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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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https://www.innovationaus.com/govt-grants-tech-projects-and-consultants-in-anaos-sights/
Govt grants, tech projects and consultants in ANAO’s sights
Joseph
Brookes
Senior Reporter
8 July 2022
The national audit office has included a slew of government tech programs and the rapidly growing use of consultants in the public service among its potential inquiries for the coming year. Projects like the Modern Manufacturing grants scheme, the costly digital ID program, and the business registers project are among the potential audits.
The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) this week released its work plan for 2022-23, listing dozens of potential projects for scrutiny over this financial year.
Funding under the $1.3 billion Modern Manufacturing Initiative (MMI) has been listed for a potential inquiry into whether the scheme was effective and complied with Commonwealth Grants Rules and Guidelines.
In Opposition, Labor had been critical of the timings and decision-making process of the MMI, which committed more than $1 billion to manufacturers. The party warned the programs structure – which allowed the industry minister to consult with other ministers on the recipients recommended by the Industry department before the Prime Minister made a final decision – was “baking in” rorts.
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https://digitalhealth.org.au/blog/data-sharing-in-health-needs-to-be-fair-er-than-in-science/
Data sharing in health needs to be FAIR-ER than in science
Jul 4, 2022 | Community Chats, Community of Practice, Data, Digital Health, eHealth
Vast quantities of health data have become more readily available as healthcare is delivered in a digital world. The availability of data is an asset, critical to driving the future of precision health and feeding the learning health system.
Australian health data and clinical informatics leader, AIDH Fellow Susan Smith, who has spent more than 30 years working in health and medical science, says health data sharing and governance is increasingly a hot topic.
She says the scientific and research community have established the FAIR data principles to facilitate scientific research data re-use, but these are now being increasingly applied to the re-use of health data more generally.
“While the FAIR data principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) are helpful and increasingly being adopted in health, they need to go further and simultaneously take into account Ethics, Responsibility and Reciprocity,” Susan said.
“We have to be really conscious about always keeping ethics and responsibility to the fore whenever we talk about health data sharing and data use and balancing that right at the outset, rather than going down a path that could risk losing the trust and confidence of stakeholders.”
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https://digitalhealth.org.au/blog/aidh-board-call-for-nominations-2022/
AIDH Board call for nominations 2022
Jul 4, 2022 | Board
You can be a leader in the digital health community and help drive the movement for better, connected healthcare.
AIDH Fellows and Members are invited to consider nominating for a Board position this year, sharing their expertise and knowledge and taking a leadership role at the Institute.
There are three vacancies for a three-year term. To nominate, please read through the documentation and complete the nomination form, include your photograph and 150-word candidate statement letting Fellows and members know why they should elect you to their Board and what you can bring to the digital health community by sitting on the Board.
- Elections will be held via e-voting only.
- The AGM will be held on Thursday 1 September 2022 with further details of this hybrid event to be announced in due course.
- The official notice of the AGM, the agenda and the Board nominee statements will be distributed on Thursday 4 August 2022.
Nominations close at 5pm AEST Thursday 21 July 2022.
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https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/jeremy-hunt-tory-leadership-boris-johnson-nhs-junior-doctors/
Jeremy Hunt: Next PM could be the man who ruined the NHS
As the former health secretary vies for No.10, the truth of his ministerial past puts paid to his ‘sensible’ image
8 July 2022, 12.00am
If Jeremy Hunt succeeds in replacing Boris Johnson as British prime minister, it will be another instance of the ‘nice Tory’ coming after the panto villain.
Hunt’s pitch to the Tory faithful is that he’s the ‘serious’ one: the earnest ex-head boy with a grasp of detail and the ability to get things done. And that impression appears to hold water, with even the liberal media repeating these ideas.
Earlier this week, The Guardian's Ben Quinn waxed lyrical about Hunt trying to play the role of “elder statesman from the backbenches, offering gentle and usually friendly criticism over the government’s Covid mistakes”. Of his latest leadership hopes, Quinn was positive: “Firmly on the centrist side of the party, he could be viewed as a calming presence after the tumult of the Johnson years, if the membership are desperate for some stability.”
It isn't the first time Hunt has vied for the leadership; when he ran in 2019, The New Statesman was impressed by his “empathy” and “compassion”. The Guardian described his “genial disposition” and “record of departmental diligence and attention to detail”.
