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This weekly blog is to explore the news around the larger issues around Digital Health, data security, data privacy, AI / ML. technology, social media and related matters.
I will also try to highlight ADHA Propaganda when I come upon it.
Just so we keep count, the latest Notes from the ADHA Board were dated 6 December, 2018 and we have seen none since! Its pretty sad!
Note: Appearance here is not to suggest I see any credibility or value in what follows. I will leave it to the reader to decide what is worthwhile and what is not! The point is to let people know what is being said / published that I have come upon.
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https://www.innovationaus.com/govt-digital-id-system-a-house-of-cards/
Govt digital ID system a ‘house of cards’
Joseph
Brookes
Senior Reporter
14 July 2021
The federal government’s push for an economy wide digital identity system will leave it on the “wrong side of history”, an identity and data protection expert has warned, as legislation is finalised for the expansion of the controversial program to state governments and the private sector.
The Digital Identity system has been developed by the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) over the last six years at a cost of more than $450 million.
It allows users of federal government services to verify their identity and use it across multiple services by accessing an “identity framework” of identity and attribute providers, with Home Affairs verifying identity documents and biometrics.
It has faced criticism for repeated delays and a potentially major security flaw but will be pushed to state and territory services and the private sector as early as next year, with legislation enabling the extension and legal protections to be released by the end of 2020.
Independent researcher and consultant Stephen Wilson, whose Lockstep Consulting and Technologies firm has worked with Australian state, federal and US government agencies, said the program created a “house of cards” because it relies on a model that is fundamentally different to what citizens want and where digital service leaders are heading.
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My Health Record emergency access function FAQs and flowchart
Frequently asked questions
When can I use the emergency access function to access a patient’s My Health Record?
You may need to override a patient’s My Health Record access controls to obtain key health information in certain emergency situations.
However, it is expected that the need to use the emergency access function will be rare. You can only override a patient’s access controls to collect, use or disclose health information contained in their My Health Record where you reasonably believe that:
- it is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to an individual’s life, health or safety, and it is unreasonable or impracticable to obtain the healthcare recipient’s consent, or
- it is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to public health or safety.
Unless these requirements are met, you can generally only access a patient’s My Health Record in accordance with the access controls they have in place for the purpose of providing healthcare. Otherwise, you may be breaching the law and penalties may apply.[1]
Your organisation will be granted emergency access for 5 days. You will need to maintain accurate records of the circumstances that triggered your use of the emergency access function, so that you can refer to this information if further information is requested (e.g., to respond to a patient enquiry or a request for information by the Australian Digital Health Agency or the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC)).
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Telstra boss Andy Penn warns of cyber security threat from AI and supercomputers
Telstra chief executive Andy Penn has issued a stern warning about the rise of supercomputers and artificial intelligence, saying they pose one of the most serious threats to the nation’s long-term cyber security.
The resilience of the country’s digital infrastructure has become a critical focus for the Morrison government with Australian companies increasingly coming under ransomware attacks from cyber criminals and, at times, sophisticated state-based actors.
The inaugural chairman of the federal government’s Cyber Security Industry Advisory Committee, Mr Penn, said the country was facing an unprecedented threat from cyber criminals, but warned the digital landscape was continuing to evolve and increase in sophistication.
“Because more abundant and better resourced cyber criminals, cyber activists, and increasingly involved in nation-state actors, means that Australia and Australians are quite literally under constant cyber attack,” Mr Penn told the National Press Club on Thursday.
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https://www.afr.com/chanticleer/andy-penn-s-cyber-checklist-20210715-p58a3f
Andy Penn’s cyber checklist
The Telstra chief has simple but powerful advice for businesses that are leaving themselves open to cyber attack by failing to put in place basis protections.
Jul 16, 2021 – 12.00am
Telstra chief executive Andy Penn is perfectly placed to give fellow business leaders advice on how to prepare for and respond to the exponential growth in cyber attacks from criminals and state actors.
Penn is an expert thanks to his chairmanship of the industry committee advising the federal government on cyber security risks, which has access to confidential information about Australia’s cyber defences.
