This blog is totally independent, unpaid and has only three major objectives.
The first is to inform readers of news and happenings in the e-Health domain, both here in Australia and world-wide.
The second is to provide commentary on e-Health in Australia and to foster improvement where I can.
The third is to encourage discussion of the matters raised in the blog so hopefully readers can get a balanced view of what is really happening and what successes are being achieved.
Quote Of The Year
Timeless Quotes - Sadly The Late Paul Shetler - "Its not Your Health Record it's a Government Record Of Your Health Information"
or
H. L. Mencken - "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."
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.
Regulators
have opened an investigation into Optus for potential breaches of the Privacy
Act, following an incident in which the telco accidentally sent off thousands
of customers’ contact details to be published in the White Pages directory
against their wishes.
In
October 2019 Optus contacted
almost 50,000 customers to inform them of the privacy breach, saying
it mistakenly released details including names, addresses and mobile phone
numbers to Sensis, the company that produces the White Pages.
At
the time Optus apologised and had Sensis scrub the customers’ information from
its online directory, but many details were also printed in the physical
editions.
This
week, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner said
it was investigating the issue and its potential privacy
ramifications after previously making inquiries.
“The
public disclosure of personal information against the wishes of individuals may
have the potential to cause harm,” wrote the OAIC in announcing the
investigation.
Find out more
about the Federal Government’s new My Health Record. ADHA Propaganda
Learn how to access your new My Health Record, and why
it’s important to keep it up to date. You will learn how to manage your My
Health Record to share the information you want with your healthcare providers.
Like
the villain in a bad horror movie, COVIDSafe refuses to die.
It
has been a staggering fall from grace for the contact tracing app, heralded as
the “ticket” out of lockdown by the Prime Minister in April last year, when he
also compared it to putting on sunscreen.
COVIDSafe
has since become a running joke at state government press conferences and
typifies the federal government’s approach to shortcomings in its response to
Covid-19: Shift blame, block information and avoid apologising.
There
have been many issues that could have led to the end of the app, including
numerous technical issues and bugs discovered by diligent local developers. The
steadfast refusal by government to adopt the Google and Apple protocol for
digital contact tracing which has been widely used around the world might have
provided a good reason to abandon it.
And
the fact that it has only identified 17 new close contacts in the near-18 months
since it was launched perhaps should have spelled doom for COVIDSafe.
The
federal government’s reliance on contractors and consultants
for key COVID-19 response work is “out of control” and is not building
capability for the next major crisis, the public sector union says.
The
Department of Health has entered into contracts with private companies covering
significant elements of its response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,
including for the vaccine rollout, aged care services, work around the
country’s medical stockpiles and the supply and delivery of personal protective
equipment.
A
number of multinational consultancy firms saw the value of their contracts with
the federal Department of Health nearly triple, with the use of labour hire
also increasing, and a particular focus on tech-related work.
This
reliance on outsourcing will mean that important capability to respond to the
next health crisis is not being built within the department, according to
Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) assistant secretary Michael Tull.
When
ADHA released the Digital Health Mobile Channel tender this month, the first
thing I looked for, and hoped dearly not to see, was the mandate that any
solution must already be used somewhere else.
Sadly,
it was. This was yet another government tender that my company, and those like
us, were not welcome to apply for.
This
isn’t a new occurrence. The Alfred Health’s recent Electronic Patient Journey
Board tender, released last month, has only two mandatory requirements, the
first being someone else must already use the system. So, we couldn’t apply for
that either.
With
this precondition, it doesn’t matter that a new solution may be better, cheaper
or safer. It’s new – therefore rendering it unwelcome in many governmental
digital health tenders.
The
rapidly increasing momentum of global platforms Google, Amazon and Apple in
cloud and interoperability health infrastructure threatens to strand some in
our local medical software industry.
If
the jungle drums of change weren’t being heard before, then surely Google
Cloud’s announcement last week that it
has developed healthcare interoperability platform Healthcare
Data Engine to match Amazon’s Health
Lake will have them resonating loud in the ears of many of our local
software vendors today.
When
Amazon and Google start a race to build data platforms to suit a particular
industry sector, eventually something is going to give.
Until
now the complexity of healthcare data, its distribution in thousands of
isolated legacy IT solutions, government regulation and the natural resistance
to change that large incumbent commercial players create (e.g., information
blocking), had been enough to foil the major global platform behemoths.
Google’s
initial fervour for the healthcare sector was tempered with some spectacular
early failures. The demise of its online personal health record (PHR) project
under Google Health even had some analysts suggesting that the sector might be
too complex for the sort of platform plays that the digital giant is known for.
The newly
minted ability to store your digital Covid vaccination certificate in your
phone throws up the question of just how will it be used?
Having a
certificate loaded into your iPhone Apple Wallet or Android phone Google Pay
app suggests that soon, someone, somewhere will ask you to produce it. That’s
only a matter of time.
It makes
sense if you are visiting an aged care facility, disability care centre or
general hospital to show it when asked. I will gladly do that if it puts people
at ease.
There are caveats:
while Pfizer and AstraZeneca are about 99 per cent certain to save your life,
neither provides a guarantee that you won’t transmit COVID-19, although there
seems agreement among epidemiologists that you are likely to transmit less of
the virus if you do.
