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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A busy little week with the limitations of telehealth on full display. Clearly there are times when an actual physical doctor is a good thing!
The RACGP exam woes have also received a lot of discussion and comment!
Last my NBN connection has failed 10 times (at least) this week! When Optus was managing the same cable it went down once or twice a year and was faster. Go figure but I reckon Malcolm Turnbull really failed us all not telling Abbott to stick with the original plan!
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'We couldn't believe it': Woman bleeds to death in NSW hospital with no doctors on site
By Carrie Fellner
October 12, 2020 — 12.00am
A woman bled to death in the emergency department of a regional NSW hospital that had no doctors physically present because authorities had replaced face-to-face doctors with treatment via videolink outside business hours.
Doctors and patients have voiced anger and alarm over the moves to treat critically ill patients via teleconference in at least seven hospitals across the Western NSW Local Health District, which spans 31 per cent of NSW.
In another example of the practice, a non-verbal patient who turned up to an emergency department in central-western NSW was offered a video conference with a doctor in Switzerland.
Some postcodes targeted for the changes have large elderly and Indigenous populations and extremely high rates of disadvantage, with preventable deaths up to 31 per cent higher than the state average and mortality rates up to 94 per cent higher.
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/woman-dies-regional-hospital-following-use-telehealth
Woman dies at regional hospital following use of telehealth
Rural Doctors Association of Australia CEO Peta Rutherford says news of a woman's death during a telehealth consult at a rural NSW hospital was 'distressing'.
13th October 2020
RDAA CEO Peta Rutherford says an over reliance on telehealth in rural settings, will lead to more cases like the one in a regional NSW hospital recently. Dawn Trevitt, 66, died at Gulgong in mid-September during telehealth services with no doctor physically present.
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Telehealth review ordered after woman's death at NSW regional hospital
By Hugh Hogan and Joanna Woodburn
13 October 2020
The daughter of a woman who died at a small hospital in rural New South Wales says she was "mortified" her mother was taken to a facility with no doctors on site.
Key points:
- Dawn Trevitt died after being taken to Gulgong Multi-Purpose Service where there was no doctor present
- The Western NSW Local Health District has apologised to the family
- Gulgong residents call for the reinstatement of face-to-face doctor services
Dawn Trevitt, 66, died on September 15 after being taken to the Gulgong Multi-Purpose Service (MPS).
Her daughter, Hayley Olivares, told the ABC her mother died from a gastrointestinal rupture while receiving treatment from nurses and a doctor through telehealth.
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Health Minister vows to fix regional hospital crisis after tragic death
By Dana McCauley
October 15, 2020 — 8.37pm
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has promised to fix the crisis facing regional hospitals after a woman bled to death at a regional NSW hospital without a doctor on site, as experts call for significant additional funding to boost the rural health workforce.
Rural Doctors Association of Australia past president Adam Coltzau said he feared more people would die if governments did not resolve the rural doctor shortage after Dawn Trevitt, 66, suffered a fatal gastrointestinal bleed at Gulgong Hospital, near Mudgee, which had no doctors on site.
Mr Hunt said getting more doctors into rural hospitals was "right at the top of my list" and the federal government was working to boost the number of medical graduates who are training to become rural generalists; GPs based in country towns with special training to work in local hospitals.
Dr Coltzau said the workforce shortage was a longstanding problem exacerbated by the split in responsibility between state governments, which are responsible for hospitals, and the federal government, which funds general practice.
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/mortifying-drop-telehealth-consults-leaving-gps-risk-covid19
'Mortifying' drop off in telehealth consults leaving GPs at risk of COVID-19
Chair of the RACGP's NSW faculty Associate Professor Charlotte Hespe warns against complacency
16th October 2020
The infection of two GPs with SARS-CoV-2 is being described as a “cautionary tale” for doctors not to be complacent about COVID-19 testing or infection control.
A cluster linked to the A2Z Medical Centre in Sydney has now grown to 16 cases, with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian warning the state is on the verge of returning to July's infection levels.
The GP cases have been linked to a patient who also attended another GP practice on the same street and the Lakemba Radiology medical imaging centre across the road.
It remains unclear what PPE, if any, were being used by the GPs during the consults.
