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."

Wednesday, February 04, 2015

This Is Almost Certainly One Of the Most Important Announcement For E-Health Globally In 2015..

This announcement appeared late last week:

ONC calls for interoperability by 2017

Posted on Jan 30, 2015
By Bernie Monegain, Editor-at-Large
The Office of the National Coordinator released this morning a draft roadmap, along with proposed actions to take in order to achieve interoperability and a learning healthcare system in the next two years.
The document, Connecting Health and Care for the Nation: A Shared Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap Draft Version 1.0 outlines steps "that will enable a majority of individuals and providers across the care continuum to send, receive, find and use a common set of electronic clinical information at the nationwide level by the end of 2017."
The "time has come for us to be more explicit about standards," said ONC Chief Karen DeSalvo, MD, in a Jan. 30 press call detailing the roadmap, a 150-page plus document addressing everything from governance, standards and certification to privacy and security. "Health IT that facilitates the secure, efficient and effective sharing and use of electronic health information when and where it is needed is essential to better care, smarter spending and a healthier nation," DeSalvo said.
ONC is accepting public comments and key commitments on the draft Roadmap for approximately 60 days, which will end at 5 p.m. ET on April 3, 2015.
In her letter at the start of the roadmap, DeSalvo emphasizes that several action steps will be needed on the road to interoperability. The works, she writes, will occur along three critical pathways:
  1. Requiring standards;
  2. Motivating the use of those standards through appropriate incentives; and
  3. Creating a trusted environment for the collecting, sharing and using of electronic health information
Lots more here:
Here is the direct link:
These couple of pages provide an idea of the scope of what is being addressed.