The other
caveat is that we don’t know how long this protection lasts, but we are likely
to need more jabs over time, and updates to our Covid certificate status will
need to reflect their currency.
FemTech
is surging around the world with new start-ups and technology entering the
marketplace every day, but what’s going on Down Under?
Need
for FemTech
As
of June 2019, just over half of Australia’s population faced complicated
genetic, physiological and hormonal factors making them prone to and more
severely affected by certain conditions in comparison to the other half of the
population.
Conditions
such as heart diseases, osteoarthritis, cancers, strokes and autoimmune
diseases present in women differently and pose considerable health risks.
While
FemTech is rapidly growing in Australia, increased health technology options
are still needed to support Australian women. This has become even more
apparent during the pandemic where existing inequalities in healthcare for
women have been laid bare.
Research
is currently well placed in Australia with the Australian Government announcing
they will be investing $354 million over the next four years to support the
health and wellbeing of Australia’s women, including funding for cervical and
breast cancer, endometriosis and reproductive health.
Gurriny Yealamucka connects Yarrabah community with
technology for better healthcare
Australian
Digital Health Agency
In
the 1980s, when community members at Yarrabah in far north Queensland were
fighting for self-determination, they saw the need for Aboriginal health to be
in the hands of their own people and the concept of a community-controlled
health organisation was born.
Today,
Gurriny Yealamucka Health Service delivers primary healthcare across the
Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire and has been doing so for decades.
To
mark the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples on 9 August, the
Australian Digital Health Agency has used a series of videos to recognise
Gurriny Yealamucka and the Yarrabah community for embracing innovation and the
use of technology to deliver better healthcare.
Gurriny
Yealamucka means ‘good healing water’ in the language of the Gunggandji Peoples
of Yarrabah.
A
group of technology and privacy experts have backed the ongoing utility of a
Bluetooth-based contact tracing app in Australia, but say more needs to be done
to make COVIDSafe fit for that purpose.
In
the wake of last week's government report into COVIDSafe, software
developers Richard Nelson, Jim Mussared and Geoffrey Huntley and
cryptographer Vanessa Teague have released their own
assessment of the app’s operation and effectiveness.
The
report offers an in-depth look at the chequered history of the app since its
launch in April 2020, and calls out a number of security, privacy and
functionality issues that were overlooked.
“The
[government] report lacks a deep discussion of changes made throughout the
app’s development which heavily impacted efficacy, and fails to disclose key
information such as the number of active users,” the group said.
South
Africa was the world’s first jurisdiction to issue a patent listing an
artificial intelligence (AI) entity as an inventor. The owner of the AI
entity is considered to be the owner of the patent. An Australia court
ruled that same week that Australian patent laws do not prohibit an AI entity
from being an inventor.
Ryan
Abbott, a University of Surrey professor, and his team are fighting an uphill
battle with patent offices around the world to patent the creations of DABUS
(device for the autonomous bootstrapping of unified sentience), an artificial
neural system developed by Dr. Stephen Thaler, CEO of Imagination Engines.
Reportedly,
DABUS has conceived of two inventions: (1) an emergency warning light and (2) a
food container based on fractal geometry that improves grip and heat
transfer. According to Thaler, while DABUS was designed and built by
humans, the AI entity is described as “sentient and develops ideas.” In
an interview with The Recorder, Abbott provide three reasons why DABUS is
considered the sole inventor: “One is it functionally did the job of an
inventor. Two is to inform the public that this was an AI-generated invention
and not a traditional human invention. And three, to prevent someone from
taking credit for work that they didn’t do.”
Digital
health tools are changing how healthcare is delivered in Australia. Access to
My Health Record and telehealth consultations is transforming health service
delivery, not only in remote Aboriginal communities but across the country.
Please
join the Australian Digital Health Agency, WA Primary Health Alliance,
Aboriginal Health Council of Western Australia, and special guest panel members
from Aboriginal Medical Services across WA, to hear how digital health has been
a game changer for them.
Healthcare
professionals from across all sectors are encouraged to attend, hear these
success stories and be inspired to start using digital health. There will also
be the opportunity for participants to ask questions.
A
growing number of Coalition MPs are speaking out against the use of vaccine
certificates for domestic travel and attendance at venues and events, with at
least two threatening to cross the floor if the government brings on
legislation.
The
Sydney Morning Herald and The Age on Wednesday
revealed the government’s expenditure review committee of cabinet last week backed
a proposal for QR code vaccination certificates for international
travel, linking people’s vaccination status on their MyGov accounts with new
digital certificates.
Prime
Minister Scott Morrison confirmed this week national cabinet was also
discussing extending the measure to domestic travel but stressed any move to
allow businesses to ask patrons for proof of vaccinations would have to be made
by the states.
Tasmanian
Liberal senator Eric Abetz said while he encouraged everyone to consider
getting vaccinated as soon as possible, “vaccine passports should not be a
blunt instrument to force people to be vaccinated by locking them out of
society”.
Australia
now has a plan for how to live (rather than die) with COVID-19. A central plank
of the national cabinet plan announced by the Prime Minister is o relax
restrictions as the national vaccination rate rises.
The
first relaxations would kick in when 70 per cent of Australians are vaccinated.
At 80 per cent, lockdowns would become rare and targeted, and vaccinated
Australians could be exempt from all restrictions on movement – including
international travel.
