I hope all those who read this blog have a great 2013 and come back to contribute next year.
This blog would be NOTHING without YOU!
For the record:
Here is how Google reports the blogs stats!
1,006,280 pageviews - 2660 posts, last published on Dec 27, 2012
Have a safe, happy and fruitful New Year!
David.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Thursday, December 27, 2012
NEHTA’s View Of Just How Well It Is All Going. Not Sure I Am Quite So Sanguine!
This popped up today. It is vital we all know just how NEHTA is seeing itself.
----- Begin e-mail
From: Nafiza Hai [mailto:Nafiza.Hai@nehta.gov.au] On Behalf Of Clinical Leads Secretariat
Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2012 11:27 AM
To: Clinical Leads Secretariat
Subject: End of Year Message from Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, NEHTA
Dear all,
As we approach the end of the year I’d like to take this opportunity to re-cap on the significant progress made by NEHTA and its partners in eHealth.
2012 has been a challenging year - and what has been achieved is remarkable. The rewards from achieving what we are striving for in the future is exciting, innovative and will benefit all Australians in many dimensions.
The National E-Health Transition Authority was established seven years ago and we have now designed and built many of the component “Building Blocks” for eHealth. These include the Healthcare Identifiers (HI) Service; national infrastructure specifications for eDischarge, eReferral, eSpecialist letters and the Electronic Transfer of Prescriptions; and the National Clinical Terminology and Information Service.
1 July 2012 marked the commencement of the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record or national eHealth record system. Consumer registrations have commenced started and strenuous efforts are being made to register clinicians, starting in General Medical Practice but noting the need to connect the whole clinical community in due course.
Key target groups who will benefit from more coordinated healthcare and sharing of health information include those with specific needs: older Australians, those with chronic or complex diseases, mothers with newborn babies, Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander people, and Australians living in remote communities.
We are working determinedly to ensure Secure Message Delivery (SMD) is in place, is standards compliant and connects between systems and providers. Any healthcare practitioner is able to connect up the care they provide electronically today using SMD: this gives them an “in” into the system, provides “electronic information” and the same requirements for SMD when met will allow the national eHealth record system to be used. This is very important within GP practice, but much more so in the “out of hospital” and primary care sector – in particular between sectors: most difficulties arise at the interfaces of care. We are supporting the sector in taking up the system.
As we continue to progress broader eHealth initiatives, we will also be working with the hospital sector: in-patient, emergency and out-patient areas in particular. The prescription and dispensing of medications is another known need and therefore a target for the sector. Excellent, clinically driven medications management is key to the national infrastructure and the safety and quality in healthcare agenda.
We now look forward to building on the progress made this year. What we have achieved to date has been to bring together multiple IT platforms to read from and write to the national eHealth record system in the same way – this is a massive change in use of technology and a great leap in “joining up the dots” in the healthcare sector.
NEHTA’s focus in 2013 is to continue to develop and rollout the national infrastructure and adoption support required for eHealth in Australia and to support the health sector’s transition to the effective use of eHealth. We will also continue to develop specifications and standards for other conforming health sector participants to connect the national eHealth records system.
None of this would be possible without the dedication and collaboration of our partners, core funders and stakeholders. From January 2011 to July 2012, NEHTA facilitated or was involved in over 730 meetings, workshops and conferences, communicating with thousands of people from around 500 different stakeholder organisations.
I would like to thank all those who contributed over the year, in workshops, forums, focus groups, reference groups or were just advocates of our work. We look forward to continuing a respectful, responsive, collaborative approach to improve our understanding of our stakeholders’ needs and to support them in contributing to and being part of the national eHealth agenda.
Now the journey continues – to strive for better healthcare, safer health outcomes, and meaningful use of the emerging eHealth record system.
Wishing you a safe and happy holiday season, and a very successful new year!
Dr Mukesh C Haikerwal AO
General Practitioner
Chair of the Council of the World Medical Association
Head of Clinical Leadership, Stakeholder Management & Clinical Safety, NEHTA
Professor, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Science, Flinders University, Adelaide
Broadband Champion (DBCDE)
19th President, Australian Medical Association
----- End E-Mail.