Relevant Extract:
“The tech bonanza is another novel form of privatisation. Hunt’s successor Matt Hancock has been criticised for an overly credulous attitude to technology, but Hunt laid all the groundwork. The NHS signed substantial contracts with the likes of health app firm Babylon under his oversight, as well as running into a massive controversy over the care.data project in which Hunt and his tech Tsar, Tim Kelsey, were unable to adequately reassure a concerned public that personal data would not be sold to private firms. In what he described as his “most important speech as health secretary”, Hunt boasted that; "The future is here… 40,000 health apps now on iTunes… this is Patient Power 2.0.” The announcement was somewhat overlooked as it was also the speech in which he launched his astonishing attack on doctors (more below). But perhaps Hunt envisaged a future with fewer doctors – not long afterwards, he faced fierce criticism by doctors for issuing “potentially fatal” advice to parents to use “Doctor Google” to diagnose their children’s rashes.”
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Musk scraps Twitter deal, citing ‘misleading representations’
Kurt Wagner
Jul 9, 2022 – 8.08am
Elon Musk said he’s terminating his $US44 billion ($64 billion) agreement to acquire Twitter and take it private, saying the company has made “misleading representations” over the number of spam bots on the service.
Twitter hasn’t “complied with its contractual obligations” to provide information about how to assess how prevalent the bots are on the social media service,” Musk said in a letter to Twitter as part of a regulatory filing.
Musk has been complaining for months that Twitter under-reports the number of bots that are included in its user base. The company has denied that claim, saying bots are less than 5 per cent of the total users, with executives repeating as recently as Thursday in a press briefing that their estimates are accurate.
The Saturday AEST letter outlines the many times Musk and his team have asked Twitter for more information regarding bots, and not received enough to satisfy his questions.
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Friday, 08 July 2022 10:46
AMTA supports GSMA report findings on aviation spectrum row
A new report by the Global System for Mobile Communications Associations detailing the co-existence between 5G networks and global aviation systems in adjacent frequencies was endorsed by the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association.
The 5G and Aviation Altimeters Report says interference has never been observed even though the 3.7GHz-4.2GHz has been studied by the telco industry for 15 years.
According to reports, the aviation industry is concerned because radio altimeters are assigned to the 4.2GHz-4.4GHz spectrum band, adjacent to the 3.7GHz-4.2GHz band Australia has assigned as a 5G band.
The Australian Civil Safety Authority (CASA) says there is an absence of evidence to substantiate claims of 5G interference to radio altimeters. The organisation published in its Air Worthiness Bulletin (AWB) 34-020 issue 7 that they found “no confirmed reports of wireless broadband or telecommunication systems interfering with aircraft RA systems.”
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Thursday, 07 July 2022 17:35
AMTA says aviation allegations around 5G interference are rhetoric, not fact
AMTA, the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association - and peak national body representing Australia’s mobile telecommunications industry - says recent media claims from the aviation industry are not based in fact, and that the aviation industry has failed to engage in the ACMA Technical Liaison Group on the matter.
The aviation industry has stated its belief that 5G services may potentially adversely impact radio altimeters used to assist with landing aircraft.
AMTA says it is disappointed the aviation industry has chosen to play out issues regarding altimeters and potential 5G interference in the public domain, despite failing to engage in the ACMA Technical Liaison Group (TLG) on this matter.
AMTA further says the aviation industry has yet to provide sufficient evidence in support of its claims that 5G services will interfere with radio altimeters, and that it has not provided any detail on the technical specifications and performance characteristics of altimeters in service after multiple requests for them to do so.
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https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12911-022-01920-8
The effect of My Health Record use in the emergency department on clinician-assessed patient care: results from a survey
BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making volume 22, Article number: 178 (2022) Cite this article
Abstract
Background
The emergency department has been a major focus for the implementation of Australia’s national electronic health record, known as My Health Record. However, the association between use of My Health Record in the emergency department setting and patient care is largely unknown. The aim of this study was to explore the perspectives of emergency department clinicians regarding My Health Record use frequency, the benefits of My Health Record use (with a focus on patient care) and the barriers to use.
Methods
All 393 nursing, pharmacy, physician and allied health staff employed within the emergency department at a tertiary metropolitan public hospital in Melbourne were invited to participate in a web-based survey, between 1 May 2021 and 1 December 2021, during the height of the Delta and Omicron Covid-19 outbreaks in Victoria, Australia.
Results
Overall, the survey response rate was 18% (70/393). Approximately half of the sample indicated My Health Record use in the emergency department (n = 39, 56%, confidence interval [CI] 43–68%). The results showed that users typically only engaged with My Health Record less than once per shift (n = 15, 39%, CI 23–55%). Just over half (n = 19/39, 54%, CI 32–65%) of all participants who use My Health Record agreed they could remember a time when My Health Record had been critical to the care of a patient. Overall, clinicians indicated the biggest barrier preventing their use of My Health Record is that they forget to utilise the system.
