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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An ordinary week for COVIDTimes. Some interesting breach data from the OAIC and discussion about why the COVIDSafe app is not quite delivering yet.
Interesting to hear EPIC has the gig in the ACT – boy will that be a change!
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Irish contact tracing app puts COVIDSafe to shame
Chris Griffith 9.20am 27 July, 2020
With more than 1250 community transmission cases of COVID-19 in Victoria, you’d think that Australia’s COVIDSafe contact tracing app could help solve the riddle of where the infections are coming from.
However, we know the COVIDSafe has yet to find a community infection that hasn’t been also traced by manual contact tracers.
That’s in contrast to Ireland’s Covid Tracker app. The BBC reports data supplied by the Irish health service that in the two weeks since its launch, 91 users received what are called a “close contact exposure alert” – a warning that they had close contact with another user who subsequently tested positive to COVID-19.
There are a few things to say about it. First, we understand Government Services Minister Stuart Robert’s statement that Australia’s COVIDSafe app is in contrast a backup tool that is used to verify the work of manual contact tracers. We also understand it has been written in a way that provides contact tracers with information about potential infections so that they can take direct action.
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Federal government's $2.5m out-of-pocket-costs website reaches 10,000 people
By Dana McCauley
July 26, 2020 — 11.42pm
A medical costs comparison website set up with $2.5 million of federal government funding to tackle bill shock has been accessed by fewer than 10,000 people in six months as consumer advocates fear surgeons scrambling to make up for income lost in the pandemic will charge even higher gap fees.
The Medical Costs Finder website, which Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt announced last year as part of the Morrison government's plan to address "excessive" fees charged by specialist doctors had just 9861 unique visitors in the six months to June 17, official data shows.
Consumers Health Forum chief executive Leanne Wells said the website must be overhauled so that prices charged by individual doctors, which leave some patients owing thousands of dollars, would be "visible and comparable".
Ms Wells said out-of-pocket health costs would "hurt families more than ever as a result of the economic impacts of the pandemic" and called on surgeons to "take into account the financial stress on individuals and families" when setting their fees.
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A world-leading Digital Health Record system for the ACT
Released 27/07/2020
The ACT Government is one step closer to delivering a world-leading Digital Health Record system, creating 100 new jobs for Canberrans and providing healthcare workers with improved access to patient information.
The ACT Government has contracted global software company, Epic, to implement their world-leading digital health record software across Canberra’s public health services. This includes ACT public hospitals, community health centres and nurse-led walk-in centres.
Minister for Health Rachel Stephen-Smith said the contract was a significant milestone for the ACT Health system.
“We are another step closer to transforming our public health system by building modern and sustainable technologies that will provide the best possible working environment for our healthcare staff.
“The new Digital Health Record will for the first time deliver a health record that follows the person through their entire journey within the public health system, from referral to discharge and into the community.
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https://www.miragenews.com/a-world-leading-digital-health-record-system-for-act/
A world-leading Digital Health Record system for ACT
The ACT Government is one step closer to delivering a world-leading Digital Health Record system, creating 100 new jobs for Canberrans and providing healthcare workers with improved access to patient information.
The ACT Government has contracted global software company, Epic, to implement their world-leading digital health record software across Canberra’s public health services. This includes ACT public hospitals, community health centres and nurse-led walk-in centres.
Minister for Health Rachel Stephen-Smith said the contract was a significant milestone for the ACT Health system.
“We are another step closer to transforming our public health system by building modern and sustainable technologies that will provide the best possible working environment for our healthcare staff.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/epic-wins-114m-act-digital-health-records-platform-deal-551004
Epic wins $114m ACT digital health records platform deal
By Justin Hendry on Jul 29, 2020 1:29PM
System expected to come online in 2022.
The ACT government has selected US-based electronic medical record software company Epic to deliver the territory’s digital health record platform at a cost of $114.1 million.
The 10-year contract, announced on Wednesday, will see the Epic software deployed across Canberra’s entire public health system, including public hospitals and community health centres.
ACT Health approached the market for a provider last August after receiving funding to the tune of $151 million for the project in the 2018-19 budget.
The new platform will introduce a single health record that captures all clinical interactions with patients in one central repository for each of the territory’s 400,000-strong population.