Two
things underpin this plan. First, when a large proportion of the population is
vaccinated the numbers of infections and deaths are reduced because it is
harder for the virus to spread or seriously damage the health of those
inoculated.
Second,
there is an incentive component to vaccine passports. The idea, of course, is
that by making it more attractive – by conferring greater freedoms on the
vaccinated – people will be more likely to get the jab. Makes sense.
We
take a look at some of the exciting developments happening in the medical
device space.
Robotic surgical assistant
The
ROSA Knee System is a robotic surgical assistant that enables surgeons to carry
out knee replacement procedures with greater precision and a higher standard of
care. The system produces data to help optimise patient outcomes.
“We
are excited to win the Orthopaedic Product Innovation of the Year award and
extremely proud of all the good work that our ROSA team has done to bring the
ROSA Knee, a unique and holistic robotic solution, to Zimmer Biomet’s suite of
integrated digital and robotic technologies,” Zimmer Biomet Asia Pacific Group
President Sang Yi said. “We see this award as further validation of ROSA Knee
integrating robotics technology with our industry-leading knee implants to help
surgeons personalise surgical procedures for their patients.”
Artificial heart technology
Monash University
and BiVACOR are
leading a consortium of universities, hospitals and industry to develop and
commercialise the world’s first durable total artificial heart.
With
$1 million in federal government funding via the Medical Research Future Fund
(MRFF), the Artificial Heart Frontiers Program
will develop and commercialise new devices through the use of novel, innovative
technology. The BiVACOR Total Artificial Heart is an implantable total
artificial heart based on rotary blood pump technology. Similar in size to an
adult fist, it is small enough to be implanted in many women and some children,
and is capable of providing enough cardiac output to an adult male undergoing
exercise.
Find out more about the Federal Government's
new My Health Record.
About this event
Learn
how to access your new My Health Record, and why it's important to keep it up
to date. You will learn how to manage your My Health Record to share the
information you want with your healthcare providers.
Slab for a Jab: Hawke’s Brewing Co Is Giving Cases of
Beer to Sydneysiders Who’ve Received Their First Vaccination
If easing
restrictions and getting out of lockdown wasn’t incentive enough to get jabbed,
here’s another: cracking open a free ice-cold lager.
Published on
03 August 2021
by Che-Marie Trigg
On
Sunday, NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian said Sydney can begin to escape from
lockdown on August 28 if 50 per cent of NSW residents are vaccinated. That
number is currently at 19 per cent. If getting out of lockdown and heading to
the pub isn’t incentive enough, Hawke’s
Brewing Co has added another reason to get the jab: it’s giving away
250 cartons of lager to Sydneysiders who can prove they’ve received their first
vaccination.
The
Sydney brewery, co-founded with the late beer-loving former PM Bob Hawke, says
the move is its way of highlighting how important it is for punters to get
jabbed.
“The
longer this [lockdown] drags on, the more damage is suffered by small businesses
like ours, and in particular our hospitality mates,” said Hawke’s co-founder
David Gibson in a statement. “Now, it seems the onus is on us to get ourselves
out of this mess. And let’s be honest, there’s nothing like free beer to get
Aussies going. We may not move the needle much with 250 slabs, but we can do
our bit by helping to strengthen the message – roll your sleeve up for
yourself, your loved ones, your community and your country.”
To
score your free case, book in to get your first jab. Once you’ve had that first
vaccine, post a photo of your band-aided arm on Instagram and tag
@hawkesbrewingco and #jabandslab. If you’re one of the first 250 to post,
Hawke’s will get in touch to see proof of vaccination – available from your
Medicare online account, Medicare app, the Australian Immunisation Register and
My Health Record – and arrange delivery. The deal is available only to
residents of Greater Sydney who get their vaccination from August 4.
Sydneysiders
trying to follow health authorities’ calls to get vaccinated say they are
spending hours on the online booking system, which one vaccine communication
expert described as “death by websites”.
People
seeking to book a COVID-19 vaccine online are directed to use the federal
vaccine eligibility checker to prove they qualify before being shown a list of
individual providers, ranging from NSW Health’s mass hubs to local GPs, to
contact separately.
The
process has been complicated by availability, particularly for those eligible
for Pfizer shots. On Monday afternoon, Pfizer first dose appointments were not
available until mid-August at St Vincent’s Hospital, October at the Sydney
Olympic Park hub and November at Westmead Hospital.
Software
developer Fraser Hemphill, 28, created his own website which aggregated Pfizer
appointments after a friend who worked as a nurse spent hours attempting to
book.
Covidqueue.com,
which Mr Hemphill made in one weekend for $20, compiles real-time availability
for appointments at St Vincent’s, Royal Prince Alfred and Westmead hospital
hubs as well as the Olympic Park centre.
My Health Record not showing first
COVID vaccine dose
Aussie89
on 02/08/2021 - 11:34
Last edited 02/08/2021 - 13:10
I've
completed both of my covid Pfizer vaccines at the Homebush Hub (Sydney), yet
only the 2nd dose is showing on My Health Record and the Medicare Immunisation
Certificate.
First dose was done in early July (not showing on record), and 2nd one was done
yesterday (showing on record)
It shows, "This individual has not received all required COVID19
vaccines."
