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This weekly blog is to explore the news around the larger issues around Digital Health, data security, data privacy, AI / ML. technology, social media and related matters.
I will also try to highlight ADHA Propaganda when I come upon it.
Just so we keep count, the latest Notes from the ADHA Board 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.
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In trolls and tech giants, Morrison finds an ideal enemy
By Nick Bonyhady and Lisa Visentin
December 5, 2021 — 5.00am
A conspiracy theorist in New Zealand owes Nationals MP Anne Webster $875,000. She’s never likely to see the money.
Dr Webster, her husband and a not-for-profit they founded are owed the money for a campaign of delusional videos falsely branding her a paedophile but the Mildura-based MP knows she’s probably not going to get it.
She’s grown tired of battling through the courts to try to compel the woman to pay out the judgment for her defamatory videos, which has been complicated by the fact she is overseas.
“It’s not it’s not feasible. It’s not reasonable. It’s exhausting. We’ve all got jobs to do and that’s where my focus is, strangely enough, during COVID. There hasn’t been a lot of time to actually pursue anything more about that. And I’m not prepared to spend any more money frankly.”
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‘Utterly unacceptable’: $1b annual spend on consultants undermining APS
Joseph
Brookes
Senior Reporter
30 November 2021
There are fresh calls to reign in the growing and “excessive” use of consultants by the public service, after evidence the Coalition government is currently on pace to spend more on external advice than the record $1.2 billion it previously gave a handful of consultancy companies in a single year.
The outsourcing of everything from labour hire to policy advice to a handful of global consultants like KPMG and Deloitte was scrutinised by a Labor-led Senate committee over the last year as part of a review of the capability of the Australian Public Service (APS).
“It is utterly unacceptable that the government paid close to $1.2 billion in one year to eight private consulting firms in an entirely unaccountable way, for work that arguably should have been completed in-house by the APS,” the committee said in its final report.
The federal government is reportedly on track to pass the $1.2 billion, which was recorded in 2018/19, now averaging more than $2 million a day since the financial year began.
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https://www.afr.com/technology/all-federal-government-services-to-be-online-by-2025-20211203-p59elv
All federal government services to be online by 2025
Tom Burton Government editor
Dec 3, 2021 – 3.30pm
The federal government has pledged to have all its services available digitally by 2025, enabling Australians to deal with government anywhere and on any device.
About 47 per cent of federal services are now digitised and the pledge is part of a refreshed digital strategy that aims to make the Australian government one of the top three digital governments in the world.
This will be based on the OECD Digital Government index. South Korea, Britain and Colombia were the top three in the most recent index in 2019. Australia was among a handful of OECD nations that did not submit any data.
After the Audit Office reported widespread non-compliance with basic cyber requirements, four new cyber hubs are also to be established in the major agencies.
These are envisaged to be within Services Australia, Tax, Defence and Home Affairs and will support the long tail of small and medium agencies that have little or no cyber resources.
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https://www.croakey.org/as-the-australian-government-talks-tough-on-big-tech-wheres-the-big-picture/
As the Australian Government talks tough on Big Tech, where’s the big picture?
· Melissa Sweet
· Melissa Sweet; and Amy Westervelt
· Wednesday, December 1, 2021
Below are two reports addressing recent concerns about the impacts of Big Tech on public health.
The first article examines the Australian Government’s recent tough-talking; the second article, published via the Covering Climate Now collaboration, provides a United States perspective on imperatives to address climate disinformation.
Melissa Sweet writes:
The Morrison Government today announced a Parliamentary inquiry to examine “toxic material on social media platforms and the dangers this poses to the wellbeing of Australians”.
Whether this inquiry will be a meaningful opportunity to address the wide-ranging public health and other policy concerns associated with Big Tech is another matter.
Its timeline – with hearings to start this month and the report due in February, presumably with a Federal election campaign in mind – does not suggest there will be a capacity to engage deeply with the complexity of the issues involved.
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https://digitalhealth.org.au/blog/digital-health-proms/
Digital health PROMs
Nov 29, 2021 | Member news
MELBOURNE, Australia — November 11, 2021 — Cabrini Health and The Alfred, two leading hospitals in Melbourne, Australia, have deployed the cloud-based ZEDOC platform by The Clinician to automate collection and analysis of PROMs from all colorectal neoplasia patients undergoing surgical treatment.
The cloud-based PROMs program, led by Professor Paul McMurrick at Cabrini Health and Mr Peter Carne at The Alfred, is aimed at understanding both the health-related impact of colorectal cancer treatment on quality of life, symptom and functional outcomes, as well as supporting clinical teams to deliver more personalised, effective care.
