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."

Monday, July 05, 2021

Weekly Australian Health IT Links – 05 July, 2021.

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

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A big week for the ADHA media team producing material on bush foods / medicine and the #myHR and the use of smartphones to record the quality of their patient experience on the #myH! More hammer in search of a nail stuff I reckon!

Lots of commercial digital health news this week also as well as a few bits on digital vaccination records etc.

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https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/digital-proof-for-vaccinated-aussies/news-story/67d2610df39b4ea3ec6a5ad457b2012a

Digital proof for vaccinated Aussies

Olivia Caisley

The federal government is developing internationally recognised certificates to prove that Australians have received a Covid-19 vaccine as Scott Morrison flagged a four-phase plan to “get back to normal” and reopen the international borders.

Following a meeting of national cabinet on Friday the Prime Minister said he and state and territory leaders had agreed to the creation of digital vaccine passports that would be generated automatically every time an Australian was fully vaccinated.

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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/practice/can-my-health-record-be-source-truth-aged-care-prescribing

Can the My Health Record be the 'source of truth' for aged care prescribing?

The big problem is that most aged care facilities don't actually use it

29th June 2021

By Antony Scholefield

My Health Record has traditionally done well in federal budgets and the most recent June budget was no exception.

It received $302 million to cover funding for the next four years.

But arguably the most significant line for GPs was actually in another section in the budget papers — the $45 million to improve uptake of the My Health Record and electronic medication charts in aged care.

The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety said the Federal Government needed universal adoption of the My Health Record in aged care by 2022 to help prevent medication misadventures.

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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/opinion/i-dont-have-time-telehealth-and-escript-admin-crap

I don’t have time for telehealth and e-script admin crap

Dr Craig Lilienthal

Dr Lilienthal is a GP and medicolegal adviser in Sydney, NSW.

30th June 2021

I am heartily pissed off with the ever-changing and confusing requirements for COVID-19 telehealth and e-prescribing.

Here is an example of a typical, time wasting, administrative shemozzle we GPs have to deal with. I am sure there are many other similar scenarios.

The situation:

While doing a telehealth consultation early one evening, with a young mother - non rebatable because, thanks to COVID-19, we hadn’t had a face-to-face consultation for more than 12 months – she asked me for an urgent repeat prescription for her son.

It was for a medication originally prescribed by a paediatrician to whom I had referred the young teenager.

Now, because I hadn’t seen the son for more than 12 months, I couldn’t offer the mother a rebatable consultation for this either and because neither of them had had their electronic medical records ‘enabled’ for consent to communicate electronically, I couldn’t send them e-scripts.

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https://www.themandarin.com.au/161343-adha-launches-automatic-administrative-service-for-healthcare-providers/

ADHA launches automatic administrative service for healthcare providers

By Shannon Jenkins

Monday June 28, 2021

The Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) is rolling out new technology that will reduce the administrative burden placed on healthcare provider organisations by allowing them to update key information from one place.

The new Provider Connect Australia service is estimated to deliver economic benefits of more than $30 million per year by 2025.

In the past, healthcare provider organisations have needed to fill out between 10 and 20 forms to notify different parts of the healthcare system whenever service or practitioner information has changed.

Organisations can now use Provider Connect Australia to update their contact details. The service will then automatically send the new details to other areas of the healthcare system, including hospitals, pathology and radiology services, public service directories, and secure messaging providers.

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https://wildhealth.net.au/health-tech-wins-big-in-nsw-budget/

1 July 2021

Health tech wins big in NSW budget

Government Money

By Holly Payne

In what it is calling a record investment in health, the NSW Liberal government has committed more than $30 billion to the sector in this week’s budget announcement.

As expected, big chunks of change are heading straight to the pandemic front lines, funding PPE, vaccine distribution and pop-up clinics.

Major health infrastructure projects and rural health, all told, were allocated $4 billion for health capital projects across regional and metro areas.

Digital health was the next biggest winner, with $500 million in funding earmarked for various projects over the next four years, including the Single Digital Patient Record, Real Time Prescription Monitoring and the NSW Telestroke Service.

The Single Digital Patient Record initiative, which received $141 million in the budget, has been in the works for almost two years and promises to consolidate patient records from three different patient management systems.

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https://www.afr.com/companies/healthcare-and-fitness/brandon-capital-uniseed-back-cancer-biotech-start-up-in-10m-funding-20210624-p58440

Brandon Capital, Uniseed back cancer biotech start-up in $10m funding

Carrie LaFrenz Senior reporter

Jun 28, 2021 – 5.00am

A Melbourne-based start-up spun out of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre has raised $10 million for the further development of its novel cancer immunotherapy that targets solid tumours such as breast and pancreatic cancers.

The Brandon Capital Partners-managed Medical Research Commercialisation Fund led the investment into biotech Currus Biologics, along with university commercialisation fund Uniseed,

The fresh funds will support Currus’ commercial development of its proprietary technology used in animal studies into humans and based on research from the Peter MacCallum – a first investor-led spinout from the centre’s research.

Currus chief executive Sam Cobb said human clinical trials are still about two years away but it is an exciting time for scientists to see their technology go from the bench and translate into a product that can get into people.