I
called the COVID Vaccination helpline this morning. The lady I spoke to said
they had received multiple calls from other people who also had their vaccine
done at the Homebush Hub with similar record issues. They claimed the
Vaccination Hub doesn't appear to be updating their records correctly, and
unfortunately, there is no one there handling the phones that she or I can call
to check.
She said this issue was brought to their attention on 22 July, and there is no
update on a solution at this stage and suggested I call back in a week.
It
is very concerning. I'm fortunate that I don't have any need at this stage to
prove my vaccination status, but I'm sure this would be a major issue for
people who need to prove their status to return to work.
Has
anyone else who's had a vaccine at one of the Vaccination Hubs had a similar
issue?
The year 2020
changed business forever: hordes of unlocked data drove new growth, the ‘‘new
collar’’ worker emerged and cybercrime became a threat that must be fought with
Zero Trust.
This year,
Big Blue itself is changing, splitting off its $19bn managed services business
while core IBM sets its sights on being the leader in hybrid cloud. Quite an
ambition when you think of competitors like Microsoft and AWS.
Katrina
Troughton has run IBM Australia for two years and right through the pandemic. She
says in just a few weeks Covid-19 exposed the role that IBM could play. “It was
so obvious that clients who had invested in digital technology and cloud and
automation in particular could find new ways to operate a remote workforce,
extend services to clients and importantly just keep going. It started to
expose leaders to the digital plumbing in the organisation. We were really
brittle with some of our supply chains.”
Today, says
Troughton, recovery and growth comes through unlocking and managing data to use
it differently. “Take the work we have done in government on how we ensure
you’ve got capability across the Australian Immunisation Register and that the
platform can scale as we do roll out vaccines.
“Pre-Covid,
being a fast follower was good. Today change and fast change is better,” she
says.
In business
IBM worked with Telstra in its pre-emptive response to determine where service
might be needed in the pandemic.
Australia's
privacy and related laws and regulations
In
Australia, the use of “personal information” (personal information) is
principally regulated by the federal Privacy
Act 1988 (Privacy Act). The Privacy Act applies to the
handling of personal information by Australian federal government agencies and
Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government agencies. The Privacy Act
also governs the private sector, including corporations and other businesses,
but in general only applies to group businesses with aggregate group (global)
revenue greater than AU$3 million.
The
Privacy Act regulates collection and use in a “record” or generally available
publication, and disclosure, of two main types of information:
personal information, being
information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual
who is reasonably identifiable, whether the information is true or not and
whether it is in a recorded form or not. Information will also be personal
information where the identification or re-identification is practicable
from the information itself or in combination with reference to other
information. Common examples of personal information are names, addresses
and telephone numbers; and
sensitive information, being such
information or an opinion about certain characteristics of an individual,
including racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of a
professional or trade association, criminal record, health and health
status, and biometrics used for the purpose of biometric verification and
identification.
Sensitive
information is subject to higher levels of regulatory protection. For example,
an organisation must not collect sensitive information about an individual
unless the individual consents (expressly or impliedly) to the collection of
the information and the information is reasonably necessary for one of the
organisation’s functions or activities.
The
two principal regulators of privacy laws in Australia are the Australian
Privacy Commissioner and the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
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
-----
Federal
Government IT seems to be a bit of a ‘target rich zone’ at the moment with all
sorts of errors and issues crowding the press. With all the highly paid
consultants one might hope for a little noise on a range of issues.
Incorrect or missing records on the national immunisation
register are causing some people to be turned away from getting a Covid-19
vaccine in locked-down Sydney, while
others are being wrongly recorded as receiving the “hepatitis” jab or no
vaccination at all.
On Saturday, Guardian Australia
reported that Sydney bus driver Ke Hua was wrongly recorded as fully
vaccinated on the Australian immunisation register (AIR), despite not having a
single dose, causing significant confusion when he showed up at Royal Prince
Alfred hospital for his jab.
More reports have now emerged of significant problems with
recording Covid-19 vaccinations on the register, which is administered by
Services Australia and serves as the main database of a person’s immunisation
status.
Many of the reported errors appeared to be linked to the
mass NSW vaccination hub at Homebush.
An online security firm specialising in identity protection
has warned that the federal government‘s digital Covid vaccination certificates
will be easy to forge without better security.
There is concern that vaccination certificates aka
vaccination passports which currently include a person’s name, date of birth
and document number can be easily altered and copied.
The government made digital certificates available in June
and this week added the ability to store them in Apple Wallet on iPhones and
Google Pay on Android devices.
Yesterday South Australian Senator Rex Patrick sought to
demonstrate the forging of a vaccination certificate.
There is a report that the federal government’s Expenditure
Review Committee has agreed to add QR codes to certificates. This would allow
someone to verify the authenticity of a certificate against a government web
page that includes the certificate owner’s details.
The federal government knocked back a pitch from an Adelaide
company to protect digital COVID-19 vaccination certificates from fraud last
year, after a senator revealed this week that the certificate could be forged
within weeks.
Australians who have received two doses of a COVID-19
vaccine can now access a digital certificate to prove this through the myGov
platform. This can then be printed off or stored on a smartphone through the
wallet functions on Apple and Google phones.
The certificates are not currently used to access any
services, but may in the future be used to attend sporting events or travel
internationally, for example.
Soon after accessing his vaccination certificate following
receiving two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, independent Senator Rex Patrick
had made a forged version of it in 15 minutes.
