-----
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.
-----
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=883108248390603&story_fbid=3404398049594931
Health Consumers NSW
June
27, 2020
Consumer
rep needed for SNPHN MHR Test Bed Project Advisory Committee
Who:
Sydney North Primary Health Network (SNPHN)
Deadline: Monday, 6 July 2020
Be
a consumer representative on the SNPHN My Health Record Test Bed Project
Advisory Committee
-----
http://medicalrepublic.com.au/fear-and-loathing-in-the-emerging-tele-verse/30809
27 June 2020
Fear and loathing in the emerging tele-verse
Funding Practice Management Telehealth
Posted by Jeremy
Knibbs
Telehealth,
though nominally a temporary fix of the pandemic, is revealing deep rifts in
the general practice community over where the profession goes from here and how
When
senior lobbyists in the GP community managed to convince the federal government
to unleash telehealth in the name of saving both patients and general practice
from impending COVID-19 mayhem, there seemed to be a universal sigh of relief
from the GP community. Sure, telehealth was introduced without any preparation
for patients or GPs, and that was always going to lead to some short term
issues, some of which were even telegraphed. But in general, the GP
community seemed almost wholly onside.
But
just a few months in, and with time for certain well capitalised (and
organised) groups to re-adjust their businesses around the new regime to
harvest low hanging consults, often redirecting them away from where they would
have normally gone, the stress seems to be starting to seriously divide the GP
community on the future of telehealth.
Surprisingly,
given the initial positioning by the major lobbying groups, some GPs appear to
taking the position that telehealth should be returned almost entirely to the
pre-pandemic regime.
https://wolandscat.net/2020/06/24/towards-a-standard-analysis-of-computable-guidelines-clinical-workflow-decision-support-and-the-curly-braces-problem/
Towards a standard analysis of computable guidelines,
clinical workflow, decision support and … the curly braces problem
Posted on 24/06/2020 by wolandscat
Why
don’t we have widespread clinical decision support (CDS), computable
guidelines, clinical workflow (plans), and why don’t the pieces we do have talk
to the health record? The first time I heard such challenges framed was around
2000, and even at that moment there were experts who had been working on modern
versions of the problem for at least a decade, not to mention earlier
generations of ‘classical’ AI systems such as MYCIN. So it’s not for lack of
time.
After
20 years of staying out of this particular kitchen, I took the plunge in 2015,
with a number of projects including Activity-Based Design at Intermountain
Healthcare, a major openEHR development project called Task Planning (partly
funded by Better.care in central
Europe and DIPS in Norway),
as well as some minor involvement in recent OMG BPM+ activities. We already had
within the openEHR community the Guideline
Definition Language (GDL), a fully operational decision support
capability originally developed by Rong Chen at Cambio in Sweden (resources site). This provided
us with a lot of useful prior experience for building a next generation
combined plan/guideline facility.
Here
I will talk about what I think has been conceptually missing for so long.
-----
https://www.hinz.org.nz/news/514093/Industry-contracts-should-ensure-data-sharing---report.htm
Industry contracts should ensure data sharing - report
Tuesday,
23 June 2020
eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth
Implementation of national standards is key to the
creation of a modern health system and contracts with health information system
providers should include clear data obligations, the Health and Disability
System Review says.
The new government report says secure exchange of health information must “become a
consistent characteristic of New Zealand’s health system” and key to this is
the creation and implementation of standards.
“National standardised datasets and interoperability
standards should be agreed and implemented so that data flows across the system
and supports better clinical outcomes, empowered consumers, and data-driven
decision-making,” it says.
Contracts with providers should include the clear
expectation that data will be “more routinely and consistently shared with
consumers, other providers, policy makers and those responsible for ensuring
the system performs well and meets population health needs”.
-----
https://digitalhealth.org.au/blog/national-effort-on-post-covid-response/
Survey - National effort on post-COVID response
As
the health system settles into a new rhythm and moves beyond the pandemic
curve, many of us are asking how can we be better prepared for the future?
How can we learn from the past six months and be ready for the inevitable
challenges ahead?
Members
have made it clear they want to see telehealth and virtual care the business
“norm”.
No
one wants to lose momentum at this critical point. It was heartening to read
the Government has announced funding for Australian researchers to develop
digital health infrastructure.