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https://insideageing.com.au/my-health-record-allows-people-to-upload-their-use-of-bush-medicine/

My Health Record allows people to upload their use of bush medicine

By Sean McKeown

2 July 2021

To mark NAIDOC Week 2021 (4-11 July), the Australian Digital Health Agency today released a new video (below) showing the importance of bush medicine in Indigenous culture and health and how My Health Record can be used to record its use.

Director of Clinical Services and Senior Medical Officer at Gurriny Yealamucka Health Service in Yarrabah Queensland, Yued Noongar man from Dandaragan WA, Dr Jason King, said “I ask my patients what bush medicines they are using and include that information in the medical records in our clinic and this feeds into My Health Record.”

The Agency’s video features Linc Walker, owner and tour guide at Kuku Yalanji Cultural Habitat Tours in Cooya Beach, north of Port Douglas in Queensland and pharmacist Brad Reilly from Live Life Pharmacy in Port Douglas. The tours have been running for 22 years and were started by Linc and his brother Brandon to help preserve ancient cultural activities and knowledge.

Linc said “We use traditional medicine because we’ve always used it. When we were young it was too far to town, the shops were too far away and so we had to do this. It’s part of our life still.”

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https://www.digitalhealth.gov.au/newsroom/media-releases/digital-records-support-preservation-of-bush-medicine-information

Digital records support preservation of bush medicine information

Published 2 July 2021

To mark NAIDOC Week 2021 (4-11 July), the Australian Digital Health Agency today released a new video showing the importance of bush medicine in Indigenous culture and health and how My Health Record can be used to manage  that information for the holistic care of patients.

Director of Clinical Services and Senior Medical Officer at Gurriny Yealamucka Health Service in Yarrabah Queensland, Yued Noongar man from Dandaragan WA, Dr Jason King, said “I ask my patients what bush medicines they are using and include that information in the medical records in our clinic and this feeds into My Health Record.”

The Agency’s new video features Linc Walker, owner and tour guide at Kuku Yalanji Cultural Habitat Tours in Cooya Beach, north of Port Douglas in Queensland and pharmacist Brad Reilly from Live Life Pharmacy in Port Douglas. The tours have been running for 22 years and were started by Linc and his brother Brandon to help preserve ancient cultural activities and knowledge.

Linc said “We use traditional medicine because we’ve always used it. When we were young it was too far to town, the shops were too far away and so we had to do this. It’s part of our life still.”

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https://inqld.com.au/news/2021/06/29/the-hospital-where-patients-use-their-phones-to-rate-the-service/

The Qld hospital where patients use their mobile phones to rate the service

Brisbane’s Princess Alexandra Hospital has been used in a pilot project that allowed cancer patients to provide feedback on the quality of care they received.

Sean Parnell

29 July, 2021

The PAH partnered with digital health company The Clinician for the recent project, overseen by the Australian Digital Health Agency. It gave clinicians greater insight into patient experiences, from the shock of a cancer diagnosis to the burden of paperwork and the stress of treatment.

As part of the project, cancer patients used their smartphones to complete a specially-designed questionnaire, allowing their data to fine-tune the information already held on hospital and clinician files as well as the patient’s My Health Record. This, in turn, could be used to improve the experience – not just for the patient but other patients like them.

“As clinicians, we can be focused on treating the symptoms that our patients are facing and this project has reinforced the importance for us of also focusing on our patients’ experiences when being cared for, which in turn can lead to better quality care, improved health outcomes and more accessible and effective health services,” said PAH acting executive director of nursing, Leanne Stone.

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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/pip-payments-fall-15-million-after-govt-imposes-unfair-telehealth-rule

PIP payments fall $1.5 million after govt imposes 'unfair' telehealth rule

The Federal Government is excluding telehealth consults from its calculations

28th June 2021

By Geir O'Rourke

GP practices are losing income from the $350 million Practice Incentives Program because health officials are "underestimating" their patient load by ignoring consults they are doing via telehealth.

Under the system, the Department of Health calculates a number of the incentives based on patient load measured in Standardised Whole Patient Equivalents (SWPEs).

However, Dr David Ringelblum says his Melbourne practice, which he part owns, has seen an 11% drop in its SWPE because only the care provided face-to-face is being counted.

As a result, the practice’s payments have fallen 26% in the past three months, compared with a year earlier, despite seeing almost an identical number of patients. 

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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/medicare-losing-dozens-phone-consultation-items-today

Medicare losing dozens of phone consultation items from today

Most items for telephone consults have been deleted with the new financial year.

1st July 2021

By Antony Scholefield

The majority of MBS items for telephone consultations have now been deleted, with the new financial year bringing a swathe of updates to the MBS.  

But thanks to indexation, the rebate for a standard Level B consultation is now worth an extra 35 cents.

Applied across the MBS, it's an increase of roughly 0.9% on the 2020-21 financial year

Changes coming in today include the removal of almost all the telephone-based consultation items, including those for level C and level D consults, which were claimed more than three million times over the past 12 months.

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https://www.theaustralian.com.au/science/world-leading-ai-behind-innovative-xray-technology/news-story/31c8e49315e8495c80403c1e43bb7430

World leading AI behind innovative X-ray technology

Rhiannon Down

State-of-the-art chest X-ray software developed by Australian scientists will aid practitioners to make more accurate interpretations of medical images to diagnose some of the most common and life-threatening illnesses, using world-leading artificial intelligence.

