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This weekly blog is to explore 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 are dated 6 December, 2018! Secrecy unconstrained! This is really the behaviour of a federal public agency gone rogue – and it just goes on! When you read this it will be near 15 months of radio silence, and worse, while the CEO, COO and the Chief of Staff have gone, still no change. I wonder will things improve at some point – so far seems not?
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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Guide To Social Media And Medical Professionalism
22 Feb 2020
A guide to social media and medical professionalism:
The tips and traps every doctor and medical student should know
The use of social media by the medical profession is common and growing.
It has changed the way we can communicate with each other and the wider community.
We can now share information, create content, have meaningful social interactions, and collaborate in real-time for professional and personal benefits.
However, social media has the potential to blur the boundaries between private and professional.
There can be immense professional benefits by having an active presence through the proper use of social media, but inappropriate online behaviour has the potential to undermine professional integrity, doctor-patient and doctor-colleague relationships, future employment opportunities, and public trust and confidence in the medical profession.
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Communities Of Excellence
Better health for all Australians ADHA Propaganda
Communities across Australia could benefit from improved integration of digital health.
The Agency is focussed on improving digital health outcomes in Australian communities through the use of technology to deliver better quality healthcare – especially during transition of care, such as from the community to the hospital when medication errors are most likely to occur.
The digital health Communities of Excellence program will create learnings from a fully connected community, which could be replicated across similar communities.
The focus will be on key digital health initiatives such as My Health Record, secure messaging and telehealth.
Two of the communities that will take part in the initiative are Emerald in Queensland and Hedland in WA. The population size, strong local clinical and digital leadership as well as community support make the two communities ideal for this initiative.
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Qld police get new powers to access cloud-based evidence
By Justin Hendry on Feb 21, 2020 12:26PM
Parliament extends data access powers beyond physical devices.
Queensland has passed new laws that subject cloud-based data to the same information access powers currently used by law enforcement agencies to access physical storage devices.
The Police Powers and Responsibilities and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2019 passed into law on Thursday, amending the state’s Police Powers and Responsibilities Act 2000 (PPRA).
The bill clarifies existing “access information” powers afforded to police so that “any information accessible on, or via, a storage device” can be lawfully obtained under warrant.
Access information powers allow police to compel individuals to hand over passwords or encryption codes to gain access to and obtain data from electronic devices.
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Sextech: the innovators disrupting the way we think about sex
February 20, 2020 — 12.12am
Amid a "sexual health crisis", as evinced by the rising number of STDs, inaccessibility of some kinds of protection is leading some women to cut up latex gloves so they can practise safe sex.
Family Planning Victoria community sexual health educator Natalie Cavallaro believes "dental dams", thin latex barriers for oral or anal sex used to stop the transmission of STIs, aren’t widely available and there is a gap in community knowledge about how and why to use them.
“People often have to make their own by cutting up a condom or cutting up a latex glove and it’s really not fair,” said Ms Cavallaro.
She was part of a team hoping to make safe sex accessible for all at Melbourne’s first weekend-long Sextech Hackathon, a two-and-half day innovation jam where strangers came together to find tech solutions for pressing issues in the sexuality space.
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What’s next for Australia’s Consumer Data Right?
After a lengthy period of consultation and revision, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has issued the Competition and Consumer (Consumer Data Right) Rules (Rules), which came into effect on 6 February 2020.
The Rules set out details of how the consumer data right works, in particular the timeline for implementation and the framework for how individuals can request their consumer data and relevant product data. The Rules are intended to apply across all sectors in which the Consumer Data Right (CDR) will be activated in the future, with specific details for each sector to be set out in schedules (the Rules currently only contain specific details for open banking, in Schedule 3).
The introduction of the Rules means that the NAB, CBA, ANZ and Westpac (the ‘Big Four’ major banks) are now legally required to share product reference data with accredited data recipients, as well as giving legislative force to the proposed timeline for the commencement of consumer data sharing from 1 July 2020.
