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This weekly blog is to explore the news around the larger issues around Digital Health, data security, data privacy, AI / ML. technology, social media and related matters.
I will also try to highlight ADHA Propaganda when I come upon it.
Just so we keep count, the latest Notes from the ADHA Board are still dated 6 December, 2018! How pathetic is that for transparency? Secrecy unconstrained!
Note: Appearance here is not to suggest I see any credibility or value in what follows. I will leave it to the reader to decide what is worthwhile and what is not! The point is to let people know what is being said / published that I have come upon.
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http://medicalrepublic.com.au/game-of-health-distribution-thrones-season-2/30218
13 June 2020
Game of Health Distribution Thrones: Season 2
General practice Government Telehealth
The shift in digital technologies affecting GPs as a result of COVID-19 has been tectonic and will likely impact a lot in the short term
It turns out that there’s nothing quite like a pandemic to turn a slow moving politically sclerotised digital health sector upside down. Digital health, especially that servicing the general practice and allied health sectors, has shifted more in two months than it has for the last decade. Although some aspects of the changes could potentially return to their pre-COVID slumber – the ‘smash-the-glass’ just-get-it-done approach of various governments for instance – many aspects of the great digital health leap forward we’ve seen in the last few months are here to stay.
The implications for general practice in the mid-term are huge. Fortunately, between opportunity and threat there may be more opportunity to be had, but only if practices step back, understand the implications of the coming changes, do their strategy, and adapt. If you need a recap by the way Healthcare Distribution Game of Thrones Season 1 is HERE.
Telehealth
The most obvious change is telehealth.
As important and obvious as the decision to introduce telehealth rapidly to general practice across the full spectrum of MBS items seemed at the time, word is that it was still a near thing. The government was in essence backed into a corner in letting this genie out of the bottle and it was some nifty last minute lobbying from certain highly placed individuals that got it over line in the end.
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https://croakey.org/complex-systems-modelling-can-guide-policy-and-practice/
Complex systems modelling can guide policy and practice
Mark Ragg on: June 11, 2020 In: Coronavirus outbreak 2019-2020, Public health and population health
Introduction by Croakey: The Brain and Mind Centre at The University of Sydney and Orygen in Melbourne released modelling earlier this year that quantified the potential impact of COVID-19 on mental health and suicide. This modelling is available at Sounding the alarm, Cost of productivity loss, Every life matters and Orygen – COVID19 second wave briefing.
It attracted significant national and international attention when reported in the mainstream media, originally by the ABC and The Australian. This is likely to have provided an impetus for the appointment of Australia’s first deputy chief health officer for mental health less than a week later.
But it has also attracted quite a bit of criticism, such as in The Conversation.
Here, an international team that works with complex systems modelling explain its benefits, and how it can be used to guide policy and practice.
…………….
Jo-An Atkinson, Ian Hickie, Patrick McGorry, Adam Skinner, Ante Prodan, Petra Meier, Michael Barton, Shankar Sankaran, Sandro Galea and David Wilson write:
Complex systems modelling in mental health and suicide prevention has attracted national attention recently. This type of modelling represents one of the most advanced tools we have to help us weigh options and inform strategic and operational decisions in mental health.
Such an approach was widely accepted when used to understand the impacts of COVID-19, However, when applied to mental health and suicide prevention, such models have come under criticism.
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COVID-19 Special Edition No 2 – June 2020
Message from the CEO
Governments, healthcare professionals, provider organisations
and innovators have come together over the past three months to increase the
capacity of Australia’s health sector to use digital technology and data to
contain this virus.
Our success has provided governments the confidence to start easing restrictions
and steer the country into the next stage.
The Australian Digital Health Agency launched the campaign ‘Don’t put your
health on hold’ with interactive guides on how to get health services in a
COVID world. We’ve released new online training for healthcare professionals on
spotting and averting cyber security risks, and worked intensively with
software organisations and professional peaks to fast track electronic
prescriptions.
We look forward to continuing our work with you to support our health system at
this critical time.