He also has first-hand experience on how to respond to threats thanks to Telstra’s own rebuffing of malicious attacks against its network and its indirect involvement in the many ransomware attacks to have hit its customers and suppliers.
For example, when logistics group Toll Holdings was hit with two separate ransomware attacks last year, there was a flow-on effect to Telstra, which used Toll for handling movement of goods in its supply chain.
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https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=f8e27871-eda0-4a17-89b9-459014aa536a
New laws proposed as ransomware threat intensifies
Governance Institute of Australia
Australia July 15 2021
Proposed regulatory changes to deter the ‘tidal wave’ of ransomware attacks may have governance and risk implications.
A Private Members’ Bill introduced to Parliament on 21 June proposes a mandatory ransomware disclosure scheme that would apply to all listed and unlisted companies, excluding small businesses, sole traders, unincorporated entities, and charities.
In his second reading speech, Shadow Assistant Minister for Cyber Security Tim Watts, who sponsored the Bill, referred to a ‘tidal wave of attacks’ that are becoming ‘an intolerable burden on Australian organisations’.
Governance Institute of Australia understands the Bill is designed to prompt debate on the issue, with the Federal Government reportedly considering a similar scheme although they are yet to make a policy commitment.
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Creating better patient outcomes through digital health care and technological evolution
Dell Technology
By David Deakin, Transformation and Healthcare
Industry Director, Dell Technologies Australia & New Zealand
Friday, 16 July, 2021
In recent years, global health services have embraced the rapid digitalisation of patient care, enhancing connectivity and access to resources in a drive to deliver better patient outcomes and improve the health of the population. While we have come a long way in a short time, there is still much work to do to ensure everyone has access to high-quality medical environments — realising the potential of the digital health landscape is key to this progression.
In the last year, momentum has grown, and intentions remain strong to further advance the digital transformation of health care — with the benefits generated from a tech-centric approach now evident across many service areas, including virtual care delivery, telehealth and remote monitoring.
Healthcare systems around the world have long faced the challenge of ageing populations and rural access to services, and the rise of chronic illnesses such as cancers, diabetes and heart disease. While digital technologies were deployed in many areas to help combat these illnesses and support health systems, existing challenges have been amplified in the last year. With medical systems overwhelmed or unable to open their doors, a survey of Australian healthcare professionals reported a 73% increase in the volume of telephone-based care since COVID and a 60% increase in use of video consultations.1
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https://wildhealth.net.au/human-element-poses-most-risk-in-cloud-migration/
15 July 2021
Human element poses most risk in cloud migration
By Rosalyn Page
As healthcare services migrate to the cloud, it’s also creating new threat vectors, with the healthcare, manufacturing and finance sectors accounting for 62% of all cyber-attacks in 2020, according to a report from global services technology company, NTT.
Yet while cloud services could be made more secure, it’s the human element that could pose the greatest risk.
According to Kate Carruthers, adjunct senior lecturer in the School of Computer Science and Engineering, the move to the cloud can help healthcare providers modernise their services but it can also expose issues and weaknesses with their existing applications that they have often used for years in an on-premise situation.
“And as SaaS (Software as a service) services and third-party applications start offering health-related services, there will be vulnerabilities revealed,” added Carruthers, who is also chief data and insights officer at the University of New South Wales.
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https://wildhealth.net.au/my-health-record-nice-work-if-you-can-get-it/
15 July 2021
My Health Record: nice work if you can get it
Since 2012 we have awarded one consultant more than $630m to build and maintain the My Health Record, a blowout on the original tender of over $100m, with the latest amendment being an additional $42m for the coming year.
The My Health Record (MHR) Accenture contract – CN3612552: National Infrastructure Services for the My Health Record System – has just been extended for another year at a cost of $42m. It is among the most expensive ICT government consulting contracts awarded ever by the federal government (these days it’s getting a lot of competition from Department of Home Affairs contracts). Considering the use and impact of the MHR so far, it probably could be awarded the largest ICT contract failure in terms of return on investment against stated objectives.