I leave it to you all to comment on how you feel about these claims of such wonderful success and delivery.
Back to sleep again!
David.
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Happy And Safe Christmas And A Great 2013
Just hoping next year will be a great year.
Stay safe and care for your loved ones.
David.
Stay safe and care for your loved ones.
David.
Thursday, December 20, 2012
The World Has Really Thrown Up Some Utter Jerks - So Bad It Is Beyond Belief.
Who ever the people are who are murdering the health workers in Pakistan who are trying to immunise children against polio need condemnation in pure and crystalline terms.
They are simply child killers and child murderers for the harm they are doing to the next generation of defenseless and innocent children.
Their stupidity, ignorance and bigotry just defies belief. All I can say is thanks to the philosophers and scientists who brought us Western European Enlightenment that allows us all to understand just how evil and ignorant these people are and who have allowed us all to have a chance to understand there is a better way.
How on earth do we get these people to realise there is a better way?
David.
They are simply child killers and child murderers for the harm they are doing to the next generation of defenseless and innocent children.
Their stupidity, ignorance and bigotry just defies belief. All I can say is thanks to the philosophers and scientists who brought us Western European Enlightenment that allows us all to understand just how evil and ignorant these people are and who have allowed us all to have a chance to understand there is a better way.
How on earth do we get these people to realise there is a better way?
David.
Another Problem We Are Still A Bit Weak At. More Work Needed.
This popped up very recently.
Commentary: What about interoperability?
By John W. Loonsk, MD, CMO CGI Federal
Created 12/18/2012
The recommendations for Stage 3 of meaningful use are now out for comment. Coincidentally or not, there is a new degree of pessimism about when health IT interoperability will ever be achieved. The issue of progress, or relative lack thereof, on interoperability surfaced just before the election with members from both houses of Congress questioning whether HITECH funding of electronic medical records should be continued without interoperability standards or more rigorous meaningful use requirements in place.
Some dismissed the questions from Congress as election season rhetoric, but at the same time, many industry professionals have again resigned themselves to a long, slow road ahead. Recent, non-political, Congressional testimony suggested interoperability is still another decade away. And there are enough renewed discussion threads of potential “interoperability solutions” by newbies and statements of dispirited resignation by old hands to substantiate a serious trajectory problem.
HIT’s déjà vu all over again
Information exchange and interoperability have long been seen by people involved in health IT as being central to achieving meaningful outcomes with technology. Health IT professionals certainly recognized that providers needed to adopt health IT to start, but they also have long held that the data needed to be mobile and not stuck in a particular IT system or organization for many of the benefits of health IT to develop. Given how vague and ill-defined interoperability can be, and given the sparse empirical evidence for some of these assumptions, it is a little surprising how resolute the professionals are with these conclusions. Perhaps it comes from the practical challenges of trying to support continuity of care, or of working to aggregate data for quality, efficiency, public health, and research purposes, or from simply battling the obstacles to making disparate hospital systems work together.
Lots more here:
Definitely an issue we are not on top of so far!
David.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
We Are Not Alone With The Cyber Hackers! Not A Good Thing.
Saw this today and thought of the Queensland Clinic that has their data encrypted.
Healthcare industry is a 'cyberterrorism' target
December 18, 2012 | By Dan Bowman
A lack of spending on healthcare data security and an increased emphasis on digital activity are primary reasons why the U.S. healthcare industry is at risk as a cyberterrorism target, according to an article published in the December issue of the journal Telemedicine and e-Health. The article's authors say that the industry, as a whole, is difficult to protect because it is made up of "decentralized and loosely coupled organizations," rather than a homogenous entity.
A cyber attack likely would take place over a period of weeks via a "series of small incursions that are much more difficult to detect," according to the article. For instance, hackers might use phishing emails to introduce malware into hospital networks, which then would gradually erode system quality by infecting patient record databases, mobile devices and, eventually, medical monitors and drug infusion pumps.