Bettina McMahon
(Are they claiming the ADHA provided the success that has led to restrictions being lifted? A pretty big call!)
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Top 5 healthcare documents Australians want access to
11 June, 2020:The strictures of social distancing provisions have led healthcare providers to turn to My Health Record for the information they need to deliver the best possible patient care. ADHA Propaganda
The Agency conducted research late last year which showed that the top 5 things that people want to access are their test scans and results, notes from their GP, information on medicines they have been prescribed, Medicare information and their immunisation status.
At the end of April, of the 22.75 My Health Records nearly 70% of all records had information in them, and nearly 10 million of them had their immunisation Register. The Agency continued to upload immunisation details throughout May.
In other interesting stats, healthcare providers uploaded more than 61,000 documents in April that were viewed by someone else. This was also an increase of more than 280 per cent compared to April last year.
The most recent information is available on the My Health Record statistics page.
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Coronavirus: social media fuels mental crisis
A dramatic surge in social media use during the pandemic is fuelling the nation’s mental health crisis, increasing calls for Facebook and Twitter to deal with false and misleading information.
Medical experts are confronting a growing number of people falling ill after relentlessly trawling social media for answers on the COVID-19 virus and the economic and social fallout.
The Morrison government has said it will hold the social media giants to account for false and misleading medical information posing risks to the community.
As many as 16 million Australians were active on Facebook in April, with the numbers climbing during the pandemic. Twitter says daily use climbed 24 per cent globally in the first quarter of this year.
Meanwhile, the internet has been swamped with wrong and misleading claims on the coronavirus that have included falsehoods that the 5G network was a transmitter of COVID-19 and that billionaire businessman Bill Gates was behind the pandemic.
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'Harm against humans': Rights chief warns of facial recognition threat
By Tim Biggs
June 13, 2020 — 12.00am
Australian Human Rights Commissioner Edward Santow has repeated his call for the use of facial recognition technology to be strictly regulated, saying that law enforcement agencies shouldn't be allowed to use it without proper safeguards in place.
"At the moment there are not strong and clear enough legal protections in place to prevent the misuse of facial recognition in high stakes areas like policing or law enforcement," he told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.
"We want to see this new form of technology developed in a way that is safe and provides economic opportunities, but we need safeguards that prevent harm to humans."
His comments come as US tech giants IBM, Amazon and Microsoft all pulled their facial recognition services out of police hands in the US.
Last week IBM announced it could not condone facial recognition technologies that allowed for mass surveillance and racial profiling and that it would end its development of facial recognition products. Amazon subsequently announced a one-year freeze on the availability of its facial recognition tools to law enforcement, and Microsoft said it would not provide the technology to law enforcement until federal legislation was in place. The announcements came as many in the United States continued to protest racially biased policing.
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https://www.melbsportsmed.com.au/2020/06/your-results-your-immunisation-history/
Your results, your immunisation history
- June 12, 2020 ADHA Propaganda
At The Melbourne Sports Medicine Centre we are strong supporters of the My Health Record, a centralised record of your medical history accessible by you and your nominated health professionals.
Unless you have opted out, you will have a My Health Record. You access your My Health Record via your MyGov account.
If you contact us for a copy of any results, or a copy of your immunisation history, we will upload it directly to your My Health Record. It is then permanently available to you and anyone you wish to share the information with.
In most cases your results will appear under the Event Summary section of your My Health Record, your immunisation history will appear under your Shared Health Summary.
If you have any questions about this, please don’t hesitate to contact our friendly administration team on 96509372 or 9650 4284.
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Protecting data in the rush to relax working restrictions
JAMIE HUMPHREY
As Australian workers eye a return to the office, it is critical businesses consider all the risks rather than cut corners in the rush to relax working restrictions. While hand sanitiser, social distancing, and face masks are set to become prominent features when white-collar workers return to CBDs across the nation, enterprises must implement similar hygiene practices when it comes to data governance.
While the health and wellbeing of employees is paramount, the health of IT systems and data cannot be ignored. Thousands of workers will soon begin commuting to head offices for the first time since March, bringing with them devices that haven’t been connected to corporate networks in months.