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https://ia.acs.org.au/article/2020/an-app-to-take-charge-of-your-health.html
An app to take charge of your health
The need to take control of your own health records was the idea behind River City Labs’ latest tenant, Wanngi.
By Staff Writers on Jul 28 2020 09:59 AM
The need to take control of your own health was the driving idea behind River City Labs’ latest tenant, Wanngi.
Wanngi is a health management app allowing users to manage medical and fitness information, including symptoms, immunisations, and medication reminders, in one secure online location, particularly for people who see multiple doctors.
“In early 2017, I realised people are disconnected from their health information,” Wanngi founder Maree Beare told Information Age.
“We decided a mobile application championing the best health treatment for people by empowering them and their doctors to make informed decisions about their wellbeing was desperately needed in the market.”
The service came about with the realisation that over two million Australians had opted out of the My Health Record, partly due to privacy and security concerns.
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/practice/app-review-cure-id-crowdsourcing-cures-infectious-diseases
App Review: Cure ID - crowdsourcing cures for infectious diseases
The FDA's app aims to use the hive-mind to help cure difficult-to-treat infectious diseases
30th July 2020
Cure ID is from America's Food and Drug Administration - it’s aim is to crowdsource potential cures for difficult-to-treat infectious diseases.
Doctors who appropriate a registered drug for an unregistered indication — perhaps because antimicrobial resistance has left them no choice — can upload a case report into its searchable database.
It aims to record clinical outcomes when drugs are used for new indications, in new populations, new doses or in new combinations.
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Thursday, 30 July 2020 09:49
Melanoma analysis firm develops virtual triage service that can identify skin cancer
MoleMap, a company that collects images of skin lesions, has developed a virtual triage service during the ongoing pandemic that has been able to identify skin cancer in 12% of high-risk patients who were examined.
A statement from the company said Australia had the world's highest rate of melanoma with more than 13.200 registrations each year and 1770 deaths annually.
Triage is a process for sorting injured people into groups based on their need for, or likely, benefit from immediate medical treatment.
The service was used by melanographers in Australia and New Zealand to test lesions remotely and refer high-priority cases for further diagnosis and treatment.
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http://medicalrepublic.com.au/an-app-to-shift-junior-doctors-mental-health/32407
31 July 2020
An app to shift junior doctors’ mental health
An app being trialled to boost junior doctors’ engagement with their mental health is being rolled out in NSW a month ahead of schedule, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Shift app was developed by the Black Dog Institute at the University of NSW and funded by NSW Health, and had a dedicated “dealing with the pandemic” module added ahead of its early release.
A NSW Health spokesperson said the department recognised the need for extra support for staff during the pandemic, and the Black Dog Institute “kindly agreed to accelerate their plans”.
Shift can be trialled until 4 August, and to date almost 200 junior medical officers (JMOs) employed in NSW – including interns, residents, registrars and junior career medical officers – have anonymously registered to have their symptoms of major depression disorder and general anxiety disorder studied.
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https://www.zdnet.com/article/social-services-secretary-apologises-for-robo-debt/
Social Services secretary apologises for robo-debt
Kathryn Campbell said the department is now aware that averaging ATO income data to determine a debt was a 'flawed assumption'.
By Asha Barbaschow | July 31, 2020 -- 07:09 GMT (17:09 AEST) | Topic: Innovation
Secretary of the Department of Social Services Kathryn Campbell has told a Senate committee she regrets her part in the hurt and harm caused by the Centrelink Online Compliance Intervention (OCI) scheme, colloquially known as robo-debt.
In her opening statement to the Senate Community Affairs References Committee on Friday, Campbell pointed to Prime Minister Scott Morrison's lacklustre apology in June, adding a similar one to the record from the department.
"On the 11th of June 2020, the Prime Minister apologised for any hurt or harm in the way the government had dealt with debt recovery. He went on to focus on how government could best undertake debt recovery and in particular, apply the lessons learnt from the income compliance program," she said.
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How Google harvests and uses your data, and what you can do about it
By Tim Biggs
July 29, 2020 — 12.00am
US technology giant Google’s business model is built on collecting data about consumers when they use its services. But what you might not be aware of is how deep, detailed and intrusive some of this collection is, and how you can take steps to control it.