The device, called the Annalise CXR, has been found to “significantly” improve radiologists’ ability to read chest X-rays, both when assisted by the device and when it was used on its own, was developed by medical imaging company annalise.ai, a joint venture between Australian healthcare technology company Harrison.ai and international company I – MED Radiology Network

A study into its effectiveness, published in The Lancet Digital Health on Thursday, found that radiologists using the Annalise CXR were significantly more able to perceive 102 chest X-ray findings in a non-clinical environment, were statistically on par for 19 findings and had no drop in accuracy.

The study also assessed the stand-alone performance of the model against radiologists in identifying chest X-rays, finding that it identified 117 out of 124 findings, making it 94 per cent more accurate than an unassisted radiologists, significantly boosting its diagnostic abilities.

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https://www.miragenews.com/cancer-patients-use-smartphones-to-provide-586000/

June 28, 2021 4:02 pm AEST

Cancer patients use smartphones to provide feedback on their care experience

Australian Digital Health Agency

Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH) and digital health company The Clinician, have successfully completed an Australian Digital Health Agency pilot project that enabled cancer patients to use their smartphones to provide feedback on the quality of care they received.

Acting Executive Director of Nursing at PAH, Leanne Stone, said this was an important project for the hospital as a cancer diagnosis was confronting enough for the patient, who are often inundated with multiple forms and documents both prior to and during their treatment.

“As clinicians, we can be focused on treating the symptoms that our patients are facing and this project has reinforced the importance for us of also focusing on our patients ‘ experiences when being cared for, which in turn can lead to better quality care, improved health outcomes and more accessible and effective health services,” Ms Stone said.

Amanda Cattermole, CEO of the Australian Digital Health Agency, said “PAH in partnership with The Clinician were funded by the Australian Digital Health Agency to develop a digital solution to improve the patient experience and the quality of patient-sourced health data for their healthcare providers.”

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https://www.hospitalhealth.com.au/content/technology/news/roche-andhealth-partnership-to-drive-digital-health-industry-growth-719067738

Roche–ANDHealth partnership to drive digital health industry growth

Friday, 25 June, 2021

Roche Australia has joined ANDHealth’s cooperative digital health commercialisation initiative to support the development and growth of Australia’s digital health ecosystem.

Local support for innovation, significant investment in digital health infrastructure and successful management of the COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented opportunity to deliver a robust, sustainable digital health industry. However, the industry is hampered by commercialisation challenges including access to capital, customers and expertise. ANDHealth’s partnership with Roche will provide Australian digital health entrepreneurs and innovators with access to world-class skills and expertise to meet these challenges.

“The partnership with Roche is a key milestone in enabling us to achieve our vision of creating a world-leading, integrated ecosystem for the development, commercialisation and implementation of evidence-based digital health technologies in Australia,” ANDHealth CEO Bronwyn Le Grice said.

“The relationship between our two organisations further strengthens the ANDHealth model of support for the growth and maturation of Australia’s digital health industry — growth that will deliver highly skilled jobs, create economic opportunity and deliver better health outcomes for all Australians,” she said.

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https://themarketherald.com.au/pacific-knowledge-systems-asxpks-renews-key-contracts-2021-06-29/

Pacific Knowledge Systems (ASX:PKS) renews key contracts

Health Care

ASX:PKS    MCAP $92.41M

Lisa Simcock  Markets Reporter   lisa.simcock@themarketherald.com.au

29 June 2021 15:20 (AEST)

  • Healthcare tech company Pacific Knowledge Systems (PKS) renews key contracts and wins new clients
  • The company has seen a near complete contract renewal rate — keeping 99 per cent of its customers
  • Notably, this puts PKS ahead of expectations of recurrent revenue exceeding 70 per cent of total operating revenue
  • New contracts have been signed with Ramsay hospitals, which includes WA's Joondalup and Hollywood Private hospitals, as well as Brisbane's Greenslopes hospital
  • On the market this afternoon, PKS is up 6.41 per cent and is trading at 41.5 cents per share

Pacific Knowledge Systems (PKS) has successfully renewed key contracts and won new clients.

As the end of the current financial year is coming to a close, the healthcare technology company has seen a near complete contract renewal rate — keeping 99 per cent of its customers.

Notably, this puts PKS ahead of expectations of recurrent revenue exceeding 70 per cent of total operating revenue.

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https://www.itwire.com/government-tech-policy/facebook-australia-expands-local-alerts-to-health,-police-and-government-agencies.html

Wednesday, 30 June 2021 01:03

Facebook Australia expands local alerts to Health, Police and Government Agencies

By Staff Writer

Facebook Australia has announced the expansion of its Local Alerts product to all eligible state and territory health, police and lead central government Facebook Pages.

Facebook says this expansion will help government agencies connect with communities to find missing persons, share information on COVID-19 breakouts or ‘hotspots’ and provide critical updates during disasters or significant hazards.

Local Alerts are designed to help authorities communicate urgent, need-to-know or actionable information to communities in emergencies as well as less critical situations where timely information is valuable.