This influx of devices presents a number of challenges that must be addressed. Key among them is the need to properly classify and manage data stored upon them to ensure there are no privacy, security, or regulatory blind spots as business resumes.
Automated governance ensures accuracy, accelerates productivity
While enterprises are developing strategies to accommodate workers returning to the office, the same gravity must be given to how data and devices will be safely reintegrated into IT architectures.
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Forget digital transformation, 2020 is the year of digital acceleration
Jeff Lawson
Since roughly the turn of the millennium, companies have been gradually transforming themselves with digital technologies to adapt to new realities of the internet and mobile, both as enablers of new products, ideas, and workflows — and to fend off competition from digital disrupters. We've seen industry after industry transformed by digital — transportation has been transformed by Uber and Lyft and the mobile phones providing transportation on demand, hospitality has been up-ended by Airbnb, banking has become an app instead of a storefront. You get the idea.
Companies have spent years plotting out their digital strategies, hiring consultants to help them "imagneer" the future of their firms, and carefully started transformations of their cultures, their products, and their talent. It's not uncommon for a Fortune 500 company to hire a Chief Digital Officer, who spends months developing a digital transformation strategy, fights for budget, and then iteratively quarter over quarter, slowly chips away at the monoliths of the past, modernising and upgrading systems to support modern ways of interacting with a company. Projects carefully vetted. Teams built. Consultants hired. It's painful, but it's hard to turn the big ship that is a large enterprise.
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https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=9dae7e54-8ebf-4c01-ada2-f35d21a330a8
Foreign signals intelligence: How does The Australian Signals Directorate defend Australia from global threats?
The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) aims to defend Australia from global threats through the provision of foreign signals intelligence, cyber security and offensive cyber operations, as directed by Government.
ASD provides the Australian Government with intelligence and cyber security expertise, policy and advice that protects our national security and sovereignty, and practical support that informs law enforcement and military operations.
In its 2019-2020 Corporate Plan, ASD provides insight into its functions, strategic plans, operating context and oversight framework.
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https://ajp.com.au/news/certainty-at-last-7cpa-signed/
Certainty at last: 7CPA signed
The Seventh Community Pharmacy Agreement has been signed
The long-awaited Agreement was signed in Canberra on Thursday night.
The Pharmacy Guild says the signing of the long-awaited Agreement provides certainty and stability for Australia’s 5,800 community pharmacies, and ensures the delivery of “world class” pharmacy services to Australian patients.
The National President of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, George Tambassis, said: “This is an Agreement for the times – negotiated over 12 months between the Commonwealth and the Pharmacy Guild, with the backdrop in 2020 of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Pharmacy Guild thanks the Minister for Health, Greg Hunt, and the Department of Health for reaching this Agreement in the interests of all Australian patients who rely on their local pharmacy for medicines, advice and professional pharmacy services,” Mr Tambassis said.
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Robo-debt a lesson in how not to use technology
Robo-debt is a textbook example of how not to deploy technology in government decision-making. An initiative designed to save revenue has instead led the federal government to repay $721m to 373,000 people. However, care must be taken not to draw the wrong lessons. One flawed program does not destroy the case for governments to use technology to improve services and ensure public money goes to the right recipients.
The private sector has demonstrated the enormous benefits of automation and the smart use of new technologies. These include gains in productivity, reduced costs and more accessible services. There are few Australians who would give up online banking in favour of returning to lengthy queues at their branch or do away with the convenience and cost savings of online shopping.
Automation also promises major benefits to government. Well-designed systems can make government services more accurate, efficient and fair, such as by limiting the potential for human bias and error. They can also extend taxpayer dollars so that services can reach many more people. An example is in legal services, where government funding of legal aid and community legal centres is critically important to helping thousands of vulnerable people, yet still falls well short of what is needed.
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Media release - Better connected healthcare system already showing improved secure transfer of patient information
10 June 2020: Australia has a world class health system, and the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how important technology is to allow healthcare providers to communicate with each other securely and immediately.