NSW public hospital patients who received virtual care last
year have given a positive review of the experience, with patients across age
groups and the rural-urban divide largely finding it an effective replacement
for an in-person appointment.
The 2020 Virtual Care survey, conducted by the NSW Bureau of
Health Information, surveyed 2618 patients who received care through a video
conference or telephone call when remote appointments increased during lockdown
restrictions last year.
Ninety-one per cent of patients rated the care they received
as “good” or “very good”, a proportion which increased with the number of
virtual appointments a patient had.
Sixty per cent of patients said they saved time with virtual
treatment and 30 per cent said they saved money.
Australians fully immunised against Covid-19 can now store
their digital vaccination certificates in their Apple and Google digital
wallets for ease of access.
But those wishing to do so are being warned to switch off
cloud backups to ensure the proof of vaccination is not stored on overseas
servers.
Until now, the digital certificate – which is automatically
generated after two jabs – could be viewed or downloaded from the app and
viewed through the Medicare online account.
There has been much debate on the form Australia’s Covid
digital vaccination certificates should take, whether they should be held on
blockchain, and whether they can be stored on your phone so you can produce
your vaccination certificate on demand.
Covid vaccination certificates are now available for storing
on your phone and can be accessed via the myGov site and app, or via the
Medicare Express app. You need to have had both doses of the jab for your
COVID-19 digital certificate to be available to you as a digital record. And it
isn’t tethered to blockchain.
You can add your Covid vaccination certificate to Apple
Wallet on an iPhone, which will make it easy to produce should you be required
to show it, for example in the future on international flights. You can even
display your vaccination certificate on Apple Watch.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison recently foreshadowed that
Android versions will follow.
Australians presently have a simple method to show they’re
completely vaccinated against Covid-19, with the ability to save vaccine
certificates in digital wallets for Android and iOS now accessible. The
Australian government has presented support for adding COVID-19 vaccination
digital certificates to Apple Wallet through the Express Plus Medicare app on
iOS.
Coronavirus vaccination certificates are presently
accessible for storing on your phone and can be accessed via the myGov site and
app, or through the Medicare Express app. You need to have had the two doses of
the hit for your COVID-19 digital certificate to be accessible to you as a
digital record. Furthermore, it isn’t fastened to the blockchain.
You can add your Covid vaccination certificate to Apple
Wallet on an iPhone, which will make it simple to produce should you be needed
to show it, for example in the future on international flights. You can even
show your vaccination certificate on Apple Watch.
In the wake of getting two doses of either AstraZeneca or
Pfizer, Australians get a Covid-19 digital certificate, which is accessible by
signing into Medicare online or through the Express Plus Medicare app.
If you've had your two COVID-19 vaccine jabs in Australia
and want a simply way to prove your vaccinated status and inject yourself with
a sense of confidence, iPhone and Android owners will be happy to know it's
effortlessly easy.
Earlier this week, Services Australia announced that you could add proof of your COVID-19
vaccinations to your iPhone's Apple Wallet and your Android's Google Pay
wallet.
We're told that those who aren't eligible for Medicare can
use the Individual Healthcare Identifiers service through myGov to get proof of
vaccinations, and we're also advised our vaccination provider records
vaccination details on the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR), and that it
can take up to 10 days to update the immunisation record.
Western Australia’s Chief Health Officer and his
department’s acting director general were aware of a SafeWA privacy breach
three months before the Health Minister and Premier say they were told about
the potentially damaging issue.
Acting director general James Williamson made repeated
attempts to raise his concerns, in the lead-up to the March 13 state election,
about police accessing sign-in data from more than 2400 people to solve crimes
despite a promise by Premier Mark McGowan such access was not allowed.
The revelation police had acquired check-in data from events
relating to the public shooting death of former Rebels bikie boss Nick Martin
was only made public by the Premier in June.
Health Minister Roger Cook was made aware of the matter
through a briefing note on March 31, with Mr McGowan finding out not long after
in April.
Previous questioning by the opposition in Parliament
uncovered a letter that showed WA Health director general David Russell-Weisz
had been aware of the breach at least one day before the election.
A new set of Health System
Indicators will be published quarterly in an online dashboard, the Minister of
Health has announced.
Andrew Little made the announcement during a speech to the Royal New Zealand
College of General Practitioners Conference 2021 on August 6, saying the new
accountability system replaces the National Health Targets that were retired in
2018.
“The health indicators will bring data and people together to improve safe and
equitable care whilst also getting the best value for money from the health
budget,” he said.
Twelve indicators have been developed by the Ministry of Health and the Health
Quality and Safety Commission (HQSC), and reflect the Government’s most
important priorities. -----
Phone consults will be the “bedrock” of Australia’s
permanent Medicare funding model for telehealth, which could be in place by
January next year, Greg Hunt says.
The federal Minister for Health stressed that, while video
was sometimes the clinically preferred option for doctors, he was pushing for
MBS items for phone consults to remain in place.
The introduction of the existing items has been
seen as a watershed in bringing Medicare funding of general
practice into the 21st century; but they remain a temporary response to
the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a speech to the AMA national conference on Saturday, Mr
Hunt said officials were hoping a permanent fix could be in place by the new
year.
He also said the government’s $450 million voluntary patient
enrolment package would probably be introduced at the same time, although it
was still not clear if telehealth funding will be restricted only to those who
enroll with their GP.
