A framework for development of android mobile electronic prescription transfer applications in compliance with security requirements mandated by the Australian healthcare industry

This thesis investigates mobile electronic transfer of prescription (ETP) in compliance with the security requirements mandated by the Australian healthcare industry and proposes a framework for the development of an Android mobile electronic prescription transfer application. Furthermore, and based upon the findings and knowledge from constructing this framework, another framework is also derived for assessing Android mobile ETP applications for their security compliance. The centralised exchange model-based ETP solution currently used in the Australian healthcare industry is an expensive solution for on-going use. With challenges such as an aging population and the rising burden of chronic disease, the cost of the current ETP solution’s operational infrastructure is certain to rise in the future. In an environment where it is increasingly beneficial for patients to engage in and manage their own information and subsequent care, this current solution fails to offer the patient direct access to their electronic prescription information. The current system also fails to incorporate certain features that would dramatically improve the quality of the patient’s care and safety, i.e. alerts for the patient’s drug allergies, harmful dosage and script expiration. Over a decade old, the current ETP solution was essentially designed and built to meet legislation and regulatory requirements, with change-averting its highest priority. With little, if any, provision for future growth and innovation, it was not designed to cater to the needs of the ETP process. This research identifies the gap within the current ETP implementation (i.e. dependency on infrastructure, significant on-going cost and limited availability of the patient’s medication history) and proposes a framework for building a secure mobile ETP solution on the Android mobile operating system platform which will address the identified gap. The literature review part of this thesis examined the significance of ETP for the nation’s larger initiative to provide an improved and better maintainable healthcare system. The literature review also revealed the stance of each jurisdiction, from legislative and regulatory perspectives, in transitioning to the use of a fully electronic ETP solution. It identified the regulatory mandates of each jurisdiction for ETP as well as the security standards by which the current ETP implementation is iii governed so as to conform to those regulatory mandates. The literature review part of the thesis essentially identified and established how the Australian healthcare industry’s various prescription-related legislations and regulations are constructed, and the complexity of this construction for eTP. The jurisdictional regulatory mandates identified in the literature review translate into a set of security requirements. These requirements establish the basis of the guiding framework for the development of a security-compliant Android mobile ETP application. A number of experimentations were conducted focusing on the native security features of the Android operating system, as well as wireless communication technologies such as NFC and Bluetooth, in order to propose an alternative mobile ETP solution with security assurance comparable to the current ETP implementation. The employment of a proof-of-concept prototype such as this alongside / coupled with a series of iterative experimentations strengthens the validity and practicality of the proposed framework. The first experiment successfully proved that the Android operating system has sufficient encryption capabilities, in compliance with the security mandates, to secure the electronic prescription information from the data at rest perspective. The second experiment indicated that the use of NFC technology to implement the alternative transfer mechanism for exchanging electronic prescription information between ETP participating devices is not practical. The next iteration of the experimentation using Bluetooth technology proved that it can be utilised as an alternative electronic prescription transfer mechanism to the current approach using the Internet. These experiment outcomes concluded the partial but sufficient proofof- concept prototype for this research. Extensive document analysis and iterative experimentations showed that the framework constructed by this research can guide the development of an alternative mobile ETP solution with both comparable security assurance to and better access to the patient’s medication history than the current solution. This alternative solution would present no operational dependence upon infrastructure and its associated, ongoing cost to the nation’s healthcare expenditure. In addition, use of this mobile ETP alternative has the potential to change the public’s perception (i.e. acceptance from regulatory and security perspectives) of mobile healthcare solutions, thereby paving the way for further innovation and future enhancements in eHealth

Analysis and design of base-isolated suspension bridge under seismic loads

Suspension bridges have been firmly established as the most efficient and cost effective structural form in the 500-ft to 1500-ft span range. Today, the suspension bridge is most suitable type for very long-span bridge and actually represents 20 or more of all the longest span bridges in the world. Behavior of suspension bridge is great importance as the influence of moving loads, seismic and wind forces on these structures. Seismic isolation introduces to avoid resonance with the typical predominant frequencies of earthquakes, in order to reduce the shear forces, deflections, and floor accelerations of a building, and, consequently, prevent damage of its structural and non-structural elements. In this study damper is used as isolation and energy dissipation devices for bridge subjected to earthquake loads. The simplified model is three-span continuous and main span has 260-ft and each side span has 120-ft with a steel bridge deck. Main cables are parallel-wire strands and pylons are Portal type. The bridge is designed for equivalent traffic loads of HS 20-44 trucks specified by American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). A realistic analytical suspension bridge model is developed by using STAAD.Pro finite element program. The response spectrum analysis method is used from UBC 1997 code. This paper discusses the effect of base-isolator on design of suspension bridge. Then, compared the analysis results in different between normal support condition and spring support condition. From the comparison results, the axial force in main cable is reduced by 22.6 %. Axial forces in girder are reduced about 40 % in all members of girder under spring support condition

The hare and the hortoise [sic]: The potential versus the reality of eTP implementation

In a health system increasingly driven by cost constraints, there is a focus on improved electronic transfer of information to support healthcare delivery. One area of healthcare that has moved more quickly than others to achieve this is prescribing in the primary care environment. Whilst the move to electronic transfer of prescriptions has reduced transcription errors, the regulatory environment persists with handwritten signatures. This constraint, whilst addressed slowly with technology solutions, needs support from legislative change. The ultimate step is to have a secure mobile model, which would support the move to a fully-electronic, paperless transaction model