When authorities with access to the product mark posts as Local Alerts, Facebook will send a notification to Page followers located in the affected area and mark the post as an alert to make it stand out in News Feed.

The Local Alerts product was originally launched by Facebook late last year in Australia to all state and territory fire and emergency service agencies.

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https://www.healthcareit.com.au/article/hotdoc-system-deployed-two-major-australian-hospitals-covid-19-flu-vaccination-bookings

HotDoc system deployed in two major Australian hospitals for COVID-19, flu vaccination bookings

Adam Ang | 02 Jul 2021

HotDoc, a Melbourne-based patient engagement platform provider, has partnered with two major hospitals in Australia for vaccination booking projects.

WHY IT MATTERS

This week, Austin Hospital in Melbourne started using HotDoc's complete scheduling solution and tools for eligibility screening and stock management for COVID-19 inoculations. The hospital aims to schedule approximately 1,000 COVID-19 vaccination appointments each day.

HotDoc said its platform will also be deployed at St. Vincent's Hospital in Sydney for booking administration of influenza vaccination for staff, featuring walk-ins, appointment calendars and online consent forms. It will also enable the hospital to conduct online patient verification check enhancements through Medicare Check and the submission of immunisation records through its Australian Immunisation Register-integrated platform.

HotDoc estimates that its platform has enabled 2.5 million appointments for COVID-19 vaccinations to date.

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https://www.healthcareit.com.au/article/australia-invests-seven-research-projects-using-data-improve-primary-care

Australia invests in seven research projects using data to improve primary care

Adam Ang | 29 Jun 2021

The Australian government has set aside a combined investment of AU$12.9 million ($9.78 million) in seven research projects that leverage data to enhance the primary care system in the country.

WHY IT MATTERS

The 2020 Primary Healthcare Research Data Infrastructure grants support projects to improve residential aged care, urban and rural general practitioner-led practices, Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations and other health professionals such as nurses, midwives, allied health, pharmacists and dentists.

Among the seven projects, the South Australian Health Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), an independent research institute based in Adelaide, will receive AU$2 million ($1.5 million) for its Registry of Senior Australians (ROSA) project.

According to a statement by Health Minister Greg Hunt, SAHMRI wants to expand the registry to "understand emerging issues" and continue researching on "key and currently unknown" residential aged care impacts.

It will use new data gathered on immunisation, rehabilitation and social welfare to further research and "embed ROSA as the only national data solution for policy and practice change in residential aged care". ROSA's model collates diverse datasets from different organisations across Australia to form a "whole picture of the ageing pathway".

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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/apac/university-sydney-receives-grant-mental-health-tech-trial

University of Sydney receives grant for mental health tech trial

It will try out a new model of youth mental health care that is more personalised and digitally enabled.

By Adam Ang

July 01, 2021 04:07 AM

The University of Sydney has obtained an AU$3.4 million ($2.5 million) grant from the federal government's Clinical Trials and Cohorts Studies scheme to try out a new model of care for young people in the early stages of mental health problems.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT

In a press release, the university said its Brain and Mind Centre collaborated with Orygen, Deakin University and the University of Notre Dame for the five-year Youth Model of Care trial that will commence "early next year."

The trial will involve around 1,500 young people currently enrolled in a mental health service seeking treatment for mood disorders.

It will provide participating clinicians access to a digital platform that includes detailed assessment measures, longitudinal tracking and interactivity, combining measurement-based care and real-time health care.

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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/chemist-warehouse-goes-live-with-slyp-digital-receipts-566620

Chemist Warehouse goes live with Slyp digital receipts

By Kate Weber on Jun 28, 2021 5:28PM

Accessed via NAB mobile banking app.

Chemist Warehouse has gone live with Slyp’s digital receipt product across 460 stores.

Slyp’s digital itemised tax receipts, known as 'smart receipts', will now be offered to NAB mobile banking app customers when they make purchases at the Chemist Warehouse.

Australian fintech Slyp integrates with a retailer’s point of sale system to send an itemised receipt to eligible consumers.

Slyp smart receipts can be found in the receipt section of the NAB mobile app for purchases made in participating retail and hospitality venues across Australia.

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www.nab.com.au

Chemist Warehouse goes digital with NAB and Slyp

NAB has today announced that one of its largest transaction customers, Chemist Warehouse will be offering its customers the option of itemised, digital receipts, using Slyp technology.

This function is now live across more than 460 stores across Australia with itemised smart receipts instead being delivered directly to customers via the NAB mobile banking app.

More than 120,000 NAB customers have already opted in to receive digital receipts ensuring the bank and Slyp are on track to make digital receipts used by half of all Australian by the middle of next year. 

Andrew Irvine, Group Executive for NAB’s Business and Private Bank said, “The explosion of new technology is making many things extinct and traditional paper receipts are no exception.

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01 Jul 2021 8:00 AM AEST

Voice-assisted tech giving voice to people living with Parkinson's disease                 

 Monash University research has found voice-assisted technologies are able to support people with speech difficulties, such as Parkinson’s disease, and could enhance early speech and language therapies. 

In 2018, over 1.35 million Australian households owned a smart speaker like Google Home and Amazon Alexa. While these technologies are primarily being used for general household tasks like streaming music, checking the weather forecast and setting alarms or reminders, new research has identified how these voice-assisted technologies can have additional uses for people with speech impairment.  

