Again, in the last week, I have come across a few news items which are worth passing on.
First we have:
Good medicine
By Elinore Martel
Internet pharmacies offer some savings and convenience, but consumers need to be aware of the limitations.
Melbourne mother Nicki Azzopardi used to save a bundle by buying her contraceptive pills online.
But when it was time to have a family and she took maternity leave, she kept on shopping at an online pharmacy.
"When I went on maternity leave, it was very useful," she says. "Particularly in those early months, to have all my formula and nappies arrive on the front doorstep. Not having to go anywhere was priceless."
It helped that her purchases were cheaper, too. Now, she says, most of her mothers' group shop online with Pharmacy Direct. "If you do those bulk orders, you get free postage, plus the convenience of having it delivered to your front door," she says.
More Australians may be looking to online pharmacies for savings, following warnings that price rises and the economic crisis are making people less likely to take their medicine.
But are there savings to be made by shopping online?
And what other options are there to save money on pharmaceuticals?
A spokeswoman for Choice, Elise Davidson, says shoppers with a Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) prescription pay the same for the drug regardless of where it is bought.
The best way to save money is to buy generic drugs, she says. These are copies of branded drugs, which may differ in colour or size because of the filler or other ingredients but must contain the same active ingredient as the original.
A reason many can save money by shopping online is because it's easier to make price comparisons and find the cheapest supplier, Davidson says.
Lots more here:
This is an interesting article. It is hard to see why people with chronic diseases should not be able to shop around for the cheapest supply of genuine Australian sourced medications (under no circumstances should anything be sourced from overseas). The obstruction from community pharmacy and the Guild in trying to block consumer access to such services is really ridiculous.
Second we have:
Survey: Elderly, poor narrow broadband service gap
PETER SVENSSON
June 18, 2009 - 6:50AM
Some groups that have lagged in signing up for high-speed Internet service, like the elderly, the poor and rural residents, have started to gain on those who have had a head start, according to a new survey.
Those conclusions come as the government is set to decide how to spend $7.2 billion in stimulus money on expanding the availability of broadband.
Broadband usage among those 65 or older grew from 19 percent in May 2008 to 30 percent this April, the Pew Internet & American Life Project said Wednesday.
Among households with annual income of less than $20,000, 35 percent subscribed to broadband this year, compared with 25 percent last year. By contrast, broadband penetration for households that earn more than $75,000 per year, already well connected, remained roughly unchanged at 85 percent.
In rural America, a target for the broadband stimulus money, broadband penetration is now 46 percent, up from 38 percent.
.....
The Pew study also found that people pay less for broadband where there is competition. The average was $44.70 per month for those with only one available provider, compared with $38.30 for others.
© 2009 AP DIGITAL
This story is sourced direct from an overseas news agency as an additional service to readers. Spelling follows North American usage, along with foreign currency and measurement units.
More here:
This is interesting in the sense that it shows the US is investing in broadband in less well served areas – much as intended in Australia. It also shows how disadvantaged groups are typically the least well served – which has implications for the value of Personal Health Records.
The costs are interesting in that these costs are for totally unlimited download levels as are typical in the US.
Some comparative Australian information is found here:
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/survey-says-72-of-homes-have-broadband-20090619-cmcf.html
Survey says 72% of homes have broadband
June 19, 2009 - 8:29AM
South Korea, where 95 per cent of homes have broadband, topped a world survey on access to the high-speed internet.
Among other Asia-Pacific nations, Australia ranked 11th with 72 per cent, Japan ranked 16th with 64 per cent, New Zealand ranked 25th with 57 per cent and China ranked 43rd with 21 per cent.
The United States, where just 60 per cent of households had broadband as of last year, ranked 20th in the survey of 58 countries by Boston-based Strategy Analytics, released on Thursday.
Third we have:
Concern over patient records proposal
19:48 AEST Wed Jun 17 2009
By Samuel Cardwell
Doctors will be forced to hand over patients' medical records to Medicare under proposed changes to laws, despite privacy concerns.