Asking Google for answers has become second nature for many of us and whether we do that on our phones, PCs or with our voices, our queries are likely stored and tied to our specific Google accounts.
Whenever you have a question for Google, Google will remember it.
If you have an Android phone, or use your Google account with certain apps or services on the iPhone, there's a good chance the data associated with the apps you use and your physical location is also collected.
If you use the Chrome web browser, a record of sites you visit may be kept. Even if you're not signed in to your Google account, Google can use device identifiers to verify it's you.
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http://medicalrepublic.com.au/telehealth-rebates-down-patients-slowly-coming-back/32229
28 July 2020
Telehealth rebates down, patients slowly coming back
The dramatic rise in Medicare payments for GP attendances appeared to plateau in June, as telehealth consultations fell and face-to-face visits began to creep back up.
It’s possible that these movements back towards the norm reflect the sense that existed in June that the crisis had largely been averted in Australia, before renewed outbreaks in our largest cities put Melbourne back in lockdown and Sydney back on edge.
Three-quarters of a billion dollars has now been spent on the pandemic telehealth MBS items introduced in mid-March. These are legislated to run till September and then be reviewed, but look almost certain to continue beyond that date.
After the initial $600 million committed to telehealth in March, the government in last week’s economic and fiscal update allocated a further $619m for the 2020-21 financial year.
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/practice/could-wonders-telehealth-extend-performing-surgery
Could the wonders of telehealth extend to performing surgery?
Earlier this month an Italian surgeon used a robot to carry out a cordectomy on a cadaver while 15km away
28th July 2020
Since Medicare funding for telehealth was introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been debate over what can be done entirely from a distance and what can’t.
Despite the wizardry of modern technology, surely there must be some medicine that’s impossible to perform remotely when face-to-face contact is necessary.
As some of you may be thinking, surgery is one of the things that must be impossible to perform without being in the same room as the patient on whom you are to use the scalpel.
Right?
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/asia-pacific/new-outlook-telehealth
New outlook for telehealth
“In our journey towards virtual healthcare & telehealth in Western NSW, there was a really purposeful transition toward it, looking at some of the problem areas across our region as pain points we had to address,” said Dr Shannon Nott.
By Dean Koh
July 28, 2020 09:30 PM
On Day 1 of the HIMSS APAC Malaysia Digital Health Summit, Dr Shannon Nott, Director of Medical Services, Western New South Wales (NSW) Local Health District and Shehaan Fernando, Regional Director Population Health Management and Connected Care Informatics, ASEAN Pacific, Philips, together with HIMSS Chief Clinical Officer, Dr Charles Alessi gathered virtually at the session titled ‘New Outlook of Telehealth’ to discuss the opportunities and challenges in the implementation of virtual care.
How a virtual health service looks like in Western NSW
Western NSW, where Dr Nott is based at, covers about 250,000 square kilometers (about the size of Germany in terms of land mass) with 35 smaller rural community hospitals and 3 larger hospitals that provide sub-specialty care.
In those 35 smaller hospitals, there are significant challenges in medical workforce coverage and nursing. Dr Nott said that some years ago, they looked into how to provide support to staff on the ground through both real time/synchronous virtual healthcare models but also synchronous models through remote monitoring both in the hospitals and in the home spaces. They also explored how to assist clinicians in providing them with the best access to information for patients, utilizing digital platforms to share information between clinicians and to support staff to work as effectively as possible.
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https://www.zdnet.com/article/australian-medical-association-calls-for-telehealth-permanency/
Australian Medical Association calls for telehealth permanency
The measures put in place amid COVID-19 are 'strongly' supported by the AMA to become a lasting feature of Australia's health system.
By Asha Barbaschow | July 30, 2020 -- 05:50 GMT (15:50 AEST) | Topic: Innovation
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) has thrown its support behind making e-prescriptions and telehealth a lasting feature of Australia's health system, even once COVID-19 restrictions are eased.
The 2018-19 Budget funded a national electronic prescribing system with an aim to improve Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme efficiency, compliance, drug safety and data collection, and to enable a more efficient and user-friendly system for patients and prescribers.
That work was sped up in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Telehealth services were made available to all Australians in March and a fast-tracked e-prescriptions solution has also been pushed out.