Appendix H: Priority Interoperability Use Cases

A use case is a descriptive statement that defines a scope (or boundary), interactions (or relationships) and specific roles played by actors (or stakeholders) to achieve a goal. The methodology is commonly  used to support the identification of requirements and is a simple way to describe the functionalities or needs of an organization
The following is a list of the priority use cases for nationwide interoperability  most commonly submitted  to ONC  by public and private  stakeholder s prior to release of the draft  Roadmap.
Coordinated  governance processes should help refine and prioritize this list to then prioritize development of  technical standards, policies and implementation specifications.
1. Public health agencies routinely use data derived from standards based connections with HIEs and EHRs and uses it to plan investments in public health activities.
2. Clinical settings and public health are connected through bi-directional interfaces that enable seamless reporting to public health departments and seamless feedback and decision support from public health to clinical providers.
3. The status of transitions of care should be available to sending and receiving providers to enable effective transitions and closure of all referral loops.
4. Federal, State, provider and consumer use of standardized and interoperable patient assessment data to facilitate coordinated care and improved outcomes.
5. Population health measurement is supported at the community level and includes data from all relevant sources on each patient in the population and is accessible to providers and other stakeholders focused on improving health.
6. Providers and their support staff should be able to track all orders, including those leaving their own organization and EHR, to completion.
7. Individuals integrate data from their health records into mobile apps and tools that enable them to better set and meet their own health goals.
8. CEHRT should be required to provide standardized data export and import capabilities to enable providers to change software vendors.
9. Providers should be alerted or have access to notifications that their attributed patients have had an ER visit, or an admission to or discharge from a hospital.
10. Quality measures are based on complete patient data across multiple sources.
11. Narrative components of the medical record are preserved for provider and patient use and augmented with metadata to enable effective storage, routing and searching for these  documents.
12. Providers are able to access x-rays and other images in addition to the reports on patients they are treating, re gardless of where the films were taken or housed.
13. Providers and patients have access to genomics testing and data which, when combined with clinical information about patient goals allows the personalization of care and therapies.
14. Patients routinely engage in healthcare encounters using electronic communications such as eVisits and telemedicine.
15. Researchers are able to use de-identified clinical and claims data from multiple sources with robust identity integrity.
16. Patients are routinely offered participation in clinical trials that are relevant to their particular needs and situation.
17. Patients receive alerts and reminders for preventive screenings, care and medication regimens  in a manner convenient to and configurable by the patient
18. Patients have the ability to access their holistic longitudinal health record when and where needed.
19. Patients audit their medical records, providing amendments and corrections and supplying  missing data such as health outcomes.
20. Patients, families and caregivers are able to use  their personal devices such as smartphones,  home BP cuffs, glucometers and scales to routinely contribute data to their longitudinal health  records and use it or make it available to providers to support decision -making.
21. Patients have access to and can  conveniently manage all relevant consents to access or use their data.
22. Those who pay for care use standardized transactions and interoperability to acquire data needed to justify payment
23. Payers should be able to receive notification automatically though the health IT system when a  beneficiary is admitted to the hospital.
24. Benefits communication needs to be standardized and made available on all plans through HIT  to providers and patients as they make health and healthcare decisions, in a workflow  convenient to the decision -making process.
25. Payer/purchaser requirements for payment, such as prior authorization, are clear to the  provider at time of order and transacted electronically and timely to support efficient care delivery.
26. All providers in a care team will have unique access, authorization and auditing functionality  from  health IT systems necessary to fulfill their role on the care team.
27. Data for disease surveillance, immunization tracking and other public health reporting are  exchanged automatically.
28. All health IT should provide access and support for disabled users including patients and providers.
29. Query based exchange should support impromptu patient visits in all settings.
30. Community systems electronically track and report shared risk pool data measures in support of payment reform and delivery
31. Payers use integrated data from clinical and administrative sources to determine  reimbursement in support of payment reform
32. Individuals are identified to participate in research opportunities through health data  interoperability
33. Providers have the ability to query data from other sources in support of care coordination (patient generated, other providers, etc.) regardless of geography or what network it resides in
34.Providers use genomic data to achieve personalized care 164
35. Individuals have electronic access to an aggregated view of their health information including their immunization history
36. Individuals integrate data from their health records into apps and tools that enable them to better set and meet their own health goals
37.Individuals regularly contribute information to their electronic health records for use by  members of their care team
38.Provider systems electronically track and report high value measures in support of payment reform and delivery
39. Primary care provider s share a basic set of patient information with specialists during referrals; specialists “close the information loop” by sending updated basic information back to the primary care provider
40. Hospitals automatically send an electronic notification and care summary to primary care providers when their patients are discharged
41. Providers and patients receive electronic laboratory results from laboratory information systems (LISs) inside and outside their organization
42. Providers can query or access case management information about patients’ care in outside organizations
43. System users have access to provider directory information that is developed to support healthcare communications as well as other use cases
44. Providers have ability to access information in PDMP systems before prescribing narcotics to patients
45. Care providers have electronic access to the information they need for the detection of domestic violence or child abuse
46. Authorized individuals have access to audit logs to ensure appropriate use
47. Disaster relief medical staff members have access to necessary and relevant health information so that they may provide appropriate care to individuals during an emergency
48.Patients routinely engage in mental health risk assessments using electronic communications such as eVisits and telemedicine
49. Emergency medical providers have the ability to query data from other sources while managing chronically ill patients after a disaster regardless of geography or what network the data resides in 50. Population health measurement is supported at the community level and includes data from all relevant sources on each patient in the population (including information on births, deaths and occupational health hazards) and is accessible to providers and other population health stakeholders
51. Population health measurement is supported at the community level and includes statistical data on smoking cessation programs, new patient medical visits and trauma related incidents in a particular area
52. At -risk patients engage in healthcare monitoring programs which can detect life threatening situations (such as patient down and unresponsive) using at home monitoring devices and electronic communications such as eVisits and telemedicine
53. Payers review clinical documentation for payment purposes
54.Payers  review clinical documentation for approval of services (prior authorization)
55. SSA includes functional criteria in some of the Listings of Impairments (the “Listings”) to provide an administrative expediency to screen adult disability claimants who are unable to do any gainful activity without consideration of age, education, and work experience. For claimants who do not meet the criteria in the Listings, SSA uses their functional data to perform residual functional capacity assessment to determine their ability to do work.
56. Individuals exercise their choice for consent and consent management policies and procedures are in place to enable the private and secure electronic exchange of behavioral health data.
(Page 163 on)
A close review of these use cases will make it clear just how ambitious the US is being and the likely impact this work will have.
Mandatory browsing in my view. Would be very interesting to see a NEHTA response to this!
David.

Tuesday, February 03, 2015

It Seems Some Are Having Some Nice Trips Overseas - But It Is Not Clear To Me Just What Value We Are Getting.