Conclusion
The results suggest that My Health Record has not been adopted as routine practice in the emergency department, by the majority of participants. Close to half of self-identified users of My Health Record do not associate use as being critical to patient care. Instead, My Health Record may only be used in scenarios that clinicians perceive will yield the greatest benefit—which clinicians in this paper suggest is patients with chronic and complex conditions. Further research that explores the predictors to use and consumers most likely to benefit from use is recommended—and strategies to socialise this knowledge and educate clinicians is desperately required.
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A message from our Managing Director
July 2022
It
is hard to believe that we are almost halfway through the year and what a busy
period it has been at Alcidion!
The formal announcement of Alcidion’s role in the Leidos Consortium for the Australian
Defence Force Health Knowledge Management System was released in May
and we are thrilled to be involved in a ground breaking digital health project
alongside other Australian health IT providers for members of the Australian
Defence Force (ADF). Miya Precision will store, aggregate and analyse recorded
health data from multiple care settings replacing the ADF’s current patient
record system and create a true longitudinal health record of all healthcare
interactions of a member.
Northern Territory Health has been a key partner of Alcidion since 2009 and the
agreement to upgrade the Miya Precision platform
solidifies the vision and work of our team to deliver tools to support safe and
efficient care. The benefits realised at NT Health have resulted in an
enhancement to the patient flow and bed management capabilities available at
and between major hospitals and satellites across the Northern Territory.
It was quite the honour to be asked by Austrade to join them in South India and
meet with healthcare organisations to discuss digital maturity in healthcare as
part of the Australia India Business Exchange (AIBX) initiative. We have
continued the conversations with a visit to rpavirtual with Dr Palanivel Thiaga
Rajan, Minister for Finance and Human Resource Management – State Government of
Tamil Nadu, India to see Miya Precision in action.
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Thursday, 07 July 2022 11:13
Australian businesses lost $227 million to payment redirection scams last year
Australian businesses lost $227 million to payment redirection scams in 2021, a 77% increase compared to 2020.
The scam losses are revealed by the competition and consumer watchdog the ACCC in its latest Targeting Scams report that shows that payment redirection scams – also known as business email compromise – were the most financially damaging scams for Australian businesses in 2021.
The report compiles data from Scamwatch, ReportCyber, major banks and money remitters, and other government agencies.
The ACCC notes that in a payment redirection scam, scammers impersonate a business or its employees via email and request an upcoming payment be redirected to a fraudulent account.
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In Conversation with Bronwyn Le Grice
By Mansi Gandhi
Monday, 04 July, 2022
A passionate digital health commercialisation advocate with more than 20 years’ experience under her belt, Bronwyn Le Grice needs no introduction.
Her name is synonymous with digital health commercialisation, and under her leadership, ANDHealth has worked with over 550 emerging digital health companies to drive commercialisation of their technologies. Bronwyn has worked across the health technology sector spanning commercialisation, venture capital, capital raising and industry advocacy.
She founded ANDHealth — Australia’s only digital health commercialisation organisation — with a specific focus on digital medicine and digital therapeutics, in 2017, in collaboration with a consortium of industry partners. ANDHealth’s unique cooperative commercialisation model has led to significant growth within Australia’s nascent digital health sector and continues to be a driving force for the development of sovereign capability in evidence-based, regulated digital health technologies.
In 2021, Bronwyn was named the recipient of the Victorian Pearcey Entrepreneur of the Year Award for contributions to Australia’s technology sector, and the 2020 BioMelbourne Network’s Most Valuable Women in Leadership Award. Here she reflects on innovation commercialisation, exciting developments in digital health and challenges ahead.
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https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/winter-readiness-presents-opportunity-to-discuss-a
Winter readiness presents opportunity to discuss advance care plans
The RACGP has reminded GPs to discuss linking advance care plans with My Health Record when providing ‘catch-up’ care to older patients.
04 Jul 2022
Many GPs
would likely already be familiar with the
advantages of linking advance care planning documents with a patients’ My
Health Record.
With older Australians being a priority group for flu vaccines, other catch-up
vaccines and potentially missed episodes of care during the past two years,
winter is an opportune time for GPs to discuss advance care planning with their
patients and to let them know they can upload their advance care directive and
details of their advanced care directive custodian to their My Health Record.
This is according to Associate Professor Joel Rhee, Chair of RACGP Specific
Interests Cancer and Palliative Care, who told newsGP it is an ‘excellent
opportunity’ as part of winter preparedness.
‘The key message is that advance care planning is a process, and the hardest
bit is just getting the conversation started,’ he said.