From 2012 until its new extension date of July 2022, the contract will have cost taxpayers just over $630 million.
To try to put that into some context:
- This single contract represents nearly 10% of the entire money the federal government has spent on the top 7 consultants – Accenture, Deloitte, PwC, KPMG, EY, Boston Consulting and Mckinsey & Co – from 2012 to 2020.
- According to Oz Tender, its actually more than the Department of Health spent on ICT contracts in the same timeframe. According to tenders for ICT let on Oz Tender, the DoH spent $161m between 2013 and 2019 on ICT contracts. If CN361255 is worth $630m between 2012 and 2022, and you average that at $60m per year (which isn’t how the cash likely flowed to Accenture for the contract) then in the same period the DoH contracted $161m of ICT contracts they would have spent $360m with Accenture. This may mean that the contract isn’t categorised wholly as an ICT contract or that Oz Tender has listed the original contract only in 2012 and isn’t capturing the contract in its numbers.
- JP2060, which is a recent department of defence tender for an entire healthcare system for the defence forces to be built and run over the next 15 years, has been estimated at between $250 and $400m in value over the period of the contract.
- In 2019/20 the federal government awarded 337 contracts with value over $20m, that totalled $28billion. The average value of these high value contracts is $83m. Presumably the first renewal of CN361255 in October 2019 for$42.3m was one of these high value contracts. Although this puts the Accenture contract in the middle of the field of the high value contracts for 2019/20, if you amortise the full $630m over 10 years, it averages at $63m per year as a cost to taxpayers. Wild Health can’t find any other contracts of this average value over 10 years in the Oz Tender system. But that’s not to say such contracts aren’t there…it’s a very big mess of data and we are still working through it.
All up CN361255 has been extended three times: in October 2019 for $42.3m, in December 2020 for $15m, and this year in July for a further $42.6m.
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https://www.miragenews.com/electronic-prescriptions-making-telehealth-595966/
15 Jul 2021 7:26 am AEST
Electronic prescriptions making telehealth easier for Australians
Australian Digital Health Agency ADHA Propaganda
Sydneysiders facing COVID-19 social distancing requirements are reminded they can ask their GP for an electronic prescription when getting their prescription medicines.
NSW residents, like the majority of Australians, can now choose an electronic prescription as an alternative to a paper prescription. To meet the Government’s commitment to deliver electronic prescriptions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the nation’s healthcare sector has worked together to achieve this digital innovation.
Amanda Cattermole, CEO of the Australian Digital Health Agency said “Sydneysiders facing COVID-19 social distancing requirements are reminded they can ask their GP for an electronic prescription when getting their prescription medicines.
“More than 12 million electronic prescriptions have already been issued, as healthcare providers and patients see the benefits of going digital,” she said.
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https://ajp.com.au/news/going-electronic/
Going electronic
New grant set to revolutionise medication management in aged care facilities for patients, pharmacists and prescribers
Residential aged care facilities are set to receive funding that will allow them to implement an Electronic National Residential Medication Chart (eNRMC) system.
The funding was part of the 2021-22 Federal Budget package to support improved medication management and patient safety in residential aged care facilities.
Adoption of an eNRMC is optional, however use of these systems “is encouraged to ensure safe and accountable medication management,” according to a release issued by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) this week.
“The use of an eNRMC reduces medication errors and supports greater flexibility, communication and coordination between aged care staff, prescribers and suppliers, through access to real time information about medicines prescribed and administered to a resident,” the PBS said.
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Thursday, 15 July 2021 11:58
Fred IT’s electronic prescription makes consultation easier for patients, doctors, and pharmacists
Pharmacy IT solutions provider Fred IT is using Twilio’s Programmable Messaging API and Twilio Studio to deliver electronic prescriptions that provide access and convenience to patients, doctors, and pharmacists in Australia.
Fred IT leverages Twilio’s Programmable Messaging API and Twilio Studio to provide electronic prescriptions to millions of Australians.
Electronic prescriptions, or ePrescriptions, allows patients who have registered for My Script List (MySL) to order their prescriptions on local pharmacies via WhatsApp.