This appeared last week:

IHTSDO Conference Report October 2014

Created on Friday, 23 January 2015
The IHTSDO Conference Report October 2014 Meeting has been published.
The International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO) Business Meeting Report provides summary information on the international activities and areas of work as discussed at the IHTSDO October 2014 Business Meeting held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The report includes an update from the Content, Implementation & Education, Quality Assurance, and Technical Committees, as well as the General Assembly and Member Forum.
Here is the link:
To understand what the meeting covered here is the Executive Summary.

2 Executive summary

2.1 Member Forum

• The IHTSDO is continuing its transition into a services-based organisation, focussed on customer relationships.
• Future collaborations to include:
o HL7, regarding value sets to bind SNOMED CT;
o the Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (INSERM) with Orphanet;
o the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC);
o the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC); and
o the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) and the RadLex vocabulary.
• Proposed licencing changes, focussing on non-member activity, and changes to member licence-reporting requirements (i.e. how members need to track and report on the affiliated licence holders).
• Future meetings shall involve two annual face-to-face meetings, with additional quarterly online meetings based on regional – or topic-specific – agendas.
• Aggressive efforts are planned for the IHTSDO, centred on:
o content authoring projects, for 2015 delivery;
o the replacement of existing authoring tooling, for 2015 delivery; and
o the promotion of “SNOMED CT Factory”, involving a move to the continuous delivery of SNOMED CT resources, with a concurrent reengineering of processes, as required.
• The launch of online SNOMED CT Foundation education courses and certification in early 2015, with online SNOMED CT Advanced courses to follow.
• The Standing Committee review is likely to result in future revisions resulting in a more advisory role, and eliminating the creation or running of work items by the committees themselves.
• The UK Terminology Centre (UKTC) is to develop work relating to blood products, including links back to other IHTSDO members, via the MemberForum.

2.2 Content Committee

• The IHTSDO is actively improving its workflow and terminology-related deliverables, with a greater emphasis on specific focus groups and agreed deadlines, encouraging faster response-times and turnaround on requests.
• The SNOMED CT release for 2016 will include a greater proportion of new content than any previous release, with additions to devices, organisms, and dermatology, among others.
The need for an approach to the modelling of genetic procedures, and of the gene taxon itself, was identified as a gap in SNOMED CT.

2.3 Implementation and Education Committee

In 2014, the committee successfully developed the E-Learning Center and created new resources.
The 2015 work plan is focussed on developing and conducting a series of E-Learning courses.
Several guide and specification documents are being developed, and are either at the review stage or have been published.
A “Vendor Introduction to SNOMED CT” has been developed and is out for internal review.
The Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC) and SNOMED CT mapping project is progressing with a technology preview being released in October 2014, and a second preview scheduled for March 2015.

2.4 Quality Assurance Committee

The Critical Incident Policy has finished development and has been forwarded to the IHTSDO management team for consideration. However, the committee recognises it requires ongoing development to expand and improve its coverage for the types of incidents covered.
The committee will be collaborating more closely with the others to improve their alignment with the Quality Assurance Framework (QAF), and assist in the production of suitable quality reports.

2.5 Technical Committee

A committee subgroup was formed to analyse the expansion of the expressivity of SNOMED CT’s description logic, and to promote SNOMED CT’s representation in Web Ontology Language (OWL). The subgroup is to be co-chaired by Brian Carlsen (USA) and Dion McMurtrie (NEHTA), and membership is to include Michael Lawley from the Australian e-Health Research Centre (AEHRC).
Standards work relating to the Concrete Domain Specification is to be driven by the new SNOMED CT description logic subgroup of the Technical Committee, as part of other possible expansions to the expressivity of SNOMED CT’s description logic.
A proposal is to be drafted by the Technical Committee for the Member Forum to seek endorsement for a completely automated Release Format 1 (RF1) conversion of Release Format 2 (RF2) that – although not completely populating RF1 faithfully – meets all requirements, nonetheless. This will reduce the burden on the IHTSDO of producing RF1 releases.
More work is required on the definition of semantics for the SNOMED CT family of languages. To date, work has been on the syntactic definition.
A proposal was mooted for the IHTSDO to produce and provide small samples of RF2 data with predefined patterns of valid and invalid data for software testing.
The committee supported the idea of reworking the Developers’ toolkit with updated technologies and techniques, rather than dropping it completely.
The committee will form a subgroup to analyse open source project governance and contribution models, and provide analysis and recommendations for Rory Davidson (Head of Applications & Architecture, IHTSDO) to formalise the IHTSDO’s Open Tooling Framework (OTF) processes.
----- End Summary
What I am left wondering with all this is just where the value of this work is trickling down to the e-Health Community in Australia and just how ready for ‘prime time’ SNOMED actually is.
To date I have to say the practical impacts seem to be rather thin on the ground. Please let me know if you or your application are using SNOMED to make a real, on the ground, difference. I would really like to know we are getting value for all this effort.
David.