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The ACCC begins 2020 with a bang, announcing two new inquiries into digital platforms and advertising
The Treasurer has directed the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to undertake two new inquiries. The inquiries form part of the Government’s response to the ACCC’s Final Report to the Digital Platforms Inquiry (DPI) (DPI Final Report), in support of the ACCC’s digital platforms agenda. The inquiries - announced over the weekend – are as follows:
- The Digital Advertising Services Inquiry (DAS Inquiry) – will review, over an 18 month period, digital advertising technology services and digital agency services, arising from recommendation 5 in the ACCC’s DPI Final Report (to inquire into the supply of ad tech services and advertising agencies).
- The Digital Platforms Services Inquiry (DPS Inquiry) – will review, over a five year period, digital platform services, digital advertising services by digital platforms and data practices by digital platforms and data brokers. The DPS Inquiry arises from recommendation 4 of the ACCC’s DPI Final Report (to proactively monitor, investigate and enforce issues in digital markets).
The new Digital Platforms Branch will conduct the inquiries, continuing the ACCC’s focus on digital platforms, technology and advertising. It also reflects an increasing use of compulsory notices by the ACCC beyond its enforcement role of investigating suspected breaches of the competition law.
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Facebook takes a swipe at dating, raising privacy fears
Mark Zuckerberg is playing matchmaker with digital singles. Facebook Dating, which officially launched in the US in September, is now in 20 countries, with Australia cited as a potential market.
Concerns about data privacy thwarted its launch in Europe last Thursday — the day before Valentine’s day. Facebook postponed it after the Irish Data Protection Commission learned that the social media giant failed to conduct a data processing impact assessment, The Wall Street Journal reported. Facebook told the newspaper it had completed the assessment when requested.
Facebook Dating takes a different approach to other online relationship services, particularly the popular Tinder, which raked in a reported $US1.2bn ($1.78bn) in revenue last year for parent company The Match Group.
Facebook says it aims to help users start meaningful relationships through things they have in common — declared interests, events and groups.
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Aussie Nasdaq delivery may have a difficult birth
In a week to forget for the local technology sector, the Australian Stock Exchange is set to launch Australia’s answer to the NASDAQ index - the S&P/ASX All Technology Index - on Friday.
With the massive rise of Exchange Traded Funds that create funds based on indices, the new index has already prompted at least one local operator, Betashares, to plan a new ETF on the back of the “product”.
The new index will carry what the ASX is hoping will be Australia’s biggest and most widely defined technology offerings, with companies as diverse as Appen and Carsales expected to be included. Industry analysts suggest that if the index had been up and running since the beginning of 2019, it could have returned investors roughly twice the returns of the broader ASX 200.
The local exchange already has a scattering of technology related indices reflecting an early period of categorisation, most notably the information technology index, but it is understood the ASX wants to create a mid-to-large cap index that will get global attention from both investors and ETF producers.
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Bundaberg Regional Libraries presents
My Health Record
· Sat 28th Mar 2020, 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM ADHA Propaganda
· Bundaberg Central QLD 4670
My Health Record is an online summary of your key health information. Come into the library to find out about your record and how it can be securely viewed online from anywhere at anytime!
Bookings essential.
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https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/top-cop-vows-to-out-tech-giants-that-don-t-help-20200219-p5425z
Top cop vows to 'out' tech giants that don't help
Feb 19, 2020 — 4.12pm
Police have pledged to begin naming and shaming technology giants if they fail to help investigators, as law enforcement chiefs launch a fresh push for tougher anti-encryption laws to tackle the scourge of child sexual abuse.
In a move set to reopen a war between government and the tech sector, Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw, AUSTRAC head Nicole Rose and Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission chief Mike Phelan used a joint appearance at the National Press Club to say police were hamstrung by powers not keeping up with technology.
