Research compilation
Hi-tech plan to save tax dollars: the strategy may save Australian taxpayers billions of dollars
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/hi-tech-plan-to-save-tax-dollars-the-strategy-may-save-australian-taxpayers-billions-of-dollars/story-e6frgakx-1226009678961
GERMAN IT powerhouse Siemens is quietly lobbying federal and state governments to showcase how technology can mitigate the projected $20 billion urban congestion bill.
Siemens Australia has released its Picture the Future: Australia 2030 study, a framework of how technology can be used to tackle four “global megatrends” affecting the country: climate change, demographic change, urbanisation and globalisation.
“One suggested technology is a national, highly secure, high-bandwidth wireless network that can help mechanical, electrical and automation engineering be conducted collaboratively in a digital world. Siemens head of productivity research Matthew Rait said the company had met with opposition innovation spokeswoman Sophie Mirabella and with aides from Communications Minister Stephen Conroy’s office.The company would hold further meetings with the government to explain its research findings.
“We support a high-speed digital network that will provide Australia with a capacity to implement the technology solution that is best practice in the world.
“At this point in time we haven’t seen a full release of the specifications (of the NBN) and if we look at the perspective of President Obama saying he’s going to take 98 per cent wireless communication to the nation . . . is fibre right or is wireless right?”
ex-IBM Aus head to chair Conroy’s review
http://www.zdnet.com.au/ex-ibm-aus-head-to-chair-conroy-s-review-339310586.htm
“The Federal Government this afternoon appointed former IBM Australia chief Glen Boreham to lead its planned review of Australia’s communications and media regulatory environment.”
Convergence Review
http://www.dbcde.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/131665/Convergence_Review_Background_Paper_revised_1_March_11-final_.pdf
The regulations under examination affect the news you consume, the TV you watch, the radio you listen to and the content you enjoy online.
A person can now watch exactly the same TV program on a TV set, laptop, or mobile phone. However, the underlying networks that are used to transmit the program are very different—broadcast spectrum or cable networks, the internet or mobile networks.
“Australia’s key communications legislative framework was introduced in the 1990s: the Broadcasting Services Act and the Radiocommunications Act were enacted in 1992; the Telecommunications Act was enacted in 1997. Each piece of legislation has been tailored to achieve different public policy objectives.”
“it is widely accepted that television is a powerful medium with the potential to influence public opinion, and that television has a role to play in promoting Australia’s cultural identity” - Broadcasting Services Bill 1992, Explanatory Memorandum, p. 67.
“the Radiocommunications Act is designed to promote the efficient allocation and use of spectrum to maximise public benefit.“
A New Standard for Wireless medical Body Area Networks IEEE 802.15.6
http://www.theiet.org/local/pacific/australia/nsw/events/joint-101028.cfm
The standard is targeted for relatively low data rate (100kpbs to 1 Mbps) transmission to devices attached around the body or implanted. Low power medical and consumer applications will benefit from this development. Application bands include the implant (402‐405 MHz band), 900 MHz and 2.45 GHz ISM bands.
An introduction to New Technologies
http://www.michaeljournal.org/newtechno.htm
“Patrick Redmond graduated with a Doctorate in History from the University of London, England in 1972. He taught at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad, then at Adhadu Bello University in Kano, Nigeria before joining IBM. He worked in IBM for 31 years before retiring. During his career at IBM he held a variety of jobs. These included; from 1992 until 2007 working at the IBM Toronto lab in technical, then in sales support. He has written two books and numerous articles.”
“RFID’s are a great economic help to a company because they reduce theft and loss. They also streamline inventory, reduce turnaround time and handling. They’ve allowed companies to adjust production in response to inventory levels and to respond on demand. That’s why companies are interested, because of these big economic benefits and efficiency.”
When discussing TV & its replacement broadcasting frequency, Dgital TV
“and instead of the antenna on your roof you’ll use a black box.The reason they’re doing this is that the UBF and VHF analog frequency are being used for the chips, so they don’t want to overload the chips with television signals, because the chips signals will now be receiving those frequencies.”
CSIRO to trial wireless over analogue TV spectrum
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/csiro-to-trial-wireless-over-analogue-tv-spectrum
“The Australian CSIRO will begin live field trials of its experimental wireless technology in September to assess whether spectrum formerly used for analogue television can be used to deliver National Broadband Network (NBN) services.”
“The technology, announced in April last year and dubbed Broadband to the Bush, is designed to make use of analogue television infrastructure already in place within Australia.”
“The whole idea is that there is no communications gear in that space as it has been used for TV and we can reuse the broadcast infrastructure.”
“Range really is the 64 million dollar question,” he said. “We have a licence for a particular transmit power, and the transmit power sets the range, but we will be looking to demonstrate 10s of kilometres with this technology.”
“Ultimately what could be deployed will depend on what transmit powers are allowed. If we are allowed to transmit at the same powers as analogue TV, which is actually quite high, then give us an analogue channel and we will give you 12 Mbits up and down.”
Enter the Cashless Society:
One in four Germans wants microchip in body
http://www.news.com.au/technology/one-in-four-germans-wants-microchip-in-body/story-e6frfro0-1225835910243
The survey, conducted by German IT industry lobby group BITKOM
The CeBIT, the world’s biggest high-tech fair, throws its doors open to the public today, with Spain, the current EU president, this year’s guest of honour.
In all, 23 per cent of around 1000 respondents in the survey said they would be prepared to have a chip inserted under their skin “for certain benefits”.
Around one in six (16 per cent) said they would wear an implant to allow emergency services to rescue them more quickly in the event of a fire or accident.
