Quote Of The Year

Timeless Quotes - Sadly The Late Paul Shetler - "Its not Your Health Record it's a Government Record Of Your Health Information"

or

H. L. Mencken - "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Commentators and Journalists Weigh In On The MyHR Debate. Lots Of Interesting Perspectives - Week 6.

Note: I have excluded any commentary taking significant  funding from the Agency or the Department of Health on all this to avoid what amounts to paid propaganda. (e.g. CHF, RACGP, AMA, National Rural Health Alliance etc. where they were simply putting the ADHA line – viz. that the myHR is a wonderfully useful clinical development that will save huge numbers of lives at no risk to anyone – which is plainly untrue) (This signifies probable ADHA Propaganda)
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  • Updated Aug 23 2018 at 11:29 AM

Digital wealth: How to have the final say about your online assets when you die

by James Whiley
"Digital wealth" constitutes a far greater proportion of our estates than many realise, with our personal and business lives becoming increasingly digitalised and online.
Yet a survey for the NSW Trustee and Guardian found 83 per cent of Australians have not discussed what will happen to their social media accounts when they die and only 3 per cent of Australians with a will have given directions regarding their social media accounts.
Digital wealth needs to be included in estate and succession planning, so that on death or incapacity assets are protected and this wealth is dealt with tax effectively.
Even if you do not own an online or virtual business, this digital wealth may have the ability to produce income or be sold, but will be of no value if nobody knows it exists. Not to mention potential sentimental value where the account includes photos, memories or messages.
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My Health Record - improving health care for seniors

24th Aug 2018 12:41 PM ADHA Propaganda
SANDRA Johnston has a number of chronic conditions which is why she finds having a My Health Record invaluable.
"I see a wide variety of health professionals including six different specialists. Now I have My Health Record, when I visit the GP I don't have to worry about remembering medications and test results because I know it's available." Sandra said.
Six million Australians already have a My Health Record, an online summary of their key health information. By the end of this year all Australians will have a record, unless they choose not to have one.
71-year-old Clint Ferndale has been in the health business for quite some time. He created a My Health Record last year because it was 'the way of the future.' He finds the system easy to use.
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RBA warns on digital identity mess

By Julian Bajkowski on Aug 24, 2018 12:07PM

"Separate and unconnected" will be painful.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has staked its claim on the unfolding debate over how Australia’s digital identity regime will be run, warning that multiple uncoordinated builds will be inefficient and leave security holes.
Australia’s central bank on Thursday frankly set out its ambitions and concerns, revealing there will be no pullback from moves by the powerful Payments Council to have a credential fit for use with the New Payments Platform as it comes online.
The entry of the RBA into the digital identity debate is highly significant because it has the potential to steer millions of consumers and businesses towards a payments-related digital identity build.
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Health Data – the ‘Swiss Army Knife’ of Data

By Leonard Kleinman, Chief Cyber Security Advisor – Asia Pacific Japan, RSA
The underlying rational behind the introduction of the Notifiable Data Breach (NDB) scheme was to allow businesses to take the necessary actions to change and/or re-secure themselves in the event that personal information and company data had been illegally accessed, disclosed or lost. To ensure organisations report data breaches, significant penalties exist for non-compliance with the law.
Notifiable Data Breaches Quarterly Statistics Report 1 April – 30 June 2018
The second NDB quarterly report, published by Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, has provided further light on the issue of data breaches in Australia. Immediately what’s evident is a 300% increase in reported data breaches across Australia since April (284.1% to be specific). However, I do accept that the first report covered a shorter reporting period, somewhat accounting for the significant differential.
Whilst a 300% increase is a concern to Australian businesses, it’s also encouraging as it demonstrates Australian organisations, and the wider community, are aware of the legislation and obligation to report on data breaches.
Additionally, it is worth noting some salient points:
  • Health maintained rank one for the most reported data breaches
  • Malicious or criminal attacks jumped 14.56% to 59%
  • The reverse was true for data breaches caused by ‘human error’ – dropping 14.79% to 36%
  • In regards to malicious attacks – 77% of cyber incidents were related to compromised credentials of some sort
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Think: Digital Futures

Audio.
Think: Digital Futures. How You Were "Nudged" by My Health Record. 00:00 29:30.
2Ser – FM 107.3
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My Health Record fears are misplaced, says insider GP

Are our concerns about privacy more important than two million adverse drug events, asks the Australian Digital Health Agency
Dr Chris Moy ADHA Propaganda
23rd August 2018
Adelaide GP Dr Chris Moy is the clinical reference lead for the Australian Digital Health Agency, which is in charge of My Health Record. Here, Chris argues that the pros of My Health Record (health and safety) far outweigh the cons (risk to personal privacy).