Out of date contact details that healthcare providers have about healthcare services and other practitioners can mean that patients’ medical documents and information is not able to be sent from one healthcare provider to another. In a world where consumers can no longer be a conduit for delivering a referral letter or test result to another provider, and where our postal services are over capacity, an up to date electronic registry is more important than ever.
The Australian Digital Health Agency has built a Service Registration Assistant (SRA) to solve this problem. The SRA keeps healthcare service and practitioner information up to date with changes to contact details available immediately to authorised users.
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https://ama.com.au/gp-network-news/national-authentication-services-health-survey
National Authentication Services for Health
11 Jun 2020
The Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) is conducting a short 5-minute survey to get feedback from National Authentication Services for Health (NASH) users on the ease of accessing and renewing NASH certificates.
This is your chance to tell ADHA about any pain points associated with NASH so they can be addressed and improved.
The survey will be open until COB Friday 19 June 2020 and can be accessed here.
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https://wildhealth.net.au/navigating-the-goldrush-of-digital-health-apps/
Navigating the ‘goldrush’ of digital health apps
June 10, 2020
Recent innovations in digital health have seen a dramatic increase in the number of available mobile health apps. But how trustworthy are they?
In this episode of the Talking HealthTech podcast, MetaOptima’s general manager Peter Birch chats to the managing director of Semantic Consulting Tim Blake about the Digital Health Guide, a new platform which aims to provide evidence-based information about 300,000 plus health apps currently on the market.
Mr Blake says that whilst it is exciting to see so much innovation happening in the digital health space, it is difficult to make informed decisions about which apps to use due to the quantity available.
“Some are unhelpful, some are downright dangerous. And only a small proportion are really, really good”, he said.
The lack of regulation around apps providing medical advice means that they sometimes make false claims, which can delay proper treatment. There is also the issue of geographical barriers being eroded in the digital space, meaning apps which do not comply with Australian regulation are available to the public.
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https://wildhealth.net.au/the-ugly-truth-about-disasters-and-digital-health/
The ugly truth about disasters and digital health
June 10, 2020
Six reasons why things will never go back to the way they were in digital health, and how we could still manage to squander such an opportunity if we’re not careful.
Early on in this pandemic, the simple mention of COVID-19 in any story would double our user clicks. We even had a live COVID-19 blog in our sister publication, The Medical Republic, which did record numbers.
Now we are almost trying to avoid using the term, such is the fatigue now being experienced by most of our readers, not just in their day to day working lives as medical professionals but in everyday media.
If you want to get a sense of the mindless repetition in messaging that is starting to make us numb, then check out this YouTube video comparing how everyday consumer brands have come up with exactly the same banal approach to treating their customers during COVID-19.
It’s a worry, because in digital health, COVID-19 is the most important event in decades for showcasing just how effective the sector can be for solving major issues in our healthcare system, and just how good we are at solving them when we really want and need to. We can’t really afford for the term, and the experience, to start fading from our psyche.
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Thursday, 11 June 2020 11:22
Australian execs see widespread benefits, monetisation ‘opportunities’ from 5G
Australian executives believe 5G will benefit society as a whole, not just smartphone users, according to new research that reveals businesses also believe 5G will be the “most revolutionary” network development, and create new opportunities for monetisation of the technology.
The study by management consulting and professional services firm Accenture of more than 2,600 business and technology decision makers across 12 industry sectors globally – including 200 in Australia - found over three-quarters (77%) of respondents agree 5G will allow them to become far more connected in what they do.
The study also revealed 80% of Australian decision makers believe 5G will create opportunities for new business models and monetisation opportunities, and provide productivity gains to their organisations, according to 75% of Australian respondents.
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/dont-hang-telehealth-campaign-sign-petition
Don't Hang Up on Telehealth campaign - sign the petition
Australian Doctor launches campaign urging the government to bring Medicare into the 21st century
10th June 2020
By Paul Smith
This week, Australian Doctor launches its Don’t Hang Up on Telehealth petition, a call on the Federal Government to ensure continued Medicare funding for phone and video consults.
