Here are a few I have come across the last week or so. Note: Each link is followed by a title and a few paragraphs. For the full article click on the link above title of the article. Note also that full access to some links may require site registration or subscription payment.
General Comment
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Really a quiet week with the feature being – from my perspective – just how few see #myHealthRecord as in any way central to healthcare delivery in Australia. I think the ADHA has a rather inflated view of its role and importance.
Otherwise we have the usual titbits from all over.
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My Health Record avoids cybersecurity breaches despite dizzying growth in usage
But Monash IVF the latest healthcare organisation to be hit by a cyberattack
The compromise of Monash IVF marks the latest in a string of cyberattacks on healthcare providers but the government’s controversial My Health Record (MyHR) system escaped compromise during the last financial year, with no malicious breaches recorded despite the addition of more than 550 million documents to the system over the past year.
The figures, contained in the latest annual report by the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA), highlighted the rapid growth of MyHR since it was changed from an opt-in program to an opt-out program a year ago.
This rapid growth was driven by the addition of some 480m Medicare documents, 35m prescription and dispensing-related documents, 11.3m pathology reports, 2.45m diagnostic imaging reports and 2.4m documents related to the Australian Immunisation Register – all reflecting the typical volumes of data attributable to the first year of the system being actively used across a broad range of health services.
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Could blockchain be the answer for Australia's digital health record?
With privacy and security concerns still plaguing My Health Record, Gartner fellow and VP David Furlonger ponders a future where blockchain could actually help.
Australia's My Health Record has been met with security and privacy concerns since day dot. The legislation wrapping the medical file in so-called protections had to be amended to allay the privacy concerns that led to 900,000 Australians opting out of the centralised digital health records system over a year ago.
Earlier this month, the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) -- the agency responsible for oversight of My Health Record -- revealed a handful of occurrences where the security of the contentious medical records system was compromised.
38 matters were reported, 37 were counted as breaches. Most were the result of administrative errors such as "intertwined" Medicare records or processing errors when creating records for infants.
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Priceline can now track its customers in real-time
Nov 11, 2019 — 4.40pm
Australia's Priceline Pharmacy network has changed the way its managers track what products people are buying and when they shop the most with a new app that collects and displays near real-time data.
The move into real-time reporting is a change from how the stores – operated by ASX-listed Australian Pharmaceutical Industries (API) – have operated for years, whereby executives visit stores each month and log information manually that is later turned into store reports.
James Matson, IT retail innovation lead for API (Priceline), has developed an app that lets HQ check in on real-time information about what people are buying and when in any given store.
The most up-to-date information previously available came in the form of reports that could be generated at the end of each day.
API's IT retail innovation lead, James Matson, developed the new app "Heart in Hand" in a few weeks, using Microsoft's PowerApps software suite.
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eConsult model aims to bridge rural–urban chronic disease health gap
A new model giving patients and GPs in western Queensland access to input from city-based specialists is set to launch next year.
13 Nov 2019
The Australian-first eConsult model is aimed at GPs and rural patients with complex chronic diseases in Queensland who will be able to gain input from chronic disease management specialists without a face-to-face consultation.
The model is a variation of that used by top US healthcare organisation, the Mayo Clinic.
Under these models, GPs who might be considering referring their patient for an outpatient visit in a distant city instead email a general physician with a number of targeted questions, to request specific advice. The general physician responds within 72 hours, and the patient then returns to the GP to talk through the advice.
Evidence from overseas has shown eConsults can cut waiting times, reduce hospital presentations, and reduce the need for long, expensive trips to seek hospital care in major cities.
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The model is a variation of that used by top US healthcare organisation, the Mayo Clinic.
Under these models, GPs who might be considering referring their patient for an outpatient visit in a distant city instead email a general physician with a number of targeted questions, to request specific advice. The general physician responds within 72 hours, and the patient then returns to the GP to talk through the advice.
Evidence from overseas has shown eConsults can cut waiting times, reduce hospital presentations, and reduce the need for long, expensive trips to seek hospital care in major cities.
