-----
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 were dated
6 December, 2018 and we have seen none since! Its pretty sad!
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.theaustralian.com.au/nation/new-legal-battle-brews-against-google/news-story/f2889cdba1e23f0cfd57aeb960b73e4b
New legal battle brews against Google
Angelica
Snowden
·
7:58AM January 30, 2021
Australian small businesses are set to wage a fresh legal battle
against Google, claiming the tech giant is turning a blind eye to “click fraud”
because it benefits financially from it.
Melbourne lawyer Mark Stanarevic said his firm, Matrix Legal, had
been approached by a number of small businesses over the past year concerned
about the practice that occurs when a bot imitates a legitimate user and clicks
on an ad — driving up the cost of advertising because it is based on a
pay-per-click system.
“We have been approached by a number of clients over the last 12
months with concerns of ‘ghost’ clicking and potential (AdWords) frauds by a
number of small businesses,” Mr Stanarevic said.
“These small businesses spend upwards of tens of thousands of
dollars a year in advertising and it seems Google has a strong monopoly in
regards to this market.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/it-s-a-bad-deal-google-s-offer-to-pay-french-publishers-revealed-20210129-p56xr6.html
‘It’s a bad deal’: Google’s offer to pay French
publishers revealed
January 29, 2021 — 5.07pm
Google
has agreed to pay 120 French media companies €90 million ($142 million) over
three years to participate in its new journalism product, in a sign its
proposal to sidestep new Australian regulations may fall short of publisher
expectations.
Industry
sources told The
Sydney Morning Herald and The Age Google would pay some of France’s
biggest publishers between €25 million and €30 million a year to participate in
its soon-to-launch Google News Showcase product.
The
revelation comes as Google attempts to convince the federal government the
Showcase product would be a better way to pay media companies for news in
Australia, as it fights back against tough new government proposals to regulate
its relationships with publishers.
The
government’s new media bargaining code, deemed “unworkable” by Google and
Facebook, would force the two digital giants into binding commercial agreements
to pay Australian news businesses or risk steep fines of up to 10 per cent of
their annual revenues. It will be debated again by a Senate committee next
week.
-----
https://www.zdnet.com/article/apple-ceo-sounds-warning-of-algorithms-pushing-society-towards-catastrophe/
Apple CEO sounds warning of algorithms pushing society
towards catastrophe
Tim Cook says there will be consequences to having 'rampant
disinformation and conspiracy theories juiced by algorithms'.
By Chris
Duckett | January 29, 2021 -- 00:38 GMT (11:38 AEDT) | Topic: Security
Apple CEO Tim Cook has said it is time to face the consequences of
having algorithms push users towards more engagement at any cost.
Speaking at the Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection conference on Thursday,
Cook said too many companies are asking what they can get away with, rather
than what happens if they follow through on boosting metrics.
"At a moment of rampant disinformation and conspiracy
theories juiced by algorithms, we can no longer turn a blind eye to a theory of
technology that says all engagement is good engagement -- the longer the better
-- and all with the goal of collecting as much data as possible," he said.
"What are the consequences of seeing thousands of users join
extremist groups, and then perpetuating an algorithm that recommends even
more?"
Cook touched on the recent US Capitol riots in Washington, saying the time was over to pretend there are no
costs to boosting conspiracy theories and incitements to violence simply
because users get engaged.
-----
https://www.itwire.com/technology-regulation/google-directly-appealing-to-australian-google-search-users-over-news-media-code.html
Friday, 29 January 2021 10:29
Google directly appealing to Australian Google Search
users over News Media code
By Alex
Zaharov-Reutt
Google
is displaying a notice to Australian Google search users whenever they do a
Google search, which leads to a YouTube video featuring Mel Silva, the MD of
Google Australia, stating there is "a workable news code that doesn’t
break Google Search."
With
Google the most popular search engine in the world, despite the efforts of
Bing, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Yahoo and others, Google effectively has a direct
line to tens of millions of Australian eyeballs, whenever they search for
something online.
You've
probably already seen Google's notice, which I've embedded an image of below.
The
notice states:
"Google
Search is in the news
"You may have heard about a proposed law. We are willing to pay to support
journalism."
