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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Again a really quiet week – must be that all are just sick of COVID19 and hunkered down working away and keeping quiet!
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https://www.innovationaus.com/accenture-chosen-to-digitise-incoming-passenger-declaration-forms/
Accenture to digitise incoming passenger cards, add vaccine status
Denham Sadler
National Affairs Editor
13 September 2021
Irish multinational Accenture has been selected to digitise Australia’s incoming passenger declaration forms, which will collect COVID-19 vaccination status.
The Department of Home Affairs went to market late last year for a private provider to deliver it a so-called “permissions capability”, which was intended to initially handle visa processing and passenger declaration cards and eventually cover a range of government services such as permits.
It marked the third time in recent years the Coalition has attempted to rebuild the ageing visa processing system after scrapping a previous plan early last year, but not before spending nearly $100 million on the plan.
Now the federal government has finally confirmed that Accenture has been contracted to deliver the permissions capability. But the new platform will initially only serve to replace physical incoming passenger cards rather than visa processing too, as was initially planned.
It appears the government has now zeroed in on a new digital platform to assist with determining an incoming passenger’s COVID-19 vaccination status and ensuring this is in place before the border reopens, moving away from plans to reform the entire digital visa processing system for the time being.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/accenture-wins-contract-for-passenger-declarations-platform-569756
Accenture wins contract for passenger declarations platform
By Justin Hendry on Sep 13, 2021 5:58PM
Incoming passenger cards finally to get the chop.
Accenture has won a major deal with the government to build the platform that will digitise incoming passenger cards and collect information on the vaccine status of international travellers.
Home Affairs minister Karen Andrews revealed the contract with the consulting giant on Monday following a 10 month search for a “permissions capability” that could eventually extend across government.
The Australian Financial Review had previously reported the existence of the $60 million deal, though at the time the Department of Home Affairs declined to comment on what it described as “speculation”.
Home Affairs approached the market for the permission-based services platform in October 2020 with the intention of handling both digital passenger declarations (DPD) and simple visa processing.
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https://www.innovationaus.com/nsw-home-quarantine-pilot-to-use-facial-recognition-technology/
NSW home quarantine pilot to use facial recognition technology
Ben
Grubb
Editor
17 September 2021
The NSW government will use an app with facial recognition and geolocation technology to police a pilot of seven-day home quarantine for fully vaccinated overseas arrivals.
The pilot, which starts at the end of September and halves the current quarantine period in hotels, will be operated and monitored by NSW Health and NSW Police. The pilot will involve about 175 people selected based on a risk assessment framework, and may include some New South Wales residents, non-Australian residents and Qantas aircrew.
To be conducted over four weeks, with 30 already in use in South Australia. The pilot in South Australia involves participants using the Home Quarantine SA app being contacted via the app at random and required to provide proof of their location within 15 minutes. If this is not done, they are visited by police.
While South Australia’s trial has primarily involved its residents returning from New South Wales and Victoria, the New South Wales trial includes overseas passengers and is designed to be used to free up hotel quarantine and increase caps on arrivals, which are preventing many Australians from returning home.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/anz/orygens-digital-mental-health-platform-comes-nsw
Orygen's digital mental health platform comes to NSW
The MOST platform is slated to be installed in eight mental health services across the state.
By Adam Ang
September 13, 2021 03:07 AM
The New South Wales government has invested A$1.5 million to bring a digital mental health platform to eight of its mental health services. Its installation is targeted to be completed by 30 June next year.
WHAT IT DOES
The Moderated Online Social Therapy (MOST) platform provides round-the-clock integrated face-to-face and online therapy, tools and programmes for young people aged 15 to 25 with mental health issues.
It has a network of peers and mental health clinicians supporting young patients who can also interact with other patients through the platform. MOST also gives users the ability to create their own toolkit of strategies to access before, during and after their therapy sessions.
Introduced last year in July, it is designed by Orygen, an Australian non-profit research and mental health service organisation. The digital platform can be accessed via mobile phones, tablets and desktop computers.
MOST was piloted in Victoria and was rapidly expanded there as part of the state government's COVID-19 community support response.
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Doctor Care Anywhere acquires Tas telehealth company GP2U
Friday, 10 September, 2021
Doctor Care Anywhere Group has entered the Australian telehealth market with the acquisition of Tasmanian-based GP2U Telehealth.
GP2U Telehealth provides virtual GP services under the brand GP2U and tele-mental health services under the brand Psych2U, with the latter representing 78% of GP2U Telehealth’s total revenue.
Doctor Care Anywhere sees significant opportunities to grow national mental health and GP telehealth services in Australia and will focus on the ever-growing mental health burden in Australia, particularly in rural and remote areas.