A collaboration project by researchers at Monash University and Ulster University, this study is the first of its kind to explore the experiences of using voice-assisted technologies by people with speech impairment. 

Of the 290 participants from the UK living with Parkinson’s disease who took part in the online survey, the key findings were:

  • 90% owned a voice-assisted device
  • 71% used it regularly
  • 31% used the technology specifically to address the needs associated with their Parkinson’s disease 
  • Of these users, 55% sometimes, rarely, or never had to repeat themselves when using the technology and when asked about speech changes since they started using it, 25% of participants noticed having to repeat themselves less and 15% perceived their speech to be clearer

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https://idm.net.au/article/0013489-digital-health-agency-flies-edrms-cloud

Digital Health Agency flies into EDRMS Cloud

Friday, June 25, 2021 - 12:36

The Australian Digital Health Agency, the government agency in charge of the country’s $A2 billion My Health Record system, has adopted iCognition’s Electronic Document and Records Management as-a-service cloud solution, EDRMSaaS.

iCognition won an open tender to deliver the SaaS solution in a contract worth over $A500K.

EDRMSaaS.Cloud offers a SaaS deployment of Micro Focus Content Manager, including iCognition’s in-house developed solutions for collaborative workspaces, publishing, line-of-business application connectors, data migration tools and specific automated functions.

The Australian Digital Health Agency was established in 2016 taking over operation of the former Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR).

It is a statutory authority jointly funded by the Commonwealth and the states and territories. The Agency expects to have more than 500 EDRMSaaS users working from offices in Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra.

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https://www.hinz.org.nz/news/571328/450000-patient-records-uploaded-to-Your-Health-Summary-.htm

450,000 patient records uploaded to Your Health Summary

Sunday, 27 June 2021  

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

The primary care health records of close to half a million patients across Auckland have been uploaded to the shared care record system, Your Health Summary (YHS).

The solution is designed to ensure better continuity of care and safety for patients by ensuring their important health information is accessible by authorised healthcare providers that deliver care in a range of care settings, says YHS clinical director Daniel Calder. 

The summary includes information about medications, allergies, results and long-term health conditions and is supported by the Northern Region Health Co-ordination Centre and Metro Auckland PHOs. 

Nearly 150 practices have signed up since it went live in April 2020, with 450,000 patient records from across Auckland uploaded to
Your Health Summary, and 315 clinicians have submitted signed access applications. 

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https://www.hinz.org.nz/news/571695/Hira-detailed-business-case-being-developed.htm

Hira detailed business case being developed

Tuesday, 29 June 2021  

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

The detailed business case for tranche one of Hira is being developed and will need Cabinet approval before funding is released.

In Budget 2021,
Government announced funding of up to $385 million over four years (and a further $15 million in capital funding in 2025/26) for health sector digital infrastructure and capability. 

The Budget announcement includes funding for Hira, formerly known as the National Health Information Platform, which will “enable access to a virtual electronic health record as needed by drawing together a person's latest health data from trusted sources to create that data".

Health Minister Andrew Little spoke about the pressing need to upgrade the country’s health IT systems during an emergency debate in Parliament on June 29.

The Minister said the ongoing need to maintain investment in health IT systems is “absolutely crucial” and accused the former National government of neglecting this area.

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https://www.hinz.org.nz/news/571868/Full-inquiry-into-Waikato-cyber-attack.htm

Full inquiry into Waikato cyber attack

Wednesday, 30 June 2021  

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

There will be a “full, independent inquiry” into the Waikato DHB cyber-attack to provide a clear picture of what happened and what lessons can be learned for the future, the Health Minister says.

The DHB was hit by a ransomware attack on May 18, causing a full outage of its Information Services across the region.

Patient and staff details stolen during the attack have now been posted online by the cyber criminals.

Health Minister Andrew Little spoke about the attack during an emergency debate in Parliament on June 29, promising a full independent inquiry, once the DHB has remediated their systems and returned to business as usual.

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https://www.itwire.com/telecoms-and-nbn/accc-report-nbn-speeds-pick-up-as-more-households-wanted-for-program.html

Wednesday, 30 June 2021 16:41

ACCC reports NBN speeds pick up as more households wanted for program

By Chris Coughlan

Fixed-line NBN broadband services reached a new performance high in February 2021, the ACCC’s thirteenth quarterly Measuring Broadband Australia report reveals.

Retail service providers achieved between 86.8 and 99.1% of plan speeds across the major NBN fixed-line plans during the busy evening hours of 7pm to 11pm, the latest report shows. This is the highest result since the ACCC started the Measuring Broadband Australia program in 2018.

The difference in download speeds between retail service providers also narrowed slightly since December 2020. Overall, average download speeds were 95.7% of plan speed during the busy evening hours, and 96.7% during all hours of the day, marginally higher than in the December 2020 report.

“These latest results suggest the NBN is performing well and retail service providers are largely delivering what consumers expect and have paid for,” ACCC commissioner Anna Brakey said.

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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/accc-uncovers-small-number-of-nbn-gigabit-users-seeing-only-100mbps-566716

ACCC uncovers small number of NBN gigabit users seeing only 100Mbps

By Ry Crozier on Jun 30, 2021 12:25PM

Asks retailers to check up on in-home setups.