Lots more here:
Worth a read.
David.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
An Interesting Blog On Australian E-Health Program. Worth A Browse.
This popped
up today and is worth pointing out - if only to welcome back Mark Metherell (late of Farifax) back writing
on Health / e-Health.
Do look now, there’s a revolution
Mark
Metherell | Dec 18, 2012 9:03AM | EMAIL | PRINT
The e-health revolution has begun with a
whimper. As Associate Professor Craig Fry writes below, the
lack of public awareness about the introduction of such a far-reaching
development is a shame.
The low-key approach also appears to be part of a
quietly-quietly tactic by the Federal Government. That stems partly from
the delay and snag-prone nature of the national e-health project which has been
promised for the past decade, sucked in many hundreds of millions of dollars
and not yet shown much return.
The delicate issue of patient privacy and the
big brother overtones of national patient record system, which encouraged
the Government to make it an opt in rather than opt out scheme, also
explains the lack of popular engagement with this revolution.
On the basis of troubled experience in other
countries’ e-health developments, a hesitant start may have some virtue.
But the Government’s small-target approach means
the transformational benefit of e-health is struggling to reach
enough Australians.
Read the rest
actual blog here:
An
interesting set of comments - I feel it is a trifle optimistic and rather
exaggerates what may be obtained as benefits, but wonder what others think.
David.
Monday, December 17, 2012
Weekly Australian Health IT Links – 17th December, 2012.
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
A fun / horror filled week with children murdered in the US and hackers attacking medical centres while at the same time we watch the Qld Payroll Story keep on giving and we wonder just when some accountability will emerge for the unloved PCEHR fiasco.
My weekly check of my PCEHR reveals a rather faster log in - avoids 1 screen - and a still very slow actual system - as well as an update of my medications to the middle of October.
This is the last blog for this year - amazing breaking news being all that will flush me out until mid to late January.
Enjoy the holiday period and the company of those you care for.
Thanks for all the support and comments. It has made it all worthwhile!
For those of a statistical bent I will note that the blog has now had over 400,000 visits and 700,000 page views since it was kicked off. Again thanks!
-----
Hacked QLD medical centre assures patients records intact
11th Dec 2012
THE co-owner of a Gold Coast medical centre, which was the target of eastern European computer hackers, has given assurances patient health records have not been stolen despite being held for ransom.
Miami Family Medical Centre co-owner David Wood told MO he went to access patient files on his computer at the medical practice he owns on 1 December and found the screen on the server was locked and instead contained what he called a “ransom note”.
“Basically saying your system is locked, your data encrypted, you won’t be able to de-encrypt it and you need to make contact,” he said.
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Russian hackers hold Gold Coast doctors to ransom
By Sara Hicks
Russian hackers are holding a Gold Coast medical centre to ransom after encrypting thousands of patient health records.
The hackers are demanding a ransom of $4,000 to decrypt the sensitive information held on a server at the Miami Family Medical Centre.
IT security expert Nigel Phair says this latest attack is a "wake-up call" with businesses around Australia hacked five to 10 times a week.
-----
Aust govt justifies insourcing bungled IBM e-health project
Summary: The National E-Health Transition Authority has said that the work IBM was doing for the e-health project before being dumped can now be done internally by the organisation, thanks to advancements in technology.
The National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) has defended the decision to implement its own authentication service for e-health records after its multi-million dollar contract with IBM fell apart.
IBM's AU$23.6 million contract with the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) was signed in 2011 for delivery by June 30, 2012. IBM was tasked to develop a system that would use public key infrastructure and secure tokens, such as smart cards, in order to provide an authenticated service. This was so that healthcare personnel and providers could exchange e-health information, including referrals, prescriptions, and personally controlled electronic health records (PCEHRs), as part of the Australian government's AU$466.7 billion investment in e-health.