This innovation makes it easier for them to manage their ePrescriptions, and safer for healthcare professionals and patients during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
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Webinar • My Health Record ADHA Propaganda
Everything you want to know about My Health Record: Q+A with subject matter experts
Event details
When
Thursday,
22 July 2021
12:00pm - 12:30pm (AEST)
Thursday,
29 July 2021
12:00pm - 12:30pm (AEST)
Thursday,
5 August 2021
12:00pm - 12:30pm (AEST)
Thursday,
12 August 2021
12:00pm - 12:30pm (AEST)
Thursday,
19 August 2021
12:00pm - 12:30pm (AEST)
Thursday,
26 August 2021
12:00pm - 12:30pm (AEST)
Where Online
Hosted by Australian Digital Health Agency
Contact us
General enquiries
Phone: 1300 901 001
8am - 5pm (AEST/AEDT) Monday - Friday
Email: help@digitalhealth.gov.au
Join the Australian Digital Health Agency for our informal Q+A sessions on My Health Record, open to healthcare providers and non-clinical staff working within primary care, hospitals and other health settings.
Come along with your questions and concerns and we will attempt to clarify any issues during the session.
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https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/professional/huge-rise-in-very-helpful-electronic-prescribing
Huge rise in ‘very helpful’ electronic prescribing
The number of electronic prescriptions being used in Australia is increasing by 500,000 every week.
14 Jul 2021
The continued
growth of electronic prescriptions is being supported by a Federal Government
subsidy that is funding general practices to prescribe via SMS, and it was
recently announced that the scheme will continue until at least the end of
September.
Dr David Adam, a member of RACGP Expert Committee – Practice Technology and
Management (REC–PTM), welcomed the extension to a system he says has been
working very well.
But Dr Adam would also like to see more clarity regarding any proposed funding
support for electronic prescriptions beyond that date, with the current subsidy
meaning the SMS prescriptions are free for GPs to issue.
‘Overall, I think everyone involved can be really pleased, the system seems to
be working really well,’ Dr Adam told newsGP.
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https://soundcloud.com/adhapodcast/allergy-podcast-hcp/sets
My Health Record: Allergy management for healthcare providers
ADHA Propaganda
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https://apo.org.au/node/313155
Exfiltrate, encrypt, extort: the global rise of ransomware and Australia’s policy options
13 Jul 2021
Publisher International Cyber Policy Centre
Resources Exfiltrate, encrypt, extort: the global rise of ransomware and Australia’s policy options
Description
As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept across the world, another less visible epidemic has occurred concurrently—a tsunami of cybercrime producing global losses totalling more than US$1 trillion. While cybercrime is huge in scale and diverse in form, there’s one type that presents a unique threat to businesses and governments the world over: ransomware.
Some of the most spectacular ransomware attacks have occurred offshore, but Australia hasn’t been immune. Over the past 18 months, major logistics company Toll Holdings Ltd has been hit twice; Nine Entertainment was brought to its knees by an attack that left the company struggling to televise news bulletins and produce newspapers; multiple health and aged-care providers across the country have been hit; and global meat supplies were affected after the Australian and international operations of the world’s largest meat producer, JBS Foods, were brought to a standstill. It’s likely that other organisations have also been hit but have kept it out of the public spotlight.
A current policy vacuum makes Australia an attractive market for these attacks, and ransomware is a problem that will only get worse unless a concerted and strategic domestic effort to thwart the attacks is developed. Developing a strategy now is essential. Not only are Australian organisations viewed as lucrative targets due to their often low cybersecurity posture, but they’re also seen as soft targets. The number of attacks will continue to grow unless urgent action is taken to reduce the incentives to target Australian companies and other entities.
This policy report addresses key areas in Australia where new policies and strategies and improved guidance are needed and also where better support for cybersecurity uplift can be achieved. The recommendations include arguments for greater clarity about the legality of ransomware payments, increased transparency when attacks do occur, the adoption of a mandatory reporting regime, expanding the official alert system of the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), focused education programs to improve the public’s and the business community’s understanding and, finally, incentivising cybersecurity uplift measures through tax, procurement and subsidy measures. The authors also recommend the establishment of a dedicated cross-departmental ransomware taskforce, which would include state and territory representatives, that would share threat intelligence and develop federal-level policy proposals to tackle ransomware nationally.
