Country: Australia

Australia have created a voluntary contact tracing app called COVIDsafe. The COVIDSafe smartphone app uses a Bluetooth wireless signal to exchange a "digital handshake" with another user when they come within 1.5m. The app then logs this contact and encrypts it. Users will be notified if they have had more than 15 minutes of close contact with another user who tests positive. Amid privacy concerns about who will have access to the app's stored data, the government said only state health…

Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has created a number of new regulations to accelerate the production and supply of COVID-19 test kits, through an expedited assessment procedure. In some cases, for example point of care tests, due to limited information at the time of application, regulatory approval is granted, with strict conditions that follow-up data and studies including stability shelf-life is provided to the TGA. In addition, a number of exemptions for complying with…

The Australian Government is preparing a suite of citizen-facing digital information products and services, amongst other measures being taken to address the health and economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. To date, these include: a national website (aus.gov.au) with regular information updates, a mobile application, a voluntary self-isolation reporting service, and a WhatsApp advice channel. As a federal state, Australia is coordinating a national response to the pandemic across…

The Australian Federal Government has launched new digital platforms to ensure that Australians are aware of, and are following, social distancing rules in the time of Coronavirus. This has taken the form of a new app and a WhatsApp chat feature. The app will provide information and resources, and is hoped to act as a "trusted place of advice and information that you and your family and your business can use to understad the decisions and the information...about what is occuring with the…

Australia's postal service, Australia Post, is working with the PHarmacy Guild of Australia to deliver medicines via a contactless pharmacy home delivery service, following prioritisation of the government towards home medicine services. Customers will be able to recieve up to 500g of medication and other essentials using the Australia Post Express post network, with the cost claimable througha government reimbursement.

DetedED has developed a free virtual clinical environment to help clinicians become better at recognising the early CT scan signs of COVID-19. It is available to every clinician, world-wide, free of charge. DetectED-X - CovED is powerful educational solution which contains modules that will take between 1-2 hours to complete. Our systems gain certification and CME points from the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education in the US and elsewhere and have been validated for assessing…

The Australian government is transforming employment services to improve how the system works for job seekers, employers and the community. Transformational change requires genuine consultation to capture the diversity of views of stakeholders affected by changes, identifying pain points, testing ideas and laying the groundwork for sustainable policy reform. A citizen centric approach helps to understand the real-world impact, leading to better outcomes and greater acceptance in the community.

The Collaborative Partnership to Improve Work Participation (the Collaborative Partnership) is a unique public-private sector alliance to drive fresh approaches to improving work participation for Australians with a temporary or permanent health condition or disability that impacts their ability to work. The Collaborative Partnership is responding to stagnating work participation rates in Australia following a work-related injury or illness and employment rates among people with disabilities.

Converlens emerged from the Australian government’s 2017/18 Business Research and Innovation Initiative (BRII) "Digitally enabled community engagement in policy and programme design" challenge. The BRII challenge linked into OGP Australia’s first National Action Plan. Deploying artificial intelligence (AI) to provide a smart layer of qualitative natural-language processing techniques (NLP), Converlens assists people in government to excel at managing the submissions and communications…

Identifying representative indicators requires distinguishing the driving forces and directions of relationships in innovation, economic or health data. The innovation is an algorithm, a sequence of coded instructions, automated to derive visual tools directly from big data. The algorithm is adaptable to various fields of study for rapid, data visualisation and enables transparent, evidence-based indicator prioritisation.