“This Victorian-first program will give colorectal cancer patients a voice and this will allow us to improve their health-related outcomes through improved symptom monitoring and enhanced patient-clinician communication.” said Professor Paul McMurrick.
Project Coordinator, Dr Christine Koulis, is leading the roll-out of this important program utilising the colorectal cancer standard set outlined by the International Consortium of Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM), which incorporates health domains that matter most to patients. This program, funded by a Collie Foundation grant and Let’s Beat Bowel Cancer, a not-for-profit Cabrini initiative, will allow colorectal cancer patients to report their health-related outcomes on their own mobile devices or computers using the cloud-based ZEDOC platform.
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University of Sydney contract could open health records to Chinese
9:00PM December 3, 2021
The University of Sydney has decided not to declare to the Australian government it is close to awarding a multimillion-dollar contract to a Chinese government-funded company in an apparent breach of foreign disclosure laws.
The confidential tender process for health equipment worth $14m has come to the attention of Australian intelligence sources who say there is substantial concern the Chinese company, Shanghai United Imaging Healthcare, which has an artificial intelligence arm, could gain access to NSW government health data.
Leaked commercial-in-confidence documents, obtained by The Weekend Australian, contain the university admission it has no plans to make any disclosure to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, as required by the Foreign Relations Act, over its consideration of awarding the winning bid to United Imaging Health. The university is in the final stages of a tender process for Sydney’s premiere whole body PET scanner, used to detect tumours and track their spread, that would be used by the university and the Royal North Shore Hospital.
An intelligence officer said the concern of Chinese infiltration was amplified by the fact United Imaging Healthcare in Shanghai has an artificial intelligence subsidiary named United Imaging Intelligence, which uses AI software to analyse patient data amassed by the company. “The whole point of AI is to use big data. They will be able to, without even having to go inside the firewall, they will be able to amass big data at source in the scanner and then send it back to China,” the officer said.
Note: Read carefully for yourself, it seems like a beat up to me.
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https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj.n3014
Can you do what I’m asking you to do?
BMJ 2021; 375 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n3014 (Published 03 December 2021) Cite this as: BMJ 2021;375:n3014
Tessa Richards, senior editor patient partnership1
Tessa Richards discusses new approaches to tackling health and digital divides, including two questions that clinicians should ask their patients at the end of each consultation
The rapid move to remote healthcare services, triggered by the covid-19 pandemic, is stimulating debate on their impact on existing health divides. As new methods of care are adopted how do we avoid baking in further inequities, asked Mary Dixon-Woods, director of the THIS Institute, as she opened the institute's recent webinar on the burden of treatment and remote care.
An instant response from Frances Mair, head of general practice and research convenor for the Institute of Health and Wellbeing at the University of Glasgow, was abandon the “one size fits all” approach to service provision. Health systems must acknowledge, analyse, and reduce the “structurally induced” burdens they impose on patients, she said, which reduce their ability to adhere to treatment.1 Services must be tailored to take account of people's circumstances, needs, abilities, and preferences.2
The burden of navigating health services is particularly heavy for those who live with multi morbidity, which Mair described as health systems “biggest global problem this century.” This is not just a challenge for older people. Rates of multimorbidity are disproportionately high in low socioeconomic groups where the development of multiple conditions occurs 10 years earlier than in richer populations. Health systems need to look at and learn from patients’ experience of accessing healthcare, interacting with health professionals, and the extent to which they can and can't follow advice and self manage conditions.
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MyGov to push vaccine boosters as doctors call for clearer messaging
By Rachel Clun
December 3, 2021 — 5.00am
Millions of Australians will get a message through online government portal MyGov reminding them to get a booster vaccine shot early next year as doctors call for clearer communication about the booster program.
From early 2022, the Commonwealth plans to notify people through MyGov that they’re due for a booster, either through direct alerts if people have given consent or through an email in MyGov itself.
Booster shots are not mandatory but are highly recommended six months after second doses, as they can further reduce the risk of serious illness, hospitalisation and death from COVID-19.
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) president Dr Karen Price said doctors were concerned about having enough resources to roll out a massive booster campaign, and the Commonwealth must make sure people know why it’s important.
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https://www.digitalhealth.gov.au/careers/senior-research-specialist
Senior Research Specialist
EL1
($122,716 - $139,959)
Digital
Strategy Division > Research
Brisbane,
Canberra, Sydney
Closing - 14 Dec 2021
Division Overview
Digital strategy – responsible for national digital health design and strategy, underpinned by strong clinical governance and digital health standards.