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How technology can enhance the food offering in aged-care homes
By Tammy Sherwood, CEO of Person Centred Software Australia*
Wednesday, 14 July, 2021
It is well documented that technology can significantly enhance the operations of an aged-care home, particularly through empowering those delivering direct care to residents. It is important to be aware, however, that care technology isn’t solely developed to support the carers of an aged-care home.
Food is such a crucial part of a person’s life; it embodies their identity and culture. For people living in aged-care facilities, mealtimes can be incredibly meaningful experiences amongst friends and relatives. Facilities need to provide residents with a healthy and balanced diet rich in nutrients, whilst meeting any dietary requirements they may have. Catering for a substantial amount of people, each with their own bespoke dietary needs, requires a lot of skill in a short timeframe.
In aged-care homes that still use paper-based monitoring, catering teams often have the unnecessary burden of double-entry administration. When changes are made to a resident’s diet, for instance, a manual form is filled out and sent to the kitchen, where a double entry is then completed to update the kitchen records. Double entry of dietary records may also have to be replicated for other areas of the facility where the data needs to be held. Unfortunately, in some cases, by the time all the records are manually updated across an aged-care home, the information could be obsolete and need updating again. This can become a repetitive process when you consider the many different clinical dietary requirements such as allergies, dislikes, preferences and cultural needs.
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Is technology adoption truly key to unlocking efficiencies in clinical workflows?
By Dr Ron Weinberger, CEO of EMVision
Tuesday, 13 July, 2021
The spotlight has been on our healthcare system for the past year and a half as we’ve navigated and managed the immense COVID-19 challenge. During this time, it’s become evident that technology can, and should, play a critical role in shaping the future of health care.
One way in which technology is playing a vital role is by revolutionising clinical workflows, streamlining processes and offering patients the best possible care. The challenge though is that new technologies are often considered expensive or difficult to implement so decision-makers must identify what technology is truly going to benefit operations and have a lasting impact.
Here, I outline a few of the key ways technology can unlock and drive efficiencies in a clinical setting.
Improving precision
If we look at how ultrasound has evolved over the past few decades, we’ve witnessed significant developments ranging from the miniaturisation of devices to the evolution of real-time and 3D/4D imaging. On top of this, we now have probes that can plug into a smartphone, with integrated artificial intelligence (AI), to create a low-cost ultrasound system that even a novice can use to successfully acquire images pretty much anywhere.
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The $7 million question: Why isn’t the COVIDSafe app tracing these new cases?
by Sonia Hickey | Jul 13, 2021 | Digital, Featured, Ladder |
With contact tracers struggling to track the Delta variant spreading in Sydney, many are wondering what happened to the app that built for that very purpose.
This morning, MP Julian Hill asked why the COVIDSafe App wasn’t being used to trace people in Sydney. With 89 new cases discovered today, with 75 of those cases linked to previous positive tests, it’s a decent question to ask. There has been a litany of problems with the government’s app, leading many to question what happened to the millions of taxpayer dollars spent on it, and whether they plan to fix the long-standing issues with the service
There were initial concerns about the collection and use of data and privacy, and given the great failure that was the 2016 online Census and the widescale privacy breaches associated with My Health Record, these concerns certainly continue.
Then there were the hoax messages that the Australian Federal Police were called to investigate after many users reported receiving a text when they were further than 20 kilometres from home.
Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that an early version of the app accidentally informed several users that they had ‘tested positive for Covid-19’, causing members of the public to attend testing clinics in an anxious and distressed state, only to find out the app’s information was totally incorrect.
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https://www.wapha.org.au/health-professionals/general-practice-support/data-hosting/
Data hosting
17 June 2021
Primary Health Insights, the health data storage and analytics platform initiated and built by PHNs, is now operational.