-----
Data is not a dirty word
Date December 14, 2012
Peter Martin
Economics correspondent
Kim Carr believes the country's wealth of data could be used to make a huge difference to people's lives, allowing early intervention in health and social problems.
Kim Carr wants to use government data to know what you need, even before you know you need it.
KIM Carr is impatient. Fiona Stanley is angry. Between them Australia's new Minister for Human Services and the former Australian of the Year want to solve some of Australia's most intractable problems by mining what could be Australia's greatest resource - its data.
Unexpectedly, the Victorian senator has found himself sitting on top of more data than any minister before him. In March, Julia Gillard withdrew his beloved manufacturing portfolio a few months after taking away innovation, industry, science and research. Human services looked like a consolation prize, or a punishment for backing Kevin Rudd in the leadership struggle.
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Privacy fears under Medicare Locals
14 December, 2012
Medicare Locals have been accused of a "gross breach of patient privacy" for forcing GPs to hand over sensitive health information on patients wanting to access subsidised psychological services.
Bayside Medicare Local in Melbourne wrote to GPs in the area in October, telling them to attach a copy of patients' mental health treatment plans with every referral request for the Federal Government's Access to Allied Psychological Services scheme.
The Medicare Local would then use this information to determine if individuals deserved access to the program, which subsidises psychological care for a capped number of patients.
-----
Case Study: Linking restless nights with black dog days
Posted Wed, 12/12/2012 - 08:52 by Will Turner
Preventing depression is the aim of a new online-based sleep improvement clinical trial being run by the Black Dog Institute. Will Turner reports.
Research shows people with depression and anxiety are over-represented among the 10 percent of Australians who report ongoing problems with insomnia. Yet beyond hearsay, little is known about the the impact a better night’s sleep could have on keeping these disorders from taking root in the first place.
Research shows people with depression and anxiety are over-represented among the 10 percent of Australians who report ongoing problems with insomnia. Yet beyond hearsay, little is known about the the impact a better night’s sleep could have on keeping these disorders from taking root in the first place.
The Good Night Study will shed light on this issue by testing how a web-based training program to address insomnia affects the mental wellbeing of people who may be at risk of developing a mood disorder. Funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the study is being led by Professor Helen Christensen, the Black Dog Institute’s executive director.
-----
Premier Campbell Newman to announce inquiry into Queensland Health payroll debacle
- Steven Wardill
- The Courier-Mail
- December 13, 2012
THE health payroll debacle will be investigated by a Commission of Inquiry, with Royal Commission powers.
The Courier-Mail has learnt Premier Campbell Newman will on Thursday announce the inquiry, which will have a three month time-limit and will likely commence early in the new year.
Taxpayers are staring at a bill of $1.2 billion for the Queensland Health payroll failure, which helped bring down the unpopular former Labor Government.
Details of the inquiry are expected to be released at a press conference on Thursday morning featuring Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie and Health Minister Lawrence Springborg.
-----
Former IT minister not worried about Qld Health payroll inquiry
Summary: Former Queensland Labor IT Minister Robert Schwarten, who oversaw the health payroll debacle, isn't worried about the upcoming commission of inquiry and has said that his hands are clean.
The former state IT minister who was in charge of the IBM payroll project for Queensland Health says that he isn't worried about having to testify at an inquiry set up by the Newman government.
Yesterday, Premier Campbell Newman announced a AU$5 million commission of inquiry into Queensland Health's bungled payroll system, to be headed by retired Court of Appeal Judge Richard Chesterman QC.
-----
Phones become mobile medical labs
- by: Jennifer Foreshew
- From: The Australian
- December 11, 2012
A SYSTEM that turns a smartphone into a mobile medical lab will let researchers cut data collection times from several months to just a few days.
The system is designed to make heart rate research cheaper, portable and straightforward.
Created by University of Sydney PhD student James Heathers, the system uses a sensor placed on the finger instead of electrodes on the chest, and a signal is sent through a hardware receiver.
The system uses software specifically designed to read the signal.
The data can be exported straight from the phone and sent to a researcher.