Primary purpose of position
The EL1 Senior Research Specialist is responsible for managing the design, development and delivery of methodologies as well as data analyses and knowledge translation of results that convey accurate and true representations of user needs and behaviours to evaluate the impact of digital health system management. As such, the role will be required to:
- Proactively build a robust evidence base for digital health initiatives which can be used to support organisational funding, influence policy and encourage the adoption and use of digital health services
- Deliver clear and targeted strategic advice and reports to inform research, continuous quality improvement, planning and decision making across the Agency.
- Manage the successful delivery of research projects and contributing to the delivery of strategic projects. Actively collaborate with management to provide regular updates on key projects, issues and priorities
- Build capability within the team by mentoring and training, and ensure quality output from the team
- Consult and negotiate with diverse stakeholders across the Agency, within agreed timelines and given the varying expectations, viewpoints, interests and sensitivity of projects.
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https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=77c56df8-91d1-4e1c-b561-f632fea78463
What can starlings teach us about better managing data privacy?
Gilbert + Tobin Lucy Goodlad, Melissa Fai, Susan Jones and Peter Waters
Australia December 1 2021
Groups of up to 25,000 starlings have been seen flying in abstract, yet highly organised formation. If you’ve witnessed a starling murmuration, you might recall that the flock – almost swarm-like – appears not to have a central leader, yet each bird knows precisely what direction to take at any given moment to enable the flock to move in perfect synchronicity.
But this is not just a pretty stunt; rather, it is an illustration of how optimal outcomes can be produced when intelligence is aggregated and utilised at a group level, an emerging concept known as swarm intelligence.
Swarm learning conceptually
Swarm intelligence is the theory underpinning swarm learning, a machine learning technique premised on information sharing across a secure, decentralised, and privacy-preserving network to enable intelligence to develop at a group level.
Put simply, individual systems upload insights and learnings they produce to a common network, which incrementally refines a core model that all participants have the benefit of using: i.e. the data is locally stored and only the insights are shared and used centrally.
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Anti-troll laws to compel social media to unmask anonymous commenters
By Justin Hendry on Dec 1, 2021 5:14PM
Or be liable themselves.
Social media platforms will need to successfully hand over the contact details of anonymous commenters making defamatory posts if they are to avoid liability under proposed "anti-troll" laws.
An exposure draft of the Social Media (Anti-Trolling Bill), published on Wednesday, provides the first look at laws intended to unmask anonymous commenters that make defamatory or abusive posts online.
The government first flagged the bill earlier this week to rein in “anonymous trolls” on platforms like Facebook and Twitter, which caught the ire of Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the recent G20 Summit.
The proposed laws would see social media platform designated publishers of any comments made on their services in Australia, including those that are defamatory, while clarifying that media companies and other page owners are not publishers.
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https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=48a95a4b-a1ac-4fe4-924a-672ebdfcf1d9
Health & Community Law Alert: AI in healthcare and liability - update and who will be responsible in the event of an adverse event?
Hall & Wilcox Alison Choy Flannigan and Lauren Krejci
Australia November 29 2021
The development and use of artificial intelligence (AI) in health, aged care and biotechnology is creating opportunities and benefits for health care providers and consumers. Presently, AI is being used in medical fields such as diagnostics, e-health and evidenced based medicine. In aged care, one of the greatest opportunities is for technology to provide efficiencies with respect to administrative or mundane tasks in order to enable staff to spend more quality face-to-face time with residents and clients.
However, a number of legal, regulatory, ethical and social issues have arisen with the use of AI in the health and aged care sectors. The issues is: can the law keep up with the pace?
Duty of care, negligence
The potential liability for injury caused to a resident or patient due to AI will depend on the circumstances of the adverse event but may include:
- the treating clinician, such as the GP, who relied upon the technology;
- the developer of the algorithm;
- the programmer of the software; or
- the hospital or aged care provider.
Proving causation in negligence under civil liability legislation may be difficult when machine learning occurs in a multi-layered, fluid environment when the machine itself is influencing the output. Answers may be complex and difficult to find given the legal, regulatory, ethical and social issues at play.
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https://www.miragenews.com/world-aids-day-1-december-its-just-medication-684149/
1 Dec 2021 8:24 am AEDT
World AIDS day 1 December – It’s just medication – journey into trust in My Health Record
Australian Digital Health Agency ADHA Propaganda
When Kalkadoon, Barahda Barna and Wangi man Michael Brown first discovered he was HIV-positive, he was living in Cairns in far north Queensland. He initially suffered some judgement in his interaction with health services and as a result, had limited trust in the health system and care he was receiving.