Mr Kershaw said encryption was being "weaponised" but rejected calls from Independent National Security Legislation Monitor James Renwick that retired judges or the Administrative Appeals Tribunal should rule on police requests to issue technical notices to gain access to encrypted messages.
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Top four digital transformation trends in healthcare
Feb 14th 2020
Remember the days when health care delivery was confined to the four walls of the hospital and involved lengthy hospital stays?
Doctors and nurses often suffered “alarm fatigue” from pagers and paper was used to record patient health data and stored in overflowing storage departments, with clinicians spending valuable time deciphering hand-written clinical notes – when they could find them. And hospital leaders made critical operational decisions based on observations walking the floors.
Thankfully that’s a bygone era – or at least it’s getting there.
Driven by the need for a better patient experience, healthcare has experienced a huge shift and like other industries such as banking and retail, digital transformation in healthcare isn’t slowing down. As costly chronic care needs continue to grow and exert considerable pressure on health systems, and patients become more involved in managing their health using IT solutions, the future of the healthcare industry will centre on digitally-enabled models of care. So clinicians can care for patients, improve outcomes and save lives.
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Britain to create internet content regulator
By Adam Satariano
February 19, 2020 — 10.39am
London: Britain has introduced a plan that would give the government more latitude to regulate internet content, as part of an effort to force Facebook, YouTube and other internet giants to do more to police their platforms.
The government said the country's media regulator, known as Ofcom, would take on new responsibilities monitoring internet content and would have the power to issue penalties against companies that do not do enough to combat "harmful and illegal terrorist and child abuse content."
Left unanswered were many details, including what penalties the new regulator would have at its disposal or how it would keep tabs on the billions of pieces of user-generated content that are posted on the social media platforms.
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Changes to the classification of software as a medical device
The rapid development of technology has resulted in widespread changes to the way healthcare is delivered, with the emergence of a range of apps and software being used to diagnose and treat diseases. This advancement has resulted in confusion regarding the distinction between software that is to be regulated as a medical device (SaMD) and software which falls outside the ambit of the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).
In 2019, the TGA held a consultation focusing on proposed regulatory reforms for SAMD (the Consultation) and recently passed the Therapeutic Goods Legislation Amendment (2019 Measures No. 1) Regulations 2019 (the Amendment). This article explores the impact of the Consultation and the current state of SaMD in Australia.
What is SaMD?
The concept of SaMD involves assessing whether the use of particular software falls within the definition of a ‘medical device’ pursuant to section 41BD of the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989 (Cth). Software which is used in conjunction with physical accessories requires an assessment of the device as a whole, rather than the software on its own or its individual components.
Examples of SaMD include:
- smart phone apps that are able to measure the user’s blood glucose levels and calculate insulin doses (in this case, the app, phone and monitoring system are assessed as a whole);
- X-ray image-processing software; and
- software with the ability to diagnose a patient.
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Anthony Mennillo Manager – Claims & Legal Services February 2020
What do you do if your patient or their family/friend start recording a consultation or ward round in the hospital? Is that legal and can you ask them to stop?
These are the questions we have received from practitioners who have been faced with this issue and this article explores the competing considerations and attempts to provide some practical solutions.
The law – privacy
Photos and videos of an individual are treated as personal information under the privacy legislation if taken by a practitioner for clinical purposes. However, the principles do not apply if the photo or video was taken by someone acting in a personal capacity, as the privacy legislation does not apply to individuals.
Photos and videos of an individual are treated as personal information under the privacy legislation if taken by a practitioner for clinical purposes. However, the principles do not apply if the photo or video was taken by someone acting in a personal capacity, as the privacy legislation does not apply to individuals.
However, the surveillance devices legislation is applicable to this situation. Most states and territories in Australia have legislation which prohibits the recording (video and/or audio) of private consultations without the consent of each party to that conversation.
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How to run an internal privacy investigation
If you suspect a data or privacy breach, you need to act quickly to stem that damage and respond to affected parties.