Starts with prescription medicines, has expansion plans.
Health insurer nib has introduced a technology system to
pharmacies that allows its members to claim for part of the cost of
pharmaceuticals on-the-spot.
The fund is using technology from fintech LanternPay and
Civica, and expects to expand the type of on-the-spot claims that the system
processes in the near future.
LanternPay partnered with Civica in 2019 to develop a
cloud-based online solution for health insurers and healthcare providers.
Following a six week pilot, the system is set to be rolled
out to over 1300 pharmacies throughout Australia.
Health insurer nib rolls out digital claiming platform at pharmacies
Adam Ang | 05 Aug 2021
Australian
health insurer nib Group has partnered with payment platform LanternPay and
Civica, a London-based public service software provider, to deliver its
claiming platform at pharmacies.
Based
on a press statement, the digital claiming solution has been rolled out in over
1,300 pharmacies in the country following a six-week pilot.
WHY
IT MATTERS
Through
LanternPay's claiming solution, nib's health insurance members can process
their claims "on-the-spot" and "paperless" at local
pharmacies, moving away from the previous process of "pay first, claim
later".
The
browser-based platform, backed by Civica's cloud solution, will not require
pharmacies to sign up to a particular bank to access the system, which is a
usual requirement of other claiming system providers, according to Mirinda
O'Gorman, general manager of Healthcare at LanternPay.
The
nibGroup is set to expand the digital claiming offering to pathology, targeting
to automate up to 70% of pathology claims, deliver significant cost savings and
help keep premium costs lower for nib members. It is also looking to offer the
solution for every day claiming, such as for physiotherapy, gym, dentist and
chiropractor.
Femtech — technologies specifically designed to positively
impact women’s health — has the potential to radically improve health outcomes
for women globally. Incorporating artificial intelligence, machine learning,
software, diagnostics, products and services, femtech is an emerging industry
that is already shifting medical practice.
Despite working for 50% of the world’s population, femtech
is an underserved industry, attracting only 10% of investment funding.
AI can have a profound impact on women’s health outcomes, in
areas including ovarian, breast and cervical cancers, assistive reproduction,
endometriosis and polycystic ovarian syndrome.
Adelaide-based company Presagen has demonstrated just what AI has to offer when it
comes to women’s health. The company’s software-based scalable AI technology is
designed to be delivered globally at low cost, to maximise reach to women
across the world.
The Digital Transformation Agency has quietly killed off the
last of four Turnbull era whole-of-government pilot platforms, as work ramps up
on the $200 million-plus myGov portal rebuild.
In 2017, the agency was funded to the tune of $33.5 million
through the Commonwealth public service modernisation fund to develop a pilot set of reusable government-wide platforms over three
years.
The platforms, offering tell us once, notifications and
payments functionality, were pitched as a blueprint for departments and
agencies at federal, state and local jurisdictions to develop their own
services.
The most successful of the platforms was the notifications
platform, called Notify.gov.au, which allowed agencies, particularly those
without existing channels, to send reminders and messages via SMS and email.
Aged care tech start-up Hayylo has formed a partnership with
Telstra Health to help simplify digital technology adoption through the
integration of their platforms.
Hayylo was founded in 2016 by Greg Satur (pictured) and
Simon Heaysman, and recently announced board
appointments that included Chris Gray who co-founded iCare Health before
selling the business to Telstra Health in 2014.
“Our companies share the same drive for a more connected and
tech-enabled sector. Hayylo is a well-developed communication platform that
complements our solutions as an added value to our client base”, said Michael
Donnelly, Head of Aged & Disability at Telstra Health.
The partnership aims to further support Telstra Health’s
client base via Hayylo’s smart communication platform and provider-branded
mobile apps. Providers using Telstra Health’s solutions can implement Hayylo
which will work in the background and automatically integrate data to drive
operational efficiency. It then powers easier and transparent ways for care
recipients, families and teams to self-service information around schedules,
visit details, requests, care notes, statements and budget use.
New head of Telstra Health UK won’t ‘just push paper around’
David Sharp comes into the role as UK-based data and
analytics Dr Foster is integrated into Australian telecommunication company
Telstra Health – the latter acquired Dr Foster back in 2015.
Hanna Crouch – 4 August 2021
Sharp has been brought in as the new lead for Telstra
Health’s UK division as the Australian company looks to invest in the UK health
sector.
Despite not being in the role for long (he started on 7 July
2021), the new head of Telstra Health UK is looking to hit the ground running
and told Digital Health News his first mission is to find the so-called “pain
point” or issues in aged care and try to fix them.
“There will be something that is creating a pain point which
nobody is attending to, so my first mission is to find the pain points in aged
care,” he said.
“I don’t want to be in a position where we held back and
didn’t address one of the biggest challenges facing us today.
Telstra Health and Hayylo partner to simplify digital technology adoption
in care services industry
Published on August 5, 2021
Telstra
Health, one of the leading providers of aged, disability and community care software
in Australia, has selected software platform, Hayylo, as a partner for care
recipient and community communication.
The
companies aim to simplify digital technology adoption in the care services
industry by integrating their platforms and offering capabilities to interact
with care recipients and their loved ones.
“Our
companies share the same drive for a more connected and tech-enabled sector.