-----
https://www.digitalhealth.gov.au/news-and-events/news/media-release-get-a-healthy-start-to-the-new-financial-year
Media release - Get a healthy start to the new
financial year
25
June, 2020: ADHA Propaganda
Logged
into MyGov to do your tax? Click onto My Health Record, update your information
and get a healthy start to the new financial year.
The
22.77 million Australians with a My Health Record are encouraged to use tax
time as a reminder to make sure their health information is up to date.
“Tax
time is the perfect time to update your My Health Record details and make sure
your vital health information is always available to you and your authorised
healthcare providers,” according to Agency Interim CEO Bettina McMahon.
“It
makes perfect sense to store key information including a shared health summary,
information about allergies, medicines list, immunisations, pathology reports
and more in your My Health Record.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/google-news-payments-wont-cover-search/news-story/2f083c8eea67cc0a4f051eab7013397f
Google news payments won’t cover search
David Swan
·
10:52PM June 26, 2020
Despite reaching agreements with multiple publishers Google
Australia has confirmed it will not pay for news that appears in its searches,
with the company’s boss Melanie Silva declaring that news publications derive
enough value from the clicks they receive from Google.
Google on Thursday night announced it had landed agreements with a number of publishers to
license news content, including in Australia, in an about-face that shows the tech
giant is ready to begin paying for news. The company has reached agreements
with Adelaide-based local newspaper publisher Solstice Media, Schwartz Media
and The Conversation, as well as Germany’s Spiegel Group, publisher of Der
Spiegel; and Brazilian media company Diarios Associados.
In a briefing with The Australian on Friday, Ms Silva said however
that the agreements would be limited to a new app that Google will launch later
next year and won‘t cover news snippets that appear in Google’s web searches.
“This is a completely new product, where we’re paying for a much
richer storytelling experience,” she told The Australian. “We’re paying for
access to content that makes it behind a paywall, but it’s a completely
different product to search.
-----
https://itwire.com/technology-regulation/google-announces-deal-to-pay-for-news-in-australia,-brazil-and-germany.html
Friday, 26 June 2020 05:41
Google announces deal to pay for news in Australia,
Brazil and Germany
By Sam Varghese
Search
behemoth Google has announced a licensing program to pay publishers in Germany,
Brazil and Australia for what it describes as a "new news experience
launching later this year".
Brad
Bender, the company's vice-president of Product Management in the news
division, said in a blog post on Thursday, that
the company had signed agreements with local and national publications in the
three countries mentioned.
He
said where available, Google would also offer to pay for free access so users
could use paywalled content.
Nine
Entertainment's The Age said Australian Community Media, which owns more than 100
regional titles, was in talks with Google about the deal while Schwartz Media,
publisher of The Saturday Paper, Private Media,
the publisher of Crikey and Solstice Media's InDaily and InQueensland had already signed
deals.
News
Corporation, one of the companies at the forefront of pushing digital platforms
to pay for the use of Australian content, was not convinced by Google's
initiative.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/code-to-rein-in-fake-data-spread/news-story/694b1121a8ea7c393b38b447344e4814
Code to rein in fake data spread
David Swan
·
9:20AM June 26, 2020
The tech giants will be subject to a misinformation and news
quality code of practice by the end of the year, following new plans outlined
by the Australian watchdog.
The government has tasked the Australian Communications and Media
Authority with developing a new voluntary code in a bid to reduce the impact of
fake news and misinformation on platforms including Twitter and Facebook.
The code would make social media giants responsible for
misinformation and fake news, in the same way that Australian media
organisations are bound by regulatory requirements for journalistic ethics and
accuracy in news and reporting.
It comes as fake news about the COVID-19 pandemic continues to run
rampant online. Forty-eight per cent of Australians rely on online news or
social media as their main source of news. But 64 per cent of Australians are
concerned about what is real or fake on the internet.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/technology/google-to-wipe-data-on-new-accounts-after-18-months-20200625-p555x2.html
Google to wipe data on new accounts after 18 months
By Daisuke Wakabayashi
June 25, 2020 — 5.47am
After
years of criticism about how it keeps a record of what people do online, Google
said it would start automatically deleting location history and records of web
and app activity as well as voice recordings on new accounts after 18 months.