Their condition is also unknown.
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'Patients the losers' despite $17m lift for 'white elephant' medical costs website
By Dana McCauley
October 11, 2020 — 11.40pm
The federal government's decision to pour another $17 million into its medical costs finder website – dubbed a "white elephant" due to its failure to tell patients how much they will actually have to pay for procedures – has attracted scorn from patient groups and doctors.
A Health Department spokesman said the additional funding would be used to develop "the individual fee disclosure component" of the website it spent $2.5 million building last year, but that doctor participation would be voluntary.
Australian Patients Association chief executive Stephen Mason said the website was a white elephant that "won’t put an end to out-of-pocket bill shock for patients", and that the $17 million funding boost would not "improve fee transparency".
"We will be surprised if any additional doctors and specialists will voluntarily agree to sign up to list their fees," Mr Mason said. "So, again, patients are the losers."
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nsw-govt-requests-to-privacy-watchdog-climb-171-percent-554501
NSW govt requests to privacy watchdog climb 171 percent
By Justin Hendry on Oct 12, 2020 6:51AM
Coincides with state's digital push.
NSW’s privacy watchdog has experienced a 171 percent rise in the number of requests for privacy advice from agencies and ministers since the government's digital push began.
The Information and Privacy Commission (IPC) revealed the figure in its submission to the parliamentary inquiry into the government’s handling of cyber security last week.
“The IPC’s work volumes have increased significantly in response to the NSW government’s digital government strategy released in early 2017,” the submission states.
“Between 2015-16 and 2019-20 requests to the IPC for advice have increased by 171 percent.”
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Friday, 16 October 2020 09:27
Dark web sec firm lists more than 800 ransomware attacks in last 12 months
A total of 809 ransomware attacks have taken place in the last 12 months, according to DarkTracer, a company that develops a dark web intelligence platform.
The company created a graph to show the number of attacks for each group, with Maze beating the rest by a big margin, having been used in 262 attacks.
Well behind, was the Conti ransomware which was used in 122 attacks, followed by REvil or Sodinokibi (92), DoppelPaymer (81) and NetWalker (70).
Ransomware has become a massive problem for businesses over the period of the pandemic, with some attackers not even bothering to avoid hitting hospitals and other organisations which render aid to ill people.
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'Imminent crisis': Australia's next GPs distressed after tech failure hits major exam
October 11, 2020 — 2.55pm
Australia's next crop of GPs has been thrown into disarray after a major technical failure caused the last-minute cancellation of important exams, already moved online and rescheduled once because of COVID-19.
Exams that trainee GPs must pass to become qualified specialists were to take place on Friday and Saturday until a "significant technology failure" prevented people from participating in the first component, leaving more than 1200 candidates uncertain and distressed after months of preparation.
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners – the professional body that administers qualifications for GPs – blamed a third-party provider supplying online proctoring services to monitor candidates by webcam. The RACGP said the provider suffered a server outage that affected candidates' ability to log in and complete the 3½-hour exam on Friday.
"On Friday, we were unable to deliver the [Key Feature Problem] exam due to a significant technology failure. We know this does not meet the expectations we have of a good candidate experience," RACGP spokeswoman Genevieve Yates said.
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/racgp-pay-registrars-6m-refund-botched-exam
RACGP to pay registrars $6m refund for botched exam
In a statement today, the college said: ''We are sorry. We can and will do better'
13th October 2020
The RACGP says it has started paying refunds to the 1400 candidates hit by last Friday's IT meltdown during one of its high-stakes fellowship exams.
Following an emergency board meeting yesterday, it also announced it will hold resit exams later this year for the aborted Key Feature Problem exam as well as the Applied Knowledge Test, which was due to take place the following day.
Dates have yet to be set and the exact exam format and whether candidates will sit the exam at home or in dedicated test centres has not been made clear.
The college stressed there will be no cost to candidates to resit the exams within the next 18 months and a failed resit will not count as an exam attempt.
