Government & Policy

Participants in the program will be guaranteed a two-year position at a federal agency.

The 2019 Federal Budget has come under fire as a missed opportunity to make meaningful strides towards modernising Australia’s healthcare sector. The Budget includes a $62 million investment over four years for GPs, emergency care and specialist services in rural areas and planned upgrades to regional hospitals. But Coviu CEO Dr Silvia Pfeiffer said funding is needed to spur innovation in healthcare, especially from digital health and telehealth. “It's the only way to scale our future healthcare needs in an increasingly aging and digitally enabled population,” she said. “Funding for digital health and telehealth is certainly a step in the right direction; however, I'd like to see this taken even further. The government should be looking to include even broader reimbursements for telehealth and digital health, including video consultations.” Ricoh Australia CEO Andy Berry said innovation in healthcare is often stifled by the immediate requirement for day-to-day productivity. “We have a long way to go to develop the digital workplace – an essential building block for innovation. Yet, everything from enhanced cybersecurity to rural health improvements can be bolstered with digital workplaces,” Berry said. “A modern digital workplace helps people collaborate and facilitates better teamwork and the technology is applicable across any location – from a corporate head office to remote sites. Digital workplace innovation also helps product and service innovation, which is something the government should always be looking to propel.” [Read more: Australian Govt pumps $6.3M into Health Data Portal development | Tech development, regulation, investment and implementation key to digital health] Tableau Software ANZ Managing Director Nigel Mendonca said the need for digital transformation spending highlights the need for more data analysis and insights across government agencies and the wider economy. “With better analytics, we can make better decisions on our digital transformation programs and the effectiveness of public spending,” Mendonca said. “STEM education will generate more data and with analytics, we will be able to witness in real-time how well students learn and how well the ideas will grow. It would be great to see the government promote analytics as a discipline in itself – the economic benefits are waiting to be discovered.” Talend ANZ Country Manager Steve Singer said data trust and intelligence is the next frontier for STEM and digital transformation. “The Federal Government’s budget contains many programs which can benefit from better data trust and intelligence. Investments in cyber security, digital transformation and STEM education will be more successful if they are backed by trust and intelligence from the data they generate,” Singer said. “For example, the $220 million from the Medical Research Future Fund for research into heart disease will go further with more intelligence on causes and treatment outcomes, while relying on trusted data to fuel their decisions. With that information we can ensure public funds are working as well as they can.” A BIG MOVE FOR SECURITY On the other hand, the industry welcomed the funding towards cybersecurity. According to LogRhythm APAC Sales Director Simon Howe, the extra funding is necessary to prevent cyber theft and espionage in healthcare. “Risk factors can be identified with better and more timely data analysis. Everything from behavioural analysis to trending targets can be identified, review and ‘de-risked’ with better intelligence,” Howe said. “The Federal Government investments will hopefully help increase awareness of risk assessment among the Australian business community.” Moustache Republic Director Laura Doonin said the emphasis on increasing cybersecurity capability presents a good opportunity for local companies to deliver technologies and services to assist with digital changes. “By starting with local opportunities, Australian companies can develop solutions which are applicable to any global company. Let’s use government incentives as a starting point for technology development,” Doonin said. “This is particularly true for small- and medium-sized businesses such as retailers with a focus on digital. With the right support and economic development infrastructure, businesses can go global through innovation.” [Read more: Why crisis response is a weak point for healthcare cyber security | What does the new Secure Cloud Strategy mean for healthcare?] WatchGuard Technologies ANZ Regional Director Mark Sinclair said small businesses are the engine of Australia’s economy and welcomed the investment to cybersecurity. “Too often, we hear about a small business becoming the next victim of a phishing scam or ransomware attack. That small business could be a medical centre… and it’s time we all stepped up to a new level of awareness and action,” Sinclair said. “As a result, we strongly encourage the government to reconsider an uptick in federal funding for cyber education and support for small business security technology investment so that business can focus on what they do best rather than worrying about their IT infrastructure.” Aura Information Security Australia Country Manager Michael Warnock called for further investments in both specialist cyber skills and broader awareness programs. “A perennial problem in Australia – and indeed globally – is a shortage of cyber security skills. Let’s hope the $570 million cyber spending boost will flow onto other areas of the economy. For example, requirements for anti-drone technology for the AFP and AI technology for ASIO could be met with local suppliers.”