The
limited change, announced on Wednesday (US time), comes after Google introduced
an option last year to allow users to automatically delete data related to
their web searches, requests made with the company's virtual assistant and
their location history. At the time, it offered users the ability to erase the
data after three months or 18 months.
The
policy sets Google accounts to delete that data by default on new accounts,
instead of requiring users to go into the product's settings to change to an
option to delete. The settings on existing accounts will remain unchanged.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/business/small-business/how-technology-damages-your-mental-health-20200625-p5564s.html
How technology damages your mental health
By James
Adonis
June 26, 2020 — 12.00am
The
greatest cause of absenteeism isn't the flu, a physical ailment or a sneaky
sickie. And the greatest cause of underperformance isn’t a lack of motivation
or inadequate training. In each case the leading culprit is poor mental health.
While
there are many factors contributing to this worsening trend, one factor has
particularly caught the eye of researchers: the use of technology.
In
a comprehensive
analysis to be published soon in the Australian Journal of
Management, a research team led by the University of Sydney began with the
premise that work can be good for health, as per earlier empirical evidence
I’ve shared in
this column. But in reviewing every credible study on this topic,
they’ve discovered technology can also be the source of considerable harm.
It’s
difficult to understate the ubiquity of technology, especially when taking into
account the prevalence of automation, robotics, digitisation, artificial
intelligence, machine learning and myriad other advancements rendering many
jobs redundant.
-----
Published: 25
Jun 2020
https://www.seek.com.au/job/50140969?type=standout
Senior Program Officer
Australian Digital Health Agency
About
the business
The
Australian Digital Health Agency is responsible for national digital health
services and systems, with a focus on engagement, innovation and clinical
quality and safety. Our focus is on putting data and technology safely to work
for patients, consumers and the healthcare professionals who look after them.
About
the role
The
Senior Program Officer will be responsible for developing accurate and useful
knowledge management articles to support Contact Centre staff in their daily
activities. The role will see you provide operational policy and procedural
advice to the Contact Centre and other teams, as well as analyse data, operator
error trends and user experience to support continuous improvement
processes.
You
will use your experience to assist, train and support staff within the sector
and to work collaboratively and productively with both internal and external
stakeholders.
Skills
and experience
The
ideal candidate will have experience working within a complex business service
delivery environment and will have well-developed analytical, research skills
and problem solving ability. You will have excellent organisational skills,
including the ability to manage multiple tasks, and will have strong written
and oral communication skills.
Please
email careers@digitalhealth.gov.au
to request a copy of the Position Description.
-----
https://itwire.com/government-tech-policy/republicans-follow-in-australia-s-encryption-law-footsteps.html
Republicans follow in Australia's encryption law
footsteps
By Sam Varghese
Three
politicians from the US Republican Party have introduced a bill in the Senate
that would make it mandatory for technology companies to help break encryption if
it would aid law enforcement in enforcing a warrant.
Named
the Lawful
Access to Encrypted Data Act, the bill was introduced by Lindsey
Graham, chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, Tom Cotton and Marsha
Blackburn.
In
effect, the bill seeks the same outcome as the encryption law passed by
Australia in 2018. There are three ways listed in this law by which the
authorities can get industry to aid in gaining access to encrypted material. A
technical assistance request (TAR) allows for voluntary help by a company; in
this case, its staff would be given civil immunity from prosecution.
An
interception agency can issue a technical assistance notice (TAN) to make a
communications provider offer assistance.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/why-i-refuse-to-monitor-my-employees-at-home/news-story/ab896c0adc36fa3fd632acc44bfaad88
‘Why I refuse to
monitor my employees at home’
Joel
McInnes
·
1:15PM June 24, 2020
Over the last 12 weeks, the world as we know it has stopped
existing. Seemingly overnight, we have been forced to live in ways we never
anticipated -- let alone expected. And as we slowly come out of lockdown, in
many ways the world awaiting us is irrevocably different to the one we left
behind in March.
The way we work now is arguably one of -- if not the --
biggest change we’ve had to adapt to during and post-COVID-19. As working from
home has gone from a nice-to-have to a must, companies and managers have been
forced to contend with a new reality that demands a new skill set, adjusted
expectations and a much more flexible and compassionate approach to managing
employees.