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http://medicalrepublic.com.au/trainees-call-out-callous-racgp-exam-response/35658
13 October 2020
Trainees call out ‘callous’ RACGP exam response
Education General Practice RACGP
Posted by Francine Crimmins
One victim of the RACGP exam blunder says only the Olympic team will be able to empathise with GP trainees’ experience – but at least they knew about the Games’ cancellation before they got to Tokyo.
For the more than 1000 GP trainees who logged on to complete their Key Feature Problem exam last week, which had already been delayed, after many months studying and significant expenses outlaid, the disappointment and disruption has been compounded by how long it took for the RACGP to communicate and acknowledge the problem.
The issues have been attributed to a fault with the proctored exam provider, Genix Ventures Pty Ltd, which was unable to deliver the videoconferencing technology required for the exams thanks to a server outage.
TMR understands that despite the RACGP contracting Genix to deliver the college’s past eight years of exams, a different provider will be used for the upcoming Remote Clinical Exam.
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http://medicalrepublic.com.au/soory-sever-isshu-racgp-was-warned-about-exam-problems/35702
14 October 2020
‘soory sever isshu’: RACGP was warned about exam problems
Posted by Francine Crimmins
Registrars say the RACGP had plenty of warning about a potentially catastrophic remote exam experience, weeks before the high-stakes fellowship exams were botched.
Serious concerns about the proctor exam service, contracted by the RACGP to Genix Ventures Pty Ltd, had been raised by candidates following a series of mock exams in September.
Grievances experienced in the mock exam included significant delays in logging on, being kicked out of the exam part-way through answering questions and being unable to contact RACGP support lines.
Candidates also reported having nonsensical conversations with the overseas exam proctors provided by the company, who used phrases such as “soory sever isshu” and “kingg pokas on the camera”.
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http://medicalrepublic.com.au/tech-failure-means-no-exam-for-gp-training/35823
16 October 2020
Tech failure means no exam for GP training
Posted by Francine Crimmins
Applicants for next year’s Australian General Practice Training intake won’t have to sit the Candidate Assessment and Applied Knowledge Test, with the RACGP unable to trust its remote examination platform.
The applicants, who were due to sit the CAAKT from Monday 19 October, will now progress straight to the final round of the selection process: interviews hosted by the various regional training organisations.
And all junior doctors who applied for the second intake will also receive a full refund of the $725 from the RACGP, which was paid for the AGPT selection process.
In more ordinary times, the selection process for the AGPT consists of three stages: a detailed application (which candidates have already submitted), a minimum score achieved on the CAAKT exam to progress to an interview, and finally an interview with an RTO.
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/doctors-fees-site-wins-more-govt-funding
Doctors' fees site wins more Govt funding
Despite criticism over its usefulness, the federal budget pledged a further $17 million for the Medical Costs Finder website
14th October 2020
The Federal Government is ploughing another $17 million into its controversial specialist fees website, after admitting efforts to promote the platform stalled due to the pandemic.
The new funding, revealed in 2020-21 federal budget papers, will be used to ‘enhance’ the Medical Costs Finder website, by including voluntary fee disclosure from specialists “to increase the transparency of out-of-pocket costs”.
“This will enable patients and their referring doctors to be more informed when choosing a specialist and help people to better understand the value in having PHI [private health insurance],” according to the budget papers.
The papers also reveal an education campaign to raise patient awareness of the website was paused “due to priorities shifting to the COVID-19 pandemic”.
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Parliament beefs up cyber security after two major attacks in 2019
By Katina Curtis and Anthony Galloway
October 15, 2020 — 11.00pm
Politicians and their staff face stricter rules around use of personal phones on parliamentary networks as it emerged a state actor was the likely culprit behind a second major cyber attack in 2019.
Parliamentary account holders were asked to stop using personal web email accounts on the network for a week after the sophisticated attempt to penetrate the system last October.
Senior government sources said the attack had the same threat indicators as the cyber security breach in February 2019, which could suggest China was behind the attack.
The Department of Parliamentary Services would not confirm this, with a spokeswoman saying the department did not publicly discuss security matters.
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https://news.wapha.org.au/better-health-together-strategic-plan-2020-2023/
Better Health, Together: Strategic Plan 2020-2023
13 Oct 2020
In this month’s Better Health, Together video, WA Primary Health Alliance CEO, Learne Durrington meets with General Manager Strategy and Engagement, Chris Kane to talk about our recently launched Strategic Plan 2020-2023, Better Health, Together.