"Hear
our proposal"
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/what-to-know-about-tech-in-2021/news-story/a298df38d4ecab2f28ce1c94741314f7
What to know about tech
in 2021
Gary O’Brien
·
January 29, 2021
2020 will long be remembered as the year that disrupted every
corner or our lives and left a path of destruction in its wake. Australian
businesses have been hit hard, despite our market fairing comparatively well.
Now, talk of recovery has sparked cautious and, in some cases, desperate
optimism for 2021.
But the relief we’re hoping for may not come soon enough for some,
with the UN anticipating more obstacles ahead as the fallout of COVID-19
continues to wreak economic havoc. Business leaders need to be prepared for
continued disruption in 2021.
If decision makers have learned anything from the last year it’s
that technology is at the core of building stronger organisational resilience,
by stabilising operations and developing capabilities to respond quickly to the
changing market landscape.
It’s been a lesson learned the hard way for some, but the
businesses that are still standing and finding success in the mid-pandemic
economy are those which have accelerated technology’s injection from the IT
department into the boardroom as the core foundation of their strategy. These
same organisations are now making the right capability investments and clearly
prioritising initiatives that will see them through the ‘new normal’ – and they
have the agility to adapt to whatever 2021 serves up.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/accc-faces-tough-task-reining-in-googles-ad-tech-power/news-story/2791ac9109672699bf1106f5754827a5
ACCC faces tough task
reining in Google’s ad tech power
John Durie
·
8:29PM January 28, 2021
The ACCC ad tech report shows how Google dominates the $9bn ad
tech market, which is a bit like saying the Pope is a Catholic — the real test
is how to open up the market to make it more competitive. That is the task
ahead of Rod Sims at the ACCC and his global peers because, as he notes in the
report, it is a global issue but the solutions are a lot tougher because of the
complexity involved.
The debate over the media bargaining code is a walk in the park by
comparison because the issue there is basic theft, whereas the lines are more
blurred in ad tech.
The practical outcome is no less serious with the aim being to
open the market to competition.
The European Commission is the most litigious antitrust regulator,
but last month it flagged a series of rules to control the adtech market, which
meant simply writing rules to tell Google and Facebook do this and don’t do
that.
Two years ago, Google’s DoubleClick blocked access to customer
IDs, which meant advertisers had no idea who was looking at which websites at
what location.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/online-micro-credentials-ideal-for-learning-on-the-job/news-story/85be6609df29d3f5446909a5e3ff6e85
Online micro credentials ideal for learning on the job
Cameron
Botterill found a digital health ideal for honing his skills as ICT director
for business growth and innovation at Australian Red Cross Lifeblood. Aaron
Francis/The Australian
Jill Rowbotham
·
6:34PM January 28, 2021
Cameron Botterill’s first degree was a bachelor of science in
molecular genetics followed by honours in pathology, which set him up nicely
for his 21-year career at Australian Red Cross Lifeblood, where he is ICT
director for business growth and innovation.
The clue is in his title: he is a classic lifelong learner, so
there have been many other courses, most recently a Digital Health Strategy and
Change microcredential from RMIT Online. It has the potential, combined with
another short online course, of making him eligible to enrol in a graduate
certificate of digital health.
Lifeblood, as the venerable institution now styles itself, is more
than a blood bank: among its other activities are organ matching and tissue
typing, and it also banks breastmilk for very premature babies and is about to
establish a microbiots bank to contribute to the new push for gut health. And
the drive to encourage more donors is unrelenting.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/marking-its-own-homework-accc-weighs-up-action-against-google-for-alleged-anti-competitive-conduct-20210128-p56xft.html
‘Marking its own homework’: ACCC weighs up action
against Google for alleged anti-competitive conduct
January 28, 2021 — 5.55pm
The
competition regulator is considering enforcement action against tech giant
Google over allegations it is wielding its dominance in the $3.4 billion
digital advertising technology market to stifle rivals.
The
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is also examining whether
further regulation is needed to address concerns Google is leveraging its power
to “self-preference” its own products and further consolidate its business.
“Many
companies are complaining that Google is marking its own homework regarding the
effectiveness of the ads it supplies,” ACCC chair Rod Sims said.
“This
includes Google very often acting on behalf of both publishers and advertisers
for the same ad sale across the ad tech supply chain, while also selling its
own ad inventory.”