Unfortunately, instead of adjusting their expectations in the face
of such adversity, some organisations are planning to, or have already
installed, software that tracks their employees‘ work hours and movements;
which websites they are visiting, when and for how long; and in some cases,
even tracking the location of employees by installing complementary apps on
their phones.
-----
https://www.ausdoc.com.au/opinion/humble-qr-code-gets-virus-tracking-role
The humble QR code gets a virus tracking role
Antony Scholefield
15th June
2020
Yes,
we’re still talking contact-tracing apps.
Not
Australia’s COVIDSafe app, but its new cousin over the ditch, called NZ COVID
Tracer, which is taking a different approach to monitoring our unknown
acquaintances.
Australia’s
app, like the Singaporean app TraceTogether
on which it was based, records Bluetooth ‘handshakes’ between phones running
the same app that come within 1.5m or so of one another.
The
owner of the phone, should they be diagnosed with the virus, can agree to
release the record of these contacts to public health authorities.
But
what the New Zealand version will do is give businesses a QR code (the square
digital code you get on SMS tickets and boarding passes) to stick outside their
premises.
Kiwis
will use their phone to scan the code and create a record of places they’ve
visited.
If
they are diagnosed with COVID-19, the country’s National Close Contact Service
will ask them to read out the list of locations — so the information never
leaves the phone digitally.
-----
https://itwire.com/security/what-price-privacy.html
Wednesday, 24 June 2020 17:44
What price privacy?
By Stephen Withers
Consumers
put a premium on privacy, but don't realise how little they have, a new report
suggests.
A
new report from identity management specialist Okta looked at the state of
digital identity in Australia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United
Kingdom, and the United States.
"Our
survey suggests that consumers around the world have only a vague understanding
of how much of their data is being tracked, where, when, and by which
organisations," the report concludes.
For example,
39% of Australians do not think online retailers collect data about their
purchase history, and 45% do not think their social media posts are being
tracked by social media companies.
-----
--------
Forwarded Message --------
Subject: Notice of Planned EOI Release
Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2020
06:08:06 +0000
From: HSNSW-HealthTechnologyContracts
<HSNSW-HealthTechnologyContracts@health.nsw.gov.au>
HealthShare,
on behalf of eHealth NSW, plans to release an open Expression of Interest (EOI)
for the State-wide Single Digital Patient Record (SDPR) Initiative in Q3 2020.
The
SDPR initiative is envisaged to be the vehicle to drive the modernisation and
transformation of the NSW Health Electronic Medical Record (EMR), Patient
Administration System (PAS) and Laboratory Information Management Systems
(LIMS) environments across the NSW Public Health System.
-----
https://mycollege.acrrm.org.au/search/find-college-event/details?id=20386&title=ACRRM%2BWebinar%2B-%2BAn%2BIntroduction%2Bto%2BePrescribing%2B-%2BThu%2B25%2BJune%2B2020&utm_source=country%20watch&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=18%20June%2020
ACRRM Webinar - An Introduction to ePrescribing - Thu
25 June 2020
Register
Date:
Thursday 25 June 2020 at 7:00pm AEST
ACRRM
has been working closely with the Australian Digital Health Agency (Agency) and
the Department of Health to support the implementation of electronic
prescriptions. This webinar will help rural doctors to understand and plan for
the new ePrescribing system. Commonwealth PBS regulations had been changed to
recognise an electronic prescription as a legal alternative to a paper
prescription. Most states and territories have also made changes to their
poisons and therapeutic goods (or equivalent) legislation to recognise the form
of an electronic prescription; the two remaining states (South Australia and
Queensland) are likely to have progressed their changes by early July.
Dr
Andrew Jamieson will host the event. College Medical Educators: Dr Carmon Guy,
Dr Naomi Houston, Dr Trevor Burchall, Dr Elise Ly will be joined by Brian
Spooner (Adoption and Clinical Use Lead) and Andrew Matthews (Director,
Medicines Safety Program) from the Australian Digital Health Agency and
take questions from the webinar participants.