The ACCC's first attempt to understand how up to gigabit NBN plans perform has uncovered a subset of users getting only 100Mbps speeds due to limitations with their modem or home gateway.

The consumer watchdog released its first measuring broadband Australia report [pdf] on Wednesday that specifically examined up to gigabit tier services for the first time.

Though the sample size is relatively small - 52 services, it provides some indication of the performance fluctuations that an up to gigabit user might expect to see over a 24-hour period.

“Users on NBN very high speed connections attained an average download performance range of between 608 and 745Mbps,” the report found.

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https://www.itwire.com/telecoms-and-nbn/telstra-announces-75-coverage-in-major-5g-rollout-milestone.html

Monday, 28 June 2021 15:43

Telstra announces 75% coverage in major 5G rollout milestone

By Chris Coughlan

Three-quarters of all Australians now can now access Telstra 5G where they live, and Telstra’s 4G network now covers more than two million square kilometres of the Australian continent.

Telstra group executive networks & IT Nikos Katinakis announced Telstra had achieved a goal, set last year, to roll out Telstra 5G to 75% of Australians by the end of June 2021.

“One of our priorities over the last year was bringing Telstra 5G to as many people as possible and this major milestone means that now three-quarters of Australians live where there is Telstra 5G,” Katinakis said.

In the last six months alone, Telstra has switched on 5G services in selected areas of more than 100 regional towns and cities including Echuca-Moama, Castlemaine, Port Douglas, Yass, Murray Bridge, Devonport, and Esperance taking the total to more than 200 towns and cities nationally.

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https://www.itwire.com/telecoms-and-nbn/telstra-apologises-and-clarifies-its-responsibility-and-commitment-to-clarifying-your-nbn-speeds.html

Friday, 25 June 2021 14:51

Telstra apologises and clarifies its "responsibility and commitment to clarifying your NBN speeds"  

By Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Not all non connections are capable of delivering the maximum speeds of higher speed NBN plans, and Telstra has apologised for not communicating this properly in the past, and said "we have made significant improvements to how we manage communicating nbn speed information to our customers", so what else does Telstra's California-based global connectivity and platforms exec, Sanjay Nayak have to say about it all?

Over at the Telstra Exchange blog, Telstra's Sanjay Nayak has published a blog post titled: "Our responsibility and commitment to clarifying your NBN speeds."

Here's what Sanjay Nayak has to say, in full:

"One of the issues internet providers face when providing customers with an internet service that relies on an nbn connection is that not all nbn connections to the home are created equal – they’re not all capable of delivering the maximum speeds of higher speed nbn plans.


"The maximum download speed you can achieve on your nbn connection – the speed to the household - is primarily dependent on the technology type delivered by NBN Co to your property. It’s impacted by a range of factors, including how far away your house is from the closest nbn point.

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https://www.itwire.com/telecoms-and-nbn/nbn-co-to-recommence-taking-hfc-orders-from-26-july-2021.html

Friday, 25 June 2021 13:48

NBN Co to recommence taking HFC orders from 26 July 2021

By Chris Coughlan

NBN Co announced that it will recommence taking orders from 26 July 2021 to connect new customers to the NBN network via HFC technology.

NBN Co confirmed that it has worked through the recent supply chain issues related to the worldwide shortage of silicon chipsets used to manufacture and supply HFC modems. It has received regular scheduled deliveries of new HFC modems and now has sufficient stock on hand, with further deliveries expected, to support ongoing customer demand for new HFC connections.

NBN Co had planned to recommence taking new HFC orders from 24 May but postponed its plans when it encountered issues with the rollout of a new workforce scheduling system.

NBN Co has made good progress in recent weeks in taking steps to resolve the issues that have affected the workforce scheduling system and availability of field technicians for new connection and service appointments.

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https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/cosmic-gulp-astronomers-see-black-hole-swallow-neutron-star-20210630-p585ev.html

Cosmic gulp: Astronomers see black hole swallow neutron star

By Seth Borenstein

June 30, 2021 — 4.05am

Los Angeles: Talk about a heavy snack. For the first time, astronomers have witnessed a black hole swallowing a neutron star, the most dense object in the universe – all in a split-second gulp.

Ten days later they saw the same thing, on the other side of the universe. In both cases, a neutron star – a teaspoon of which would weigh nearly a billion tonnes – orbits ever closer to that ultimate point of no return, a black hole, until they finally crash together and the star is gone in a gobble.

Astronomers witnessed the last 500 orbits before the neutron stars were swallowed, a process that took far less than a minute and briefly generated as much energy as all the visible light in the observable universe.

“It was just a big quick [gulp], gone,” said study co-author Patrick Brady, an astrophysicist at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. The black hole “gets a nice dinner of a neutron star and makes itself just a little bit more massive”.

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Enjoy!

David.

 

Sunday, July 04, 2021

Has The ADHA Worked Out Just How The Provider Connect Australia System Will Fit With Other Service Directories?

This appeared last week from the ADHA.

Provider Connect Australia - helping healthcare providers stay connected

Published 25 June 2021

Healthcare provider organisations around the country can now update information about their healthcare services and practitioners in just one place using Provider Connect Australia, eliminating the need to keep multiple directories up-to-date manually.