-----
https://nwmphn.org.au/news/digital-health-specialist-toolkit-now-available/
Digital Health Specialist Toolkit now available
28 January 2021
The Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) have
published the Digital Health Specialist Toolkit at specialist-toolkit.digitalhealth.gov.au
This
toolkit will assist the growing number of medical specialists who are using
digital health tools such as My Health Record, electronic prescriptions, secure
messaging and telehealth platforms. It includes fact sheets, how-to guides,
videos, FAQs and continuing professional development modules for specialists.
The
toolkit was developed following extensive consultation with:
- The Australian Medical Association
- The Royal Australasian College of
Physicians
- The Royal Australasian College of
Surgeons
- The Cardiac Society of Australia and
New Zealand
- Australian Association of Practice
Management
- The Australian College of Rural and
Remote Medicine.
It
is designed to support specialists and their practice teams to adopt digital
health tools and become digital health ambassadors for their patients.
-----
https://www.health.gov.au/news/acting-chief-medical-officer-professor-michael-kidds-interview-on-4bc-breakfast-on-26-january-2021
Acting Chief Medical Officer, Professor Michael Kidd's
interview on 4BC Breakfast on 26 January 2021
Read the
transcript of Acting Chief Medical Officer, Professor Michael Kidd's interview
on 4BC Breakfast on 26 January 2021 about coronavirus (COVID-19).
Date
published: 28 January 2021
Media event
date: 26 January 2021
Media
type: Transcript
Audience: General
public
NEIL
BREEN:
I've
got the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Professor Michael Kidd, on the line to
explain. Good morning to you, Professor.
MICHAEL
KIDD:
Good
morning, Neil.
NEIL
BREEN:
It
was an exciting day, wasn't it?
MICHAEL
KIDD:
It
was a very welcome announcement, absolutely.
NEIL
BREEN:
The
plan for the roll-out - okay, I look at the numbers and they're eye watering.
You've got 80,000 a week to start with, okay we'll eventually get more; then
the Government's talking about four million by April. How on earth are you
going to get needles into the arms of four million in a short space of time?
MICHAEL
KIDD:
Well,
you're exactly right. This is the largest mass immunisation programme in our
nation's history. But, there has been a lot of work happening over recent
months to prepare the nation to get the vaccines out and administered as
quickly as possible. Clearly, what we're aiming to do with those people in the
initial priority group is to protect the people who are most at risk, and
particularly those who are most at risk of serious disease and deaths related
to COVID-19 which, of course, includes the residents of aged care facilities
and disability care facilities around the country. But, there's been a lot of
work happening between the Australian government and with the states and
territories identifying the initial hubs around the country where the Pfizer
vaccine will be sent to, and from those hubs, people will either be coming to
those hubs to receive their vaccines or the vaccine in smaller amounts will be
transported out in the special containers to the residential aged care and
disability care facilities to provide coverage to the residents and the staff.
-----
https://wildhealth.net.au/the-unexpected-rise-of-the-qr-code/
The unexpected rise of the QR code
January 28,
2021 Clare Watson
The COVID-19
pandemic has resurrected an almost defunct technology in QR codes, raising
fresh privacy concerns for the security of personal data collected.
The COVID-19
pandemic has resurrected an almost defunct technology in QR codes, raising
fresh privacy concerns for the security of personal data collected.
Smartphones
in hand, most people have become quite accustomed to plugging in their personal
details by scanning a code that opens an app or website before entering a
restaurant, gym or other venue.
While cyber
crime or identity theft might seem like a remote possibility, the risk is
multiplied in COVID times when practically every outing means registering your
name, phone number and possibly email.
Electronic
check-in systems, now compulsory for businesses and venues in every state, are
designed to make contact tracing more efficient in the event of an outbreak.
-----
https://wildhealth.net.au/the-inside-loop-on-the-secret-squirrel-govt-covid-vaccination-booking-system-not/
The inside loop on the secret squirrel govt COVID
vaccination booking system (not)
January 28,
2021 Jeremy Knibbs
As they say in the navy,
loose lips sink ships. But that’s the navy. This is a national health crisis.
Why is the digital health industry almost completely in the dark on the
government’s plans (or even actions) to provide the country with a centralised
COVID vaccination booking system?