How much do you value your privacy? Would you rather die than risk it being compromised? Or is privacy so important to you that you would accept it over your child or parent coming to harm?
In standing back to look at the controversy that has surrounded My Health Record recently, what has been interesting is that it has incited a battle over values. Well, one value — privacy — which has dominated the discussion, while little oxygen has been spent examining another important value our patients might hold dear — their health.
While the risks of IT systems have been well publicised, the current reality of genuine harm created by our disconnected health system has not.
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Peter Dutton’s record as health minister a major weakness

  • August 23, 2018
Peter Dutton’s biggest weakness is health policy. If the Liberal Party does not recognise that, its election chances will flatline and any new government will be dead on arrival.
This should come as no surprise to anyone, but the Liberals are sometimes so blinded by self-confidence that they miss the vital signs.
The Coalition has not recovered from Dutton’s 15 months as health minister. He didn’t just tarnish its record, he left massive cracks that threaten the government’s very survival.
At the last election, Bill Shorten and the Labor Party campaigned with great success on Medicare. Clearly, they overreached, and Malcolm Turnbull overreacted, but they based their “Mediscare” tactic on Dutton’s ill-fated pursuit of a GP co-payment (among other things).
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And let us not forget he also brought us the Royle Review and opt-out.
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Denham Sadler
August 22, 2018

Govt changes to MHR unveiled

Greg Hunt: Introduced substantial changes to My Health Record regime
The federal government has revealed amendments to the My Health Record service that it says “strengthen its already robust privacy framework” following the launch of a senate inquiry last week.
The My Health Record Amendment (Strengthening Privacy) Bill 2018 was introduced to the Parliament on Wednesday morning by Health Minister Greg Hunt, a day after offering his resignation following his support of former home affairs minister Peter Dutton in the Liberal Party leadership spill.
Mr Hunt said that through the amendments law enforcement and agencies required to obtain a warrant before they can access information stored on MHR. The changes also require the Australian Digital Health Agency – the operator of the MHR – to permanently delete any data if a user cancels their account.
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Medibank wants to give health advice and your My Health Record would help

By Esther Han
23 August 2018 — 12:05am

In numbers

  • 1.5 million - Medibank wants to triple its annual number of interactions with customers by 2020.
  • 25% - Medibank has a large grip on the health insurance market.
  • 1200 - It employs a large number of health professionals, including nurses and GPs.
Health insurer Medibank says it wants to "become a broader health company", revealing it has embedded registered nurses in its customer support teams to ramp up its delivery of health advice to members in a move that has concerned doctor groups.
In an interview with Fairfax Media, Medibank's chief customer officer, David Koczkar, said it was aiming to triple the annual number of "meaningful", health-related interactions with members to 1.5 million in 2020.
Asked whether Medibank was making moves to access My Health Record – the national digital record system dogged with privacy and security concerns – Mr Koczkar didn't issue any denials, saying "there's a long way to go and we will watch and see what happens".
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Canberra chaos: Health Minister offers to resign, is rebuffed and introduces My Health Record privacy amendments

Lynne Minion | 22 Aug 2018
Hours before he was introducing amendments to My Health Record in the House of Representatives and with a new Senate inquiry into the national health database calling for submissions, the Federal Minister for Health offered his resignation as part of the ongoing Coalition leadership crisis, only for it to be knocked back.
At a crucial juncture for the $2 billion health infrastructure project, Health Minister Greg Hunt has joined in efforts to oust the Prime Minister, offering to vacate his front bench post. Turnbull rejected the offer from Hunt and nine other Cabinet ministers in the interests of “unity”.
Hunt has faced more than a month of controversy as data privacy and security concerns have continued to surround My Health Record since the opt out period began.
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August 21 2018 - 10:56AM ADHA Propaganda

My Health Record, Indigenous people encouraged to opt in

“My Health record will help to close the gap by being available for people across health providers, when they travel, go into hospital or see a specialist,” the Australian Digital Health Agency’s CEO, Tim Kelsey said.
Indigenous people are being encouraged to create their own My Health Record. 
According to leading health practitioners, My Health Record plays a positive role in improving health outcomes for Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander people. 
“Having a My Health Record can be particularly beneficial for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who may have chronic health conditions, those who move around a lot and those who live in remote areas of Australia,” professor Meredith Makeham, chief medical adviser at the Australian Digital Health Agency said. 
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Pirate Party Australia Supports Opting Out from Federal Government’s MyHealth Record System

Pirate Party Australia supports moves by Australian Citizens to opt out of the Federal Government’s MyHealth Record System. Many flaws within the system have been exposed by the Australian media since the Opt Out period began on 16 July, 2018.
While Pirate Party Australia supports a national system of electronic health records in principle, the MyHealth Record systems fails to provide the basic privacy safeguards that should be enforced for such a system, combined with a mandatory Opt Out system rather than Australian Citizens being asked to opt in.
“The MyHealth Record system as it was initially rolled out looks like a lazy and poorly thought out IT project,” stated Pirate Party President Miles Whiticker. “This is a continuation of the Federal Coalition Government’s shocking record on IT infrastructure and privacy matters. It should only ever have been an Opt In system,”
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Want to hack the WA government? Try ‘Password123’

