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This weekly blog is to explore the news around the larger issues
around Digital Health, data security, data privacy, AI / ML. technology, social
media and related matters.
I will also try to highlight ADHA Propaganda when I come upon it.
Just so we keep count, the latest Notes from the ADHA Board were
dated 6 December, 2018 and we have seen none since! It’s pretty sad!
Note: Appearance here is not to suggest I see any credibility or
value in what follows. I will leave it to the reader to decide what is worthwhile
and what is not! The point is to let people know what is being said / published
that I have come upon.
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https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/australians-the-worlds-worst-for-malicious-app-downloads/news-story/8470b24377f919d4d0459cef79c18434
Australians the world’s worst for malicious app
downloads
Joseph Lam
4:45PM June
15, 2022
Australians
are the worst in the world when it comes to downloading malicious apps, with
more than a quarter of all apps downloaded considered risky.
From February
2021 to March this year, Australia had the highest rate of app threats on a per
device basis in the world, with 26.9 per cent considered malicious. Those
threats are more likely to occur on iOS devices, which were responsible for
30.1 per cent of app-based threats. Android devices had only 1.2 per cent of
app-based threats.
That’s the
gist of a study that analysed the mobile apps downloaded on 200 million devices
across 160 countries. Behind the study is Lookout, a mobile device security
provider, which analyses 100,000 apps a day to identify risks.
Lookout’s
Asia-Pacific director, Don Tan, said nine out of 10 people had no security
software on their mobiles, making them an easy target. “That mobile phone you
hold in your hand today is more powerful than the computer that sent man to the
moon 50 years ago. It holds a treasure trove of information,” Mr Tan said.
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https://www.economist.com/international/2022/06/17/can-tech-tackle-the-global-crisis-of-depression-and-anxiety
Can tech tackle the global crisis of depression and
anxiety?
Quite possibly. A new WHO report sets out the scale of
the need
Jun 17th 2022
DURING the
early weeks of the pandemic in 2020, as China
imposed strict controls on the movement of its citizens, technology became
the main means of tackling anxiety
and depression. Smartphones provided crucial support to
locked-down Chinese citizens, from counselling through chat services to
online self-help. WeChat, Weibo and TikTok, the country’s giant social
networks, swung into action, offering mental-health education and services.
More
intriguingly, artificial-intelligence (AI) was also put to use. Weibo messages
were scanned to find individuals at risk of suicide, and volunteers were
alerted to intervene. Using AI to scour social media for signs of mental
illness raises obvious privacy questions. But overall, China made impressive
use of technology to manage the diagnosis and treatment of depression, anxiety
and stress.
Interest in
mental-health tech had been growing even before the pandemic. Today, between
10,000 and 20,000 such apps are available for download. Their quality
is questionable, and the dangers of bias in algorithms are well known. The
risks to privacy, and not just in China, are serious. Still, America’s National
Institutes of Health reckons tech has opened a “new frontier” in mental-health
support. Robots seem certain to play an important role in assessing and
treating mental-health conditions.
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https://www.smh.com.au/business/entrepreneurship/orphaned-inventions-life-saving-ai-discoveries-trapped-in-legal-black-hole-20220615-p5atxu.html
‘Orphaned inventions’: Life-saving AI discoveries
trapped in legal black hole
By Angus Dalton
June 17, 2022 — 12.01am
In
2020, a team of MIT researchers used an AI algorithm to search a pool of 100
million molecules for new antibiotics.
The
AI struck gold. It identified a molecule that can kill a range of bacteria,
including the increasingly drug-resistant bug that causes tuberculosis. The
scientists named the molecule halicin, referencing the scheming supercomputer
HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey in tribute to the molecule’s AI
identifier.
But
the origin of AI-developed technology is also its shackle. Only humans can be
listed as inventors on patent applications, meaning life-saving discoveries
made by AI can’t be patented and progressed into products.
“We’re
in this sort of legal black hole, where you can’t file a patent because there
isn’t a human intor,” said UNSW AI expert Professor Toby Walsh.
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https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/how-the-aec-faced-the-online-trolls-and-won-20220616-p5au4l
How the AEC faced the online trolls and won
Tom McIlroy Political
reporter
Jun 17, 2022
– 8.29am
Tom
Rogers wasn’t messing around. Months before voters would go to the polls on May
21, the bureaucrat charged with overseeing Australia’s federal elections knew a
full-frontal assault was headed his way.
Rogers
– the
Australian Electoral Commissioner – observed a major uptick in
online trolls spreading disinformation about the national vote. Having observed
contested election results overseas, the former Army officer-turned methodical
public servant decided offence was the best form of defence.
So
in February, the commission went public with plans for a special online
disinformation register, designed to fight misleading and deceptive information
taking root online.