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eHealth NSW's new service management platform used by over 140,000 staff
It hopes to eventually save healthcare staff around 500,000 hours of work.
On a daily basis, the NSW public health system has around 17,000 people spend a night in its hospital system. It also has, on average, six and half thousand presentations to emergency departments, 1,000 surgeries, and helps give birth to 217 new lives every day.
To improve the efficiency behind the operations of NSW hospitals, eHealth NSW wanted to adopt a new service management platform as part of its broader 10-year digital transformation [PDF], said Farhoud Sahimi, executive director of eHealth NSW Service Delivery, at the Now At Work Conference in Sydney on Thursday.
In September last year, eHealth NSW signed on [PDF] ServiceNow to provide a service management platform for its IT services, ticketing for multiple administrative functions, knowledge management, and certain HR services.
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Australian GPs 'among the world's happiest'
An international survey of GPs suggests less time spent on admin work and electronic records are contributing to higher levels of job satisfaction
15th November 2019
Australian GPs have generally good working conditions and are more likely to report being satisfied with their jobs than almost any others in the world, a study suggests.
An international survey has placed Australian GPs just behind those in Norway in self-reported job satisfaction and far ahead of Sweden, the US and Germany.
European researchers examined survey results in 11 countries on factors like average consultation time and practice size, in a bid to figure out what made a happy doctor.
The researchers found that Australian GPs worked 10 hours less on average per week than those in France or Germany — something they described as a key element of job satisfaction.
They also noted, with approval, that Australian GPs reported spending 10% of their working time on admin tasks compared with 22% in Sweden and 20% in France and Germany.
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Australian Digital Health Agency Project
The National Allergy Strategy is working with the Australian Digital Health Agency to improve the quality of patient allergy information in My Health Record.
There are a number of activities that will be undertaken during 2019-20 to improve allergy information in My Health Record and encourage allergy health professionals to utilise My Health Record more frequently. We will also be engaging with consumers to provide education about the importance of allowing all health professionals to access their allergy information as well as the importance of the accuracy of their allergy information if adding this information themselves.
This project aims to:
- Help standardise the allergy information in My Health Record
- Help make allergy information more accessible within My Health Record
- Encourage more health professionals working in allergy to access and upload patient information in My Health Record more frequently
- Educate consumers about allergy information in My Health Record
Content created 12 November 2019
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Legislation for e-scripts passed
Get ready to ditch the paper: New legislation provides framework for electronic prescriptions
Legislative changes passed late last month are paving the way for the use of electronic prescriptions across the country.
The amendment to the rules for PBS/RPBS claims provides the legislative framework for prescribers and their patients to have the option to use an electronic prescription as an alternative to a paper-based prescription.
It also sets the rules for how electronic prescription should be differentiated from paper ones, including additional information that would be required from approved suppliers in relation to the supply of pharmaceutical benefits upon electronic prescription.
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Opening the gates for generics - E-prescribing requirements implemented in Australia
The Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) provides for and regulates government subsidies for the supply of certain medicines. A requirement to receive subsidised medicine under the PBS is that the medicine must have been prescribed by an approved medical professional in accordance with the regulations. Prior to 31 October 2019, doctors were free to prescribe PBS medicines by referring either to the brand name, or the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API).
In Australia, most doctors have chosen to prescribe by brand name, for example, a study in 2010 found that only 19.5% of prescriptions issued by GPs in Australia were issued with reference to the API.
With the introduction of new prescribing regulations on 31 October 2019, doctors are now required generally to prescribe with reference to the API and not the brand name.
E-Prescribing
Electronic prescribing (E-Prescribing) was introduced in Australia in 2019 as an alternative to conventional paper-based prescriptions. It was identified in the 2018-2019 Federal budget as a priority to improve efficiency, compliance, safety and data collection and forms a key part of the National Digital Health Strategy, which aims to provide paper-free medication management by 2022. The E-Prescribing initiative also included a commitment to implement API prescribing.
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Joint media release - 11 November 2019
Living Better Lab: Partnership to herald new age of tech and innovation in aged care
Technology that helps older people live better is not the stuff of science fiction.