WA government agencies get annual whipping over lax security
Rohan Pearce (Computerworld) 21 August, 2018 18:06
A staggering 60,000 out of 234,0000 active accounts at a range of WA government agencies were potentially at risk of a dictionary attack due to their weak passwords, a review by the state’s auditor general has found.
The state’s auditor general today upheld a venerable WA government information security tradition, slamming agencies for poor practices when it came to passwords and other protective measures.
For the report, the WA Office of the Auditor General obtained encrypted password data from 23 Active Directory environments across 17 agencies. Using a selection of password dictionaries it found that tens of thousands of users had chosen weak passwords including “Password123” (1464 accounts), “password1” (813), “password” (184), “password2” (142) and “Password01” (118).
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Government on track with digital transformation, but room for improvement: report

The Australian Government’s digital transformation strategy is satisfactory, but there is still room for improvement, according to a newly published poll which found that only 7% of respondents in both the public and private sector believe the government is making significant strides on digital transformation.
The poll, of 143 mid- to senior managers in the public and private sector, conducted by Australian ASD certified cloud provider Vault at the 12th Annual Technology in Government Australia event held in Canberra this month, revealed that just 40% of the interviewees believe there is still room for improvement in the Government’s digital strategy.
The poll also found that more than 38% of respondents indicated that digital transformation could be defined as automating repetitive tasks to reduce efforts and errors and enhancing customer experience (37%).
And when it comes to leading the digital transformation charge, respondents believe that chief technology officers (32%) and chief executives (31%) should be responsible overall – while only 9% of respondents said chief information officers should be spearheading all digital transformation initiatives.
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Why My Health Record is flawed

A politically-designed or influenced centralised database with widespread access is problematic.
Marie Johnson (CIO) 21 August, 2018 11:49
As the former chief technology architect of the Health and Human Services Access Card, I opted out of My Health Record on day one. Here’s why.
The politically designed or influenced model of a centralised database with widespread access at the edge is deeply flawed. This was the Access Card model and it’s being done again with My Health Record.
Everything else that flows from that defective model is problematic and unresolvable: legislation; operational performance; privacy; security; informed consumer choice; and highly contested value proposition.
Politically driven or influenced design – in any domain - usually always ends in failure or compromised outcomes. Access Card was terminated on political grounds, notwithstanding alternative architecture models presented and some of which have now been implemented elsewhere.
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Forget data breaches, this is why I am finally ready to quit Facebook

By Melissa Singer
21 August 2018 — 12:00am
The message popped up on my phone innocently enough. "Evening to you, Melly, how's your week been thus far?"
"Sorry, do I know you?" was my initial thought. Of course, I didn't write that.
After a few messages, it became clear that I had never met or communicated with my new admirer, who later confessed that we share contacts and "curiosity killed the cat".
I asked him whether he contacts women like this often (he doesn't) and the last book he read (Freakonomics).
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Is Consent a moral dilemma or a mere medicolegal formality ?

Posted on 20/08/2018 by Thinus
Doctors, and specifically GPs, have for many decades considered the concept of Informed Consent an integral and mandatory part of the interactions with their patients.
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The regulation of medical devices is flawed and another scandal is inevitable: health advocates

By the Specialist Reporting Team's Alison Branley and medical reporter Sophie Scott
21 August, 2018
More catastrophic failures of medical devices are "almost guaranteed" to happen because there's been no significant reforms to the way Australia regulates such implants, health advocates say.

Key points:

  • Regulation of medical devices in Australia is so flawed another scandal is inevitable, health advocates say
  • Key issue for regulators is knowing exactly how many of each make and model are implanted
  • The Therapeutic Goods Administration said its "top priority" was patient safety
The warning comes after the ABC revealed dozens of women who have suffered complications from a permanent contraceptive device called Essure have signed up to be part of a class action against pharmaceutical giant, Bayer.
Since then, the law firm Slater and Gordon has been contacted by more than 300 individuals seeking to join the class action, and at least 100 women have joined a Facebook group called Essure Problems Australia.
Chief executive of the consumer group Health Issues Centre, Danny Vadasz, said device regulation in Australia was so flawed at every step of the chain that another device scandal was inevitable.
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Lax security culture in hospitals could affect My Health Record privacy, insiders fear

ABC Health & Wellbeing
August 21, 2018
By technology reporter Ariel Bogle and health reporter Olivia Willis
All Australians will get a My Health Record unless they opt out by November 15.
Healthcare workers say existing concerns about patient privacy are likely to extend to My Health Record.
A national digital health records database, the program promises to provide clinical benefits by making it easier for patients to share more health data with more medical practitioners than ever before.
But experts have claimed this also raises the risk of inappropriate access.
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  • Updated Aug 20 2018 at 7:00 PM

Personal data the most targeted by cyber attackers

by Mark Eggleton
This content is produced by The Australian Financial Review in commercial partnership with ACS.
 Australians are completely unaware as to how susceptible their personal information is to a cyber attack, according to most participants at The Australian Financial Review and ACS roundtable on Cyber Resilience. 
Furthermore, just as the federal government continues its rollout of its My Health Record digital health scheme, it is the one sector continuing to see the most data breaches here and overseas. According to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), out of a total of 242 breach notifications from April 1 to June 30 this year, 49 were reported by the health sector.
This was also reflected in Chubb Insurance's global claims data report which tracked the number of cyber incidents over the last decade. Chubb's report found 38 per cent of cyber incidents occurred in the health sector with professional services second at 16 per cent.
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Comments welcome!
David.