The Senate community affairs committee handed down its final report into the exposure draft of the Rudd Government's proposed increase to Medicare compliance auditing on Thursday night.
The legislation increases Medicare Australia's auditing powers, allowing them to require doctors to hand over patient records to substantiate their benefit claims.
The committee received numerous submissions from medical and privacy groups voicing concern with the fact that private medical records could be viewed by non-medical Medicare staff as part of the audit process.
More here:
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/826797/concern-over-patient-records-proposal
It is interesting that concern on this continues to bubble along – even in the mainstream media.
Fourth we have:
Cognos cures hospital staffing woes
Mater Health Services in Brisbane has implemented a workforce planning solution from IBM Cognos to help with management of its seven hospitals and 7000 staff.
"The power of the IBM Cognos workforce planning solution enables us to be forward thinking," claimed Caroline Hudson, executive director of people and learning at Mater Health Services.
Full article here:
http://tc106.metawerx.com.au/Rustreport/rustreport_jun19_09.pdf
Good to see investment in business systems is also proceeding in the hospital sector.
Fifth we have:
Aussie academic earns post as Obama health adviser
Catherine Hanrahan - Friday, 19 June 2009
AFTER a long career as a leading Australian health academic, Dr Lesley Russell (PhD) will be moving across the Pacific to share her knowledge on health policy with the US Government.
Dr Russell, a Menzies Centre for Health Policy foundation fellow at the University of Sydney, will relocate to Washington DC next month to take up a post with the Centre for American Progress, a Democratic think tank that advises the Obama Administration.
During her post – which will run for up to six years – she hopes to encourage an exchange of the best health policy ideas emerging from both countries.
“For a long time we used to look at the US and think there was nothing we could learn except how not to run a health system. I think that’s changing,” Dr Russell said.
She added that many health issues the two countries faced were surprisingly similar. She pointed to e-health as one example, noting both countries had recognised the importance of electronic patient records in creating health system efficiencies and preventing adverse events.
More here (registration required):
http://www.medicalobserver.com.au/News/0,1734,4689,19200906.aspx
Dr Russell goes on to say that Australia is ahead of the US with e-Health. With what President Obama is planning and the strategic leadership vacuum in the e-Health domain we have here this situation, even if true now, won’t persist for long.
Sixth we have:
Reactor delay threatens medical tests
Richard Macey
June 17, 2009
ALMOST two years after it was shut by a technical glitch, long delays in bringing Australia's new $400 million nuclear reactor into full commercial operation continue to threaten the supply of medical isotopes needed every week for thousands of cancer and heart tests.
Australia's production of molybdenum-99, used in making key diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals, stopped in January 2007 when the 49-year-old HIFAR nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights was shut down. Production was to have resumed using the new OPAL reactor, officially opened in April 2007 by the then prime minister, John Howard.
Those plans stalled when, three months after the opening, the Argentinean-designed reactor had to be shut down after 13 fuel core uranium plates came loose.
Since then the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) has been spending $100,000 a week importing the medical isotope from a South African reactor, one of only three in the world producing commercial volumes.
A global shortage was triggered recently when technical problems forced the Canadian Chalk River reactor to close. Now the third reactor, in the Netherlands, is to be shut next month for maintenance.
"South Africa is committed to maintaining Australia's supply," a Lucas Heights spokesman, Andrew Humpherson, said yesterday.
More here:
http://www.smh.com.au/national/reactor-delay-threatens-medical-tests-20090616-cgjr.html
This is a scandal in my view. How can it be that it takes 2 and a half years to get the new reactor actually doing what was one of its two core tasks (the other being research).
Seventh we have:
Hospital staff disciplined for false waiting lists
Nick McKenzie and Julia Medew
June 15, 2009
ROYAL Women's Hospital is disciplining staff it has blamed for contributing to the patient waiting list rorting scandal, after an internal investigation found hospital officials had acted in an "unacceptable" fashion.
The decision by hospital chief executive Dale Fisher to take action against a small number of employees is believed to have caused ructions, with claims that senior officials have not been held accountable.