A new partnership between the key peak bodies for aged care providers and the Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre (Digital Health CRC) – The Living Better Lab – will drive new innovations and better care for older Australians.
Aged & Community Services Australia (ACSA), the peak body for non-profit aged care providers, and The Aged Care Guild, the association of some of the largest private residential aged care providers, will unite with the Digital Health CRC to provide a platform for major initiatives that aim to improve the quality of life for older Australians.
The Lab will enable the trial of innovations such as a bed that could notify staff when immobile residents require repositioning to reduce the risk of injury and complications; and how a resident’s environment can be transformed into an empathetic space.
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A new partnership between the key peak bodies for aged care providers and the Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre (Digital Health CRC) – The Living Better Lab – will drive new innovations and better care for older Australians.
Aged & Community Services Australia (ACSA), the peak body for non-profit aged care providers, and The Aged Care Guild, the association of some of the largest private residential aged care providers, will unite with the Digital Health CRC to provide a platform for major initiatives that aim to improve the quality of life for older Australians.
The Lab will enable the trial of innovations such as a bed that could notify staff when immobile residents require repositioning to reduce the risk of injury and complications; and how a resident’s environment can be transformed into an empathetic space.
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Accenture to axe up to 70 executives
Nov 11, 2019 — 10.51pm
IT services and consulting giant Accenture will dramatically slash its local leadership team, with up to a quarter of managing director-level executives being shown the door after a second consecutive year of missing internal sales targets.
The Australian Financial Review has learned that local Accenture boss Bob Easton announced the plans to a shocked meeting of all local managing directors last Wednesday.
Accenture ANZ chairman Bob Easton told managing directors about the planned cuts last week.
In addition to flagging leadership departures, Mr Easton told the meeting that teams must be “right-sized” or cut to reflect the commercial performance.
The plan would involve the firing of managing directors, who are the equivalent level of seniority as partners in professional services firms like Deloitte and PwC, rather than a voluntary redundancy round being opened up.
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Melbourne joins international digital health ecosystem
Breaking down silos in health and social care.
Australia’s first digital health ecosystem has just launched in Melbourne as part of a global effort to break down silos and drive innovation across the health and social care sectors.
Hosted by RMIT University, the Melbourne Ecosystem will form part of the European Connection Health Alliance (ECHAlliance) - a global network operating in 78 countries.
The ECHAlliance is made up of over 16,500 health experts from across government, healthcare providers, researchers, insurers, patient groups, investment groups and start-ups, making it part lobby group and part think tank.
RMIT became involved in the initiative through its Barcelona hub, RMIT Europe, following a joint symposium last year with ECHAlliance on how healthcare providers can leverage digital technologies to provide for an ageing population.
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Chemist Warehouse smashes online sales record
Alibaba Singles Day brings in millions of dollars from Chinese consumers
12th November 2019
Chemist Warehouse has smashed its sales record for the Alibaba Singles Day shopping extravaganza, ringing up $20.8 million in just over three hours.
Last year, it took just under seven hours for the company to reach the same figure. The biggest growth occurred in the beauty and personal care and baby product categories.
Nancy Jian, chief operating officer of CWH China, says the event has become the biggest campaign on a sales-per-hour or per-store basis. However, Christmas and Boxing Day in Australia are still bigger overall.
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Apple Watch detects irregular heartbeats in US study
By Julie Steenhuysen on Nov 14, 2019 12:24PM
Identifying the sick or scaring the healthy?
Apple Inc's Heart study, the largest yet to explore the role of wearable devices in identifying potential heart problems, found the device could accurately detect atrial fibrillation, the most common type of irregular heartbeat, US researchers reported on Wednesday.
The results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), come as technology companies increasingly strike up partnerships with drugmakers as a way to gather large amounts of real-time health data on individuals.
Earlier this month, Alphabet Inc's Google bought the health tracking company Fitbit for US$2.1 billion.
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Stratasys 3D-prints replicas of human hearts and other organs for surgery preparation and research
3D printers are creating replicas of real human hearts and other body parts that can be used by surgeons preparing for an operation. A 3D body scan followed by 3D printing can produce accurate replicas of people’s internal organs that look and feel like a real organ.