Monday, August 27, 2018

Weekly Australian Health IT Links – 27th August, 2018.

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

With the Senate Inquiry now happening this issue is going to be around for a while I believe! Of course a new Health Minister may upend almost everything but we have the same one - so let's see!
-----  Opt-Out News Start.

My Health Record: Police access to require court order

Proposed legislation will require permanent deletion of My Health Record when requested
Rohan Pearce (Computerworld) 22 August, 2018 12:30
The government has introduced a bill that it says will strengthen the privacy provisions of the My Health Record system by requiring a court order before an individual’s health information is disclosed to police.
Health minister Greg Hunt this morning introduced the My Health Records Amendment (Strengthening Privacy) Bill 2018 in the lower house.
The My Health Record system has faced heightened scrutiny over its privacy provisions since the beginning of what was initially a three-month period for individuals to opt-out of having a record created. Hunt has since extended the opt-out period until November.
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Privacy push over e-health record data

10:07am Aug 22, 2018
Police and government agencies will need a court order to obtain patient data from the controversial electronic health records system under legislation proposed by the health minister.
Greg Hunt introduced the bill on Wednesday to the lower house following talks with the Australian Medical Association and Royal Australian College of General Practitioners over privacy concerns with My Health Record.
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August 19 2018 - 3:30PM

Changes to My Health Record date

Lucy Slade
People living in rural and remote areas around Australia are being encouraged by the Australian Digital Health Agency to create their own My Health Record.
There will be an opportunity for people to test it out during the extended opt out period which now ends on November 15.
CEO Mark Diamond said having a My Health Record could be a real lifesaver for people in the bush who don’t always have easy access to healthcare services.
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Poll – August 20, 2018

My Health Record: staying in or opting out?
  • Opting out (72%, 106 Votes)
  • Staying in (28%, 42 Votes)
Total Voters: 148
-----  Non Opt Out News i.e. All The Rest!

Government to act on all recommendations from health data review

By Daniella White
22 August 2018 — 12:00am

Talking points

  • The review came after ACT failed to give key data to the productivity commission in 2017
  • The report made nine core recommendations 
  • There have previously been 175 recommendations from data reviews since 2012
A review of ACT Health's data failures has found staff were not fully aware of the impacts of poor data or told about the benefits of quality data.
The system-wide data review was ordered by Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris in February 2017 after the department failed to provide figures on its emergency department to the Productivity Commission due to concerns over accuracy.
It came after six previous external reviews and two auditor general reports on ACT health's data since 2012, culminating in 175 recommendations.
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ACT Health to build 'single source of truth' data repository

By Justin Hendry on Aug 24, 2018 11:30AM

Will consolidate 250 different systems.

ACT Health has started building a single repository to unify its data holdings following a system-wide review of the territory’s health data management processes.
The “single source of truth for all data requirements” is one of nine key recommendations from the review [pdf] accepted by the government earlier this week to improve data governance, collection and management.
The review had been order by Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris last year after ACT Health was unable to provide the Productivity Commission with figures on emergency department performance because of concerns with the accuracy of its data.
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Safer hospitals could save $1.5 billion a year but “existing IT systems don’t do enough”

Lynne Minion | 22 Aug 2018
Safer patient care in Australian hospitals could save the health system about $1.5 billion a year, a Grattan Institute report has found, with the researchers calling for the overhaul of the “failed” hospital accreditation system and technology experts claiming health IT needs to improve.
The Safer care saves money report says one in nine hospital patients suffered a complication, costing public hospitals more than $4 billion a year and private hospitals more than $1 billion a year.
Beyond the benefits to patient outcomes, improving quality of care would save taxpayer dollars and relieve an over-burdened system, report authors Professor Stephen Duckett and Professor Christine Jorm found.
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Why consulting Dr Google first could be a good thing

By Justine Landis Hanley
20 August 2018 — 5:51am
How do you diagnose a patient who has turned up to the emergency department?
You check their vital signs, their heart rate, their temperature. You ask them what brought them in today, what they are feeling; you check their prior conditions, medications, allergies. Based on what they say, you order relevant tests; blood is sometimes drawn, x-rays taken.
Patients have often been discouraged from looking up their symptoms online. But new research, published in the Medical Journal of Australia, has found consulting ‘Dr Google’ before presenting at the emergency department could improve interactions between patients and their treating physician.
A survey of 400 adult patients who presented at emergency departments at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and Austin Health between 1 February and 31 May last year found that over a third had looked-up their problem online beforehand.
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Dr Google: not such a dodgy doctor after all