An emergency measure in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the funding is due to end in September.
As the true voice of the profession, we ask you to sign our open letter to Minister for Health Greg Hunt explaining why the reform is urgently needed.
Paul Smith
Australian Doctor editor
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Amazon suspends police use of facial recognition tech
· The Wall Street Journal
Amazon said it is halting law-enforcement use of its facial-recognition software, adding its voice to a growing chorus of companies, politicians and civil rights advocates calling for greater regulation of the surveillance technology amid widespread concern about its potential for racial bias.
“We hope this one-year moratorium might give Congress enough time to implement appropriate rules, and we stand ready to help if requested,” Amazon said in a blog post Wednesday. The retailing giant said it has been advocating for strong government regulation of the use of facial-recognition technology, and Congress appeared ready to take on that challenge.
Police tactics and law enforcement’s use of technology has come under increasing scrutiny with the wave of nationwide protests triggered by the police killing of George Floyd.
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Wednesday, 10 June 2020 15:54
Asia Pacific emerging as global AI epicentre, says analyst
Supportive government framework and policies are expected to enable the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region to emerge as the global epicentre for the growth of artificial intelligence (AI), according to one global analytics firm.
According to GlobalData several countries across the region are focusing on leveraging AI, enhancing productivity and competitiveness and, though the key objectives of different government entities may vary from each other, “all of them want to leverage their strengths to emerge either as AI innovation drivers or leaders”.
Sunil Kumar Verma, Lead ICT analyst at GlobalData, says that “despite their different priorities, countries strive to accomplish four common and prime objectives by leveraging AI - formulate policies for workforce in an automated economy, job creation across emerging sectors which leverage new technologies, build data ecosystem to be leveraged by cross-verticals to foster innovations and intelligent mitigation of impact on workers impacted by adopting AI and risk reduction”.
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Wednesday, 10 June 2020 11:54
ASIO chief says he only seeks new laws that are 'proportionate'
Privacy is paramount but not total, because there is a balance between privacy and security, ASIO chief Mike Burgess claims, adding that "under the rule of law when appropriate warrants are in place, law enforcement or ASIO should be able to get access to something".
He was speaking on a podcast at the Institute of Public Administration Australia on Tuesday.
His words were part of an argument that has been mounted ad infinitum over the past several years as intelligence agencies have sought to mount a move to justify the breaking of encryption.
Burgess referred to the 2016 case where the FBI demanded that Apple create a new version of its iOS operating system so that the agency could guess the passcode on an iPhone 5 that was owned by a terrorist. Apple refused and finally the FBI paid a commercial firm to get the data.
"Apple's view is that privacy is paramount and they want to design a phone that actually no one can access and because if they give some country access, they have to give it to all countries," he said.
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Facebook moderation ‘grossly inadequate’
Facebook's content moderation is 'grossly inadequate' and should be brought in-house rather than farmed out to third-party contractors, a new report from the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights has found.
The report, titled 'Who Moderates the Social Media Giants?' found that Facebook's moderators, whose job it is to view hundreds of disturbing posts a day, are paid little and often not adequately supported.
The company has around 15,000 moderators globally, and most of them are third-party contractors who work from 20 different sites worldwide. It's currently facing multiple class action lawsuits from contractors who say they've shown symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The report also says Facebook's moderators are ill-equipped to deal with the rise of fake news and misinformation, and that independent journalism organisations and speciality websites are better placed to conduct fact checking.
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IBM scraps face recognition development over racial profiling concerns
By Hasan Chowdhury
June 10, 2020 — 9.19am
IBM says it is scrapping its facial recognition business over concerns about how it can be used for mass surveillance and racial profiling.
In a letter to US Congress members Arvind Krishna, IBM's chief executive, confirmed the company's shift as it looks to "advance racial equality".
"IBM opposes and will not condone uses of any technology, including facial recognition technology, offered by other vendors for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms," he wrote.