The technology is being demonstrated in Australia today by 3D technologies company Stratasys at a 3D Technologies in Medicine Workshop in Melbourne.
Jay Beversdorf, head of applications engineering and channel development, says Stratasys can mimic human tissue by mixing six “photo polymeric materials” with different mechanical and visual properties.
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https://www.miragenews.com/national-health-funding-body-says-technologyone-just-what-doctor-ordered/
14 Nov 2019 3:30 PM AEST
TechnologyOne Just What Doctor Ordered, Says National Health Funding Body
Australia’s NHFB Praises Service and Consulting for SaaS Project
BRISBANE, 14 November 2019---The organisation responsible for administering Australia’s $50BN in public hospital funding, the National Health Funding Body (NHFB), has completed a major step in its digital transformation with help from TechnologyOne, Australia’s leading enterprise Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company.
The NHFB is an independent statutory authority. Its role is to administer funding to the country’s 143 Local Hospital Networks (LHN), including advising the Treasurer on the Commonwealth Government’s contribution, monitoring payments from State and Territory governments and reporting on the overall public hospital funding pool.
Although it was only established in 2011, the NHFB’s information technology infrastructure, which had been built in a relatively short time, was primarily on-premise and involved a significant number of manual processes, says Chief Executive Officer, Shannon White.
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MEDrefer, Hyland healthcare partnership aims to streamline referrals process
Nathan Eddy | 15 Nov 2019
Connected healthcare solutions specialist Hyland Healthcare has partnered with Australia-wide directory and e-referral delivery system MEDrefer to help healthcare organisations form an interoperable environment for referrals.
By integrating Hyland’s OnBase enterprise information platform with MEDrefer Manager, a hospital can have a centralised intake of referrals, in order to manage and route the requests, and facilitate better communication between health professionals.
The partnership will also enable broader coordination of the central intake of referrals received electronically, by fax or hard copy into a universal form for acceptance, triaging and processing.
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Civica CareLink brings Simply Helping services into the cloud
Nathan Eddy | 13 Nov 2019
Simply Helping, a healthcare provider offering a range of community care services including aged and disability care, has tapped healthcare software services specialist Civica to deploy its cloud-based community care product suite.
The software integration will help streamline back-end processing and enable more Simply Helping's more than 1,000 staff members better support their clients from the field. Phase one of the rollout is expected in early 2020.
Carelink and the care planning tools will be deployed as cloud based tools, providing an integrated solution for the Simply Helping franchisees and deliver efficiencies through improved capture of data at point of care planning, including assessments and in optimising rosters.
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9 October 2019
AI and Teledermatology: An Unexpected Alliance
It’s no secret: medical professionals are overworked. Extreme fatigue, long patient wait times, and an undersupply of specialists add up to stressful conditions that risk compromising the quality of care professionals can provide. With skin cancer rates on the rise, affecting 2 out of every 3 Australians in their lifetime, patients need access to care. In fact, they need it yesterday.
Teledermatology Reimagined
Enter teledermatology, an innovative solution providers are adopting to connect them with their colleagues and patients alike for streamlined referral workflows. Already a welcome solution, pioneering doctors are taking this vision a step further by teaming up with the other most talked about innovation in dermatology: artificial intelligence.
Rather than telling you (the medical professional) what it can do, intelligent dermatology software like DermEngine are being actively molded to fit the needs of Australia’s rapidly evolving dermatology ecosystem. What does this look like? Let’s break it down to the three basics of your daily practice.
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New Zealand gets eMental Health Framework
Wednesday, 13 November 2019
eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth
The Ministry of Health is developing an eMental Health Framework to guide the use of eMental health services in New Zealand.
Mental health and addiction deputy director-general Robyn Shearer made the announcement at the International eMental Health Experts Forum in Auckland on 13 November.
Shearer told attendees that New Zealand’s mental health and addiction sector is in a period of change and “digital services are at the heart of that change and will play an increasingly important role”.