Hayylo is a well-developed communication platform that complements our
solutions as an added value to our client base,”
said Michael
Donnelly, Telstra Health’s Head of Aged & Disability.
Telstra Health, Hayylo team up for integrated communication platform
Adam Ang | 03 Aug 2021
Australian
digital health provider Telstra Health has partnered with client communication
platform provider Hayylo for care recipient and community communication.
WHY
IT MATTERS
The
partnership has seen Hayylo's smart communication platform and mobile apps
implemented by providers using Telstra Health solutions. In a press statement,
Hayylo said its platform works in the background and automatically integrates
data to "drive operational efficiency".
The
combined solution enables "easier and transparent" ways for care
recipients, families and teams to self-service information around schedules,
visit details, requests, care notes, statements and budget use.
Additionally,
the Hayylo features are said to reduce the time spent by providers on manual
communications as they enable multi-channel communications via an app, SMS,
email or phone. These have allowed for up to 60% more time for provider's
health teams to deliver care instead of taking up calls for simple enquiries,
the company claimed.
University of Southern Queensland, Belmont Private Hospital collaborate to
enhance rTMS therapy for treating depression using AI
Adam Ang | 03 Aug 2021
The
University of Southern Queensland and Belmont Private Hospital, one of the
largest private hospitals in Australia, have partnered to develop an AI model
that will enhance repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation therapy for
treating depression.
WHY
IT MATTERS
rTMS
is a non-invasive brain stimulation procedure for treating depression and other
mental health disorders. It uses magnetic fields to repeatedly stimulate nerve
cells in the brain to improve depression symptoms.
Based
on USQ's press statement, a standard course of rTMS involves 20 sessions that
last 20-40 minutes each. The procedure, according to Raj Gururajan, professor
of Information Systems at USQ, is "very time consuming, therefore
expensive".
Led
by Prof Gururajan, the development of AI algorithms can potentially save
patients and the health systems' time and money, while improving outcomes. It
does this by informing treatment decisions through recognising patterns of data
collected in past treatments.
New measurements from the ACMA, conducted in early 2021,
show that levels of electromagnetic energy (EME) at 5G enabled mobile base
station sites across Victoria are very low.
The ACMA audit found that for all 129 mobile base stations
tested, EME levels were found to be only a small percentage of the EME exposure
limits set by ARPANSA for the public.
The results show that, for all sites measured, average EME
levels in publicly-accessible areas were less than 1.5% of the ARPANSA limit –
the majority of sites were under 1%.
The report is part of the ACMA's 5G and EME compliance
program. The program assesses telcos’ compliance with the EME Standard for
mobile base station deployments and was one of its compliance priorities for 2020–21.
Businesses in every corner of Australia can now access
business-grade services on NBN's Business Satellite Service (BSS), with 100% of
the mainland, large islands and hard to reach remote locations now open to
retail service providers.
The expanded NBN BSS beam coverage now takes the percentage of eligible
Australian businesses from 93 to 100%, with access expanded across the east
coast of the Australian mainland, the west coast of Tasmania and large
surrounding islands such as Christmas Island, Lord Howe Island and Norfolk
Island.
Along with enhanced coverage, NBN says it has reduced
wholesale pricing by approximately 40% for the BSS Access Bandwidth Service
(ABS) Layer 3 committed bandwidth product for internet retailers, including
where they engage in extended contract terms with NBN to help meet the needs of
their customers over longer time periods.
NBN says the ABS Layer 3 service delivers wholesale speeds
of up to 50/13 Mbps to provide the core connectivity for critical applications
required by many medium and large businesses, enterprises and government
organisations.
But
doesn’t link cancellations to problems with Unify.
NBN
Co cancelled almost 58,000 technician appointments that had been made over a
two-month period earlier this year, coinciding with issues with a new field
workforce management system.
The
numbers [pdf] were revealed overnight and appeared to shed light on an issue
that was given plenty of airtime by Labor Senators during senate estimates
hearings back in May.
Curiously,
however, NBN Co did not list the Unify issues as a possible cause of the
cancellations in its written responses, despite those two things being closely linked by retail service providers (RSPs),
and even previously by NBN Co itself.
NBN
Co revealed that in April 2021, of the total 195,622 appointments it had booked
with customers, the network operator itself “cancelled 30,184” or 15.4 percent
of them.
A late push on NBN Co’s ‘focus on fast’ discounts, combined
with its sales strategy, may lead more Aussie Broadband users to stay on the
higher-cost plans once the discount period ends, the company's managing
director Phillip Britt says.
Speaking to iTnews after Aussie Broadband handed down its
fourth quarter results, Britt said the retail service provider (RSP) had
ultimately taken a different approach to the six-month discount campaign.
NBN Co’s ‘focus on fast’ campaign kicked off in February,
making all tiers 100Mbps and above cost the same at a wholesale level for six
months.
Because the larger plans also came with additional
connectivity virtual circuit (CVC) bandwidth, some RSPs upgraded temporarily
customers en masse to the higher speed tiers as a free speed boost, while
potentially benefiting by having to pay less in excess CVC charges.
NBN
announced that it will offer a COVID-19 relief credit payment totalling $5.2
million across eligible internet retailers to support the provision of
additional data to meet increased customer demand for broadband services during
the lockdowns in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia in July 2021.