The roll out of the data onboarding process and governance audits has been completed and most of the 27 participating PHNs are now storing de-identified patient data, sourced from general practices, in their secure lockboxes.
Lead by WAPHA, his has been the largest and most complex national project undertaken by PHNs, and the first at this scale by PHNs operating as a collective.
Ultimately, Primary Health Insights will allow PHNs to analyse the de-identified data collected and provide new insights to general practices. This will enable practices to deliver better patient care and lead to improved health outcomes by supporting data driven continuous improvement.
Primary Health Insights is a highly secure environment that has passed independent cybersecurity tests against industry and government benchmarks. It has also undergone, and will continue to undergo, stringent privacy impact assessments, as part of the operational processes and governance framework of the platform.
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How NSW Health IT deployed its Sydney COVID-19 vaccination centre
The CIO Australia Show: Sydney Local Health District CIO Richard Taggart describes the implementation that inoculates 7,000 Australians every day, with higher numbers planned.
CIO Podcast Sponsored by okta | Learn more
Just months ago, Australia seemed to have the COVID-19 pandemic control. The population was getting back to work and life began to seem like it had returned to normal. But this serious virus has reared its head again with quarantine leaks resulting in new outbreaks and a fresh round of mini government-mandated lockdowns in Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland. Now, a year and a half into the global pandemic, just over 4% of Australians are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, which lags behind other Western nations by significant margins.
But Richard Taggart, CIO at Sydney Local Health District, and his team are doing their utmost to drive those numbers higher, deploying scalable technologies that are now enabling more than 7,000 Australians each day to get their jabs at a mass vaccination centre at Sydney’s Olympic Park. The facility went live on 10 May 2021 with priority vaccinations for healthcare, emergency services, and border and quarantine workers being administered by 200 registered nurses and midwives.
Taggart says he has worked on complex projects before but none with this level of scrutiny and speed. He says providing citizens with COVID vaccinations is one of the “biggest games in town” as people want borders to open so they can go on holiday and feel safe. “I’ve got a few more grey hairs than I have had previously, and so have my team.”
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Why IoT is mission critical to monitoring all the vital signs of healthcare logistics
By Nick Hoskins, ANZ Country Manager, Cloudera
Thursday, 08 July, 2021
Time delays and inaccurate deliveries can create a logistical headache in the healthcare sector. For healthcare providers, these obstacles may result in reputational damage, scheduling challenges and additional costs. From a patient’s perspective, the implications can range from delays in appointments for repeat prescriptions through to something more serious if supply chain disruption has impacted a chronic care treatment plan. For the most part, such issues can be avoided.
To overcome logistical hurdles, the answer is Supply Chain 4.0. McKinsey has defined this as “the application of the Internet of Things… the use of advanced analytics [and] big data in supply chain management: place sensors in everything, create networks everywhere, automate anything, and analyse everything to significantly improve performance and customer satisfaction”.
Supply Chain 4.0 is the interconnection of all parts of the supply chain, which improves demand forecasting and supply replenishment. This way pharmacies can avoid running out of medicine, for example, with notifications sent to the supplier when a product needs to be reordered as soon as it is taken off the shelf.
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https://allevents.in/fawkner/dental-health-and-my-health-record/10000161722328839
Dental Health and My Health Record
Jul 15, 2021 - Sep 9, 2021 ADHA Propaganda
Dental Health and My Health Record
Dental Health
and My Health Record
About this Event
Moreland City Libraries and Merri Health are providing these free health information sessions where you can learn about the importance of dental health and what your My Digital Health Record is.
Please book only for the adults attending. Please note this is an information session not a dental check up.
Thursday 15 July with Urdu interpreter
Due to changes in COVID-19 restrictions this event may change. Please check the library Facebook page or website for updates.
Registrations essential.
You may also like the following events from Moreland City Libraries:
- Happening on, 11th June, 01:00 pm, Online English Conversation Club in Online
- Happening on, 14th January, 07:00 pm, Movie Chat in Online
- Happening on, 25th February, 06:30 pm, Moreland Writing Circle in Online
Also check out other Health & Wellness Events in Coburg.
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Comments more than welcome!
David.
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