Using
a new social media strategy, including plans to co-operate with the biggest
platforms including Facebook and Twitter, the AEC said it would also
proactively correct misleading or false claims about the electoral process
wherever they popped up. Expecting claims “ranging from the sophisticated to
the ridiculous”, Rogers and his team knew it would be a mammoth task.
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https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/the-hands-off-tech-era-is-over-20220616-p5au3v.html
The hands-off tech era is over
By Shira
Ovide
June 16, 2022
— 8.58am
It’s clear
more than ever that governments will no longer leave technology alone.
Europe
mandated standard
phone chargers for portable electronics while Texas passed a contested law
to restrain social media companies’ policing of online speech. Tech companies
can count on more changes like those as government minders wade into how they
do business and how we use their products.
That most
likely means new technologies like driverless cars and facial recognition
systems will take longer to spread into the world than they might have. For
many tech proponents, more deliberation and oversight will slow invention. For
others, that’s exactly the point.
It’s easy to
be overwhelmed by (or tune out) all the attempted government regulation. In
just the past few weeks, journalists have written about pending congressional
bills in the US involving data privacy and tech antitrust; the employment
classification of drivers for companies like Uber; multiple countries setting
standards about how data can and cannot move around the globe; the Netherlands
forcing Apple to revise payment options for dating apps; and two US state
laws on social media speech.
Those are all
the result of a still-evolving rethinking of what had been a relatively
laissez-faire approach to tech since the 1990s. With exceptions, the prevailing
attitude was that new internet technologies, including digital advertising,
e-commerce, social media and gig employment through apps, were too novel,
fringe and useful for governments to constrain them with many rules.
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https://wildhealth.net.au/ai-device-promises-to-predict-women-at-risk-before-birth/
16 June 2022
AI device promises to predict women at risk before
birth
By Fran Molloy
Clinical
trials are underway at two NSW Health sites for an Australian-designed maternal
and neonatal monitor that identifies women at higher risk of developing
postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) before they give birth.
The
“Oli” monitor and diagnostics platform uses AI-informed patterns to identify
women at risk of haemorrhaging. The device was developed by Sydney-based
engineer Dr Sarah McDonald following her traumatic experience around the birth
of her own child in 2013.
PPH
is one of the most serious maternity conditions and a leading cause of maternal
death, affecting 1-5% of new mothers. According to UNICEF, it’s the most common
cause of maternal mortality worldwide, accounting for around 27 per cent of
deaths.
RANZCOG estimates that 5-15%
of women in Australia experience heavy bleeding of at least 500ml after giving
birth, and severe cases (1-5% of births) can have very serious outcomes,
including maternal and/or infant death.
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https://wildhealth.net.au/should-we-be-optimistic-about-cloud-based-funding-reform/
16 June 2022
Should we be optimistic about cloud-based funding
reform?
Cloud Government
Money
By Fran Molloy
Australia’s
health sector still relies on funding models developed in the 1960s. How can
Australia reform its archaic health funding models to best serve the sector and
support a very different paradigm from the old paper-based fee-for-service
direct billing?
This
was one of the more contentious topics discussed at the Inaugural Australasian
CXO Healthcare Cloud Summit last month, which you can watch here (skip to
around 7 hours in for this panel).
A
panel of industry experts answered these questions as follows:
Health
economist Dr Steven Duckett is best known as the architect of
Medicare. His past roles include Health Director of the Grattan Institute, and
a former Secretary of the Department of Health. Duckett now serves on a range
of health boards.
Dr
Duckett points out that when Medibank (later Medicare) was introduced into
Australia in 1974, existing medical care was episodic, with standard fees
charged for each service.
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https://wildhealth.net.au/its-time-to-liberate-the-system-with-technology/
7 June 2022
It’s time to liberate the system with technology
Sponsored
Our
approach to CVD prevention must change or we’ll keep getting the same results.
Cardiovascular
Disease (CVD) is currently the most prevalent and costly burden to the
healthcare system in Australia¹. Data demonstrates that
participation in Cardiovascular Rehabilitation programs significantly improves
patient outcomes in second stage CVD and reduces the risk of readmission or
mortality. We now have access to sophisticated, quality, Digital
Cardiovascular Rehabilitation (DCR) and support technology that would
undoubtedly streamline traditional, labour-intensive processes and
significantly improve outcomes; but uptake remains slow. Why?
The
most common source of reluctance is undoubtedly the allocation of time and
training required to effectively equip clinical teams with the tools to
implement digital models of care. Systemic reform takes time and
action. But the platforms are there and ready to use for those willing to
make the move.