Authored by Cate Swannell
MOST patients who search their symptoms online before presenting to an emergency department (ED) have improved interactions with their treating doctor, and their internet search does not adversely affect their compliance with prescribed treatments, according to research published in the MJA.
A 51-item purpose-designed survey was administered to 400 adult patients who presented to EDs at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and Austin Health between 1 February and 31 May 2017.
A total of 196 (49.0%) indicated that they regularly used the internet for health-related information; 139 (34.8%) reported searching for information on the problem for which they had presented to the ED.
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'Frustrating and depressing': coroner says NSW could reduce overdoses

By Alexandra Smith
19 August 2018 — 12:00am
Real-time tracking of patients' prescription medication to stop doctor and chemist shopping and reduce overdoses would be introduced under a NSW Labor government.
The Opposition will today announce its election policy to implement the system, which the state's deputy coroner has said should be made a priority in NSW.
Coroner Harriet Grahame last month recommended that "urgent consideration is given to raising the priority for the introduction of Real Time Prescription Monitoring (RTPM) in NSW".
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NSW push for real-time monitoring to reduce prescription drug misuse

Paul Hayes 20/08/2018 11:04:30 AM
The NSW opposition has announced plans for a real-time prescription monitoring system in an effort to curb growing opioid deaths, but the State Government is clear in its belief that a national approach is needed.
State Opposition Leader Luke Foley wants NSW to follow its coroner’s advice that real-time prescription monitoring is needed ‘as a matter of urgency’. (Image: Dean Lewins)
Australian deaths related to prescription drugs now outpace deaths from illicit drugs, with the majority attributed to opioids and other prescription medications at high risk of misuse.
‘Around 600 Australians die every year from prescription drug overdoses. This is something we can help prevent in NSW,’ NSW Shadow Minister Health Walt Secord said. ‘Real-time prescription monitoring will be a tool for doctors and pharmacists to make safer decisions about whether to prescribe or dispense high-risk medicine.’
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Firms very poor at handling post-breach communications, book claims

Companies involved in 14 major recent data breaches in Australia and the rest of the world — including human resources outfit PageUp People — did not even achieve a passing grade for the way in which they handled post-breach communications, the authors of a new book on breaches say.
Co-authors Peter Coroneos and Michael Parker said in a statement that the fallout from the poor management of the breaches included senior executive resignations, parliamentary inquiries, loss of customers, significant share price, revenue and business valuation reductions, litigation, damages and compensation orders and general lingering brand damage from an increasingly distrustful public.
Coroneos is a former leader of the Internet Industry Association and is now regional head of the non-government organisation, Cyber Security Advisers Network. Parker is a brand management and communications professional and is managing director of Praxis Communication.
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Biometrics: Govt plays down concerns over mass surveillance, private-sector access

Legislation could allow for additional biometric types to be collected
Rohan Pearce (Computerworld) 17 August, 2018 15:35
Officials from the Department of Home Affairs have sought to assuage concerns that a proposed national facial recognition service could lay the basis for mass surveillance.
The government currently has two bills before parliament — the Identity-matching Services Bill 2018 and the Australian Passports Amendment (Identity-matching Services) Bill 2018 — which are part of creating the legal infrastructure for the new system.
The Commonwealth, state and territory governments have endorsed the idea of a national, federated system for facial identification and verification, which could draw on the driver’s licence data held in different Australian jurisdictions as well as other sources of face images including passport and citizenship data.
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Why this radiologist's report gets 1/10

With patients accessing medical reports online, it's time for doctors to review what they write
Skeptical Scalpel
22nd August 2018
I received an email a few days ago. It has been edited for length and clarity.
"I would like some advice please. I am a 46-year-old male with an off and on cough for 4-5 months. I have never smoked. After my primary care physician examined me, he ordered a chest X-ray.
A few days later I got a call from the doctor who said my X-ray was normal. I was happy to hear that, but I am enrolled with My Chart, which allows you to review your results online.
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Smartphone a pocket watch on your mental health

Smartphone apps for monitoring disease have continued to proliferate. Along with apps available to monitor diabetes, heart disease and other physical ailments, an app is under development in South Australia to assist with the early diagnosis of mental illness.
Niranjan Bidargaddi, associate professor of personal health informatics at Flinders University, has been collaborating with Susan Murphy, a specialist in statistics and computer science from Harvard University in the US, on the MindTick app.
This app, Dr Bidargaddi said, continuously monitors patients by using data from their phones. For one element of the app, patients are asked three or four questions at random times, three or four times a week. A notification pops up on their phones, and they are asked how they are feeling.
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Primary seeks to raise $250m as it switches strategy

  • August 20, 2018
Primary Health Care is tapping the market for $250 million as it hits the re-set button following a strategic review and to fuel its push to diversify its funding source away from government.
The company (PRY) unveiled the plan for the raising after revealing it had swung to a reported net profit after tax of $8.9m following last year’s loss of $516.9m.
Primary told investors that $140m of the raising would be invested over three years in medical centres to increase capacity, while $150m would be spent over five years on pathology infrastructure.
The company also said it was in exclusive talks to acquire an operator of day hospitals in a potential $140m deal, which would include an upfront payment of $75m.
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Humans against machines a futile distraction