Can
the Department of Health really build a centralised booking system for GP
COVID vaccinations within the next three weeks – or has it already built one?
That’s
what it promised us all in last week’s release of expression
of interest for GPs wanting to partake in the rollout.
Not
that anyone actually understands yet what the DoH actually mean by a
centralised government booking system for GP COVID vaccinations, as so far the
only official words we have on the subject are:
- Participating GP clinics will
receive “vaccine stock and access to a National Booking System”
- Said “National Booking System” will
integrate with the major GP patient booking systems.
Three
weeks?
OK,
that feels ridiculous given that we’ve asked every major tech vendor how busy
they are providing specifications and working on integrations, and none so far
has a clue what the government actually wants or is doing. Our market leading
GP patient management system Best Practice appears not even to have been
contacted yet by the DoH, or any contractor working for it. Some of the major
booking engines have had a chat to the DoH but they remain in the dark as to
what the DoH actually is thinking or wants.
Let’s
give them six to eight weeks for a fighting chance and call things even here.
They
still need to do a hell of a lot to make such an idea work.
-----
https://www.itwire.com/technology-regulation/accc-report-claims-google-dominates-digital-advertising-in-australia.html
Thursday, 28 January 2021 10:54
ACCC report claims Google dominates digital advertising
in Australia
By Sam Varghese
The
Australian competition watchdog claims Google has immense power in the local
online advertising industry, and is able to favour its own related business
interests while supplying ad services.
In
an interim report on Digital
Advertising Services in 2019-20 released on Thursday, the Australian
Competition and Consumer Commission said it had looked at Google's
industry-leading position and concerns about opacity in the pricing of ad tech
and ad agency services among others.
The
watchdog said it had been following overseas developments in this
area, with a number of anti-trust suits having been filed against Google in the
US.
It said most
of the allegations and concerns raised with the ACCC and discussed in the
222-page interim report had been also present in the complaints made in the US.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/culture/books/in-the-age-of-qanon-is-internet-bigotry-the-new-forbidden-thrill-for-kids-20210121-p56vui.html
In the age of QAnon, is internet bigotry the new
forbidden thrill for kids?
By Monica Dux
January 27, 2021 — 12.00am
Shortly
after starting high school, I was scandalised by a book. The naughty tome in
question was not by de Sade, or Anais Nin, but stodgy old Jeffrey Archer. I'd
borrowed his Kane
and Abel from our school library, precisely because it was
dauntingly thick, boasting a cover which struck the 12-year-old me as terribly
grown-up and sophisticated. So, I probably shouldn't have been surprised when I
came across a sex scene, set in a lifeboat, if I remember correctly. But I was
surprised. Indeed, my tiny Catholic brain nearly exploded.
Did
the school librarian realise such salacious literature populated her shelves?
It was a very long book, so perhaps she'd put it down before she got to the
lifeboat-bit. I certainly didn't, racing to the end, fuelled by a desire to
find the next naughty part. When I eventually took Kane and Abel
back to the library, I carried it sandwiched between two more innocent books,
slipped it into the return slot, and ran.
No
one had told me that Kane and Abel was forbidden; indeed, the fact
that it was in our school library suggested the exact opposite. But I soon
discovered there were a great many books with naughty reputations, passed
around among my peers, precisely because they were seen as illicit. I remember
a school friend reading out a section from such a book, which she’d nabbed from
her older sister. I don’t recall the title, but the passage concerned a man
called Brique, and featured a vivid description of a bodily organ that rhymed
with his name.
-----
https://healthpodcastnetwork.com/episodes/talking-healthtech/98-what-is-the-future-of-population-health-management-edweana-wenkart-pen-cs/
Talking HealthTech
98 – What is the future of population health
management? Edweana Wenkart, Pen CS
What
is the future of population health management in Australia?
In
this episode, Pete chats with Edweana Wenkart, Managing Director of Pen
CS.
Pen
CS facilitates data sharing of over 22 million patient records per month across
Australia, and this year was awarded as the Australian Digital Health Agency
Innovation Challenge winner for the ‘Outbreak Surveillance’ platform.