Provider Connect Australia is new technology that maintains the accuracy of healthcare service and practitioner contact details and will be rolled out nationally. It is expected to achieve economic benefits of more than $30 million per year by 2025.

When healthcare provider organisations update their contact details in the Provider Connect Australia service, this automatically sends their new details to nominated hospitals, pathology and radiology services, public service directories, secure messaging providers and more.

Australian Digital Health Agency CEO Amanda Cattermole said Provider Connect Australia would drive greater interoperability and adoption of secure messaging across the Australian healthcare system and provide benefits to both patients and health professionals.

“By providing this national service, the Agency can improve the quality and reliability of healthcare service details in directories and other services, including Medicare, and significantly reduce the administrative burden on healthcare organisations,” Ms Cattermole said.

Accurate and reliable information about healthcare services is a key foundation to support a digitally connected healthcare system, including secure messaging and interoperability. 

“Secure messaging is a key strategic priority under the National Digital Health Strategy and the Agency is delivering this new feature of the national digital health infrastructure to enable healthcare providers to easily find each other to securely share patient information,” Ms Cattermole said.

Healthcare provider organisations have previously been required to complete between 10 and 20 different paper or online forms to notify different parts of the healthcare system whenever their service or practitioner information changes.  

This is a substantial red-tape burden that leads to inaccurate and out-of-date information across the sector, impacting efficiency and quality of care.

A trial of the service in Northern NSW in 2020 found 99 per cent of participating practitioner records held in the Local Health District address book were out of date. The Provider Connect Australia service meant updates were made quickly and seamlessly, giving healthcare organisations more time with patients and less time on administration.

“The objective is to improve the efficiency of administrative processes for publishers and subscribers managing their data and help provide prompt, safe and seamless patient care across settings and providers,” Ms Cattermole said.

The benefits to patient care will also be significant across a range of healthcare settings. For example, having the most up-to-date details is essential to ensuring hospital discharge summaries, including treatment plans and progress notes, get to the right person as quickly as possible. This helps the patient’s GP to provide the best possible post-hospital care.

Dr Steve Hambleton, a General Practitioner and the Agency’s Chief Clinical Adviser said: “Provider Connect Australia will deliver efficiencies for practice support staff who will only have to update any changes in practice information once and will increase confidence at the point of care that all of the incoming information about patients will be there, and that outgoing address books are complete and up-to-date.

“I look forward to using it in my practice.”

Here is a link to the release:

https://www.digitalhealth.gov.au/newsroom/media-releases/recent-media-releases/provider-connect-australia-helping-healthcare-providers-stay-connected

This system is the child of a system announced almost a year ago:

Digital assistant improves secure transfer of patient information

Monday, 13 July, 2020

In a world where consumers can no longer be a conduit for delivering a referral letter or test result to another provider, and where postal services are over capacity, an up-to-date electronic registry is essential.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how important technology is to allow healthcare providers to communicate with each other securely and immediately, but out-of-date contact details pose as a spanner in the works. If information regarding healthcare services or practitioners is incorrect, medical documents and information cannot be sent from one healthcare provider to another.

To solve this problem, the Australian Digital Health Agency has built a Service Registration Assistant (SRA) that keeps healthcare service and practitioner information up to date, with changes to contact details available immediately to authorised users.

Healthcare organisations can update their details in the SRA, prompting automatic send out to all organisations they have authorised to receive their information. This might include hospitals, pathology and radiology services, public service directories, secure messaging providers and more.

The SRA avoids the need for an organisation to update their information in multiple places and eliminates the need for hundreds of other directories around the country to manually keep their directories up to date.

“Not only will this innovation bring about efficiencies for practice support staff who will only have to update changes in practice information once, it will increase confidence at the point of care that all of the incoming information about our patients will be there, and that our outgoing address book is complete and up to date,” GP and Agency Clinical Reference Lead Dr Steve Hambleton said.

Initial results from a trial of the SRA in Northern NSW have shown significant improvements in communications between healthcare providers. To date, of 187 practitioners who participated in the trial and shared their details with the Northern NSW Local Health District (NNSWLHD), 186 had to change or update their details during the trial period.

For the NNSWLHD, having the most up-to-date contact information is essential to ensuring hospital discharge summaries get to the right person as quickly as possible.

Discharge summaries can include information about a patient’s assessment, treatment plan and progress notes from their hospital clinician, and a digital copy is sent via a secure service to the patient’s nominated GP. This helps the GP to continue post-hospital care through follow-up appointments.

Australian Digital Health Agency Interim CEO Bettina McMahon said maintaining accurate provider address details was a longstanding challenge across the Australian healthcare sector.

“What is great to see is that the necessary, reliable and timely sharing of patients’ healthcare information between their healthcare providers is being improved by this latest feature of Australia’s digital health system,” she said.

“Healthcare providers all over Australia are enthusiastically using digital health so we want to make things as easy and efficient for them as possible. This tool will bring the benefits of digital health to more Australians.”

The trial is a partnership between the Agency, the NNSWLHD and the North Coast Primary Health Network (NCPHN).