  • By Karl Redenbach
  • 9:15AM August 20, 2018
Despite the well documented productivity promises, artificial intelligence (AI) carries a somewhat uneasy reputation. Even the very mention of AI can bring up discussions about job losses or even an existential threat to humanity.
There’s no doubt the concept of AI scares a lot of people. It’s been set in our minds ever since Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics were introduced in the early 1940s, and over the last few years has continued to accelerate at an astonishing rate, culminating in Sophia being the first robot to receive citizenship.
It’s important to understand that, for now, much of the AI solutions available today don’t replace human intelligence. Rather, they complement our inherently human intelligence that really hasn’t been replicated in a tech stack, at least, not yet.
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2062: Toby Walsh says robots will rule the world

  • 12:00AM August 23, 2018
A new species is building strength to take over the planet. Get ready for Homo digitalis to supersede Homo sapiens, relegating us to a virtual existence where we surrender our bodies and park our consciousness in a digital world.
They are already among us, handling military weapons, medicine, insurance and legal systems. You may know these creatures better as artificial intelligence.
Toby Walsh’s new book, 2062: The World that AI Made, reads like a horror story. Walsh is no futurist foisting hunches from a vivid imagination on us. He is professor of artificial intelligence at the University of NSW and a fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.
He says the new machine ­species is poised to replace us, much as Homo sapiens super­seded Homo neanderthalensis, the Neanderthals, about 40,000 years ago. We don’t know why the Neanderthals disappeared and whether it was directly because of humans. A combination of reasons is put forward. Walsh says that despite sharing 99.7 per cent of our DNA with Neanderthals, humans had one big advantage: language. (This view has been challenged, with some researchers saying Nean­derthals were capable of speech.)
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Artificial intelligence is gearing up to have greater emotional impact

  • By Sophie Kleber
  • 1:00AM August 25, 2018
Annette Zimmermann, vice-president of research at Gartner, proclaimed in January: “By 2022, your personal device will know more about your emotional state than your own family.” Two months later, a study by the University of Ohio claimed its ­algorithm was better at ­detecting emotions than people were.
Artificial intelligence systems and devices soon will recognise, interpret, process and simulate emotions. A combination of facial analysis, voice pattern analysis and deep learning already can decode human emotions for market research and political polling purposes. With companies such as Affectiva, BeyondVerbal and Sensay providing plug-and-play sentiment analysis software, the affective computing market is ­estimated to grow to $US41 billion ($55.8bn) by 2022, as firms such as Amazon, Google, Facebook and Apple race to decode their users’ emotions.
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DTA sees 100% staff turnover in 18 months

Almost as many staff as are employed by the Australian Government's Digital Transformation Agency — 342 — quit the organisation in the last 18 months, a freedom of information request has revealed.
This includes the organisation's first full-time chief executive, Gavin Slater.
The FoI request, first reported by InnovationAus.com, revealed that 340 staff had left DTA during the last 18 months from December 2016 to June 2018.
The DTA had 342 staff on its rolls at the end of June 2018.
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NDIS IT systems to face official probe

By Justin Hendry on Aug 22, 2018 11:49AM

Inquiry kicks off.

A parliamentary inquiry will be conducted into the IT systems underpinning the National Disability Insurance Scheme in the wake of recent issues with stability.
The NDIS ICT systems inquiry will look at the infrastructure used by the National Disability Insurance Agency to deliver services to both participants and care providers.
It was quietly referred to the Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme last week and follows a month-long outage affecting staff connectivity to the Department of Human Services network.
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IXUP to showcase secure data collaboration technology at 2018 Healthcare Leaders Forum

20 August 2018: Secure data and trusted collaboration company IXUP Limited (IXUP) (ASX: IXU) will showcase how the Australian healthcare industry can address the data collaboration challenges faced by many healthcare organisations through the use of its innovative software environment.
Speaking at the 2018 Healthcare Leaders Forum on 21-22 August at the Swissotel in Sydney, IXUP Chairman, Tim Ebbeck, will discuss the importance of secure data and how researchers and healthcare providers can use trusted data collaboration to discover insights into patterns of patient care across the medical ecosystem - without compromising patient privacy or data security. His presentation on 22 August is titled: Better Healthcare Outcomes Through Collaboration: Securely Connecting Sensitive Data Sets.
Open data sharing, which facilitates the free exchange of medical tests, results, and information among institutions, patients, and providers, is expected to improve healthcare and lower costs. It’s already changing the world of oncology by collecting, storing, and sharing genetic data. However, there are enormous risks associated with open data sharing.
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Citadel Group smashes $100 million milestone thanks to record contract wins

By Brendon Foye
Aug 20 2018 11:21AM
The Citadel Group has cracked the $100 million revenue milestone thanks to a record number of contract wins across its key verticals.
The Canberra-headquartered managed service provider generated $108.5 million in revenue for 2018 financial year ending 30 June, up 9.8 percent. EBITDA was also up 13 percent thanks to a focus on scalable solutions that don't require significant incremental resources, while net profit was up 26 percent to $19.4 million.
Chief executive Darren Stanley praised the progress of the company's Citadel Information Exchange, a cloud-based software solution for enterprise information management, after signing up 10 new clients to long-term contracts in the past 12 months and generating more than $68 million in new opportunities.
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NBN Co makes Stephen Rue its new CEO

By Ry Crozier on Aug 22, 2018 10:05AM

Replaces Bill Morrow.

