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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! It’s 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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International Medical Informatics Association: Nursing Informatics Special Interest Group
May 9, 2022 | Community Chats, Community of Practice, Digital Health, Nursing & Midwifery Informatics
IMIA-NI is the international organisation for health and biomedical informatics. The goal of IMIA-NI is to promote collaboration among nurses and others interested in Nursing Informatics in order to advance the field. The special Interest group seeks to share knowledge, experience, and ideas about the practice of Nursing Informatics and the benefits of improved information management with nurses and healthcare providers worldwide.
As the vice-chair of the AIDH-NM CoP and the Australian representative on the IMIA-NI special interest group, I will soon be compiling the AIDH-NM CoP contribution to informatics annual report for 2021-2022. As a member of the AIDH-N.M COP, we invite you to participate by submitting your Nursing and Midwifery Digital Health Informatics accomplishments from the previous year.
Your accomplishments will be acknowledged in the annual report as our Australian contribution to the International Medical Informatics Association: Special Interest Group for Nursing Informatics.
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Facebook executives ‘hid misconduct’ amid news ban
7:27PM May 13, 2022
Facebook executives deliberately shielded documents showing they wanted to cause havoc to influence media bargaining laws by encouraging staff to falsely label them “attorney-client privileged” despite the files not involving legal issues or being sent to lawyers, whistleblowers claim.
Documents provided to the US congress allege the social media company took the unprecedented step of requiring all employees in a team created to deal with the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission to sign strict nondisclosure agreements.
The competition regulator was leading the push to force Facebook and Google to pay for content published by News Corp (publisher of The Weekend Australian), Nine Entertainment, Seven West Media and others.
The ACCC’s 2019 digital platforms inquiry concluded Google and Facebook had a “privileged position” because they were “critical and unavoidable partners” for news publishers in Australia.
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Facebook Accused of Deliberately Causing Havoc in Australia Over News Law -- Read The Whistleblower Files
May 13, 2022 5:00 a.m. PT
What's happening
CNET has obtained and is publishing whistleblower disclosures to Congress detailing how Facebook intentionally blocked Australian government pages as a negotiating tactic over a new bill lawmakers were considering.
Why it matters
The disclosure is the latest in a series of leaks that portray Facebook wielding its power as the world's largest social network in aggressive and potentially damaging ways.
What it means for you
Lawmakers and regulators around the world are increasingly scrutinizing the tech industry, which could lead to new rules for how companies treat your data.
Facebook whistleblowers accused the social network of intentionally blocking Australian government and emergency health official pages last year to influence a proposed law. CNET has obtained and is publishing the whistleblowers' disclosures provided to Congress.
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WeChat, the Chinese mega app, can do almost everything - including election misinformation
By Nick Bonyhady and Kat Wong
May 13, 2022 — 5.00am
Chinese Australians are being shown misinformation and unauthorised political advertising on dominant social network WeChat, during a federal election campaign where major parties are courting their votes in key marginal seats.
WeChat has an estimated 690,000 daily users in Australia. The platform, owned by Chinese internet behemoth Tencent, claims it does not allow political advertising, but even a brief search reveals the widespread existence of what appear to be political ads and misinformation.
Much of the discussion on the platform is similar to that on Western sites such as Facebook, with different sections of the Chinese community making the case for their preferred candidates.
However, in some private chat groups, which can count hundreds of members, images are circulating with false claims about candidates and political parties. Misinformation experts believe the posts may have been shared by the proxies of candidates in seats where votes from Chinese Australians may determine the result.
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Bid to compulsorily harvest medical records to meet opposition in Victoria’s parliament
Bill to establish a database of all health records expected to be introduced in the upper house Thursday
Thu 12 May 2022 03.30 AESTLast modified on Thu 12 May 2022 08.40 AEST
Victoria’s opposition will push for patients to have the right to opt-out of a proposed scheme that will centralise all medical records across the state’s public health system.
The centralised database will be accessible by all clinicians in public hospitals and services and is intended to improve patient safety, while aligning with similar systems in place in New South Wales and Queensland. The government proposes that patient participation be compulsory.
The creation of the database was recommended in an independent report on a cluster of baby deaths at Bacchus Marsh hospital in 2015.
It will include information such as a patient’s medical conditions, mental health issues, allergies and medication, which has led to privacy concerns from civil liberties groups.
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https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/racgp/in-practice-diabetes-medication-shortage
In Practice: Diabetes medication shortage
……..
Digital health live Q&A
In partnership with the Australian Digital Health Agency, the RACGP is running
a series of 30-minute lunchtime webinars in May as part of the Digital
health live Q&A series.