“The data shows the system is under pressure and unsustainable in its current form, hence the need for major change.
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Can your smartphone help you stop drinking?
A social media application to help people curb their drinking is generating big savings for businesses through less absenteeism.
Nov 13, 2019 — 12.00am
As Australians and their livers prepare to endure another festive season, a new study claims an online community aimed at helping people curb their drinking is saving $32 million as workers take fewer days off because of hangovers.
Committed users of the Daybreak smartphone app have also cut their spending on alcohol consumption by an average of $7000 annually, while taxpayers are seeing gains from lower healthcare and law enforcement costs.
All up, Daybreak is generating a 149 per cent return to the Australian economy for every dollar of the Federal Government's $3 million investment, prompting supporters to lobby Canberra for an increase in funding as an alternative to overstretched rehabilitation services.
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Federal government cyber resilience almost unchanged after three years
Dozens of agencies still struggling with mandatory infosec controls.
Cyber resilience across the federal government has barely improved over the past three years, with dozens of agencies still yet to heed the Australian Signals Directorate’s supposedly mandatory information security controls.
The government’s latest protective security policy framework (PSPF) compliance report, quietly released on Tuesday, reveals almost 40 percent of agencies were still to fully-implement ASD’s top four cyber mitigation strategies in 2017-18.
The strategies, which are considered the best way to avoid at least 85 percent of cyber intrusions, have been mandatory for non-corporate Commonwealth entities (NCCEs) since April 2013, though a more exhaustive list containing additional voluntary controls has since been issued.
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Vic Health & Human Services to ditch unsupported finance system for Oracle’s cloud
Current Oracle Financials version no longer supported by vendor
Victoria’s Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) is gearing up for a mega-project to shift its finance system to the cloud.
The department currently uses Oracle E-Business Suite Financials, hosted by Victorian shared services agency Cenitex. The system was originally implemented in 1995 and has been extensively customised. The most recent upgrade was in 2012, and currently the department is running version EBS 11i.
DHHS plans to shift to Oracle’s ERP Cloud SaaS offering.
“Almost 20 years from inception, the finance system requires renewal,” states a report commissioned by the department from DXC’s Oracle consulting arm, DXC Red Rock.
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Victoria Health embarks on massive Oracle ERP cloud shift
Legacy finance system set to get the boot.
Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) will dump its legacy Oracle corporate financial management system after more than 20 years in order to shift to the cloud.
The department this week revealed plans for a massive program of work to replace its out-of-support Oracle Financials system for Oracle’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) cloud system.
The system, which has been “extensively customised” since it was first introduced in 1995, is currently hosted by the Victorian government’s IT services provider Cenitex, but managed internally.
The current version, Oracle 11i, has evolved over the years “into a highly automated and efficient platform” utilising standard Oracle interfaces, as well as custom interfaces with TIBCO software enterprise application integration.
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Public sceptical about 5G benefits: Deloitte
Telstra and Optus may have launched 5G services in the market but both telcos will have to put up with some short-term pain before making a return on the billions they are pumping into the technology, according to Deloitte’s latest Mobile Consumer Survey.
According to Deloitte Partner and National Telecommunications lead, Peter Corbett, consumers remain sceptical of the benefits of 5G, with telcos yet to put a strong business case out for everyday Australians.
While the mobile operators are investing heavily to secure 5G spectrum and necessary infrastructure, Mr Corbett said they are unlikely to get consumers to pay for 5G mobile services.
“We are probably entering a period of disillusionment with the technology until it becomes clearer for consumers on how 5G will improve their day-to-day lives.”
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Optus calls for healthy 5G message
Optus is asking the Morrison government to rewrite the rule book on 5G, warning that a concerted effort will be required from the industry to stomp out the misinformation about the health threat posed by the technology.
In its submission to a federal parliamentary committee, established in September to examine the opportunities and challenges posed by the technology, Optus said the industry needed to get its message out to the public.
“Decades of reliable, independent scientific research demonstrate that mobile technology, including 5G, is safe. However, there is genuine concern within the community about safety issues,” the telco said in its submission.