NBN Co will promote its chief financial officer Stephen Rue to lead the company, replacing Bill Morrow who leaves at the end of this month.
Though the network builder had engaged a search firm to look externally for a suitable candidate, it wound up promoting from within.
“Given the unique nature of the NBN access network and the Australian telecommunications environment, with the end of the build phase only two years away, the Board concluded that an internal candidate with firsthand experience of driving change and improvement throughout the company would be best placed to help ensure all Australians have access to fast broadband by 2020,” the company said in a statement.
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NBN Co answer to HFC problem: repeat fix that failed

NBN Co, the company rolling out Australia's national broadband network, apparently believes that repeating something will result in a different outcome. Nothing else can account for the fact that the company this week decided to again replace equipment at the premises of a resident in South Australia for the second time, in the hope that it would solve the problems on his NBN HFC connection.
Chris R. (as he prefers to be known), a resident of the suburb of Paralowie, has been having issues with his HFC connection for a long time. For nearly two months, he has been trying to work out, along with his retail service provider, why his HFC NBN connection only provides slow and unstable speeds.
He told iTWire he had experienced similar speeds no matter whether it was day or night. On 29 June he switched ISPs, from Telstra to Aussie Broadband "in the hopes the issue was related to not enough CVC by the old RSP on my POI (point-of-interconnect)".
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Huawei, ZTE banned from Australian 5G networks

By Ry Crozier on Aug 23, 2018 9:50AM

Govt says security risks too great.

Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE have been banned from supplying equipment for 5G networks in Australia.
“We have been informed by the government that Huawei and ZTE have been banned from providing 5G technology to Australia,” Huawei Australia said in a statement to Twitter.
“This is a extremely disappointing result for consumers.
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DOCSIS 3.1 good, but long-term aim has to be fibre: claim

Enabling DOCSIS 3.1 on the HFC network would be a good thing in the short term, but the longer game will always be a full-fibre given its longevity, tech experts have told iTWire.
NBN Co, the company rolling out the national broadband network, announced on 7 August that it begun to enable the technology on the network as HFC activations are stepped up in coming months.
Dr Mark Gregory, an associate professor in network engineering at RMIT University, said the move to DOCSIS 3.1 was a positive step that would provide new features, capabilities and improved performance.
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Enjoy!
David.

Sunday, August 26, 2018

Greg Hunt Retains Federal Health Portfolio in New Morrison Ministry.

Poor man...now he will actually have to sort this myHR mess out, unless of course we have an election in the next few months - which can hardly be ruled out!

David.

Bernard Robertson-Dunn Looks At A Very Big Problem Minister Hunt Seems To Have Bequeathed To His Successor!


This was written just moments before Minister Hunt spectacularly failed to become Deputy Liberal Leader (He got just 16 votes of 85 or so available). The problem still remains.

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How to cripple a large scale Government Information System with one simple decision.


Simple solutions to complex problems always create further problems. My Health Record is an example of this phenomenon. Digital Health is far more than simply automating old manual processes that document medical treatment prescribed by doctors.

The Health Minister’s decision to completely delete a person’s cancelled record is a simplistic solution to what seems to be a simple problem. What the Health Minister does not understand are the complex consequences of his decision to overturn one of the most fundamental requirements in the initial design stage of My Health Record. These early decisions are the most important in the design cycle and the hardest to modify once development and implementation proceed. An analogy is the position of a building on a block of land. It is much easier to move a building 10 cm before any construction has commenced than after it has been built and occupied.

Background

First some background on deleting data from a system as technically complex as My Health Record.

Most systems have functions to create, read, update and delete data, or CRUD. In the case of My Health Record it was decided early on that no data would ever be deleted. This decision was documented in the Concept of Operations, a document that the ADHA no longer makes available, but which is still obtainable from here [1]. It is worth noting that it has never been updated, although it does say “The Concept of Operations will be periodically updated as the development of the PCEHR System progresses”.

The Concept of Operations specified that:

“The PCEHR System will always ensure that individuals and healthcare providers are presented with the most recent version of a clinical document. If a prior version is available, individuals and healthcare providers will be given the option to access prior versions of clinical documents if they require.”

There is no evidence that this function has been implemented, there is no indication in the My Health Record itself of this capability and this function is not referred to in any of the material on the government’s website.

The decision not to delete any data has an enormous significance on the subsequent design and implementation of the system. It removes the need to develop approximately half of the normal functionality. There is no need to update the data; old documents can be replaced by new documents and the old ones kept, but hidden from normal viewers. Likewise, there is no need to delete data, just flag it as hidden.