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Media release - Dr Steve Hambleton appointed as independent clinical advisor
31 July, 2020: Australian Digital Health Agency (the Agency) Interim CEO Bettina McMahon today announced the appointment of Dr Steve Hambleton MBBS FAMA FRACGP(hon) FAICD as the new, independent clinical advisor to the executive team at the Agency.
“Dr Hambleton’s contribution to the Agency in the past has been invaluable in providing clinical expertise and a link to the medical profession. In becoming an advisor to the Agency executive team more formally, we are ensuring a strong clinical voice to the executive following the departure of Chief Medical Advisor Professor Meredith Makeham.
“Steve is a frontline GP and has worked with governments, the AMA and health professional organisations including medical, allied health, nursing and pharmacy,” she said.
He will join the executive leadership team as a clinical advisor and will provide clinical input to Agency governance committees. The appointment will commence on Monday 3 August and run through to January 2021.
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https://www.miragenews.com/dr-steve-hambleton-appointed-as-independent-clinical-advisor/
Dr Steve Hambleton appointed as independent clinical advisor
31 July 2020
Australian Digital Health Agency (the Agency) Interim CEO Bettina McMahon today announced the appointment of Dr Steve Hambleton MBBS FAMA FRACGP(hon) FAICD as the new, independent clinical advisor to the executive team at the Agency.
“Dr Hambleton’s contribution to the Agency in the past has been invaluable in providing clinical expertise and a link to the medical profession. In becoming an advisor to the Agency executive team more formally, we are ensuring a strong clinical voice to the executive following the departure of Chief Medical Advisor Professor Meredith Makeham.
“Steve is a frontline GP and has worked with governments, the AMA and health professional organisations including medical, allied health, nursing and pharmacy,” she said.
He will join the executive leadership team as a clinical advisor and will provide clinical input to Agency governance committees. The appointment will commence on Monday 3 August and run through to January 2021.
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https://www.hinz.org.nz/news/519057/Sponsored-data-to-reduce-digital-divide.htm
Sponsored data to reduce digital divide
Monday, 27 July 2020
eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth
The government hopes a new sponsored data partnership with
telecommunications companies will help reduce the digital divide by ensuring
people without data on their smartphones can still access health information
and services online.
Under the new deal, the Ministry of Health will pay for all mobile data charges
for 11 key health websites and two GP patient portals until June 2021, with
$424,000 earmarked to cover the cost.
The partnership with Spark, Vodafone and 2degrees covers patient portals
ManageMyHealth and health365 as well as Covid-19 and health information
websites such as Health Navigator and mental health support services like The
Lowdown. The number of sponsored websites will increase over time.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/oaic-records-highest-ever-number-of-monthly-data-breaches-551115
OAIC records highest ever number of monthly data breaches
By Justin Hendry on Jul 31, 2020 1:19PM
Since notification scheme began.
A sharp increase in the number of data breaches caused by ransomware attacks and the highest ever number of monthly notifications has been recorded over the past six months.
The findings are contained in the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s eighth notifiable data breaches report [pdf] released on Friday.
The report, which now covers a six-monthly period, reveals 518 notifications were received by the privacy and freedom of information authority between January and June 2020.
This represents a three percent decrease on the 532 notifications received between July and December last year, but a 16 percent increase for the same period last year.
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https://www.zdnet.com/article/1050-data-breaches-reported-to-australian-commissioner-in-12-months/
1,050 data breaches reported to Australian commissioner in 12 months
As health continues to hold crown as most breached sector in Australia.
By Asha Barbaschow | July 31, 2020 -- 03:53 GMT (13:53 AEST) | Topic: Security
The total number of reported data breaches in Australia for the 2019-20 financial year totalled 1,050, the first of two half-year reports from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has shown.
For the six months spanning January to June 2020, 518 breaches were notified under the Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) scheme, down 3% from the 532 reported in July to December 2019.
124 of those breaches occurred during May, the most reported in any calendar month since the scheme began in February 2018.
Most of these were attributed to human error, but OAIC said it has yet to identify a specific cause for the increase, explaining in its report [PDF] it was not aware of any evidence that suggested the increase was related to changed business practices resulting from COVID-19, given that notifications across the period were otherwise broadly consistent with longer term trends.