Monday, February 02, 2015

Weekly Australian Health IT Links – 2nd February, 2015.

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

Another quiet week with not much happening in e-Health but lots happening (under the radar) with the new health Minister.
I don’t expect much news till the Federal leadership ructions are all resolved one way or another!
-----

Digital Transformation Office welcomed

January 27, 2015
AIIA welcome’s announcement of Digital Transformation Office
The AIIA has welcomed the announcement to establish a new Digital Transformation Office (DTO) to drive the digital transformation of federal government services. “The establishment of the DTO signals the Government’s commitment to the digital transformation of services and builds on the Coalition’s Policy for E-Government and the Digital Economy. Establishment of a digital identity to transact with all Government agencies and the intention to work collaboratively with State and Territory governments is also welcomed.
-----

Why a single online ID would be dangerous

Date January 29, 2015 - 12:00AM

Adam Henschke

A digital ID for all our official details is a security risk and a treasure chest for business.
Imagine you had a single digital identity, an online ID that you could use for any government service. Whether you needed to communicate with departments that handled tax, welfare, or healthcare and education, all you'd need is a single online ID.
It would bring together information about you from all participating departments, meaning less paperwork for government officials and greater information at their fingertips. Not only that, it would take all the hassle out of dealing with government services for you, yes?
There is a higher potential for the unpaid parking ticket to prevent you from accessing other government services.  
Communications minister Malcolm Turnbull has been given the job of creating a new Digital Transformation Office. In part this will oversee the development and introduction of a single digital identity to access an integrated range of government services. But before we rush into this, let's consider for a moment that this way lies danger.
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CSIRO to pilot IBM’s breakthrough in cloud-based personal data protection

IBM has announced a new cloud-based technology for developers to help consumers better protect their private data, and Australia’s CSIRO is going to pilot it.
28 January 2015 is ‘Data Privacy Day’, and its the day IBM made a big announcement - new cloud-based technology to protect personal data.
The technology ‘enables developers to help consumers better protect their personal data online such as their date of birth, home address and credit card numbers’, with IBM’s scientists ‘developing a clever cryptographic algorithm which enables transactions to occur without involuntarily sharing any personal data.’
IBM calls this technology ‘Identity Mixer’, with the company saying it uses ‘a cryptographic algorithm to encrypt the certified identity attributes of a user, such as their age, nationality, address and credit card number in such a way that the user is able to reveal only selected pieces to third parties, such an online marketing survey, online retailer or an e-government website.’
-----

CriSTAL test determines likelihood of death within 30 days

Date January 26, 2015 - 6:56AM

Kerrie Armstrong

A test devised by Sydney researchers to determine the likelihood of a patient's death within the next 30 days will be trialled in local hospitals from March.
The Criteria for Screening and Triaging to Appropriate aLternative care, or CriSTAL, developed by University of New South Wales researcher Magnolia Cardona-Morrel, would take into account 29 different criteria to assess whether it was worthwhile carrying out life-saving treatments and procedures.
Once the score is determined the doctor could have a transparent conversation with the patient about their wishes. 
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Regional Australia’s First Fully Integrated Digital Hospital

The healthcare sector is constantly evolving as technology becomes more sophisticated. St Stephen’s Private Hospital in Hervey Bay, Queensland, which officially opened last month, is the first fully integrated digital hospital in regional Australia. New ways of working meant a new approach to design.
Designed by Conrad Gargett Riddel AMW, the $96 million facility houses the country’s first full electronic medical record (EMR) and digital patient management system, in addition to a digital drug dispensing facility and a capacity to monitor patients during surgeries.
Operated by UnitingCare Health, everything in the facility from X-rays to equipment monitoring in theatres will be done electronically.
These advanced wireless technologies are expected to generate efficiencies, improve safety and clinical outcomes, and create higher levels of patient and clinician satisfaction.
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The AMT v20150131 January Release is now available for download