-----
Too much business influence on ID verification plan?
ACCAN sees “no clear case” for National Trusted Identities Framework.
- Adam Bender (Computerworld)
- 10 December, 2012 13:34
A proposed National Trusted Identities Framework (NTIF) appears to provide few benefits and “a number of risks” for consumers, according to the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN).
Under the proposed NTIF, the government and private sector could share consumer identity information with the goal of faster identity verification.
However, in a submission today to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, ACCAN said “no clear case” has been “made from a consumer perspective that the NTIF is needed.”
-----
WA Health deploys predictive analytics
Posted Wed, 12/12/2012 - 13:23 by Will Turner
Western Australia is set to harness predictive modelling technology currently used in industries such as finance and retail for the benefit of its public health system in 2013.
Initiated by the WA Department of Health, the Predictive Analytics Project will enable new ways of forecasting health service activity such as inpatient, emergency department and ambulance demand.
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Opportunities abound in Australia’s ageing population: Report
By Michelle Hammond
Tuesday, 11 December 2012
Australia’s ageing population provides opportunities to develop a range of social, workforce, and industry research and technological innovations, according to a new government report.
The Australian Innovation System Report is an annual series of reports, starting in 2010, on the performance of Australia’s national innovation system.
The latest report suggests innovative firms of all sizes are almost twice as likely to report an increase in productivity compared to those that do not innovate.
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SoundSorter will get the toddlers talking
- by: Jennifer Foreshew
- From: The Australian
- December 11, 2012
A SHORTAGE of speech pathologists in NSW has prompted the trial of innovative technology aimed at supporting preschoolers with speech difficulties.
The study will see 1250 children screened across 18 early childhood education and care sites in NSW from early next year. The trial will then provide "interventions" for 128 children.
Led by Charles Sturt University's Sharynne McLeod and Jane McCormack, the research will adapt a computer program developed at the University of the West of England, in Bristol, for Australian children.
-----
Windows open on a healthy future
- by: Jennifer Foreshew
- From: The Australian
- December 11, 2012
CASE STUDY: Western Health
PROBLEM: Needed to cater for one of the fastest-growing catchments within Australia and ensure ICT systems were flexible and secure.
PROCESS: Deployed Windows Server 2012.
RESULT: Prepared for future growth. Able to reduce storage footprint by 56 per cent, deploying virtual machines is about 40 per cent faster.
PROBLEM: Needed to cater for one of the fastest-growing catchments within Australia and ensure ICT systems were flexible and secure.
PROCESS: Deployed Windows Server 2012.
RESULT: Prepared for future growth. Able to reduce storage footprint by 56 per cent, deploying virtual machines is about 40 per cent faster.
PUBLIC health services provider Western Health is located in one of the fastest growing catchments in Australia and needed to prepare its IT systems for the future.
Western Health is the biggest public health services provider in western metropolitan Melbourne. It has hospitals at Footscray, Sunshine, Williamstown and Sunbury as well as aged residential care services and drug and alcohol services. It delivers a range of emergency, elective, surgical, sub-acute, obstetrics and pediatrics services.
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Cloud 101: Australia's cloud outlook
Competition among cloud providers in Australia, particularly in the IaaS space, is set to heat up
- Rohan Pearce (Computerworld)
- 11 December, 2012 12:37
The high level of virtualization in Australia and customer concerns about off-shore hosting of data and latency make the country a tempting location for cloud providers to set up shop, despite the high cost of real estate and labour.
Gartner forecasts that Australian spending on public cloud will reach $2.4 billion this year, up 18.8 per cent from 2011. The analyst firm is predicting that spending on cloud services in Australia will have a compound annual growth rate of 16.0 per cent from 2011 to 2016.
Last month Amazon Web Services (AWS) launched its Sydney Region, which comprises two Availability Zones, and in August Rackspace announced the launch of a data centre in western Sydney[1], with the company promising to bring its full suite of offerings, including cloud services based on the open source OpenStack collection of software, to Australia.
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Enjoy!
David.
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