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http://www.healthintersections.com.au/?p=3041
Indian Covid-19 Telehealth Application (based on #FHIR)
Posted on July 29, 2020 by Grahame Grieve
A couple of weekends ago, HL7 India held the inaugural FHIR Connectathon for India. I was honoured to be ask to attend, and so I joined the main zoom channel several times. (Zooming into India is a poor substitute for actually meeting the people and getting good curry breakfast, lunch and dinner, but we make do with what we have).
The whole connectathon was very well organised – in fact, astoundingly so for a first time; kudos to the organisers and HL7 India. They might be late to the process, but they look like they’re running hard to catch up and overtake other countries.
India, btw, has a massive base of engineers who understand FHIR, since there’s so much outsourcing to India – India has always loomed large in the geo-resolution of hits on the FHIR test servers. But India hasn’t matched this with all the other parts of the health IT eco-system – business analysts, policy maker interest and experience, and the business eco-system around the engineers. That’s been changing in the last year, with India hosting the GDHP, and releasing a number of policy and architectural strategy documents this year.
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InterSystems TrakCare® Supports Healthcare Providers Worldwide to Deliver Better Patient Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic
InterSystems customers battling spread of the virus across the globe rapidly deploy unified healthcare information system
SYDNEY, Australia, July 30, 2020 – Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, InterSystems, a creative data technology provider dedicated to helping customers solve the most critical scalability, interoperability, and speed problems, has been both implementing and enhancing its InterSystems TrakCare® unified healthcare information system to help its customers in the fight against the global pandemic. Responding quickly to customer needs InterSystems has brought new systems, equipment – and even hospitals – online.
The company’s wider portfolio of products, including InterSystems IRIS® data platform, InterSystems IRIS for Health™, and InterSystems HealthShare® were also leveraged around the world during the crisis, though TrakCare is most heavily used by frontline medical staff, the heroes of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In February, as the crisis unfolded, InterSystems released global TrakCare functionality within the electronic medical record to help clinicians screen patients for COVID-19. The functionality leveraged World Health Organization (WHO) guidance and a link to the novel Coronavirus Global Cases tracking app provided by the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering in the United States. During the height of the outbreak in China, InterSystems staff went on-site to Amcare Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Beijing to bring it urgently live.
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https://www.pr.com/press-release/818124
EndoVault® Receives Secure Message Delivery Certification in Australia
Schenectady,
NY, August 01, 2020 --(PR.com)--
EndoSoft® is pleased to announce that EndoVault® 3.2.1.0 has been certified by
the Australian Digital Health Agency to use the Secure Message Delivery (SMD)
platform. EndoVault® 3.2.1.0 users will now communicate key components of
integrated and coordinated care of patients with any provider in the country,
that utilizes the SMD platform. All providers using the platform will also have
the National Authentication Service for Health (NASH) certificate of security
and be on the Australian Provider Directory to send secure messages. This
version of EndoVault® 3.2.1.0 will be released on July 30, 2020.
The key benefits of using the SMD platform include interoperability and
streamlining the workflow for healthcare providers. The SMD platform provides
enhanced security and prevents the unauthorized interception of clinical
information and documents. Any provider sending a message receives a
notification of the successful message delivery and decryption by intended
organizations or providers. SMD will reduce paper correspondence and the time
personnel spends managing clinical documents and information. These benefits
will improve the security, timeliness of clinical information, and therefore
improving the quality of care received.
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Chemo At Home delivering in-home treatments to Aussie patients who need it most
The company uses AvantCare, a cloud-based portal to manage its staff, patient care, and inventory nationwide.
By Aimee Chanthadavong | July 28, 2020 -- 03:38 GMT (13:38 AEST) | Topic: Innovation
Undergoing chemotherapy is not only a difficult process for patients but also their family members. That's what Julie Adams faced first-hand when her father was affected by emphysema and required to undergo continual treatments.
It was this difficult time that made Adams realise there needed to be another way for patients with compromised immune systems and mobility issues to receive treatment. This was when Adams, together with Lorna Cook, co-founded Chemo At Home.
The pair left their roles in the healthcare sector to start the Western Australia-based business which is aimed at helping individuals receive treatments, including chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and infusions, as well as medications for patients with other chronic diseases, from their home by trained nurses and allied health professionals.