Many organisations also grapple with the question of whether they need to report any privacy or data breach to the regulator.
Based on our work with clients who have suffered a suspected privacy breach and conducted internal investigations, here are our top 10 tips to guarantee that you’re ticking all the right boxes:
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When sharing your data is a good idea
The federal government is about to release new laws to encourage bureaucrats to share your data. The changes could fundamentally fuel the remake of government for the better. But should you be concerned?
Feb 14, 2020 — 10.19am
Key Points
- The 5 tests for safely sharing data include
1. Is the use of the data appropriate? - 2. Is the user authorised to access and use the data?
- 3. Has appropriate and sufficient protection been applied to the data?
- 4. Is there a disclosure risk in the data itself?
- 5. Will the results lead to disclosure?
We have all been there.
A parent or close relative passes away, and at a time of grieving, you have to spend days, if not weeks, telling a gaggle of government agencies your dearest has deceased.
You marry and want to change your name. Would it be too hard to have one digital pre-filed form that advises the spaghetti soup of state and federal departments and quangos that need to know your new name?
Or you move homes to a new city in a different state. Could it be possible for all your governmental details to be automatically updated?
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The Toll hack is a warning to every Australian business
The big lesson is that companies must be able to preserve the data they need to carry on doing business.
Feb 18, 2020 — 12.00am
The recent cyber attack on Toll Holdings has been described as "crippling" and the "most significant in Australian corporate history".
The lesson for anyone who operates a business reliant on connectivity is that cyber resilience must be treated like the key business risk it is.
Toll Group is still working to get its systems back up online after identifying the malware infecting their systems.
All executives and boards should ask: How can my business recover if it loses access to valuable systems and data, or if the integrity of its systems and data is compromised?
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Bill Gates: AI and gene therapy have the power to save lives
Technology could help us cure AIDS and understand our biology, Gates says.
February 14, 2020 5:26 PM PST
Microsoft founder Bill Gates thinks artificial intelligence and gene therapy are the two technologies with the greatest power to change lives. In a speech Friday at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Gates said AI can "make sense of complex biological systems," while gene-based tools have the potential to cure AIDS.
The potential of AI is only just being realized now, the billionaire philanthropist said, with computational power doubling every three and a half months. Along with improvements in handling data, Gates said it's enabling "the ability to synthesize, analyze, see patterns, gain insights and make predictions across many, many more dimensions than a human can comprehend."
Gates said the most exciting part of AI "is how it can help us make sense of complex biological systems and accelerate the discovery of therapeutics to improve health in the poorest countries."
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Internet privacy: the apps that protect you from your apps
Worried about the data collected about you? A new generation of startups is making apps to put your privacy settings straight
Sun 16 Feb 2020 18.00 AEDT
Tech companies don’t have favourite songs, but if they did, they would all pick Radiohead’s Just – “You do it to yourself, you do/ And that’s what really hurts,” they would croon, staring their users dead in the eye. And strictly speaking, they’d be right: many of the worst excesses of the industry are, technically, optional. The world isn’t actually a binary choice between living in a surveillance state and opting out of all technological development since the turn of the millennium. You can opt out – you just have to know how.
Of course, that knowledge is not always easily acquired, nor is it necessarily easy to apply. So a new breed of services has arrived to try to help normal users take control of their digital lives. Companies including Disconnect.Me and Jumbo act as something like a digital concierge for their users, tweaking privacy settings, deleting sensitive data and throwing a spanner into the inner workings of surveillance capitalism.
But there’s a Faustian pact involved: to use the privacy apps to their fullest requires handing them a level of control over your digital life that would be all too easy to abuse – and it’s hard to be certain that any company can be trusted with information that sensitive.
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Monday, 17 February 2020 10:34
Rights body calls for scaling back of metadata retention laws
A parliamentary panel, that is reviewing the mandatory data retention laws introduced in 2017, has been told that the legislation goes too far and should be scaled back.
