for the second quarter of 2018-19. The NBN Co has said on many occasions that it needs to bring this figure up to $52 if it is to break even.
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Monday, 06 May 2019 11:54
Election campaign: the NBN appears to have gone missing
Less than two weeks remain until the Australian Federal Election, and the NBN has been one of the topics mentioned the least – even though there has been much talk about the network between polls.
It may be the case the Labor Shadow Communications Minister Michelle took the air out of any possible debate about the network, by announcing on 9 April, two days before the poll was called, her party's NBN policy in the event that it was elected.
If truth be told, with the network rollout scheduled to be done and dusted by mid-2020, there isn't a great deal that can be done to improve the miserable lot of the denizens of this land as far as speed and technical issues are concerned.
Given that, Rowland said there would be a review of the economics of the NBN, and also specified a few other initiatives, chief of which was money to look at the wiring in households which are on fibre-to-the-node, as this could affect performance.
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NBN 'continues to bleed' as revenue targets prove elusive
May 6, 2019 — 8.15pm
NBN Co is counting on a sudden surge of consumer demand for higher speeds and aggressive expansion of its enterprise business to boost revenue to sustainable levels, after revealing it is still way off the targets necessary to avoid a write-down.
In its third-quarter results, released on Monday, NBN Co announced revenues of $2 billion but a net loss of $3.4 billion for the nine months to March 31, bringing accumulated losses to $20.7 billion over the NBN's entire 10-year lifespan.
While the loss was expected, NBN Co revealed its average revenue per user (ARPU) per month was still way behind the target necessary to deliver a return on investment and remain a commercial operation.
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Tuesday, 07 May 2019 11:02
Optus customers experiencing more NBN outages: ACCC
Most NBN users experience less than one outage of 30 seconds or more a day, but Optus customers on average had to suffer through more than 1.5 outages each day, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's fifth report on NBN speeds.
This is the first time that outages (see chart below) have been measured in the Measuring Broadband Australia report, the fifth of which was compiled with data from about 1000 volunteers in February. [The results of the fourth and third reports are here and here.]
“We expect this new reporting to drive retailers to improve their service on outages, as it has with lifting speed performances,” ACCC chair Rod Sims said.
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NBN speeds up but many FTTN services underperforming, ACCC says
Quarter of 50Mbps and 100Mbps FTTN services not delivering advertised maximum speeds
The latest broadband performance data released by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) reveals that NBN speeds have generally improved. However, the ACCC said that a significant proportion of fibre to the node (FTTN) services continue to deliver substandard performance.
The ACCC said that 13 per cent of households participating in the speed monitoring platform could never achieve close to the advertised maximum speed of their broadband service. That included one in four of the FTTN services that had wholesale maximum speeds of 50 megabits per second or 100Mbps.
Overall, FTTN services delivered 80 per cent of the maximum plan speed during the monitoring period of 1 February to 28 February, compared to 90.9 per cent for hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) services and 91 per cent for those homes connected by fibre to premises (FTTP).
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Microsoft surrenders in its Windows Update war with users
It’s another sign that the company is changing in fundamental ways under the leadership of Satya Nadella.
Most businesses know that a war with the people who buy and use their products is a war they can’t win. Microsoft has belatedly recognized this with regard to its Windows Update policies. And if you’ve been paying attention to shifts in the corporate culture in Redmond, the company’s surrender to its customers shouldn’t be a surprise.
The long-simmering war has to do with the way that Windows 10 updates itself on PCs — specifically, the twice-a-year significant updates called “feature updates” that add new capabilities to Windows. For years, you’ve had, for all practical purposes, no choice about whether to update; your PC installed all updates automatically whether you liked it or not. (Technically, you could get around this, but it wasn’t an option most users would choose; more on that in a bit.)
Windows users have not been pleased about this, and with good reason. Far too often, features updates have been released before they were ready for prime time, sometimes even causing damage to PCs and files. For example, the last one, the Windows 10 October 2018 Update, deleted files without letting users know, and those files were lost forever. Then there was the Windows 10 April 2018 Update fiasco, when people complained that it crashed their computers and displayed the notorious blue screen of death.
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'Time to go back, this time to stay': Bezos reveals his moon mission
By Brad Stone
May 10, 2019 — 10.25am
A little less than half a century ago, a pair of NASA astronauts packed up their geological samples after three days of roving and returned to Earth in the Apollo 17 lunar module. It was the last time that a human walked on the moon.
Now the world's wealthiest man, Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, and the other company he founded, Blue Origin, want to chart the next chapter in humanity's exploration of its tiny orbiting sibling.
Billionaire entrepreneur Jeff Bezos unveils a mockup of a lunar lander spacecraft and discusses missions to the moon in a strategy tailored to the US government's renewed push to establish a lunar outpost in just five years.
At a press conference in Washington, DC on Thursday afternoon, Bezos made his case for going back to the moon and showed off his private space company's lunar lander.
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Enjoy!
David.