Mr Krishna was addressing Democrats who have been working on police reform legislation in Congress in response to the death of George Floyd and others in law enforcement interactions that have sparked a worldwide reckoning over racial injustice.
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Twitter's plan to challenge 5G conspiracy theories backfires
By Laurence Dodds
June 10, 2020 — 7.34am
One month after promising to impose warning labels on misleading tweets about coronavirus, Twitter is still failing to accurately distinguish factual information from fake news.
Starting in early May, the company has been using artificial intelligence to identify misinformation and apply mild or strong warnings depending on how "dangerous" it is, aiming to expand them to other topics in future.
The policy is part of an ongoing attempt to clean up Twitter's service, which has already entangled both it and its rivals Facebook and Snapchat in a furious row with Donald Trump.
But since then, Twitter's misinformation labels have frequently lapsed into farce, wrongly catching obscene jokes, factual news headlines and complaints about false claims while leaving diehard conspiracy theorists untouched.
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/how-successful-aussie-doctor-ended-streets
How a successful Aussie doctor ended up on the streets
Dr Andrew Rochford, an emergency doctor and media personality, is one of five participants in SBS's latest season of Filthy Rich & Homeless
9th June 2020
After a few days living rough, emergency doctor and media personality Dr Andrew Rochford was a shadow of himself.
The Sydney doctor spent 10 days on the street after agreeing to take part in an “immersive” homeless experience for season three of SBS’s Filthy Rich & Homeless, hosted by journalist Indira Naidoo.
The reality of living on the streets very quickly took a physical and mental toll.
“I’ve already noticed that I’m more stooped over,” he admitted during the first episode, which aired on Tuesday evening.
“In 24 hours, I feel 10-years older.
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http://medicalrepublic.com.au/continuity-key-to-keeping-telehealth-viable/29971
9 June 2020
Continuity key to keeping telehealth viable
COVID-19 Policy Telehealth Telehealth
The introduction of telehealth was a stand-out success of the health response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Expansion of telehealth should be part of the new normal, but this should not simply be a roll-over of the pandemic items.
Starting in mid-March 2020, the government drip-fed changes to facilitate telehealth in primary care. Two groups of items were introduced: one for video-conference consultations, and one for telephone consultations if video was not available.
Telehealth has been advocated for decades as a way of enhancing access to care for people living in rural and remote Australia. But telehealth has faced numerous barriers, not least equivocal Commonwealth government support, and poor internet connectivity in rural and remote Australia. Take-up was low.
Telehealth is prone to a “woodwork effect”. That is, where demand comes out of the woodwork when a new benefit is available. The risks of over-servicing, misuse by some providers with predatory business models, and fraud, are real, but the benefits of telehealth are undeniable. However, especially in the context of increasing prevalence of chronic disease, telehealth items should enhance continuity of care, which benefits patients and reduces costs, and not further fragment the primary care system.
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Pandemic a chance to bolster technology
Australia’s first-mover advantage in emerging from the coronavirus shutdown has opened up a once-in-a-generation opportunity to bring about meaningful economic reform that will boost the nation’s prosperity, according to Yasser El-Ansary, chief executive of the Australian Investment Council.
The acceleration and development of domestic technology would help to future-proof Australia and give the nation a competitive edge over other developed economies, Mr El-Ansary said as he called for a doubling of the size and output of our technology industry by 2030.
“We have a fantastic opportunity to move ahead of other countries and globalised marketplaces, so we need to use that to our advantage. And technology becomes a pretty central part of our thinking here, which is that we can do a lot over the coming months and into the next couple of years to grow our technology capability,” Mr El-Ansary told The Australian.
“And a big part of that is growing the pipeline of investment capital moving into the technology sector and into businesses across all sectors to enable technology to really turbocharge the growth and acceleration and expansion.”
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Experts warn of new strains of misinformation as COVID-19 seeds conspiracy theories
By Tim Biggs
June 8, 2020 — 3.33pm
The collision of 5G and anti-vaccination conspiracy theories could negatively impact both the 5G rollout and prospective COVID-19 immunisation programs, with experts warning the unscientific narratives linking the two topics are continuing to gain traction online.