-----
https://www.digitalhealth.gov.au/news-and-events/news/media-release-healthcare-providers-use-of-technology-surges-in-the-face-of-covid-19
Media release - Healthcare providers use of technology
surges in the face of COVID-19
23
June, 2020: ADHA Propaganda
New data
released today by the Australian Digital Health Agency shows another big lift
in the use of the My Health Record system across pharmacies, GP’s and now
public hospitals as Australian healthcare providers accelerate their use of
technology during COVID-19.
As
pharmacies took advantage of changes made in March to allow medicines to be
dispensed based on an electronic prescription, pharmacies registered for the My
Health Record also increased from 91% to 97% in May and the viewing and their
uploading also increased from 69% to 78%. GPs similarly had a big increase in
viewing and uploading from 73% to 82%. The result is that more than 8 million
medicine documents have been uploaded by healthcare providers like pharmacists
and GPs, increasing the total medicine documents to more than 136 million.
And
the May data also shows that more than 90% of Public Hospitals are now using
the system with 5.2 million more clinical documents uploaded by hospitals,
pathologists or radiologists increasing the total clinical
documents to more than 70 million.
-----
https://www.innovationaus.com/apply-ai-to-the-tech-capability-audit/
Apply AI to the tech capability audit
Marie
Johnson
Contributor
24 June 2020
Albert
Einstein famously said, “we cannot solve our problems with the
same thinking we used when we created them.” And if ever there was a need for
new thinking to attack intractable problems, the government’s “urgent” ICT
capability audit is a candidate hiding in plain sight.
Over
the past two decades, the issue of ICT capability has been a long-admired
problem across all levels of government. And at the Commonwealth level – the
search for findings involves traversing many agencies, core governance
structures of government and even the Parliament itself.
The
Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has extensive holdings of many damning
cyber, audit and performance reports, and in my opinion the ANAO does excellent
work.
In
addition to this and over a number of years, the Australian Public Service
Commission has undertaken Agency Capability Reviews” “…because the public
service had experienced significant failures in delivery resulting from
problems in risk management at multiple points across organisational systems.”
-----
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=d41583a8-2efb-4f2a-9aa3-62e69a6e7928
Your Digital Identity: GovPass expands to include
private sector companies and biometric capabilities as project moves forward
Gilbert + Tobin
Private
companies are a step closer to being able to seek accreditation to join the
Australian Government’s digital identity scheme, ‘GovPass’ under the latest
version of the project’s governing documents, the Trusted Digital Identity Framework (TDIF)
released on 4 May 2020.
Version
4 of the TDIF, which will now remain current until July 2022, was released as
the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) prepares to test the biometric
component of the program and signals the potential for the Commonwealth to
monetise the use of the scheme by state and territory service providers as well
as private companies.
What
is GovPass?
GovPass
refers to the Australian Government’s digital identity initiative, a multi-departmental
program of work including policy and system design as well as technology
development. The project is aimed at providing ‘whole of government’ digital
identity credentials to Australians for use in accessing government services.
GovPass
allows individuals to choose to merge separate digital identities maintained
across a patchwork of service specific identity verification systems utilised
by government departments and agencies. The result is a single digital identity
recognised by all accredited services and protected by the minimum security and
privacy standards that participating organisations are required to meet and
maintain in order to participate.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/hackers-push-the-world-to-the-brink-of-cold-war-2-0-20200624-p555jn.html
Hackers push the world to the brink of Cold War 2.0
By James Cook
June 24, 2020 — 10.02am
It
was 9am on Friday when Scott Morrison made an unexpected and startling
admission. In televised remarks to the nation's 25 million people, the Prime
Minister said Australia was under attack from a foreign power.
It
was not an attack involving fighter jets, missiles or warships but through a
relentless swarm of cyber hacks, unleashed on different arms of the government.
"Australia's
organisations are currently being targeted by a sophisticated, state-based
cyber actor," Morrison said.
Healthcare
trusts, political groups, educational organisations and the country's national
infrastructure had been under digital attack from hackers looking to use
security weaknesses to peer inside their networks, the government said.
-----
https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/my-health-record-tickets-110568146302
Jul 24
My Health Record
by
Casey Cardinia Libraries ADHA Propaganda
Free
On Sale
26/06/2020 at 12:00 am