Even if a document has been uploaded to a patent’s MyHR in error, it cannot be deleted, it is “effectively removed” as the Concept of Operations quaintly describes it.

Back-up and Restore

Apart from simplifying the functionality of the system, the no delete decision also makes back-up and restore much easier.

There are two types of back-up and restore.

The first is to protect against catastrophic failure of the system. This is a Disaster Recovery function and involves taking a regular snapshot of the whole system along with partial back-ups in‑between major backups. This is so that, in the event of a failure of the system for whatever reason, the system could be re-built either in the same premises or in alternative premises and the system restored to its state before the event.

The second is to allow deleted information to be recovered after the deletion. In Microsoft Windows this is like using the Recycle bin. If you don’t want to keep a deleted copy, you can delete the document immediately.

New Problems

By making the decision to delete records of people who wish to cancel their registration, the Minister has created multiple problems.

To immediately delete a complete record from an operational system is actually very unsafe. If the System Operator accidentally deletes a record (for whatever reason) then they can't get it back. If they do a recycle bin delete, they are not complying with the legislation. The normal process is to flag the record as deleted and/or keep a log of the deleted data, once again not complying with the legislation.

It is very unusual for a Disaster Recovery backup to be modified. Its value lies in the integrity of its data. In a system as complex as My Health Record, an individual’s health record will be spread out over multiple database tables, so it is not just a case of deleting a line in a file or a row in a spreadsheet.

Deleting data safely from a Disaster Recovery backup would probably require downloading the back-up to another version of the operational system, restoring the data, and deleting the data using system functionality that ensures the data retains its integrity. Apart from the fact that currently there is no system delete functionality, interfering with the Disaster Recovery back-up is highly risky. However, the Minister has promised that a health record would not be retained by the government. What the Minister has announced will happen; it will be costly and cumbersome – if done properly.

It should be noted that the proposed legislation only applies to complete records. What about the potential need to delete documents in a current record? The big problem here is that the people have not been asked if they want it or not.

They have not been asked if they are happy to have old documents available for the System Operator to see (nobody else can see them, or maybe they can, we don’t really know) or if they want old documents deleted by request.

This means that the Minster has created a big problem for ADHA with his changed requirements and created the possibility that he has created an even bigger, but uncertain problem regarding old documents.

The functionality required to delete individual documents could probably quite reasonably be incorporated as is commonly implemented - flag the document as deleted and then purge it after a given time. When creating a Disaster Recovery back-up do not include deleted documents.

These are just suggestions; it needs a complete requirements analysis and identification of the most efficient strategy - the sort of thing that should always precede any design and implementation activities.

One of the issues is making sure the requirements are complete. For instance, what are the requirements regarding records that have already been de-activated? Should they be deleted from the operational system? From old Disaster Recovery back-ups?

If old documents are to be deleted from current records how would that work?

What are the requirements for documents and/or records that have been downloaded to other systems connected to My Health Record but which people might want to have deleted?

Doing such things after six years of operations is challenging at best.

One approach is to completely redesign the system, something that ADHA seems to be considering as part of its re-platforming initiative.

One hopes that someone in government asks the question: What is the return on the $2b that has been expended on My Health Record that indicates that another $1-2b can be justified?

The statistic that ADHA has provided that only about 20% of the 5.9 million registrations have a Shared Health Summary, along with the unexpected negative reaction in many quarters to the opt-out initiative should give pause for thought. One can but hope.

Reference

[1] Concept of Operations http://content.webarchive.nla.gov.au/gov/wayback/20140801043103/http://www.yourhealth.gov.au/internet/yourhealth/publishing.nsf/Content/CA2578620005CE1DCA2578F800194110/$File/PCEHR-Concept-of-Operations-1-0-5.pdf

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It is all still spot on and as for what to do with audit trails that have been backed up - let's not even think about it! Minister Hunt has left a doozy for his successor!

Thanks Bernard!


David.

AusHealthIT Poll Number 437 – Results – 26th August, 2018.

Here are the results of the poll.

Do You Believe The Senate Inquiry Into The myHR Will Result In Changes In The myHR Program And Which Outcome Do You Expect?


Cancellation / Wind-down Of The myHR 20% (35)

A Switch To Opt-In With Useful Other Improvements 10% (18)

Some Clinical And Privacy / Security Improvements - Still Opt-Out 5% (8)

Minor Change With Little Actual Improvement - Still Opt-Out 18% (31)

Essentially No Change 45% (79)

I Have No Idea 2% (3)

Total votes: 174

This is a split poll with either no or little change or the biggest possible change coming out on top.

Overall it seems most expect little significant change. So we are in for disappointment again?

If you have not already, don’t forget to come to grips with what we are really facing…..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlUQMH19BkQ (57,381 views so far!)

Any insights welcome as a comment, as usual.

A really, great turnout of votes!

It must have been a fairly easy question as 3/174 readers were not sure what the appropriate answer was.

Again, many, many thanks to all those that voted!

David.