Future of Australia’s ETP: Script exchange, script vault or secure mobile alternative

Electronic transfer of prescriptions is an essential element of electronic medications management. Unfortunately, current manual and preliminary electronic transfer of prescription methods are not patient focussed, leading to a suboptimal solution for the patient. This is increasingly relevant in the push for more patient engagement in their own healthcare. The area is highly controlled by legislation and regulation. Through research and an analysis of the possible methods to improve and personalise electronic transfer of prescriptions, this paper provides an overview of these conclusions, and presents an alternative technical solution. The solution has been derived from a number of experiments in data transfer techniques using a mobile phone. The paper explains how this meets the current regulations and legislation, as well as providing a patient centred approach to the problem. Ultimately, healthcare outcomes will improve where patients are given the opportunity and the tools to better engage in their own healthcare management, and secure electronic transfer of prescriptions with patient access to their own medication lists may improve compliance and reduce healthcare costs

Security of eprescription: Security of data at rest in prescription exchange services vs on mobile devices

One area of healthcare that has moved more quickly than others in adopting electronic transfer of information is prescribing in the primary care environment. Several Acts and Regulations have been repealed and amended at Commonwealth and State levels to enable this progress over the past decade, as medication provision is a strictly controlled area of healthcare. Further, numerous standards and specifications have been developed and adopted to support and safeguard the regulatory changes and facilitate the electronic transfer of prescriptions. However, the current model of electronic prescription transfer comes with a substantial price tag for ongoing use. With the Nation’s growing and aging population, the number of prescriptions will increase annually, and thus it is necessary to find more cost-effective alternatives with comparable security and privacy assurances. An obvious potential solution lies in using devices that have been a part of our daily lives for well over a decade - mobile smartphones. An investigation was conducted to determine whether or not such technology is capable of meeting legislative requirements for prescribing whilst providing a cost-effective alternative prescription transfer model. Using technology such as near field communication for transfer process together with existing encryption technique demonstrates this can meet the security requirements of data at rest. This investigation established that although the proposed alternative is a work in progress and not a flawless one, it indeed opens up opportunities to incorporate many useful features in addition to eliminating the associated ongoing costs while providing comparable privacy and security assurances

Threatened ecosystems of Myanmar. An IUCN Red List of ecosystems assessment. Version 1.0.

[Excerpt:] Myanmar's Red List of Ecosystems is a tool to understand our threats and plan for conservation and sustainable management. Forests constitute the dominant ecosystems in Myanmar, and we are blessed with high forest cover (42.92%) and diversity, with 36 of our 64 ecosystems identified as forest and mangrove. These forests and biodiversity underpin a range of ecosystem services which are central to Myanmar’s sustainable development, supporting human and resource needs, and contributing to a more stable climate. The loss of forests and our biodiversity leads to degradation and deterioration of ecosystem services and threatens Myanmar’s irreplaceable ecological heritage. We often discuss ecosystem services but this study documents Myanmar’s terrestrial ecosystem typology and spatial distribution for the first time. This is one of the first ecosystem red lists developed within ASEAN and this will inform our implementation for decades to come to inform legislation, land-use planning, protected area expansion, monitoring and reporting, and ecosystem management. To sustain our forests and our biodiversity we need to sustainably manage all of these incredible ecosystems

Acoustic Events Classification Using Support Vector Machines (SVMs)

In this paper, an approach is built toautomatically detect acoustic events that areproduced in a meeting or lecture room environment.Six audio classes are to be classified through thisapproach. The classes considered are music, speech,clapping, door slam, cough, and laughter. Severalevents samples are collected from the Internet.Support Vector Machines (SVMs) perform trainingand testing the events classification on perceptualand MFCC features set. A hierarchical clusteringscheme is used therefore the required number ofbinary SVM classifier is also reduced. The system istested on different data sets and its effectiveness isdetermined with classification accuracy on audioevent frames

Thermal comfort prediction using normalised skin temperature of different age group as physiology parameter in the uniform air-conditioned space

By using the predicted thermal comfortability of individual inside the building, thermal comfort prediction could be a good tool for energy efficiency as well as to create the efficient cooling system in buildings. This study will be presenting on the Thermal State Prediction Model (PTS) by using the skin temperature and the skin temperature gradient as a factor as well as evaluate the thermal comfortability state based on different age group. By using the surface area of the body and clothing insulation, normalisations process was introduced in this study to solve the issue of different in each individuals. Experiments were carried out on different human and skin temperature and thermal sensation level were recorded at every minute throughout the experimental procedure. The experimental location was simulated with about 18°C to 27°C to create the cooling, cold to room (natural) environment. It was observed that the thermal comfortability/state is able to be established by the combination of skin temperature and skin temperature gradient. Support Vector Machine(SVM) and Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) were used to classify the data with four model input situation. Normalised skin temperature was able to predict with a higher accuracy than the non-normalised skin temperature. It was also observed in this study age could also affects the thermal comfortability and skin sensation.Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Design and development of technology enhanced learning tool for computer network related course

This project is an initiative with an aim to contribute to the engineering community and the society as a whole by developing a website which offers a course with learning materials targeted to the secondary school, pre-junior college students and anyone who is not from computer, IT and engineering background. A literature review is carried on the available framework to develop a website and the programming languages to generate course content. The theme of the website is customized to have the desired look. Testing with different browsers and screen sizes is also performed to ensure its readiness for users across different devices. The outcome of this project is a course site which is ready to be hosted on a web server.Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical and Electronic Engineering