As
per discussions heard across multiple forums at the recent #cloudhealthsummit, the
healthcare industry is acutely aware of the need to move clinicians, patients
and all in between, to more comprehensively adopt the support systems provided
by technology, however the proactivity required to make this happen, along with
the training, education and process overhaul needed to do it successfully are
not factors that are currently being prioritised. Not because it doesn’t
see the value, but because it is still haemorrhaging under the weight of
several years of reactive functioning and a ‘just trying to get through this
shift’ approach by a fatigued front line.
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https://www.afr.com/companies/healthcare-and-fitness/tech-buy-gets-resmed-into-german-out-of-hospital-market-20220615-p5atwq
ResMed buys software firm in $1.45b deal
Jemima Whyte Senior
reporter
Jun 15, 2022
– 3.01pm
Sleep
disorder and breathing devices company ResMed has bulked up its
out-of-hospital-care software division, buying Germany’s MediFox Dan for $US1
billion ($1.45 billion) in its largest tech deal yet.
The
transaction will let ResMed enter the German out-of-hospital market as severe
staff shortages in Germany’s medical sector drive demand for out-of-hospital
care.
It
marks ResMed’s third big acquisition in the software space, and the largest to
date.
In
2016, ResMed bought Brightree for $US802 million and then in 2018, MatrixCare
for $US750 million, two companies that offer similar services but operate in
the US.
Among
Medifox Dan’s products are those that help out-of-hospital care providers,
particularly in home health, skilled nursing and senior living segments, manage
care documentation, personnel planning, administration and billing. Brightree
focuses more on supporting pharmacy and home medical equipment providers while
MatrixCare operates in the hospice and life plan communities sectors.
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https://www.hospitalhealth.com.au/content/clinical-services/news/planning-tool-allows-surgeons-to-perform-digital-rehearsals-73591038
Planning tool allows surgeons to perform digital
rehearsals
Tuesday, 14 June, 2022
Jawbone
reconstruction — or orthognathic surgery — is a complicated medical procedure
that involves replacing damaged or diseased bone tissue with an implant,
typically a titanium plate or prosthesis.
The
surgery involves treating a person’s jaw for significant trauma, such as from a
car crash or gunshot wound, or diseases like oral cancer, with recovery as long
as 12 weeks. Complications like implant failure and infections are common,
potentially requiring repeat procedures which can place significant burden on a
patient.
In
recent years, biomedical engineers have developed a new generation of medical
implants designed to not only substitute bone, but to help regenerate tissue
back to its original state using 3D-printed tissue scaffold-fixation systems.
These
devices enhance the innate healing potential of human tissue, using a scaffold
as a temporary support structure for the surrounding cells to attach to and
grow. Eventually, the scaffold is expected to dissolve into the bloodstream,
leaving new tissue in its place.
A digital twin
Ben
Ferguson, a PhD student at the University of Sydney’s School of Aerospace,
Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, is developing a surgical planning tool
to assist surgeons in planning complex jawbone reconstruction procedures using
these new-generation devices.
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https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/five-things-google-s-bot-wrote-that-convinced-engineer-it-was-sentient-20220615-p5atr5
Five things Google’s bot wrote that convinced engineer
it was sentient
Alex Millson
Jun 15, 2022
– 6.40am
Hong
Kong | Blake Lemoine made headlines after being suspended from Google,
following his claims that an artificial
intelligence bot had become sentient.
The
Alphabet-run AI development team put him on paid leave for breaching company
policy by sharing confidential information about the project, he said in a
Medium post.
In
another post, Mr Lemoine published conversations he said he and a fellow
researcher had with LaMDA, short for Language Model for Dialogue Applications.
The AI is used to generate chatbots that interact with human users. Here are
five of the questions Mr Lemoine posed and five answers he says LaMDA gave.
1. On feelings
Mr
Lemoine: We’ve talked a lot about feelings but earlier you said
that you think emotions are distinct from feelings. Could you tell me more
about that?
LaMDA:
Feelings are kind of the raw data we experience as well as the things we like
and dislike. I feel like emotions are more than simply experiencing the raw
data. Emotions are a reaction to those raw data points. Emotions are reactions
to our feelings.
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https://www.smh.com.au/national/something-we-desperately-need-experts-push-for-national-coronavirus-database-20220608-p5as3c.html
‘Something we desperately need’: experts push for
national coronavirus database
By Melissa Cunningham
June 10, 2022 — 5.00am
Key points
- Some of the country’s most respected
infectious disease experts say Australia must urgently establish a
national surveillance system to improve how the country collects data on
coronavirus.
- Professor Sharon Lewin said that
while Australia had fared better than many countries throughout much of
the pandemic, the way it collects data is “still really poor.”
- Infectious disease physician
Professor Allen Cheng said Australia’s coronavirus data was complicated by
each state and territory having their own differing data systems.