Approximately half of all adults in Australia will experience mental health concerns at some point with an estimated cost to the economy of up to AU$220 billion each year1. In response to the mental health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Australian Government has increased spending on mental health to AU$6.3 billion for 2021-222, including a significant expansion of telehealth services to respond to high levels of mental distress in communities across the country.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/node/549575
Allscripts's EMR solution live at Flinders Medical Centre
The healthcare centre has replaced its previous patient administration system with the Sunrise EMR.
By Adam Ang
September 14, 2021 03:18 AM
Flinders Medical Centre, one of the largest hospitals in South Australia, has implemented the Sunrise EMR platform by health IT firm Allscripts.
The Sunrise EMR is a single-platform acute and ambulatory solution that delivers the most current information to clinicians at point-of-care delivery.
According to a press statement, its installation is part of a multi-stage rollout at Flinders that began with the replacement of the hospital's previous patient administration system (PAS) in March, followed by a second stage EMR implementation in its outpatient areas.
A third phase rollout in July saw clinical activation across the entire hospital, including inpatient areas, the emergency department and the remaining outpatient areas.
A final stage implementation is set to activate the maternity and neonatal areas in the Women’s and Children’s division of the hospital.
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Healthdirect Australia puts up funding to enable online booking at vaccine clinics
The funding offer for online booking service providers aims to increase digital bookings for COVID-19 vaccines.
By Adam Ang
September 14, 2021 03:15 AM
Healthdirect Australia, the country's national public health information service, has announced a funding offer for online booking service providers to set up online booking systems at vaccine clinics and integrate them with the government's official vaccine clinic search and booking portal, Vaccine Clinic Finder.
Available in 16 languages, the said portal is the only system in the country that shows vaccine appointments across clinics registered with the National COVID-19 Vaccine Taskforce.
WHAT IT'S ABOUT
The offer tasks booking providers to build an API according to the specifications of the federal agency to enable the integration of vaccination service providers with the Vaccine Clinic Finder.
They will create a contextualised booking URL to the Healthdirect national infrastructure, which will then provide users with in-context appointment booking details, such as vaccine brand.
The industry-wide offer can be tapped by eligible online booking service providers who have an existing product currently used by at least 10 approved COVID-19 vaccine service providers.
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Microsoft wants you to ditch your password. For good, this time.
By Brett Molina
September 16, 2021 — 8.02am
Struggling to remember all your passwords? You will no longer need one for Microsoft accounts.
The company announced in a blog post on Wednesday that it will give users the option to access their accounts without using a password.
Users can choose between downloading the Microsoft Authenticator app, a security key, a verification code sent to their phones or secondary email address, or Windows Hello, a biometric option that involves scanning a user’s face, iris or fingerprint.
With the Authenticator app, for example, users get notified on their smartphone during a login attempt, and receive a prompt confirming their identity.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/microsoft-readies-passwordless-logins-569891
Microsoft readies passwordless logins
By Juha Saarinen on Sep 16, 2021 11:51AM
To be expanded to Azure Active Directory as well.
Microsoft is making good on its long-held promise of eliminating passwords for user accounts, since the company belives logging on in that fashion is inconvenient and insecure.
Starting today, users can remove password authentication from their personal Microsoft accounts.
Instead, users can get login codes from the Microsoft Authenticator time-based one-time password (TOTP) app, which must be linked to their personal accounts.
Once Authenticator is linked to the personal Microsoft account, users can opt to set their logins to become passwordless.
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https://medicalrepublic.com.au/stay-of-execution-for-image-based-prescribing/53516
13 September 2021
Stay of execution for image-based prescribing
By Wendy John
The Department of Health has extended the deadline for image-based prescribing arrangements to 31 December 2021.
Originally 30 September, this revised deadline supports the ongoing need, especially in locked down states, for remote prescribing in the absence of electronic prescribing capability in some major practice management software (PMS) vendors.
Dr Charlotte Hespe, a Sydney general practitioner, said the transition to electronic prescriptions was straightforward for GPs.
“Most practice management software now has the capability to issue electronic prescriptions. The GP just needs to select the electronic script option instead of ‘print’ when issuing a prescription,” said Dr Hespe.
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https://www.itwire.com/business-it/hospitals-need-more-it-report.html
Friday, 17 September 2021 07:33
Hospitals need more IT: report
Zebra Technologies' Smarter, More Connected Hospitals report suggests the sector needs to pay more attention to IT.
"The COVID-19 pandemic has tested the efficiency of both clinical and administrative workflows," said Zebra Technologies global healthcare practice lead Chris Sullivan.
"As a result, today's healthcare leaders face the challenge of recalibrating technology systems to better support the needs of clinicians and patients."
Among the report's findings:
• 89% of executive decision-makers and 83% of clinicians responding agreed that real-time intelligence is essential for optimal patient care.
• 67% of hospital executives feel their organisations have not invested enough to maximise staff efficiency.
• Approximately two-thirds of executives acknowledge physicians and caregivers spend too much time locating medical equipment and supplies; over half report their administrative staff is overburdened and unable to complete their work during their shift.