The Plan builds upon the collaborative spirit and establishes an ongoing commitment to working with communities, working with primary health care providers and working with partners across the health system in Western Australia.
Listen to Chris and Learne talk about the key themes of the Plan, why the Plan marks a milestone for us, and what to expect from it.
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https://www.healthcareit.com.au/article/overview-australias-digital-health-landscape
An overview of Australia's digital health landscape
Dean Koh | 14 Oct 2020
Healthcare systems and providers – with notable exceptions - have been notoriously slow to adopt new digital technologies and innovations and to push forward on the road to digital maturity. All that changed almost overnight with the global COVID-19 pandemic - resistance to online healthcare receded, attitudes shifted, regulations were temporarily relaxed and the result was years of digital transformation happened in a matter of weeks or days.
The adoption of digital health services in Australia has been dramatically accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic – and in ways that nobody could have imagined: the key question, as for countries around the world, is how to maintain the momentum, build future resilience and drive the opportunity for innovation in new digitally-enabled models of care.
Titled Acceleration of Digital Health: An overview of Australia’s Digital Health landscape, this HIMSS eBook provides readers a broad overview of the country’s digital health developments and features highlights from the nine-episode HIMSS Australia Digital Dialogue Series.
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Australian and New Zealand scientists use AI to predict heart disease risk
The system has been developed to examine the retina of a person's eye.
By Aimee Chanthadavong | October 13, 2020 -- 02:10 GMT (13:10 AEDT) | Topic: Innovation
Scientists from the University of Melbourne and University of Otago have jointly developed and trained an artificial intelligence (AI) system to predict a person's risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) by looking at the retinas of their eyes.
The research flagged that examining retinal blood vessels to predict a patient's risk of CVD is not anything new, but the current software used to carry out the procedure is semi-automated and still requires human intervention.
In developing the system, the scientists trained the AI using more than 70,000 digital retinal photographs from 15 diverse multi-ethnic and multi-country datasets.
"Deep learning has the potential to transform clinical care in medical imaging fields … here we developed and validated a deep-learning CNN (SIVA-DLS) that specifically measured retinal-vessel calibre from retinal photographs," the research said.
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Calvary & Medibank to jointly deliver ‘My Home Hospital’ program in SA
Dean Koh | 14 Oct 2020
Earlier this month, not-for-profit, Catholic health care organization Calvary and private health insurance Medibank announced a joint venture as the service provider for the new My Home Hospital program in South Australia.
Commencing later in the year, My Home Hospital will deliver care in a patient’s own home, including residential care facilities, as a substitute for going to hospital. The service will be available for selected conditions and eligible public patients, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week across the metropolitan and outer suburbs of Adelaide.
Patients can be referred to My Home Hospital via several pathways including directly from the community via their GP, specialist or residential aged care facility. Patients may also be admitted directly from a hospital emergency department, allowing patients to return home for their care rather than be admitted to a physical hospital.
According to Wellbeing SA, currently 1.3% of health services delivered by all acute hospitals are at home. The My Home Hospital program will aim to increase this number to almost 5%.
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/practice/app-review-who-academy-coronavirus-resources-doctors
App Review: WHO Academy - coronavirus resources for doctors
Covering a broad range of COVID-19 management, it's a quick and efficient way to get information on your phone
15th October 2020
In March, the WHO surveyed 20,000 health workers across the world about what resources they wanted to help with their COVID-19 care.
The result was WHO Academy, an app for health professionals with a broad range of information: rapid reviews of potential treatments, details of current vaccine trials, a calendar of online seminars for doctors and recommendations on PPE and infection control.
Mapping COVID-19 cases and deaths is a popular worldwide endeavour, but many of the higher-tech versions only work on desktop computers.
This is one of the quickest and neatest ways to get this information on your smartphone.
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Meditation app promotes healthy minds
Friday, 09 October, 2020
To coincide with World Mental Health Day on 10 October, Healthy Minds Innovations (HMI) is encouraging Australians to download the Healthy Minds Program App — a free meditation app that can teach users to be more focused, calm and resilient.