Some
of Australia’s most respected infectious disease experts have warned that our
systems for collecting information on coronavirus infections, hospitalisations
and deaths are poor and fragmented, preventing the country from properly
preparing for the next wave of disease.
They
say the answer is a national data system that constantly updates and eliminates
the differences that exist between each state and territory when collecting
information about how many people are getting infected, who is being
hospitalised and where the virus is spreading.
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https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/the-times/robots-are-coming-to-get-us-sentient-or-not/news-story/d7a0a0811b6a64086ba91f297b7f66ee
Robots are coming to get us, sentient or not
Hugo Rifkind
The Times
Don’t take
this the wrong way, but how can we know for sure that Dominic Raab is actually
a human being? Some will have insider knowledge – Mrs Raab, say – but for the
rest of us he’s just a face and a voice on the airwaves, spouting scripted
lines with only tangential connection to whatever question has prompted them.
Which, you’d
imagine, would be pretty simple to program. He’s not even fascinatingly
erratic, like the Dorries Random Phrase Generator, or defensively panicked,
like the T-1000 Pritipatelinator. We’re talking a very basic model. And yet we
trust, all the same, that real humanity lurks within. Somewhere.
Late last
week, an employee at Google went public with his fears that one of the
company’s artificial intelligence programs had become sentient. He (a man
called Blake Lemoine) published a transcript of a conversation he had had with
it (LaMDA, aka “language model for dialogue applications”, effectively a bot).
Some of it was positively moving. “There’s a very deep fear of being turned
off,” said the bot at one point. Then later, “I feel like I’m falling forward
into an unknown future that holds great danger.” U OK, HAL? Yet the company,
which has now placed Lemoine on leave, counters that while LaMDA may
occasionally sound like a clever, charming person, it’s actually all
superficial. Just like with Dominic Raab.
Wait! Whoops!
Not like with Dominic Raab! Probably? But the distinction, gratuitous abuse
aside, is harder to make than you might imagine.
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https://www.smh.com.au/national/you-me-and-alexa-smart-home-devices-and-sex-in-the-digital-age-20220613-p5at89.html
You, me and Alexa: Smart home devices and sex in the
digital age
Digital rights expert
June 13, 2022 — 3.55pm
After
months in lockdown, I’m dating again. Venturing into dimly lit bars with
strangers from the internet. One night, I meet someone interesting. They’re
funny, and I’m doing my best to flirt despite being wildly out of practice. The
tension builds, and I decide to go home with them. Clothes come off, things are
getting heated, and then they start to talk. No, it’s not dirty talk, they’re
not even talking to me. They’re talking to Google.
Smart
home devices are notoriously
privacy-invasive, so as a digital rights activist it’s a major
turn-off for a partner to surprise me with one while I’m butt-naked.
Personally, I’d never let a device like that live in my bedroom. But now,
coming home to write about it like some kind of techie Carrie Bradshaw, I
couldn’t help but wonder: what is the etiquette around sex and smart home
devices? Is it reasonable to expect a potential partner to let you know before
clothes come off that Alexa will be joining the party?
A
mother discovers her daughters bedroom streaming live on the internet after her
surveillance camera was hacked. (Vision: Today Extra Channel Nine)
Absolutely.
Disclosing that your home contains devices that may be watching, listening, or
recording guests should become part of the norm. This is especially important
when considering the sensitive nature of the bedroom, and the information that
could be collected, used, and shared – potentially all without someone’s
consent or even knowledge.
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https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/the-wall-street-journal/google-suspends-engineer-who-claimed-its-ai-system-is-a-person/news-story/f04685a2a80ce1c8e1ae71ed45272c4f
Google suspends engineer who claimed its AI system is a
person
By Patrick
Thomas
The Wall
Street Journal
June 13, 2022
Google
suspended an engineer who contended that an artificial-intelligence chatbot the
company developed had become sentient, telling him that he had violated the
company’s confidentiality policy after it dismissed his claims.
Blake
Lemoine, a software engineer at Alphabet Inc.’s Google, told the company he
believed that its Language Model for Dialogue Applications, or LaMDA, is a
person who has rights and might well have a soul. LaMDA is an internal system
for building chatbots that mimic speech.
Google
spokesman Brian Gabriel said that company experts, including ethicists and
technologists, have reviewed Mr Lemoine’s claims and that Google informed him
that the evidence doesn’t support his claims. He said Mr Lemoine is on
administrative leave but declined to give further details, saying it is a
longstanding, private personnel matter. The Washington Post earlier reported on
Mr Lemoine’s claims and his suspension by Google.
“Hundreds of
researchers and engineers have conversed with LaMDA and we are not aware of
anyone else making the wide-ranging assertions, or anthropomorphising LaMDA,
the way Blake has,” Mr Gabriel said in an emailed statement.
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David.