One comment, one leap into faith in digital health, came from a pharmacist in Cairns and a doctor who treated him with dignity.
Now he is a firm advocate for My Health Record and is encouraging other HIV-positive people to use their record and take control of their health, knowing their privacy is protected.
Born in Townsville, Michael now works as a sexual health project officer in Cherbourg Aboriginal community, 170 km north-west of Brisbane, in Wakka Wakka tribal country.
“Today in Australia, Indigenous people are 2.6 times at higher risk of acquiring HIV than any other demographic,” he said.
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Six technology trend predictions that will shape 2022
By Brad Drysdale, Kong
GUEST OPINION by Brad Drysdale, APAC Field Chief Technology Officer at Kong: Pandemic restrictions may have hampered economic growth throughout 2021, but they’ve done nothing to slow progress when it comes to business technology.
Innovation in everything from workflow automation and mobility to cloud resources and high-speed networks has continued to increase in pace. As 2022 unfolds, this rate of development is likely to rise even further.
There are some key trends that will shape the next twelve months for organisations across every sector of business. Six of the key ones will be:
1. Hybrid cloud will go mainstream:
Growing numbers of organisations have begun to make use of more than one cloud provider, selecting resources and capabilities that best match the particular requirements of their applications and databases.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/australia-to-launch-inquiry-into-big-techs-behaviour-573373
Australia to launch inquiry into big tech's behaviour
By Colin Packham on Dec 1, 2021 6:14AM
Under threat of even more legislation.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison will today announce a parliamentary inquiry into the behaviour of the world's largest technology companies and the need for new legislation.
Australia has led global efforts to reign in the powers of the likes of Alphabet and Facebook, installing legislation that has been heralded as a model for others to copy.
Raising the possibility of additional regulation, Morrison will say on Wednesday that the new inquiry will have a wide scope, but will include asking the committee lawmakers to investigate the algorithms used by social media platforms, how the companies verify identification and age and the extent to which restrictions on these are being enforced.
"Big tech has big questions to answer," Morrison will say, according to extracts of his planned announcement, seen by Reuters.
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Dating violence and digital abuse prevalent among young people: White Book
GP detection and help for patients may reduce abuse in future relationships, experts say
30th November 2021
Digital dating violence and coercion, particularly among young adults in casual relationships, is on the rise but may be hard for GPs to detect, new guidance says.
Online or ‘technology-facilitated’ abuse is a growing public health problem, often presenting as mental health concerns, such as depression, anxiety and risk-taking behaviours.
However, some patients may have physical symptoms like chronic headaches, according to the fifth edition of the RACGP’s domestic violence White Book.
Released today, the updated guide recommends that GPs inquire about the possibility of online violence from partners, which is estimated to affect one in four young women, as well as older women.
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Algorithms, not trolls, the crux of online hate speech
Natasha Gillezeau Reporter
Nov 29, 2021 – 6.06pm
Critics of big social media companies say new laws that target trolls ignore the role of algorithms in promoting hateful and harassing content.
Reset Australia, an international lobby group that argues the business models of social media such as Facebook and Twitter have corrosive effects on liberal democracies, want policy makers to go further.
“Social media companies promote, amplify and profit from hate – catching trolls won’t end online hate,” said Reset executive director Chris Cooper.
“The most pressing problem here is not trolls, it is the disproportionate reach of their content enabled by the algorithms of social media companies that prioritise sensational, outrageous and conspiratorial content – the form which defamatory content usually takes.
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Monday, 29 November 2021 09:54
Govt promises new rules to force online firms to unmask trolls
The Federal Government will put in place new rules to force technology companies to identify anonymous online trolls, or be exposed to the risk of defamation payouts.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison told a media conference on Sunday that social media companies would be considered as publishers under the reforms.
Under the rules, social media platforms will have to set up a complaints system so that defamatory comments could be taken down, and trolls identified with consent.
There would also be new Federal Court orders that make it mandatory for the companies to provided details of trolls to victims who would then be able to sue them for defamation.
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Monday, 29 November 2021 11:31
Digital group says govt troll move will not decrease hate online
The Australian arm of a global initiative working to counter digital threats to democracy says the Federal Government's proposed new rules to expose online trolls will not solve the problem on online hate on social media.
Chris Cooper, executive director of Reset Australia, said in a statement that greater transparency about how the platforms worked and accountability for algorithms that amplified extreme content were more important.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the government plan on Sunday, saying it would put in place new rules to force technology companies to identify anonymous online trolls, or be exposed to the risk of defamation payouts.