GPs can learn how to better support patients to access digital health tools and
discuss the future of digital health.
Supporting
patients to access digital health tools – Tuesday 17 May, 1.00 – 1.30 pm
The
future of digital health – Monday 23 May, 1.00 – 1.30 pm
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‘Unprecedented internet censorship’: Libertarian group hits out at misinformation laws
May 12, 2022 — 5.00am
A libertarian think tank has accused the Coalition of abandoning free speech and giving bureaucrats power to determine truth online in a fresh attack against the federal government’s planned social media misinformation laws.
The Morrison government earlier this year unveiled plans to give the media regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, power to create and enforce misinformation codes of practice that could force social media giants to pull down posts deemed harmful or false.
But the Institute of Public Affairs, a free-market organisation typically aligned with the Coalition on many issues, has sharply criticised the proposal, amid a growing global debate about free speech on social media platforms and more broadly, the regulation of tech giants.
“The broad powers to be given to ACMA hand them the keys to encourage platforms to act beyond the commitments of the code and kickstart an era of unprecedented internet censorship,” IPA legal program director Morgan Begg writes in a letter to MPs seen by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
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GP Educational Intervention Improves Patient Care and My Health Record Usage with Potential to Save Government Millions
A two-year study titled CHIME-GP was carried out by Medcast and the University of Wollongong. It has shown that educating GPs about potentially inappropriate or unnecessary medicines, imaging and pathology test ordering in the context of using the My Health Record (MHR) can help reduce unnecessary ordering.
GP Educational Intervention Improves Patient Care and My Health Record usage, Could Save Government Millions
A two-year study titled CHIME-GP was carried out by Medcast and the University of Wollongong. It has shown that educating GPs about potentially inappropriate or unnecessary medicines, imaging and pathology test ordering in the context of using the My Health Record (MHR) can help reduce unnecessary ordering. This is great news for patients as unnecessary interventions are avoided. It is also great for the system, as the trial showed a significant reduction in costs, whilst helping to increase GP confidence and the frequency of use of MHR.
Commissioned by the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA), the study was designed to improve GP knowledge, change practice behaviour and improve clinical care, facilitate technology usage into routine care and result in tangible economic benefits. It looked at three distinct educational arms: pathology test ordering, low-back imaging test ordering and medication prescribing. It evaluated the effectiveness of a multifaceted educational intervention across these three arms to promote best practice and health cost savings, with a view to informing future policy making decisions and resource allocation.
Doctors from general practice settings across both urban and regional Australia were recruited to participate in the study. The CPD accredited education was conducted online via interactive webinars and online learning modules. After the study, an economic analysis was undertaken around the cost per 100 consultations of selected prescriptions, pathology and radiology test ordering. It compared costs in the six months prior to the education, to those six months afterwards. Strong signals of change appeared in each arm, with a significant reduction in pathology ordering amongst those that completed the education, resulting in projected savings of $10,000 per GP during the two years following the education. If rolled out to 2,500 GPs per year, this could save the health system an estimated $100 million over a 4 year program.
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https://omny.fm/shows/interview-highlights/interview-highlight-australian-digital-health-agen
Interview Highlight: Australian Digital Health Agency
In this highlight, Peter Greco learns about the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) from Dr Amandeep Hansra. The ADHA is encouraging everyone to not overlook having their flu and COVID vaccines and screening as well as having regular preventative check-ups.
Australia has one of the best healthcare systems, but there are still opportunities for improvement. Whether it's a secure connection to doctors, electronic prescriptions or telehealth, through the ADHA progress is being made to connect Australia to better healthcare.
More info:
Australian Digital Health Agency
Welcome to this podcast made possible by Vision Australia Radio. Your community radio station visit via radio dot org for more information on Vision Australia Radio and our podcasts.
We're delighted to welcome to the program a guest who we haven't spoken to before. Dr. Amandeep Hansen from the Australian Digital Health Agency. Doctor, thanks so much for your time and welcome.
Thank you for having me.
Now you've got a message out. I guess you're wanting people to be a bit more aware of their health. You think like with the floods and the pandemic people, perhaps? Well, maybe I would look in the health little bit more than I should.
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Friday, 06 May 2022 14:52
85% of Australian organisations suffered a ransomware incident in the past five years, 72% tried to keep it quiet; ExtraHop report
COMPANY NEWS: Newly released ExtraHop Cyber Confidence Index Report reveals critical under-investment in crucial areas of IT, keeping confidence assessment levels low.