Created on Friday, 30 January 2015
The AMT v20150131 January Release is now available for download from the NEHTA website.
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Health, education and environmental not-for-profits offered free IT services

Tata Consultancy Services launches pro bono program for health, education and environmental not-for-profits
Hamish Barwick (Computerworld) on 28 January, 2015 11:27
Australian-based health, education and environmental not-for-profits can apply for free IT services following the launch of a program by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
The TCS Pro Bono Community program is designed to help not-for-profit organisations that may not be able to afford IT services. If selected, up to five organisations will get free application and website development, IT consulting and software testing.
Applications close on 16 February. A second round of funding will take place in September.
TCS Australia and New Zealand CEO Deborah Hadwen said it was offering the services to health, education and environmental not-for-profits because this fit with its corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs in Australia.
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Canterbury builds on tech to realise savings and better patient outcomes

Posted Thu, 29/01/2015 - 15:30 by Josh Gliddon
There’s a revolution in healthcare taking place on the South Island of New Zealand. It’s being driven by Canterbury District Health Board Chief Medical Officer Dr Nigel Millar, and it centres around sharing health information, and empowering patients to have as much care as possible in their homes.
“Healthcare is about the patient experience,” says Dr Millar. “It’s about delivering patient care near or in the patient homes. Small tasks such as blood pressure and weight readings can be done at home and automatically transmitted to the patient’s health care professional supported by primary care GPs, and that frees up hospital beds for when in-hospital care is really necessary.”
The healthcare transformation on the south island started in 2007 when the Board did forward projections and discovered that if technology and new ways of thinking were not employed, another major hospital would need to be built by 2020 just to take care of rising populations and rising patient needs.
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Data Privacy Day a reminder to protect your personal information

2015 theme is respecting privacy, safeguarding data and enabling trust
To mark Data Privacy Day (January 28), privacy commissioners in Australia are urging people to stay safe online by taking steps to protect their personal information.
New South Wales Privacy Commissioner Doctor Elizabeth Coombs said she regularly hears concerns from the NSW community about how their personal data is handled by companies.
“Data Privacy Day is a reminder to ensure your personal information is protected online by asking questions and reading the fine print before disclosing it,” she said in a statement.
In May 2014, Coombs told Techworld Australia that inadvertent placement of personal information on the Internet sometimes occurs because there are no security or privacy protections.
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CSRIO supercomputer enables cardiac arrest breakthrough

Date February 1, 2015 - 12:15AM

Rose Powell

Jamie Donaldson was unaware he had a common heart condition until he collapsed after a half-marathon and was dead for six minutes.
After weeks in hospital, the 34-year-old father of three learned he had a heart condition known as Long QT, which is usually only discovered during an autopsy even though about one in 2000 Australians have the syndrome.
"I was bewildered. There was no warning, no precursor and I had no idea," Mr Donaldson said. "We need a way to detect conditions before you experience what can be quite severe consequences."
Cardiac arrests account for slightly more than 10 per cent of Australian deaths. But the quest to find a way to detect heart conditions before a crisis has made a big leap forward after a five-year project by Australian scientists.
-----

Privacy fears in bid to bolster laws for fight against cyber crime

Sarah Martin

LAW reform to keep pace with the growing threat to national security must strike a balance with privacy concerns, cyber law experts have warned.
As the government reviews its cyber-security strategy for the first time in six years, ­the Attorney-General’s Department is understood to be considering legislative changes to match the global surge in cyber crime. As revealed in The Australian yesterday, 500 cybercrimes are being referred every week to a new government reporting network, with more than 3000 being investigated in the past two months. Most of these are related to fraud.
The chief security officer of US-based Cisco Systems, John Stewart, who is one of the panel members reviewing Australia’s cyber strategy, has said law reform will be necessary following the review. Describing himself as a “privacy hawk”, he said there was a tension under the current legislative framework between consumer protection laws obliging businesses not to share information, and national security requirements that may require information sharing between business and government.
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Australia's Privacy Commissioner Tim Pilgrim fears telco metadata breaches