Five per cent of people said they would be prepared to have an implant to make their shopping go more smoothly.
But 72 per cent said they would not “under any circumstances” allow electronics in their body.
PositiveID – ID Security
http://positiveidcorp.com/id_security.html
The other arm of PositiveID’s ID Security business is dedicated to protecting consumers’ identities and preventing identity theft. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, identity theft is the number one crime in America, and it can affect anyone at any time. Identity theft can occur from computer fraud through “phishing,” which accounts for 12% of cases; stolen or lost wallets or other personal items, which accounts for 29% of thefts; individuals stealing records from businesses, which accounts for 50%; and mail theft, representing the remaining 9% of all identity thefts. The company’s suite of products and services allows consumers to manage and monitor their personal financial data to proactively protect themselves from theft and errors
PositiveID, Siemens enter license agreement to expand Wireless Body Platform
http://investors.positiveidcorp.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=541283
Method and system for identification of a medical implant
Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft, Munich (DE)
http://www.google.com/patents?id=Wa7LAAAAEBAJ&zoom=4&dq=Method+and+System+for+Identification+of+a+Medical+Implant&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false
Guidance for Industry and FDA Staff – Class II Special Controls Guidance Document: Implantable Radiofrequency Transponder System for Patient Identification and Health Information
http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/DeviceRegulationandGuidance/GuidanceDocuments/ucm072141.htm
IBM Healthcare Roadshow – Enablers for E-health
http://www-07.ibm.com/solutions/au/healthcare/presentations/downloads/Enablers_for_eHealth.pdf
Inside the Australian Government’s Scary Web Site on Microchip ID Implants
While the New South Wales Department of Health Web page is ostensibly a reference point for officials who want to reduce medical errors caused by patient mixups, it looks pretty scary if you’re someone who thinks that society is heading toward a Minority Report-style dictatorship in which everyone carries a compulsory microchip implant.
Australian eHealth Literature review – Patient Identifiers
http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/quality/identification/literature.asp
Ethical implications of implantable radiofrequency identification (RFID) tags in humans.
NEHTA inks e-health authentication deal – IBM (seed funded PositiveID)
http://www.securecomputing.net.au/News/249797,nehta-inks-ehealth-authentication-deal.aspx
E-health advocacy groups decries government secrecy
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/379069/e-health_advocacy_groups_decries_government_secrecy/
An e-health consumer advocacy group has joined a growing choir of those dissatisfied with the lack of communication from lead agencies surrounding implementation of the Federal Government’s $467 million personally controlled electronic health records (PCEHR) project initiative.
The coalition argued the lack of documentation, including NEHTA’s failure to release the draft concept of operations around the PCEHR to the public. Health minister Nicola Roxon in January pledged to release the document for public consultation – a milestone NEHTA is anxiously anticipating – but the e-health agency is currently exempt from freedom of information laws and cannot be called upon to release such documents prior.
The group also decried the National Authentication Service for Health, a secure messaging platform and key aspect of the PCEHR recently contracted to IBM Australia, as another example of the lack of transparency and poor timelines surrounding the project.
The group also decried the National Authentication Service for Health, a secure messaging platform and key aspect of the PCEHR recently contracted to IBM Australia, as another example of the lack of transparency and poor timelines surrounding the project.
“The need for trust and the way this is acknowledged in formal government documents contradicts the fact all publicly available feedback has been ignored,” the group wrote. “We are nervous when it comes to trusting in a process that seeks consumer group feedback yet runs another in parallel.”
The government-funded process that was run parallel to the three workshops excluded a number of advocates in attendance at the public meetings, contributing to the scepticism of the coalition.
“We do not like wondering whether NEHTA’s appeals to advocates re mutual trust will simply carpetbag consumer groups so we don’t challenge the process in public. The IHI [Independent Healthcare Identifier] is useless to consumers presently and claims that the PCEHR will not be centralised are simply market-speak for not responding to advocates initial concerns re the IHI.”
NEHTA, DoHA deaf to consumers, claim critics
http://delimiter.com.au/2011/03/08/nehta-doha-deaf-to-consumers-claim-critics/
“We are nervous when it comes to trusting in a process that seeks consumer group feedback yet runs another in parallel,” CCeHC wrote. “… bureaucrats have driven the process, preferring to commission reports, such as the risk assessment report, that have cost taxpayers thousands of dollars rather than listen to the advocates or citizens.”
Privacy was also a major concern of the CCeHC. The group said it was alarming “in an age of rapidly growing rates of identity fraud” that all of the personal details of every Australian was stored by Medicare in a centralised database. ”The market-speak DoHA and NEHTA use to describe the database simply refers to it as ‘distributed’,” they said. “A distributed database is a centralised database!”
“In any case, the APF draws to attention the impossibility of evaluating the utility of the HI system for patient privacy and health when only a fraction of the proposal is on the table, and even the relevant agencies appear to know little about how it would work in a ‘real life’ context,” the APF wrote.
Privacy fear over agencies’ mega-merger: Medicare, Centrelink data plan
MEDICARE and Centrelink are involved in an Orwellian mega-merger that will strengthen data linkages to citizens’personal information, say consumer advocates
“I am amazed the government has not told Australians that integration of Medicare and Centrelink services under a single shopfront will result in many new linkages of data,” Dr Fernando said.
“We are concerned more linkages between Medicare, which hosts the centralised repository of individual healthcare identifiers, and Centrelink is the thin edge of the wedge.”
“It doesn’t require the screen-writing talents of James Cameron to envisage a pensioner who is dependent on the case officer’s goodwill for food and shelter being asked: ‘May I link your pension record with your other records?’ It would a brave soul who answered no.”
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