Alice Drury, senior lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, told the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security that the laws retain data for too long, in this case two years.
“What’s at stake here is our ability to go about our lives without feeling like we’re constantly being watched,” Drury said in a statement.
“Under these laws, details of where every single one of us goes, every phone call we make and every single text message we send are stored by private corporations for more than two years.
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Human Rights in a robot world: the promise and perils of new technologies
In its Human Rights and Technology Discussion Paper, the Australian Human Rights Commission has outlined a number of proposed reforms to protect and enhance human rights in the context of new technologies (including AI).
Key takeouts
The Australian Human Rights Commission has made 29 preliminary recommendations to protect and enhance human rights in the context of technological advances (particularly AI), in its Human Rights and Technology Discussion Paper.
The Paper's recommendations broadly concern the need for national direction (including a National Strategy and establishment of an AI Safety Commissioner); regulation of AI-influenced decision making (including legislation requiring the explainability of such decisions); and the need for accessibility (including a commitment by governments to procure technologies that comply with accessibility standards).
The Paper's recommendations are preliminary, and the Commission is seeking submissions by interested parties by Tuesday, 10 March 2019.
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What’s it like to feel old?
There’s a long list of spectacular failures when it comes to making things for old people. This age-transporting suit aims to stop that.
By Will Pavia
· From The Weekend Australian Magazine
February 14, 2020
My head cranes forward and my body is stiff and heavy, as if I’m carrying a load. I’m not quite sure what is behind and around me, and this makes me anxious. Sitting down, I reach backwards with one hand for the chair. Getting up is difficult.
I am in a research laboratory in Boston, a white warehouse space, though to a man in my condition it all looks hazy, uneven and yellow. “That’s not legally blind right now,” says a voice to my right. I try to turn my head, but it’s difficult. “That’s just low vision.” The voice belongs to Joseph Coughlin, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab, an institution established to help humanity prepare for the great gift of growing old. He’s a compact, peppy sort of chap in a bright bow tie, a dark blazer and bright blue trousers. I can’t really see his face.
I’m wearing a contraption that transports you into old age. It is called the Age Gain Now Empathy System, or Agnes for short. Coughlin was pleased with the title because it sounded like the name of a nice old lady. “I was a former defence and US Department of Transportation contractor,” he says. “I love my acronyms.”
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How Big Tech can be a force for good
The power of decentralised technology such as social media is being used to support individuals and liberal democracies all over the world, even as surveillance states threaten it.
Updated Feb 17, 2020 — 10.06am, first published at 9.26am
Big Tech’s power to squash competition and degrade liberal democracy is one of the most well-rehearsed storylines of our time.
Healing the rifts will require rebuilding trust in the system itself.
It is the reason that the US Federal Trade Commission recently announced it would re-examine old acquisitions done by large technology companies.
It’s also why there are still worries that political interests everywhere are manipulating data and social media to their own ends.
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Zuckerberg admits Facebook was slow on Russian disinformation
Helen Warrell, Guy Chazan and Michael Peel
Feb 16, 2020 — 5.35pm
Munich | Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has admitted his company had been slow to understand Russian disinformation campaigns during the last US election, as he appealed to political leaders for more regulation of online content.
Mr Zuckerberg — who was speaking at the Munich Security Conference at the weekend — struck a conciliatory tone, saying that Facebook had embarked on “significantly closer” collaboration with governments, electoral authorities and members of the intelligence community over the past four years, and was taking down more than 1m fake accounts a day.
Social media companies such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have come under pressure to improve their response to hostile states and political groups using their platforms to spread misleading information.
Democratic candidate Joe Biden suggested last month that the laissez-faire approach taken by Facebook to extensive Russian disinformation campaigns ahead of the 2016 US election may have “amounted to collusion” that would “be equal to a criminal offence”.
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Comments more than welcome!
David.