Edweana
is also a Director of the company CareMonitor and Ocean Health Systems, is a
member of MSIA and Associate Fellow of AIDH, and she holds an MBA from AGSM
Learn
about Edweana’s unique background and journey into healthcare, the long and
proud history of Pen CS, the Practice Incentives Program (PIP) Quality
Improvement (QI) program, and her reflections on building effective
relationships with Primary Health Networks (PHNs).
Check
out the episode and full show notes here.
-----
https://www.afr.com/companies/media-and-marketing/media-code-is-a-stalinist-show-trial-20210127-p56x31
Media code is a Stalinist show trial
The Morrison
government needs to come to its senses and recognise that its proposed media
bargaining code is absurdly slanted in favour of media companies.
Richard Holden Contributor
Jan 27, 2021
– 11.23am
Last
week Google Australia’s managing director Melanie
Silva told a Senate committee that if the government’s proposed
media bargaining code becomes law then Google will turn off its widely used
search engine in the country. Yikes!
This
is neither an idle threat, nor an unreasonable one. The media bargaining code
is hopelessly flawed. It misunderstands the cause of the decline in media
revenues, seeks to extract money from unrelated activities of technology
companies like Google and Facebook, has requirements that threaten the core
business of those companies, and has a bargaining system that could most
politely be described as “rigged”. It is the public policy equivalent of
Stalinist show trial.
And
it is, sadly, easy to see how it came about. An overzealous competition
regulator with questionable economic acumen in Rod Sims proposes something
that, if one doesn’t really think about it sounds plausible. This benefits local
media companies and hurts big bad multi-trillion dollar, multi-national
technology companies. Those local media companies naturally come out in favour
of it and politicians, who live and die by their media coverage, fall in behind
it. It is the perfect storm of bad policy with no check on it.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/technology/democrats-in-us-congress-gear-up-for-battle-with-big-tech-20210127-p56x50.html
Democrats in US Congress gear up for battle with Big
Tech
By Cecilia Kang
January 27, 2021 — 10.50am
WASHINGTON
— The last time Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Demcorat from Minnesota, sat in the
majority, her party was fawning over Silicon Valley. Lawmakers praised the
ingenuity of Facebook and Amazon, while President Barack Obama and regulators
fought alongside Google and Twitter to protect the growth of internet businesses.
Now,
many of those same politicians are gearing up to tame those companies. And
Klobuchar, who leads the Senate panel overseeing antitrust, is expected to play
a leading role.
Many
Democrats, as well as some Republicans, want to take on Big Tech with laws and
regulations to address issues like market power, data privacy, and
disinformation and hate speech. Those ambitions have only grown since the
insurrection at Capitol Hill, with more members of Congress pointing to the
power of the tech companies as the root cause of many problems.
The
growing talk of new federal laws adds to the industry’s many headaches.
Facebook and Google are fighting federal and state regulators in court over
allegations of anti-competitive conduct. Regulators continue to investigate
Amazon and Apple over antitrust violations. President Joe Biden and his
nominees for attorney general and Commerce secretary have also promised to hold
tech companies to account for the speech they host and to strengthen policing
of competition violations.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/artificial-intelligence-weapons-creates-moral-imperative-to-study-them-us-body-says-20210127-p56x4f.html
Artificial intelligence weapons creates ‘moral
imperative’ to study them, US body says
By Jeffrey Dastin and Paresh Dave
January 27, 2021 — 10.22am
San
Francisco: The United States should not agree to ban the use or
development of autonomous weapons powered by artificial intelligence (AI)
software, a government-appointed panel said in a draft report for Congress.
The
panel, led by former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, on Tuesday concluded
two days of public discussion about how the world’s biggest military power
should consider AI for national security and technological advancement.
Its
Vice Chairman Robert Work, a former deputy secretary of defence, said
autonomous weapons are expected to make fewer mistakes than humans do in
battle, leading to reduced casualties or skirmishes caused by target
misidentification.
“It
is a moral imperative to at least pursue this hypothesis,” he said.
The
discussion waded into a controversial frontier of human rights and warfare. For
about eight years, a coalition of non-governmental organisations has pushed for
a treaty banning “killer robots,” saying human control is necessary to judge
attacks’ proportionality and assign blame for war crimes. Thirty countries
including Brazil and Pakistan want a ban, according to the coalition’s website,
and a United Nations body has held meetings on the systems since at least 2014.