The Healthy Minds Program uses neuroscience, contemplative traditions and skill-based learning methods to help develop skills for a healthy mind, guiding users through four pillars of science-based mind training: awareness, insight, connection and purpose (ACIP).
App users can choose traditional sitting meditations or active on-the-go meditations that can be conducted when walking, on the train or even driving. There are also meditations for dealing with stressors such as COVID-19.
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https://www.hinz.org.nz/news/530230/BI-apps-help-nurses-see-whats-happening-on-their-wards.htm
BI apps help nurses see what’s happening on their wards
Monday, 12 October 2020
eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth
Business intelligence apps and a dashboard are giving nurses and midwives visibility of what is happening on their wards at Capital and Coast DHB.
The DHB is implementing the national Care Capacity Demand Management (CCDM) programme, which is due to be fully rolled out to all DHBs by 2021.
The programme aims to ensure DHBs have the right mix and number of nursing staff on wards at any time in order to deliver care to patients, based on their acuity.
Capital and Coast TrendCare and CCDM programme manager Emma Williams says that in order to meet this aim, the DHB needed a much deeper understanding of the needs of patients and detailed insights about its nurses and midwives.
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https://seekingalpha.com/article/4379464-g-medical-innovations-ups-ipo-in-second-try
G Medical Innovations Ups IPO In Second Try
Oct. 16, 2020 2:30 PM ET
Summary
· G Medical Innovations is seeking $30 million in a U.S. IPO.
· The firm sells cardiac monitoring products and services.
· GMVD has suffered contracting revenue, has an uncertain future in a continuing Covid-19 environment and the IPO is excessively priced, so I'll pass.
Quick Take
G Medical Innovations (GMVD) has filed to raise $30 million in a U.S. IPO of its ordinary shares, according to an amended registration statement.
The company is commercializing cardiovascular monitoring solutions.
GMVD is suffering contracting revenue resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, has an uncertain future trajectory and the IPO appears significantly overpriced, so I'll watch this one pass by.
el Aviv, Israel-based G Medical was founded in 2014 to provide a suite of e-health software solutions and mobile monitoring devices that help clinicians increase the level of support and care while supporting preventative medicine.
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Asia Pacific Healthcare Providers Share Experiences at InterSystems Virtual Summit
Global Online Event in Multiple Time Zones Provides Free Education on How Digital Technologies Are Helping Healthcare Organisations Adapt to New Challenges
SYDNEY, Australia, October 13, 2020 – InterSystems, a creative data technology provider dedicated to helping customers solve the most critical scalability, interoperability, and speed problems, today announced that leading Asia Pacific healthcare organisations will show how digital technologies are helping them adapt to new challenges at the InterSystems Virtual Summit 2020.
Every year, the InterSystems Global Summit provides technology information and peer interaction. This year it takes the form of a virtual event with the theme of “adaptability”. Sessions starting from October 20 are scheduled in multiple time zones, so organisations around the world can easily participate, and attendance is free.
Noted experts are presenting on the topic of “Creating an Adaptive Organisation.” Dr. Bruce Walker, founding Director of the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard, will speak about the quest for a COVID vaccine and the need for agility in life sciences. Fiona Murray, the Associate Dean for Innovation and Inclusion at the MIT Sloan School of Management, will talk about “Innovation and Adaptation: Building a Resilient Organisation.”
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Mobile lifting robot transfers and rehabilitates patients
Wednesday, 07 October, 2020
Danish service-robot company PTR Robots has announced the release of its robot that can mobilise and transfer patients. Developed in partnership with healthcare professionals, the PTR Robot is reported to be the first mobile, intelligent robot solution that can flexibly move around in the healthcare and nursing sectors.
While it helps individuals with impaired functions to be transferred and rehabilitated, the robot also relieves the strain on staff, redirecting them from labour-intensive tasks. The PTR Robot also reduces the risk of infection, because only one caregiver needs to be present to perform a patient transfer.
The PTR Robot was developed and tested in close collaboration with Zealand University Hospital and Vonsildhave Nursing Home, operated by the nursing group Attendo.
“The testing of PTR Robots really impressed us,” Attendo Managing Director Søren Andersen said.
