Body area networks tutorial: toward a wearable internet

On Feb 3, we delivered our Body Area Networks tutorial in Melbourne at the 2011 Australian Communications Theory Workshop. The slides are available online from the NICTA publication site doc:4690 the pdf is several Mb's so be warned!

The audience was mostly wireless and sensor network researchers - PhD students and postdocs - it looks like wireless-Body Area Network research is starting to take off in Australia.

Post-script: David Skellern is presenting some of NICTA's wireless health work at the Wireless Health conference in Sydney on Feb 18: go see what else is happening in Wireless Health in and around NICTA!

Free Seminar: eHealth, and the Austrian Institute of Technology

Seminar at Canberra Research Laboratory, by Karl Kreiner

Wed, Dec 15, 2pm NICTA seminar room (ground floor) map
Dr. Karl Kreiner

The seminar will outline work that is being undertaking by the Austrian Institute of Technology, in relation to eHealth, and Dr. Kreiner’s work both here in Australia and in Austria, in particular recent work presented at the Global Telehealth Conference in Perth.

Dr. Kreiner is currently based in Canberra, the talk will run for 20 minutes.

All welcome

In the news: Canberra Times

On Sunday, following our appearance at NICTA-Canberra Tech-Net, the Canberra Times ran an article on the swimming study we are currently undertaking. Thanks to Frances Stewart for the great story!

Your laps could help Australia's Olympic swimmers

We are currently looking for volunteers who would like to swim, to test new technology developed between NICTA and the Australian Institute of Sport.

The devices are worn by swimmers, and can tell all the major aspects of what the swimmer is doing.

More information is available from the registration page.

ABC local radio also ran an interview on the call for volunteers.

3 five-year trends for health data (from Health Care Blog)

Health care blog has released the most likely (top 3) trends in health care data for the next five years

1. Structured Health Data (XML) - everything will be stored.
2. Point-to-point sharing of health data - so health data networks will interconnect
3. Apps/middle-ware - less browsing more aggregating.

Have a look at the full Health Care Blog for more info

Telehealth announcement

The Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced $392million in funds for telehealth, the majority ($250m) of which will provide Medicare rebates for online consultation. This was a major barrier to tele-health uptake in Australia, and now may be summarily removed.

More details follow below:

Australian Federal Budget, e-health announcements

Two new ehealth initiatives have been announced as part of the Australian Federal budget. Combined they represent a move toward more detailed (smarter?) health and medicine monitoring.

eHealth — personally controlled electronic health records [AUD$466.7m]

"Australians will be able to check their medical history online through the introduction of personally controlled electronic health records, which will boost patient safety, improve health care delivery, and cut waste and duplication."

more info from the Department of Health and Aging.

Fifth Community Pharmacy Agreement [AUD$15.4b]

"The measure will also provide funding of $375.3 million over six years (including $91.8 million in 2014‑15) to implement new initiatives under the agreement. These include:

• a range of new patient‑focused pharmacy programs including patient medication monitoring (at a cost of $285.5 million);
• a 15 cent payment to pharmacists for every prescription processed electronically with a National E‑Health Transition Authority specifications (at a cost of $82.6 million); and
• collection of data on pharmaceuticals that are priced below the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme general co‑payment (currently $33.30) including patient, prescriber and dispenser demographic data (at a cost of $7.2 million)."

more from the budget papers (paper 2)