-----
https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/doctors-call-new-laws-tackle-fake-vax-news
Doctors call for new laws to tackle fake vax news
Immunologists
say they are playing catch-up with a 'misinformation machine that is always two
steps ahead'
25th January
2021
By Carmel Sparke
Doctors
have joined forces with tech experts in calling for new laws to counter the
spread of fake news on vaccination via social media.
Immunologists
are part of a coalition wanting social media giants to disclose information on
trending COVID-19 material being shared on their sites.
Health
experts would then be able to use the 'Live List' to counter
false claims.
Digital
reform group Reset Australia set up the coalition, which includes tech experts,
the not-for-profit Immunisation Foundation of Australia, as well as medical
groups such as the Immunisation Coalition, the Doherty Institute and Coronavax.
------
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/communications-minister-paul-fletcher-backs-misinformation-code/news-story/98c323aff9a99c64ede9c8d6cc9daab8
Communications Minister Paul Fletcher backs
misinformation code
David Swan
·
4:10PM January 25, 2021
Communications Minister Paul Fletcher has backed an industry-wise
tech giant misinformation code, following mounting calls to mandate “live
lists” to assist in identifying increasingly rampant Covid-19 misinformation.
As reported by The Australian on Monday,
Reset Australia has written to all federal ministers urging the Australian
government to create the lists that could reveal demographic information of
people sharing fake news.
The group is backed by a newly formed coalition, including the
Doherty Institute and the Immunisation Foundation of Australia and Reset
Australia, amid a recent report from US-based non-profit organisation AVAAZ
that found that over the past year, content from a global health misinformation
network spanning five countries has been viewed an estimated 3.8 billion times
on Facebook.
“During Covid-19, we’ve seen first-hand the harm misinformation
can cause as it spreads rapidly online,” a spokesman for Mr Fletcher told The
Australian.
“It can create public confusion and is particularly harmful to
those most vulnerable in our community.
-----
https://www.seek.com.au/job/51379880?type=standout
Team Lead, Clinical Incident Management
Australian Digital Health Agency
About
the Agency
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
A
challenging and exciting opportunity exists for a talented individual with
clinical experience to help shape the future direction of services within the
Agency, ensuring Clinical decisions are at the forefront of everything we do.
Sitting
within the Operations branch, managing day to day incidents involving the My
Health Record system including infrastructure, privacy, security and clinical
risks, this position provides management support to the Agency’s Governance and
Quality Assurance functions in accordance with the Event and Incident
Management Framework, with a strong focus on clinical safety and adherence to
the Agency’s Clinical Governance Framework.
The
multidisciplinary position entails the use of excellent analytical skills,
problem solving and clinical judgment, with an understanding of business needs
of different areas within the Agency.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/chips-the-next-economic-flashpoint-as-costs-rise-and-the-us-battles-to-contain-china/news-story/6c8670f969e9211e5accc4d504b0aea2
Chips the next economic flashpoint as costs rise and
the US battles to contain China
·
By The Economist
·
7:19PM January 24, 2021
When microchips were invented in 1958, the first significant
market for them was inside nuclear missiles. Today about a trillion chips are
made a year, or 128 for every person on the planet.
Ever more devices and machines contain ever more semiconductors:
an electric car can have over 3000 of them. New types of computation are
booming, including artificial intelligence and data-crunching. Demand will soar
further as more industrial machines are connected and fitted with sensors.
For decades a vast network of chip firms has co-operated and
competed to meet this growing demand; today they crank out $US450bn ($583.2bn)
of annual sales. No other industry has the same mix of hard science, brutal
capital intensity and complexity. Its broader impact is huge, too. When the
supply chain misfires, economic activity can grind to a halt. This month a
temporary shortage of chips has stopped car production lines around the world.
And no other industry is as explosive.
-----
https://www.itwire.com/technology-regulation/local-search-marketing-firm-urges-compromise-over-news-media-code.html
Monday, 25 January 2021 09:23
Local search marketing firm urges compromise over news
media code
By Sam Varghese
Digital
marketing solutions provider Localsearch has urged the government and Google to
reach a compromise on the proposed news media code, saying it fears that else
small businesses could suffer.