Date January 27, 2015 - 12:15AM

Ben Grubb

Internet and phone providers should be required to notify customers of metadata breaches if they are forced to store customers' records for two years as part of the Abbott government's mandatory data retention regime, Australia's federal Privacy Commissioner says.
Timothy Pilgrim also warned the proposed data retention scheme may result in providers collecting "more personal information than is necessary" for their business purposes and "retaining that information for longer than is necessary for those purposes".
The scheme would therefore require providers to handle personal information in a way "that may otherwise be inconsistent with those providers' obligations under the Privacy Act," he said.
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New MedicalDirector Online provides more flexibility for practices

MedicalDirector is pleased to launch MedicalDirector Online - a managed cloud based service, available on a monthly subscription. The service is designed to meet the changing needs of new practices or existing sites. 
“Starting a new practice is often big step with many risks to manage. Monthly based billing and no lock in contracts help practices minimise upfront investments in the critical first year, said MedicalDirector CEO Phil Offer.”
MedicalDirector Online subscriptions provide practices with access to MedicalDirector Clinical and/or PracSoft programs as part of a cloud based service. Along with no new software for staff to learn , the service also provides automatic updates and backups, providing simple integration into practices.
Featuring a concurrent subscription model, MedicalDirector Online improves support for a changing staff mix with licences based on the maximum number of users on the system at one time. Additionally the ability to modify subscriptions monthly, means practices need only pay for what they require.
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At UCSF Medical Center, robot-aided healthcare is here

When the UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay hospital opens on Sunday, it'll boast the largest fleet of hospital robots in the world.
Matt Weinberger (Computerworld (US)) on 31 January, 2015 01:57
When the brand-new UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay in San Francisco opens on Sunday, patients will be greeted by staffers that more strongly resemble R2-D2 than the cast of Scrubs
Twenty-five Aethon "Tug" robots, comprising the largest fleet of free-roaming hospital robots in the world, will haul blood samples, food, medication, biohazardous waste and other materials and supplies around the huge, horizontal facility (about as big as three football fields). The Tugs are designed to reduce workplace injuries among hospital staff even as they let caregivers focus on, well, giving care.
Hospital officials offered some face time with the medical bots at a grand opening press conference Thursday featuring San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, storied Silicon Valley venture capitalist Ron Conway and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. 
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Artificial intelligence not a threat: Microsoft's Eric Horvitz contradicts Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates

Date January 29, 2015 - 1:03PM

Tim Biggs

Technology reporter / producer

Machines will eventually achieve a human-like consciousness but do not pose a threat to the survival of mankind, Microsoft head of research Eric Horvitz says, in comments that place him at odds with technologist Elon Musk and theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking.
"There have been concerns about the long-term prospect that we lose control of certain kinds of intelligences," Horvitz said in an interview after being awarded the prestigious AAAI Feigenbaum Prize for his contribution to artificial intelligence (AI) research, "[but] I fundamentally don't think that's going to happen".
"I think that we will be very proactive in terms of how we field AI systems, and that in the end we'll be able to get incredible benefits from machine intelligence in all realms of life, from science to education to economics to daily life."
-----

One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence (AI100)

About

Stanford University has invited leading thinkers from several institutions to begin a 100-year effort to study and anticipate how the effects of artificial intelligence will ripple through every aspect of how people work, live and play.
This effort, called the One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence, or AI100, is the brainchild of computer scientist and Stanford alumnus Eric Horvitz who, among other credits, is a former president of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.
In that capacity Horvitz convened a conference in 2009 at which top researchers considered advances in artificial intelligence and its influences on people and society, a discussion that illuminated the need for continuing study of AI’s long-term implications.
Now, together with Russ Altman, a professor of bioengineering and computer science at Stanford, Horvitz has formed a committee that will select a panel to begin a series of periodic studies on how AI will affect automation, national security, psychology, ethics, law, privacy, democracy and other issues.
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Enjoy!
David.

Sunday, February 01, 2015

It Looks Like E-Health Standards Setting In Australia Has Gone Down The Gurgler. Just Astonishing!