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ANDHealth’s New Normal: Redefining the way we work, just the way we have redefined commercialisation acceleration and incubation
2020 has been a year like no other. As the
structures and norms of our work and home lives have crumbled in the face of
the COVID-19 pandemic, we have also been given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
to rebuild and recreate a different type of workplace and a fundamentally
different employer-employee relationship.
Since inception, ANDHealth has had a flexible working policy, with our focus
being on open communication and outcomes. However; pre-COVID most members of
the team still preferred the office, which created a dichotomy between those
working remotely and the team members gathering together in the office. As a
CEO who worked remotely 50% of the time and who also had a hefty travel burden,
this impacted the relationship between myself and the team, but also the
relationships between full time office workers and other remote and part time
employees.
Our flexible working policies and embedded collaborative technology stack (not
to mention we were early adopters of Zoom) positioned us extremely well for a
swift pivot to fully remote working, and the outcomes achieved over the year
have embedded in us the belief that we can create our own “new normal” as we
(hopefully) move out of the pandemic itself.
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Fletcher statement diminishes ACCC authority on NBN
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will have to provide a formal response to Communication Minister Paul Fletcher’s statement of expectations, lodged with the regulator this week.
The statement made clear Fletcher wants better lines of communication between the government and the watchdog on telecommunications issues and is also keen on the ACCC applying a more formal building block approach to regulation.
The statement, the first such statement for telecommunications regulation, was published on Thursday by telecoms news and analysis newsletter Communications Day after being delivered to ACCC chief Rod Sims earlier this week.
The statement borders on specific government directions to the ACCC, which tramples on its rights as an independent regulator and as such diminishes its authority.
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Comms Minister tackles ACCC's NBN interventions with a 'statement of expectations'
By Ry Crozier on Oct 15, 2020 11:18AM
Pushing government's position on telco issues.
Communications Minister Paul Fletcher has issued a ‘statement of expectations’ for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), particularly aimed at how it might treat NBN Co in future regulation.
The ACCC is an independent Commonwealth statutory authority that comes under the portfolio responsibilities of The Treasury, rather than the department of infrastructure, transport, regional development and communications, where communications portfolio responsibilities live.
Nevertheless, Fletcher issued the statement of expectations “so that the government can clearly set out its priorities and perspectives for the independent regulator to take account of as it goes about its work.”
He said the timing was “opportune” and that it was “common practice for federal or state ministers to issue a statement of expectations to a regulator.”
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nbn-co-teams-up-with-csiro-to-probe-nations-digital-needs-554594
NBN Co teams up with CSIRO to probe nation's digital needs
By Matt Johnston on Oct 13, 2020 11:57AM
Collaborating on national research projects.
NBN Co and the CSIRO have joined forces to better understand and prepare for Australia’s evolving digital capability needs through a series of national research projects.
The collaboration, announced on Tuesday morning, is set to combine the network builder’s knowledge of broadband traffic patterns with the national science agency’s analysis and modelling capabilities.
The first research project under the partnership seeks to develop a better understanding of the skills, infrastructure and other support structures industries need to increase the adoption of digital technologies.
CSIRO’s digital arm, Data61, will perform the initial analysis using “aggregated and de-identified” NBN broadband traffic data which, along with other economic, demographic and geographic data, will be used to explore how households and businesses have used digital technologies for work, entertainment and social connections during the coronavirus health crisis, NBN Co said.
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Sunday, 11 October 2020 05:54
Union slams NBN Co over paying senior staff six-figure salaries
The union that represents workers and contractors at NBN Co has described as "appalling" the fact that three-quarters of the staff are senior employees who earn six-figure salaries, while hundreds of jobs at base levels have been slashed.
Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union national president Shane Murphy said: "It's disgraceful that NBN Co are slashing hundreds of base level jobs whilst senior staff continue to pocket massive salaries.
"The announcement to axe 800 jobs was made in July – with many of those job losses to impact on essential network design and construction jobs.
"The Federal Government's NBN Co is axing over 800 jobs at a time when Australians are relying on the service more than ever, not to mention that we're in the middle of a national unemployment crisis.
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Enjoy!
David.