Both
digital platforms that will be covered by the proposed code — Google and
Facebook — have taken stands that they will
not be able to operate under the regulations.
Google
has said it will pull its search engine from Australia while Facebook says it
will not allow the posting of news from Australian publications in its news
feed.
They
want a code that incorporates many changes from the one which the government
introduced into Parliament on the last sitting day of December.
-----
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=8c08552e-7cff-413c-a2d9-da2fc6ebee28
Australia: Cybersecurity laws strengthened in health
care and medical sector
Hogan Lovells
On
10 December 2020, the Security Legislation Amendment (Critical Infrastructure)
Bill 2020 (Bill) was introduced and read into
Parliament only a month after its release.
The
Security
of Critical Infrastructure Act 2018 (SoCI
Act) currently does not impose any positive security
obligations on critical infrastructure assets (e.g. electricity, gas, water and
maritime ports), including mandatory cyber security reporting. The Bill aims to
strengthen the security of infrastructure in a number of key sectors, including
the health care and medical sector.
The
Government intends to achieve this by introducing additional positive
obligations, including sector specific risk management programs, mandatory
cyber incident reporting, enhanced cyber security obligations for systems of
national significance and the introduction of government assistance in
responding to significant cyber attacks.
Who
will the reforms apply to?
The
proposed reforms extend the application of the SoCI Act to a number of
additional “critical infrastructure sectors” including those operating in the
“health care and medical sector”.
The
“health care and medical sector” is broadly defined as the sector that
involves:
- the provision of “health care”.
“Health care” includes services provided by individuals who practice in a
range of medical professions, including, for example; dental, optometry,
pharmacy, psychology and nursing. It also includes treatment and
maintenance as a patient at a hospital; or
- the production, distribution or
supply of “medical supplies”. “Medical supplies” includes goods for
therapeutic use. This would include, for example, personal protective
equipment and diagnostic equipment), pharmaceutical products and
medicines, pacemakers and prosthetics.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/inevitable-big-tech-will-pay-for-australian-news-content-says-treasurer/news-story/cf642c6a4adbb0781ff37f0eead20e52
Inevitable Big Tech will pay for Australian news
content, says Treasurer
Adeshola Ore
·
1:55AM January 25, 2021
Josh Frydenberg has declared it “inevitable” digital giants will
pay for original Australian news content, as the Morrison government shores up
support for its landmark news media bargaining code.
The Treasurer lashed tech giants Facebook and Google for “changing
the goalposts” after Google Australia’s local boss Melanie Silva threatened to
shut down search and news sharing on its Australian platform last week if the
proposed legislation passes federal parliament.
The code, which was unveiled by the Morrison government in
December, aims to fairly compensate news companies for their original content
that appears on the digital platforms.
“It seems the digital giants keep changing goalposts,” Mr
Frydenberg said.
-----
https://insightplus.mja.com.au/2021/1/teleproctoring-caring-for-patients-with-aortic-stenosis-through-covid-19/
Teleproctoring: helping patients with aortic stenosis
through COVID-19
Authored
by Sonny Palmer Umair Hayat Heath Adams
Issue 1 / 25 January 2021
TRANSCATHETER
aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is now the recommended intervention for severe
aortic stenosis in elderly patients or those with significant comorbidity (here and here). At the beginning of 2020, TAVI was a treatment
option for patients in all states in Australia, except Tasmania.
Collaboration
between Tasmanian Health Service stakeholders and clinicians led to the
development of a statewide Tasmanian TAVI service. The new service was to be
ratified by the national TAVI Steering Committee following a period of direct
clinical supervision and proctorship of 10 successful TAVI cases. In 2020,
Tasmanian patients with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis, deemed suitable by
the local heart team for TAVI, would no longer have to travel interstate for
treatment thanks to the new service. This would allow for timely patient access
to care and have beneficial economic benefits for Tasmania, which has the
highest proportion of patients over the age of 65 years in the country.
But
then the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic happened. The respective state health
services properly acted to reduce direct contact, meetings, training and travel
between specialists from different states. Quarantine restrictions also posed a
threat to the new TAVI program. We describe how the new TAVI program was,
nevertheless, successfully established during the pandemic.
-----
Comments more
than welcome!
David.