‘It’s often an elephant in the room, where both sides – patient and the doctor
– are looking at each other to raise the issue first.’
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Tuesday, 05 July 2022 01:39
Phone, SMS most common contact methods used by scammers in 2021: Scamwatch
Phone calls were the most common contact method used by scammers to target victims in 2021, while text messages were the second-highest contact method used by scammers.
According to new data in the latest Scamwatch report from the competition watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) half of all reports said that scammers contacted them via voice calls, with $100 million in reported losses.
And text messages were the second-highest contact method used by scammers, with 23% of reports being about SMS scams, involving $10 million in losses.
The ACCC warns that scams are a focus, especially given the scale of the problem and the serious harms involved, cautioning that as part of its compliance priorities in 2022–23, “we’ll be enforcing new rules that require telcos to use stronger ID checks for transactions targeted by scammers, including SIM swap requests.
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How global fraudsters used a local crypto exchange to fleece this SMSF
Max Mason Senior reporter
Jul 3, 2022 – 3.45pm
When Peter Cook received a phone call from a man claiming to be Dave Gold of 500 Investments, the opportunity to get into soon-to-be listed companies overseas sounded like an appealing way to broaden the scope of his self-managed superannuation fund.
From the outside, 500 Investments looked like a legitimate online trading platform, with a swish website and impressive technology allowing investors to put money into more than 1000 different assets, from foreign exchange to stocks, commodities, indices and cryptocurrencies.
With account managers and trading mentors available on the phone and investing education webinars, 500 Investments looked like many of the other start-ups that have revolutionised the global trading of assets, often by people who previously didn’t even own shares.
Documents filed in the Supreme Court of Victoria reveal that on July 31, 2020, Cook and his wife, Joan, as trustees of their SMSF, began using 500 Investments, initially depositing $US500 to open a trading account.
Cook then received a call and email from a woman introducing herself as Rebecca Bradley, a junior account manager with 500 Investments. She provided login details so Cook to keep abreast of his investments.
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Top marks for the essay – and robot that wrote it
By Ben Spencer
The Times
2:12PM July 3, 2022
Artificial intelligence is now so advanced that students can produce 2,000-word essays at the press of a button, experts have warned.
Mike Sharples, emeritus professor of educational technology at the Open University, said many lecturers are completely unaware that their students could use such software to cheat. He said: “It seems that at the moment, there’s very little appreciation among academics that students are already using this technology for writing their essays.
“It will be almost impossible to tell whether it’s been written by a human or written by a machine. You type in the title of the essay, you press submit, it takes about 30 seconds, and it costs about a penny.”
Sharples, co-author of Story Machines, a forthcoming book about AI, said plagiarism-detection software used by universities cannot spot a fake because the technology generates original work, rather than copying existing material.
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Fears for Australian TikTok user data after alarming US report
TikTok has been asked to address user privacy concerns after an alarming report that should strike fear into millions of Australian users.
July 4, 2022 - 10:26AM NCA NewsWire
TikTok has been asked to explain whether its Australian users have their data shared with its Chinese-based operations.
Liberal senator James Paterson has written to TikTok Australia executives Lee Hunter and Brent Thomas after the company’s chief executive confirmed China-based employees had access to US users’ information.
In the letter, he asked for clarification on whether Australian user data was accessible or had been accessed in the past and questioned whether parent company ByteDance could refuse a request by the Chinese government to hand over information.
“I would be grateful for any clarification you can provide on these matters,” the opposition cyber security spokesman wrote.
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Sunday, 03 July 2022 14:14
New Report Shows What Data Is Most at Risk to and Prized by Ransomware Attackers
A new report reveals how attackers think, what they value, and how they apply the most pressure on victims. The report released today by Rapid7 investigates the trend, pioneered by the Maze ransomware group, of double extortion, examining the contents of initial data disclosures intended to coerce victims to pay ransoms.
Titled “Ransomware Data Disclosure Trends”, it reveals a story on how ransomware attackers think, what they value, and how they approach applying the most pressure on victims to get them to pay, providing insights on the data threat actors prefer to collect and release.
With access to a network and holding that data for ransom, ransomware is now one of the most pressing and diabolical threats faced by cybersecurity teams. Causing billions in losses across nearly every industry around the world, it has stopped critical infrastructure like healthcare services in its tracks, putting the lives and livelihoods of many at risk.
In recent years, threat actors have upped the ante by using “double extortion" as a way to inflict maximum pain on an organisation. Through this method, not only are threat actors holding data hostage for money, but they also threaten to release that data (either publicly or for sale on dark web outlets) to extract even more money from companies.
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David.