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WA aged care group gets rid of legacy IT in cloud move
Juniper Aged Care has been moving all its systems to the cloud in what has so far been a 12-month project that will help it dedicate more funds to support its 4,000 Western Australian residents.
Senior Writer, Computerworld | 30 July 2020 6:00 AEST
Juniper Aged Care has been moving all its systems to the cloud in what has so far been a 12-month project that will help it dedicate more funds to support its 4,000 Western Australian residents.
With 26 premises in Western Australia, Juniper Aged Care decided to start moving all its applications to the cloud as it moved away from a local data centre. The move of applications to the cloud is the first step of a complete IT refresh that is expected to see the organisation benefit from less IT costs in the long term.
The challenges Juniper Aged Care faced moving to the cloud
Juniper ICT manager Dan Beeston calls it a 12-month exercise for a reason. As the aged care organisation decided to move from its Dell server environment—of eight blades and a storage area netwoerk (SAN)—with Microsoft Hyper-V virtualisation and 175 Windows servers all networked with Cisco switching, it opted for Amazon Web Services as it found it offered “significant” opportunities in data and analytics through available microservices.
However, not everything was cloud-ready. Beeston explained to Computerworld Australia that Juniper had some legacy software running on operating systems that no longer had support, so it had to work with some of its vendors to find a solution as not all were able to connect to AWS.
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https://itwire.com/market/wa-s-juniper-aged-care-leverages-boomi-platform.html
Sunday, 26 July 2020 21:41
WA's Juniper Aged Care leverages Boomi platform
Residential aged care provider, Western Australia’s Juniper Aged Care, says it has leveraged the Dell Boomi platform to drastically reduce IT expenditure and drive efficiency throughout the organisation, enabling it to focus on its core mission – “providing the best possible care to its residents and clients”.
According to Juniper Aged Care in order to improve efficiencies and transform its operations, it undertook a whole-of-business IT refresh, and while the first step of the strategy included shifting to a cloud-first model and replacing over 10,000 items of technology equipment across the organisation, a number of disparate business-critical applications had to be integrated for the desired benefits to be realised.
Dan Beeston, ICT Manager at Juniper, said the core driver behind the overhaul was to enable greater efficiency across its operations so more resources could be invested in caring for residents and clients.
“As a not-for-profit organisation, every dollar we save is another dollar we can invest in our residents and clients’ health and wellbeing, giving them the best possible quality of life,” he said.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/bupa-finds-new-chief-data-officer-550883
Bupa finds new chief data officer
By Ry Crozier on Jul 28, 2020 6:50AM
After Scott Barber moved to ASIC back in February.
Health insurer Bupa has brought Antony Ugoni from Seek into its vacant A/NZ chief data officer role.
Ugoni’s appointment was confirmed to iTnews by Bupa. He started mid this month, replacing Scott Barber who left Bupa back in January.
Barber has since taken up a role at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) as its chief data and analytics officer.
Ugoni comes from Seek, where he spent a combined seven years, first as its head of marketplace analytics and later as director of global matching and analytics.
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Telstra positions over-provisioned NBN downlink as a speed boost 'freebie'
By Ry Crozier on Jul 29, 2020 5:48PM
As NBN Co wraps up work on its side.
NBN Co will finish over-provisioning downlinks on most fixed line services by the end of this month, although at least one retailer is already marketing the change to customers as a “freebie” speed boost.
Over-provisioning was pushed by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) as a way to compensate for the amount of bandwidth used to carry data packets and ensure they reach their intended destination, which is known as protocol overhead.
The ACCC contended protocol overhead was the reason why NBN users never hit the theoretical - marketed - speeds of their plans.
In response, NBN Co agreed earlier this year to over-provision downlink speeds on fixed-line services by up to 15 percent.
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https://itwire.com/open-sauce/wireless-and-the-nbn-don-t-jell-good-old-ethernet-is-the-answer.html
Author's Opinion
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of iTWire.
Tuesday, 28 July 2020 10:14
Wireless and the NBN don't jell. Good old Ethernet is the answer
With the advent of the NBN, every Tom, Dick and Harry — not to mention Diana and her mates — is forced to use wireless Internet to some extent. For many people, this is an issue because of the poor speeds that their NBN connection offers.