ExtraHop, the leader in cloud-native network detection and response, today released findings from a new survey that shows 85% of organisations in Asia Pacific were breached by ransomware at least once in the past five years, but only 28% publicly disclosed that an incident occurred.
The ExtraHop Cyber Confidence Index - Asia Pacific Report 2022, conducted by StollzNow Research, sheds light on discrepancies in how Australian IT decision makers (ITDMs) see their current security practices, and the reality of the ransomware attack landscape.
It shows that both outward and inward perceptions of security can be deceiving.
Externally, 72% of organisations will try to keep a ransomware incident quiet, telling few people if anyone, and certainly doing their utmost not to make it public knowledge.
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https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=ccee6586-e0c2-43b4-8f69-c4208ff5e664
Avoiding health misinformation: Medical librarians can offer data and insights
Asia-Pacific May 6 2022
The amount of health misinformation has been on the rise, even before the Covid-19 pandemic. But health misinformation isn’t only a concern for patients. Clinicians and healthcare professionals also need reminders to stay vigilant and sometimes need assistance identifying outdated evidence and checking their sources.
For the Medical Library Association (MLA), partnering with providers and other healthcare professionals to encourage critical evaluation of medical evidence goes hand-in-hand with its members’ daily work promoting use of reliable research and connecting clinicians to trusted informational resources and research tools, explains Tomi Gunn, Senior Manager of Community Engagement.
A number of MLA members suggested avoiding health misinformation as a potential theme for the 2021 National Medical Librarians Month (NMLM), Gunn reports, and it continues to be a topic of interest for the association as it prepares for its 2022 annual meeting and exhibition.
“The hopes for this or any NMLM campaign are to encourage and assist health sciences information professionals in marketing their value and expertise within their own institutions and communities,” she explains. “Themes and materials are created for them to bring awareness of their skills and library’s resources.”
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Facebook’s absurd position shows its disdain for Australia
May 9, 2022 — 5.00am
Here’s the absurd position Facebook is in.
It either had so little regard for Australia’s parliament that it did not properly prepare for being forced to pay for news here, meaning that when a bill was on the cusp of becoming law it blundered so badly attempting to block news sites that weather and suicide prevention pages were taken down too.
Or it in fact was well-prepared but had so little regard for Australia that it thought it would be a good idea to block news pages with such a broad brush that it would inevitably also hit weather and suicide prevention services in an attempt to strong-arm the government into backing down.
Whistleblowers said last week it was the latter; Facebook insists, more or less, that it was the former.
Either way, Facebook’s most senior leaders, Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, thought the way the company had handled things was just peachy.
“We landed exactly where we wanted to — and that was only possible because this team was genius enough to pull it off in zero time,” said Facebook’s head of news partnerships, Campbell Brown in a leaked missive that was so tone-deaf it could only have been sent internally.
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https://medicalrepublic.com.au/nanotech-diagnostics-in-your-phone-screen/68488
9 May 2022
Nanotech diagnostics in your phone lens
Infectious diseases such as malaria remain a leading cause of death in many regions. This is partly because people there don’t have access to medical diagnostic tools that can detect these diseases (along with a range of non-infectious diseases) at an early stage, when there is more scope for treatment.
It’s a challenge scientists have risen to, with a goal to democratise health care for economically disadvantaged people the world over.
My colleagues and I have developed a new method for the investigation of biological cells which is small enough to fit into a smartphone lens.
While we have so far only tested it in the lab, we hope in the future this nanotechnology could enable disease detection in real-world medical settings using just a mobile device. We hope our work can eventually help save millions of lives.
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https://medicalrepublic.com.au/when-telehealths-the-norm-so-is-cyber-risk/68497
9 May 2022
When telehealth’s the norm, so is cyber risk
The adoption of telehealth services in response to the pandemic was swift.
Performed rapidly and under immense pressure – in some cases overnight – it’s no surprise many were deployed with inadequate planning.
Praised as a means of granting access to vital medical care to those in quarantine and those most vulnerable within our community, as well as those simply wishing to remain socially distant where possible, it created the ability to cater to the medical and health needs of our country, and all over the world.
While this rapid adoption was a necessary lifeline used to combat covid-19, and to ensure that everyone had access to health services, it has inadvertently broadened the attack surface of many healthcare organisations, creating rapidly evolving security concerns.
With the Australian government’s announcement of a $100 million investment to make telehealth a permanent fixture within our healthcare system, it’s incumbent on the healthcare industry to properly analyse and address the potential security issue to ensure safe, continued use.
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David.