In a statement to The Age, Ms Fisher stressed that the hospital's inquiry had been taken "very seriously". "The review has found that their behaviour and the actions of a small number of individuals is unacceptable and based on this, disciplinary procedures are now under way with those individuals," Ms Fisher said.
A hospital spokeswoman refused to reveal the seniority of the staff who had or were due to be disciplined, saying they came from "all levels".
Earlier this year, the hospital admitted it had been doctoring its elective surgery waiting lists for at least a decade. The admission came after The Age revealed that the hospital had privately admitted to the Department of Human Services that it had fudged its data.
More here:
This article seems to imply there has been a focus on disciplining junior staff for what were clearly policies put in place by management to improve their cash flow. If this is true it is pretty sad, to say the least! As I have said previously it is vital to ensure that any incentives that are put in place to improve performance do not have unintended consequences – such as fostering fraud and dishonesty for financial gain!
Eighth we have:
Microsoft to deliver free antimalware next Tuesday
Will deny beta of Microsoft Security Essentials, formerly 'Morro,' to users running counterfeit Windows
Gregg Keizer 19 June, 2009 07:30
Tags: windows xp, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Microsoft, anti-malware
Microsoft Corp. today said it will release a public beta of its free antimalware software, now called Microsoft Security Essentials, formerly "Morro," next Tuesday for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.
Although Microsoft was vague about a final ship date -- saying only that it would wrap up sometime this year -- it was crystal clear that it will deny the program to PCs running counterfeit copies of Windows.
Microsoft pitched Security Essentials as a basic antivirus, antispyware program that boasts a simplistic interface and consumes less memory and disk space than commercial security suites like those from vendors such as Symantec Corp. and McAfee Inc.
"This is security you can trust," said Alan Packer, general manager of Microsoft's antimalware team, when asked to define how it differs from rivals, both free and not. "And it's easy to get and easy to use."
He stressed the Security Essentials' real-time protection over its scanning functions, which are both integral to any security software worth its weight. "Rather than scan and clean, which it also does, it's trying to keep you from being infected in the first place," Packer said.
One of its most interesting features is what Microsoft calls "Dynamic Signature Service," a back-and-forth communications link between a Security Essentials-equipped PC and Microsoft's servers.
More here:
It is hard to know why Microsoft did not do this years ago – but it is good they are finally seriously on the case!
Lastly the slightly more technically orientated article for the week:
Review: Hard disk vs. solid-state drive -- is an SSD worth the money?
SSDs have the speed, but HDDs have the capacity
Lucas Mearian 19 June, 2009 07:57
Tags: storage, solid-state drives, seagate, hard-disk drives
Solid-state disk (SSD) drives are all the rage among techies. The drives use non-volatile NAND flash memory, meaning there are no moving parts. Because there is no actuator arm and read/write head that must seek out data on a platter like on a hard disk drive (HDD), they are faster in reading and, in most cases, writing data.
But SSDs are also much more expensive than their hard-disk drive (HDD) counterparts, which offer 300GB of capacity or more for less than $100.
Most consumer-grade SSDs from leading vendors now cost around $3 per gigabyte, while traditional hard drives cost about 20 to 30 cents per gigabyte for 2.5-in. laptop drives and 10 to 20 cents per gigabyte for 3.5-in. desktop drives, according storage market research firm Coughlin Associates Inc. In other words, even the cheapest 120GB SSDs are going to be around $300, though some are available on sale for less. So should you buy a high-capacity HDD for little cash or plunk down hundreds of dollars more for a fast, but lower-capacity, SSD? Or, should you wait?
Coughlin Associates founder Tom Coughlin said per-gigabyte prices for HDDs and SSDs are dropping at the same pace -- about 50% per year -- so the sizeable price gap between the two will remain for years to come.
Much more here:
What is clear is that these solid state drives have reached the stage where in critical mobile applications, where weight, reliability and speed are important, useful disc capacity is now affordable – if not yet exactly cheap!
More next week.
David.
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