Recent protests have brought emerging conspiracy theories out of cyberspace and onto the streets of both Melbourne and Sydney, with demonstrators variously claiming that 5G radiation is harmful, that COVID-19 is part of a global conspiracy and that 5G can be used to infect people with COVID-19.
Anti-vax and 5G protesters rallied in Melbourne and Sydney today, defying coronavirus restrictions.
All these theories are disputed by broad scientific consensus — with a link between virus and radio waves debunked as physically impossible — but they are propagated by a growing number of YouTube videos, Facebook pages, Twitter posts and celebrity Instagram stories.
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You are probably spreading misinformation. Here's how to stop.
By Geoffrey A. Fowler
June 8, 2020 — 11.21am
Everyone knows you shouldn't feed a troll. But more than ever, you should go out of the way not to retweet, share or follow one, either.
First came the pandemic. Now we're facing an infodemic. Misinformation from so-called trolls, bots and other online agitators is spiking about the death of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests, following a tsunami of falsehoods about the coronavirus. And the people who care most intensely about those issues may be inadvertently spreading it further.
A series of viral videos showing social media influencers posing for photo ops at Black Lives Matter protests throughout the US has left people fuming.
To avoid being taken advantage of, we need to learn their ways; and learn some new techniques of our own to challenge what we see on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube and Reddit. Whether you're 16 or 60, spending a few seconds to do the things I list below can help keep you from becoming a tool in someone else's information war.
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COVID speeds up digital banking revolution in '10 weeks not five years'
By Clancy Yeates
June 8, 2020 — 11.07am
NAB’s chief executive Ross McEwan neatly summed up the extraordinary pace of change in consumers’ relationship with banking when he said recently: "Permanent change, in my mind, has just been made in 10 weeks. It would have taken us another five years."
McEwan was referring to the rapid take-up of digital payments since coronavirus upended our lives. The trend was well underway before the virus appeared, but the pandemic has sped up the pace of change to a rate of knots.
What is more, leading bankers say the shifts in behaviour are here to stay. For banks and investors it is a mixed blessing.
Coronavirus has transformed more than just our shopping habits - it is fundamentally changing some of the key ways in which Australians deal with money itself. On the rare occasions when people have ventured outside to visit shops in recent months, they’ve shunned cash for fear of spreading the virus, instead tapping their card or phone at the checkout.
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This is why Facebook will never fact-check Donald Trump
If it wants to stay this big and unregulated, the social media giant cannot afford to upset the rulers of countries where it operates, no matter how abhorrent their actions.
Rana Foroohar Contributor
Jun 8, 2020 – 11.47am
Oligarchs are immoral business leaders who, as Russia’s Vladimir Putin defined them in the Financial Times, use their “proximity to the authorities to receive super profits”.
That makes me wonder: is there any better description of Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg — a man who caters to US President Donald Trump by refusing to remove his inaccurate and inflammatory posts from the social media platform — than an American oligarch?
Over the past few days, a number of tech companies, Twitter and Snapchat most notably, have decided that it’s a moral necessity to fact check and curb the power of Mr Trump to promote misinformation. The President has used social media for everything from making unsubstantiated charges of mail-in voter fraud, to claiming that the massive protests over the killing of George Floyd are “professionally organised” and have nothing to do with racial injustice.
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Electronic Prescriptions: Update for Nurse Practitioners
Details
Webinar ADHA Propaganda
Hosted by : Australian Digital Health Agency
Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - 18:30 to 20:00
Online
Sydney NSW 2000 Australia
Australians will soon have the option to choose an electronic prescription as an alternative to paper prescriptions.
Nurse practitioners can register for a webinar addressing the accelerated electronic prescription initiative announced as part of the COVID-19 National Health Plan. This session will focus on core electronic prescription capabilities and workflow aspects related to prescribers and their patients.
There will also be an opportunity for questions.
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Comments more than welcome!
David.