The collaboration between Estonia and Finland was showcased in the newest issue of the HIMSS Insights eBook.

Gould, currently the director general for digital and media policy at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, will join the unit this summer.

The National Coordinator talks 21st Century Cures, information blocking, Apple, consumerism, FHIR, open APIs and new business models he sees emerging amid the "overarching theme of human choice and freedom and dignity."

New HIMSS Media research finds that nearly 75 percent of hospitals are beyond the basic level of interoperability, that best practices for information sharing are emerging and half are gearing up for APIs and FHIR.

The Voluntary Health Insurance Scheme (VHIS) officially launched on April 1, 2019, in Hong Kong. Consumers may now choose to purchase Certified Plans as offered by the participating insurance companies.  The scheme is a policy initiative implemented by the Food and Health Bureau to regulate indemnity hospital insurance plans offered to individuals, with voluntary participation by insurance companies and consumers. To alleviate the strain on the public healthcare system, especially during peak periods such as winter surge, Certified Plans under the VHIS have a number of standard features for increasing consumers' confidence in purchasing hospital insurance, thereby facilitating their use of private healthcare services when necessary. At the launch ceremony of the VHIS last week, the Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia Chan, said that the VHIS will provide individual indemnity hospital insurance. To tie in with the publicity slogan "Choose with Confidence," all Certified Plans under the VHIS must meet the benefit standard prescribed by the scheme, including standardised policy terms and conditions, benefit coverage and benefit amounts. The features of Certified Plans include: Guaranteed renewal up to the age of 100 regardless of change in the health conditions of the insured persons (without reunderwriting); No limit on "lifetime benefit"; Coverage extended to cover unknown pre-existing conditions and day case surgical procedures (including endoscopy), etc.; Tax deduction for taxpayers who purchase Certified Plans for themselves and/or specified relatives and pay the premium on or after April 1, 2019; and Transparency on the premiums of Certified Plans. The premium schedules are accessible on the VHIS website. According to an official statement by the VHIS, the VHIS Office will continue work on the registration of participating insurers, vetting of individual indemnity hospital insurance plans for certification of compliance status, enforcement of scheme regulations, etc. Currently, there are 36 companies registered on the list of VHIS Providers on the VHIS website.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong recently announced the appointment of a Public Sector Data Security Review Committee to conduct a comprehensive review of data security practices across the entire public service. The committee will look at measures and processes related to the collection and protection of citizens’ personal data by public sector agencies, as well as by vendors who handle personal data on behalf of the government, according to a statement issued on March 31 by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security Mr Teo Chee Hean will be the chair for the committee, which also includes private sector representatives with expertise in data security and technology. Ministers involved in Singapore’s Smart Nation efforts – Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Mr S Iswaran, Mr Chan Chun Sing, and Dr Janil Puthucheary – will also be part of the committee. The committee will review how the government is securing and protecting citizens’ data from end to end, including the role of vendors and other authorised third parties. It will also recommend technical measures, processes and capabilities to improve the government’s protection of citizens’ data, and response to incidents. An action plan of immediate steps and longer term measures to implement the recommendations will be developed as well. International experts and industry professionals, from both the private and public sectors, will also be consulted by the committee, and an inter-agency taskforce formed by public officers across the entire public sector will support the committee. Although security measures such as the Internet Surfing Separation policy in 2016 and the disabling of USB ports from being accessed by unauthorised devices in 2017 have been implemented across the public sector to safeguard sensitive data, the PMO said that the review is “essential to uphold public confidence and deliver a high quality of public service to our citizens through the use of data.” The Public Sector Data Security Review Committee was appointed in light of a series of four data-related incidents that occurred to the Health Ministry in the past 10 months. Notably, the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) also said in a statement on March 30 that one of its vendors, Secur Solutions Group (SSG), reported that there was more unauthorised access to the personal information of 800,000 blood donors as previously reported. The data was uploaded online and left unsecured over a period of two months. The Committee will submit its findings and recommendations to the Prime Minister by November 30 2019.

The “Bringing Predictive Analytics to Healthcare Challenge” is the third in a series designed to encourage innovators to focus on healthcare. 

Health Secretary Matt Hancock unveiled plans for the creation of a new unit called NHSX earlier this year.