Australia backs latest healthcare AI projects with $20M and more briefs

Australia invests $20M for new health AI projects

The Australian government has awarded 10 AI projects from major universities with nearly A$30 million ($20 million) in total grant funding to improve healthcare access.

These include research from the University of Queensland to trial AI, in tandem with 3D total skin imaging, for early melanoma detection. Another project from the University of Melbourne seeks to establish AI-powered services that address mental health problems among young people. 

The grants are provided under the Medical Research Future Fund’s National Critical Research Infrastructure Initiative. 

Fake The Doctors app reported

The Doctors Medical Centres, part of the primary care group Green Cross Health in New Zealand, has flagged a mobile application seemingly posing as its official app. 

On 20 June, the service disclosed that it received information on the existence of the said fake app. Its IT team has since taken action, informing the National Cyber Security Centre NZ to blacklist the app and reporting to Google to have it removed from the Play Store. 

The Doctors app allows patients to book appointments, order repeat prescriptions, access medical records, and receive timely health reminders, among many functions. 

The Doctors has advised those who still have not transitioned to its latest app from the former Manage My Health or Health 365 apps to download The Doctors app directly from its website. 

New PenCS module supports Aged Care Incentive

PenCS has introduced a new module on its Practice Cloud platform that supports care planning activities related to the General Practice in Aged Care Incentive. 

The federal scheme delivers practice and provider incentives of A$430 (around $290) per eligible patient each year. 

PenCS’ MyMedicare – Aged Care Incentive module enables practices to identify those eligible patients. It can also auto-generate reminder and recall lists, visualise claimed and unclaimed MBS items, view potential revenue opportunities for eligible patient cohorts and understand patient lists based on various parameters, such as age and risk of hospitalisation. 

The introduction of this new module comes as PenCS added the new Dashboards and Reports with actionable patient lists to Practice Cloud.