This e-mail was sent out a few days ago….
From: xxx.xxx [xxx.xxx@standards.org.au]
Sent: Friday, 23 January 2015 2:05 PM
To:
Subject: Invitation to nominate a representative for Standards Australia Technical Committee IT 014- Health Informatics
 Dear…..
Standards Australia is currently reconstituting Technical Committee IT-014, Health Informatics which will mirror the work of ISO TC 215, Health Informatics ( Please refer to the attached Terms of  Reference)
xxx.xxx has represented xxx on IT-014 in the past and if you would like xxx to remain as your representative then please advise by email.
If you wish to nominate a new representative please forward the name and contact details of the proposed representative to me before close of business Tuesday 24 February 2015.
Whilst there is no immediate active forward work program for the committee, IT-014 maintains a very important role as the Australian mirror committee to the ISO TC 215.  Work will continue in relation to mirroring ISO TC-215, and access to funding support to attend international meetings may be available under Standards Australia’s Support for Industry Service Organisations.
In the event that IT-014 undertakes work on the development of Australian Standards in the future, or the IT-014 secretary calls a meeting of members, it will be desirable that the Committee Members attend the meetings in person. However we understand that it is not always possible to attend in person. As such, Standards Australia will make audio, video and web-conferencing facilities available to members if necessary. Alternatively, a deputy may attend on behalf of the IT-014 member.
Further information on involvement in Standards Australia committees can be found in our Standardisation Guides, see link below. SG-004, “Roles and Responsibilities in Standardisation” particularly discusses the roles of nominating organisations and their representatives. http://www.standards.org.au/StandardsDevelopment/Developing_Standards/Documents/SG-004%20Roles%20and%20Responsibilities%20in%20Standardisation.pdf
Should you have any further questions, please contact me directly at any time.
Best Regards,
xxx
Ms. Xxx.xxx
Project Manager  |  Standards Australia
Level 10, 20 Bridge Street Sydney NSW 2000
GPO Box 476 Sydney NSW 2001
P +61 2 9237 xxxx  |  F +61 2 9237 xxxx  |  www.standards.org.au
----- End e-mail.
IT-14 - The relevant Standards Committee has now been given the following (undated ) Terms of Reference:

 TERMS OF REFERENCE IT-014

Committee No IT-014
Committee Name Health Informatics
 1 Prime Function
1.1 Terms of Reference
On behalf of Standards Australia as the national member body participating in International Standardization Organization (ISO) to provide Australian input and review to ISO TC 215 and any other relevant groups established within ISO. As mirror committee to ISO TC 215 Heath Informatics, IT-014 contributes to standardisation in the field of health informatics, to facilitate the coherent and consistent interchange and use of health-related data, information, and knowledge to support and enable all aspects of the health system.
1.2 Mission
The mission of the IT-014 committee is to contribute to the development of international health informatics standards through participation on ISO TC 215 Health Informatics.
2 Inclusions and Exclusions: (as appropriate)
N/A  
 3 Participation in International Standardization:
Participation in the work of international technical committees, subcommittees and working groups of ISO TC 215 Health Informatics.
4 Other information
4.1 Liaisons
To liaise informally with other Standards Australia committees whose work relates to aspects of IT-
014, such as:
(a) IT-12 Information Security
(b) IT-21 Records Management Systems, and
(c) HE-31 Traditional Chinese Medicine.
----- End Document.
So what we are being told is we are no longer developing E-Health Standards and have no Work Plan to do so - with our only role being to review what comes from overseas.
You can review the state of play here:
For anyone to think e-Health standardisation is done and all over is honestly astonishing!!!
This is made even more so by the rapid evolution of e-Health Standards we are seeing in the US with things like FHIR.
Government mismanagement and DOH incompetence revealed in spades. NEHTA must be thrilled!
David.

AusHealthIT Poll Number 255 – Results – 1st February, 2015.

Here are the results of the poll.

Do You Believe The Government Will Eventually Abandon Its Plan For A Medicare Co-Payment On Doctor Visits?

Yes 24% (18)

Probably 49% (36)

Neutral 1% (1)

Probably Not 18% (13)

No Way 7% (5)

I Have No Idea 1% (1)

Total votes: 74

A pretty clear response with large majority believing that it is likely the co-payment will not finally proceed.

Good to see a clear outcome with a lot of responses over the time of the holidays.

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

David.