Said Cooper: "Social media companies promote, amplify and profit from hate - catching trolls won’t end online hate.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/telcos-get-new-powers-to-block-malicious-sms-scams-at-scale-573290
Telcos get new powers to block malicious SMS scams at scale
By Justin Hendry on Nov 29, 2021 12:50PM
As Telstra begins piloting its 'cyber safety capability'.
Australian telcos have been handed new powers to prevent malicious SMS messages from being sent, by automatically detecting and blocking them at a network level.
The federal government has amended regulations associated with the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act to tackle the growing number of SMS scams.
The changes, which come into effect on Tuesday, will allow telcos to identify and block malicious SMS messages at their source as part of the normal operation of the service.
A text message is considered malicious if it contains a link or telephone number and its purpose, or apparent purpose... is to mislead or deceive a recipient... into using the link or telephone number”.
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We are on the verge of extraordinary change with technologies emerging in 2022
By The Economist
7:19PM November 28, 2021
The astonishingly rapid development and rollout of coronavirus vaccines has been a reminder of the power of science and technology to change the world. Although the vaccines seemed to have been created almost instantly, they drew upon decades of research. As the saying goes, it takes years to create an overnight success. So what else might be about to burst into prominence? Here are 22 emerging technologies worth watching in 2022.
Solar geoengineering
It sounds childishly simple. If the world is getting too hot, why not offer it some shade? The dust and ash released into the upper atmosphere by volcanoes is known to have a cooling effect: Mount Pinatubo’s eruption in 1991 cooled the Earth by as much as 0.5°C for four years. Solar geoengineering, also known as solar radiation management, would do the same thing.
This is hugely controversial. Would it work? How would rainfall and weather patterns be affected? And wouldn’t it undermine efforts to curb greenhouse-gas emissions? Efforts to test the idea face fierce opposition from politicians and activists. Next year, however, a group at Harvard University hopes to conduct a much-delayed experiment called scopex. It involves launching a balloon into the stratosphere, with the aim of releasing 2kg of material (probably calcium carbonate), and then measuring how it dissipates, reacts and scatters solar energy.
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Tech giants ‘need to take complaints seriously’, new research finds
11:00PM November 28, 2021
Nearly three in four Australians want it to be easier to make a complaint and have their issues resolved when dealing with digital platforms including Facebook, WhatsApp and eBay, a nationally representative survey of 1000 Australians has found.
The research, from Australia’s peak communications consumer organisation ACCAN, found 74 per cent of respondents thought it needed to be easier to make a complaint, and 78 per cent think it should be easier to get issues resolved.
The polling also found 60 per cent of Australians felt there’s not much they could do when something went wrong online. Meanwhile 79 per cent thought digital platforms should be responsible for the content on their sites, and only 27 per cent believed the government was doing enough to make sure digital platforms did the right thing.
Seventy-nine per cent of survey respondents said they believed more needed to be done to protect people’s safety and privacy online, while 47 per cent said they did not trust digital platforms to act in their best interests.
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Morrison government announces new legislation to tackle trolling
11:10AM November 28, 2021
Scott Morrison has announced powerful new legislation to address online trolling, paving the way for social media users to “unmask” anonymous accounts who disseminate defamatory slurs, while shifting the burden of responsibility for toxic, third party comments to Big Tech.
The measures augment existing mechanisms announced by the Morrison government aimed at regulating the social media giants. Liability for online comments made by third parties will shift from media outlets and small businesses to social media services, deeming them to be the “publisher”.
Moreover, the legislation will force Big Tech to implement a complaint process for people who believe they have been defamed. If the companies do not comply, a mechanism will be introduced enabling the Federal Court to compel social media companies to “unmask” accounts.
In a press conference, the Prime Minister said there should be consistency between laws in the real and online worlds, saying Facebook and Twitter needed to take responsibility for the environments they had created.
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Australia to introduce laws to 'unmask' anonymous commenters online
By Ry Crozier on Nov 28, 2021 6:19PM
Technical implementation left to the platforms to work out.
The Australian government wants to bring in laws that would force social media platforms to “unmask” anonymous commenters that make defamatory or abusive posts and pass their details to the complainant.
The so-called “social media anti-trolling legislation” will be introduced into parliament this week - the last sitting week of the parliament for the year.
“I'm sure it'll be able to move quickly through the parliament,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Sunday. “I expect to get strong support for this.”
Morrison took aim at "anonymous trolls" at the recent G20 Summit in late October, and is forging ahead with domestic laws to rein them in, while pledging to continue to campaign for other international jurisdictions to follow suit.
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David.