“Some of these concerns are being fuelled by false and alarmist claims from unreliable sources — both industry and government need to work harder to counter any misinformation and ensure that the community is armed with the facts.”
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ACCC decides NBN needs to cater beyond its layer 2 remit
Consumer watchdog tests speeds at layer 7, while NBN is only mandated to do layer 2 connectivity, therefore the ACCC wants NBN to add extra headroom for TCP/IP headers.
When it comes to artificial constructs, the combination of the Australia Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and National Broadband Network (NBN) is an absolute world-beater.
At the heart of NBN is the loathed connectivity virtual circuit (CVC) pricing structure, which telcos have bashed since its inception.
Thanks to one of the original sins of NBN, that it needed to provide a return to government to keep it off the Budget papers, the per Mbps charge was created. From a user standpoint, this has been a handbrake on the network ever since.
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Wednesday, 13 November 2019 22:35
Missed NBN appointments costing Australians $15 million a year in ‘lost time’: ACCAN
Missed NBN appointments are costing Australians over $15 million per year in lost time, according to a report from the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN), which says that “this is simply not good enough,” and “unfair for every day Australians”.
Analysis revealed in ACCAN’s response to the ACCC’s draft decision on the NBN wholesale service standards inquiry finds that there is a “staggering” financial impact of NBN Co’s 320 missed appointments per day.
“We know that the process of connecting to the NBN or getting a fault fixed can be a real pain point for people,” said ACCAN Director of Policy, Una Lawrence.
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NBN Co resists calling in reinforcements for FTTC build
By Ry Crozier on Nov 13, 2019 7:10AM
As FY20 targets look as large as ever.
NBN Co is standing firm on its resourcing of the fibre-to-the-curb (FTTC) build, despite needing to double the number of serviceable premises and active connections in the next nine months to meet its FY20 target.
The company revealed strong progress in the construction of the network across all access technologies - bar FTTC - in its first quarter numbers released Tuesday.
FTTC has proven to be more complex and costly to roll out than first thought - and the quarterly numbers show those challenges remain.
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Tuesday, 12 November 2019 10:09
NBN Co lost another $1.1b in 1Q 2020, ARPU still at $45
Another day, another set of quarterly results from the NBN Co, the company rolling out Australia's broadband network, but little change from earlier quarters. For the first quarter of FY 2020, the company said on Tuesday it had recorded losses of $1.18 billion, compared to $875 million a year earlier.
Revenue reached $876 million, an increase of 41% on the corresponding quarter a year ago.
The average revenue per user, a stat that bothers the company a great deal, stayed at $45, well short of the $52 that it needs to achieve in order to break even. This is down from the $46 achieved for FY2019 though NBN Co did not mention this, preferring instead to say that the $45 represented a rise of $2 from 1Q 2019.
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NBN Co revenue jumps 41pc as customers take up faster plans
NBN Co has posted a 41 per cent jump in revenue for the first quarter of fiscal 2020, with the company rolling out the National Broadband Network starting to make more money from residential and business connections.
The company notched up quarterly revenue of $876 million, with average revenue per user (ARPU) for residential customers at $45, up from $43 in Q1 FY2019.
The jump in ARPU, according to NBN Co, comes from more customers taking up 50 megabit per second (Mbps) plans.
Meanwhile, revenue from business customers is also rising, increasing 50 per cent to $149m in the quarter, compared to the $102m posted in the same period last year.
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Enjoy!
David.
re: Priceline can now track its customers in real-time
ReplyDeletehttps://www.afr.com/technology/priceline-can-now-track-its-customers-in-real-time-20191108-p538pp
Priceline have an app that lets you manage your medications as well as a loyalty card scheme. They are also providing healthcare services and their pharmacists are therefor authorised users of myhr. They also offer healthchecks.
Have a look at their privacy policy and what they can do with the information they collect, especially the section marked "Use and disclosure of your personal information for secondary purposes"
https://www.priceline.com.au/priceline-policies/privacy-policy
I am not accusing Priceline of doing anything illegal; the worry is what they can do legally.