NCPHN CEO Julie Sturgess said, “The opportunity to trial the SRA means local healthcare providers are able to be at the forefront of innovation in digital health to drive better patient outcomes. The results from the trial are really positive and we are keen to continue to work with the Agency on the next phase of the trial.”

NNSWLHD Chief Executive Wayne Jones said, “We’re always looking at ways to improve the experience of patients in our care, and this system will help support the safe transfer of care of our patients from hospital to their GP.”

Australian Association of Practice Managers CEO Nicholas Voudouris said, “Practice managers play a key role in ensuring a patient’s healthcare providers — wherever they work and whoever they work for — have accurate and timely clinical information. That is why we welcomed this trial of new technology.”

After the completion of the trial, the SRA will be expanded to provide a better-connected healthcare system, improve the transfer of care between healthcare providers and give healthcare providers more timely and complete information to support the care of their patients.

The secure messaging process

Discharge summaries and other healthcare documents are transmitted using special-purpose secure messaging services. Unlike regular email, the messages are encrypted to ensure the confidentiality of the message and must be sent to a special ‘secure message’ address.

To successfully send a discharge summary, both NNSWLHD and the secure messaging service providers need accurate and up-to-date information about the GP, so they know where to deliver the secure message. However, when a GP joins or leaves a practice, there are many government and non-government services that need to be advised through a myriad of paper and online registration processes. In turn, all those organisations need to update their internal address lists. The SRA solves this problem.

Here is the link:

https://www.hospitalhealth.com.au/content/technology/article/digital-assistant-improves-secure-transfer-of-patient-information-1530465839

There is coverage of the initiative here:

1 July 2021

Provider connection project would save practices a bomb

ADHA

By Jeremy Knibbs

When I first read about the latest iteration of Australian Digital Health Agency’s Provider Connect Australia (PCA) project, I was actually impressed.

It appeared that the agency had iterated its way out of a deep bog (the project is a reboot of a much older project with a different main goal that was probably never achievable) and onto a path that that is a practical and meaningful solution to a problem that every practice manager in the country is hugely frustrated with: all the paperwork that has to be processed, digitally and otherwise, when a new health professional starts in your practice, or one leaves.

What if you had to fill out just one digital form when a new doctor started at your practice, rather than the 15 or so you currently have to fill out and send to 15 different service providers? Even better, what if your patient management system, which captures nearly all the same information, was integrated to the PCA, so that once you’ve entered your new doctor information your PMS, you have very little left to do to finish your normally cumbersome sign-on paperwork job? And what if the system did a whole lot of validity checks on your data which helps protect your practice, and the system?

From a practice manager’s perspective, that’s the current main goal of the PCA project being run by the ADHA: to capture all the important data of a new starter just once and feed it all via this connection service to all the important providers that doctor and your practice will need to interact with (Medicare, Veterans Affairs, Indemnity Insurers, Workcover, Accident cover, secure messaging providers, booking engines, any number of doctor sub directories and so on).

The agency says it has completed it’s “proof of concept” phase with North Coast Primary Health Network and the Northern NSW Local Health District and that it is now ready to move to a more operational phase over the coming year. It estimates it could be starting to onboard providers as early as October.

There are pages more of information here:

https://wildhealth.net.au/provider-connection-project-would-save-practices-a-bomb/

There is also coverage here:

https://www.healthcareit.com.au/article/australia-rolling-out-online-healthcare-provider-directory

To me, as far as I can understand, the whole system is about being able to change the contact details of a practice and have all those services which are connected to that practice all updated. So that means pathology providers, specialists and hospitals and the like can provide their reports, discharge summaries and the like to the correct practice recipient.

This is clearly an attempt to provide what amounts to the correct secure messaging “end point” to allow a secure messaging flow to operate – presumably bi-directionally.

In the past Secure Messaging Providers have typically provided an address book with a look-up facility so the GP, say, can look up the local path practice, find the right address and send a test request electronically and have the results returned in similar fashion. Sadly, at this stage, each messaging provider has their own service directory which can mean the need to look up – and maintain information on – multiple directories / providers. (Telstra, Medical Objects, HealthLink etc.) A while ago I seem to recall HealthDirect was hoping to provide a national end point location service but I am not sure where that is at – if anywhere. (Anyone know?)

Clearly what the ADHA are wanting to create is one national connection system with presumably needs just one look-up to send a request etc.

Given it has taken a year from the SRA trial till this announcement I am not expecting a rapid movement from the status quo to the desired future state and I really suspect this might turn out to take longer and be more complex than is presently envisaged.

I do wonder it the PCA system intended to be the national ‘end point location service’ we need?

How much confidence do you have that the implementation of Provider Connect will be smooth / reasonably prompt and actually work at scale?

David.

 

AusHealthIT Poll Number 586 – Results – 4th July, 2021.

Here are the results of the poll.

Which Country Has Made The Most Progress In Digital Health Over The Last Decade?

Australia 3% (2)

New Zealand 51% (34)

They Are About Equal 31% (21)

I Have No Idea 15% (10)

Total votes: 67

By a nose we see NZ doing better than OZ and certainly not ahead despite what the ADHA might claim.

Any insights on the poll are welcome, as a comment, as usual!

A fair number of votes with a pretty equal outcome!  

It must also have been a hard question as 10/67 readers were not sure how to respond.

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

David.