The type of router they are using — in most cases, the one supplied by their provider is often flaky — also contributes to poor transmission. Finally, the type of building they live in and the presence of other devices that transmit signals could also be sources of interference.
The best way out, as I have found, is to avoid wireless and use Ethernet instead. I initially tried out a number of wireless range extenders and while these worked for a short period, they became ineffective thereafter.
After some years of trying, I gave up and decided to get some Ethernet ports put in. To a large extent, this was done because my son would often come to me and say, "Dad, the Internet is slow. Can you speed it up?"
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https://itwire.com/broadband/telsoc-throws-support-behind-broadband-advisory-council.html
Monday, 27 July 2020 11:59
TelSoc throws support behind Broadband Advisory Council
Australia’s telecoms industry association, the Telecommunications Society (TelSoc), has put its support behind the Federal Government’s creation of the Broadband Advisory Council which the government says is designed to ‘maximise’ the country’s economic upside and increase digital connectivity.
Commenting on the establishment of the Council, TelSoc president, Professor Reg Coutts noted the “dramatic increase in online activities during the COVID- 19 lockdown, and said that “providing people with good broadband was more urgent than ever”.
“There are millions of Australian yet to sign up to the NBN and of those who have already done so, millions more are struggling with a slow and unreliable service that must be upgraded as a matter of priority so that everyone can enjoy 21st Century Internet access”.
“TelSoc congratulates NBN Co and its staff members for their work in rolling out the network, which is the country’s biggest infrastructure project. We look forward to seeing this work continue as the NBN matures and one day reaches its full potential.
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Enjoy!
David.
7 comments:
I have a question I am hoping some on this blog might assist with. The Agency (ADHA) is advertising for a senior UX designer, a rile I am interested in. However, looking around I am not clear how any design would influence the likes of Epic. I am also struggling to find references to user-based workshops. So my questions are:
Are UX efforts only for the MyHR and Websites or does the Agency co-design UX with application developers?
Has anyone actually been involved in user-driven design collaborations with the Agency.
Appreciate that I am Anon as I hear this site attracts severe reprisals from the Agency.
UX and UI are two of the most important aspects underpinning the really successful uptake of an application. They are also two of the most neglected aspects of system design and always have been. The 'Agency' is no exception. First to market, hype, and a we'll fix that later attitude account for why UX and UI are pushed to the back of the system design priority queue.
Be not intimidated, fear not 'reprisals' - they are symptoms of management insecurity, ignorance and inadequate leadership. Reprisals are like a highly malignant cancer, metastasising widely and difficult to treat.
BTW, EPIC is big, bold and successful, beholden to none. In the world of healthIT that is their strength.
EPIS is not without its critics on Twitter:
@EPICEMRparody
Ironically the most criticism is aimed at their poor UX - too many clicks to get where you need to get to.
@12:37 Thanks for pointing that out. Unfortunately, being big, bold and successful, all too often embeds a sense of infallibility in the corporate culture which then leads to a reluctance to monitor, assess and respond, to 'pesky' customers' constructive, intelligent, suggestions for improving the way a system is used and how it can be made more efficient and user-friendly.
At some stage a company gets to a size that it becomes to big and risk adverse and losses it's ability to innivate, it becomes corperate culture.
There are always two types of software, the one people hate, and the one no-one uses.
In answer to the first posting - no I can't say I have ever seen open invitations or otherwise to engage in UX workshops. That is an interesting question - does this agency actually do open engagements?
Covid-19 has impacted hospital budgets worlwide and shot them to smithereens, much elective surgery has been put on hold, government budget deficits have risen hugely, small and medium businesses sre closing, liquidations are increasing, and jobs are evaporating.
What impact will these Covid driven developments have on hospital software vendors like EPIC, CERNER, ALLSCRIPTS, MEDTECH, and others?
AnonymousAugust 04, 2020 8:15 AM
Perhaps seek out others who have worked at ADHA and ask how well it sets you up (or not) for your next job. It can leave a stain. If UX is your thing then there are far better places to test your skills. Government lives it a SAp world that has been poorly implemented and never modernised. They still think radio with pictures is cutting edge.
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