NBN
said that it has made significant investment over many years to ensure the NBN
network has sufficient capacity and additional headroom to accommodate
long-term growth in data demand. The network continues to perform well under
the incremental increase in data demand of recent weeks.
NBN
executive general manager commercial Ken
Walliss provided the following points:
NBN
acknowledges that customer data demand has incrementally increased as more
states have gone into lockdown. However, the additional capacity required
to accommodate these increases have been partly accommodated by NBN Co’s
introduction of National Pooling of Connectivity Virtual Circuit (CVC),
the additional capacity inclusions in May 2021 and the Focus on Fast
campaign.
The credit
payment, which will be made on a proportional basis to eligible retailers,
is designed to reduce retailers’ additional wholesale data overage costs
brought on by the incremental increase in usage during the peak evening
entertainment hours and to help to ensure they do not fall short of their
customers’ data demands during lockdown.
To assess
the size of the support, NBN Co took into account the long-term annual
growth rate of data of around 25 per cent and the average spend on data
overage costs in FY20. The $5.2m payment across all eligible internet
retailers is intended to help bring retailers’ data
overage
spend back in line with both baseline costs.
An Australian mathematician has decoded a 3700-year-old cuneiform
tablet to discover how ancient Babylonian surveyors used maths to define
property boundaries and facilitate real estate transactions.
UNSW researcher Daniel Mansfield said his work had revealed
that the clay tablet, now held by the Istanbul Archaeological Museum, recorded
how a particular field was measured and subdivided, after a portion of it was
sold to a new owner.
He said the diagrams and cuneiform script on the tablet
showed how the unknown surveyor used Pythagorean triplets — three numbers that
represent the lengths of the sides of a right-angled triangle — to define right
angles when marking out the boundaries of the subdivided property.
“We didn’t know until this discovery that they used
mathematics to establish boundaries,” Dr Mansfield said.
Telecommunications bigwig Telstra is set to acquire
Australian patient management software company MedicalDirector.
Sources said Telstra and MedicalDirector’s owner, private equity firm
Affinity Equity Partners, signed a deal over the weekend after an auction run
by investment bank Jefferies.
Telstra
chief executive Andy Penn has said that Telstra Health is a long-term bet. He’s
now helping the business considerably increase its footprint in the general
practice sector.
The deal will see MedicalDirector join the telco’s Telstra Health unit,
which provides IT and software services to health and aged care groups in
Australia including government-run services and private providers.
MedicalDirector is the second biggest provider of in-practice software to
GPs in Australia. The company says about 23,000 clinicians use MedicalDirector
to deliver more than 80 million consults a year. The software includes practice
management, clinical health records, billing, reporting and referral management
functions.
I have
spent the usual morning this Sunday with the TV on in the background with Insiders
(Guest Greg Hunt) and the press conferences from Qld., Victoria and NSW.
I have to
say I am getting the very distinct feeling that all the confidence in the
freedom we will see from 80+% vaccination may be rather illusory, and also
worryingly that at least NSW and the Feds are not being all that straight with
us. I became more and more annoyed at all this as the morning passed!
In the UK they
have a vaccination rate of 88.9% for the first dose and 74% of second dose as
of yesterday
Even with
that they are still seeing 180,000 cases a week, 600+ deaths a week and 5000+
admissions a week.
Worryingly
we are seeing a beginning uptick in death rates again after the relative total
unlocking 3-4 weeks ago – although we know social distancing and mask wearing
have by no means been abandoned by many. So many are still both cautious and
careful.
Note: None
of this suggests that the vaccines have not dramatically improved the hospitalisation
and death rates – they are a lot lower but simply not even near eliminated.
What this
tells us – with a population a little less than ½ - if we remove most regulated
restriction and just let the delta variant run a few months from now, even with
great vaccination rates, we could see a pretty dramatic rise in cases,
admissions and deaths from where we are now. The vaccines are effective but not
perfect!
Despite the
confidence of the politicians, and while they may be prepared to tolerate say
50 deaths a week and say 1000 admissions a week and more than that will see
pretty massive pressure for change I suspect.
On that
basis I can’t see a sustained opening without really effective treatments –
which we don’t yet have – as well as pretty much total population vaccinations,
six month booster vaccines and some limited continuing restrictions.
Gladys just
warbling on about freedoms etc. looks to me like a huge con! I see the future
in NSW being rather like where we are until Nov-Dec and then gradual very slow
incremental wind back of controls in the first 2-3 months of 2022 watching
carefully what is happening. In short the vaccines are wonderful but not a miracle and have been oversold.
The bottom line in NSW is clear. Unless there is major change in what is being done, along with vaccination NSW could well see in the New Year in lockdown - ugh!
All of this
above utterly assumes there is not a lambda variant – or some such – which is not
just far worse or clever enough the evade the vaccine or both! If this happens clearly all bets are off.
I really do
wonder just what actual advice the chief health officers are providing in
private. I suspect it would be way more cautious than what the pollies are
telling us! The original virus was a problem, the delta was worse and the next
may be just awful.
I guess the
question is just how much reality we all want after 18 months of this? I
understand the need to preserve morale but how far should they all go and how
frank should they really be?
Views are
welcome but I for one am feeling rather ‘mushroomed’! The future is way more
murky that Gladys and Greg are telling us!
David.
P.S. Now back
to Digital Health and the wonders of what goes on there!