* Approximately 80% of executives plan to automate workflows in the next year to improve supply chain management, make it easier to locate critical assets, better orchestrate emergency and operating rooms, and streamline staff scheduling.
• About three-quarters plan to use locationing technologies such as RFID to better track equipment and specimens, improve patient flow and security, create more dynamic workflows, and improve staff efficiency, safety and compliance.
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https://www.itwire.com/deals/lenexa-medical,-db-results-ink-mou-on-services-for-aged-care.html
Thursday, 16 September 2021 09:26
Lenexa Medical, DB Results ink MOU on services for Aged Care
By Staff Writer
Medical device company, Lenexa Medical and global digital business DB Results have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to further collaborate on opportunities for the implementation of Aged Care solutions which they say can be rapidly developed and delivered.
Lenexa Medical and DB Results say they aim to create significant efficiencies in the provision of Aged Care services through “innovation and leading-edge technologies, as well as via approaches to drive digital solutions”.
The companies say the MOU was signed so as to further strengthen an existing partnership announced in 2019, following the ongoing development of a pressure injury (PI) prevention solution.
“The partnership brings together DB Results’ global industry and digital business expertise with Lenexa Medical’s innovative solution, that will deliver targeted wound care information to aid in the prevention of pressure injuries.
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$19.75m funding for digital health
Monday, 13 September, 2021
Digital health commercialisation organisation ANDHealth has opened applications for its flagship program, ANDHealth+, after receiving a $19.75m funding injection from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF).
ANDHealth CEO and Managing Director Bronwyn Le Grice said, “The median capital raised by digital health companies in Australia is $250,000, and this program will offer companies up to $1 million in funding, alongside dedicated industry experts and supporting services. This is the single largest program to be made available to Australia’s evidence-based, clinically validated digital health companies to date and we expect there to be very high numbers of applications.”
Over the next four years, up to 25 high-growth-potential small to medium enterprises (SMEs) will be supported through ANDHealth+ and the ADHAF to de-risk their technologies from the point of view of institutional investors and global enterprise customers, accelerating their commercialisation and driving growth across key clinical, commercial and economic metrics.
The ANDHealth+ program will be augmented by the ANDHealth Digital Health Accelerator Fund (ADHAF), which will ensure investments made under the program will drive maximum impact and growth in selected SMEs.
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https://www.zdnet.com/article/nbn-contracting-system-described-as-pink-batts-on-overdrive/
NBN contracting system described as 'pink batts on overdrive'
Labor references its own contracting disaster as subcontractors detail issues at the coalface of NBN work.
By Chris Duckett | September 14, 2021 -- 08:03 GMT (18:03 AEST) | Topic: NBN
If a political party is willing to dig up references to its own stimulus program that saw four young men working on it die in under six months, then it must be smelling something rotten.
On Tuesday, ALP Senator Tony Sheldon described NBN's contracting model as "pink batts on overdrive".
The final report [PDF] of the Royal Commission into the Home Insulation Program said the government should have done more to protect workers.
"The reality is that the Australian government conceived of, devised, designed, and implemented a program that enabled very large numbers of inexperienced workers -- often engaged by unscrupulous and avaricious employers or head contractors, who were themselves inexperienced in insulation installation -- to undertake potentially dangerous work."
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https://www.zdnet.com/article/telstra-restructuring-approval-meeting-pushed-into-next-year/
Telstra restructuring approval meeting pushed to next year
As Australia's incumbent telco launched its T25 plan, the last parts of T22 still need to be completed.
By Chris Duckett | September 16, 2021 -- 05:35 GMT (15:35 AEST) | Topic: 5G
Telstra took the opportunity on Thursday to lay out its T25 future strategy as its approaches the end of its T22 strategy, which kicked off in 2018.
"If T22 was a strategy of necessity, T25 is a strategy for growth," Telstra CEO Andy Penn said.
But one of the most significant changes to the company has continued to be pushed back -- the restructuring of Telstra that was first announced last year.
Under the plan, Telstra would break itself into fixed, tower, international, and service entities that sit under a holding company. The service entity would gain the bulk of Telstra, owning its retail business, active electronics and radio access network, spectrum, as well as offering services and products to customers. However, the existing Telstra corporate body and its debt would sit with InfraCo Fixed.
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NBN Co to charge free fibre recipients that don't stick with higher speed plans
By Ry Crozier on Sep 15, 2021 11:56AM
For at least a year.
NBN Co has indicated that beneficiaries of its free residential fibre upgrades will be charged if they try to drop down from the higher speed service they ordered to qualify for the upgrade within the first 12 months.
After months of uncertainty, the company finally released a series of documents on Tuesday evening that formalise the conditions that residential fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) and fibre-to-the-curb (FTTC) users need to satisfy in order to qualify for a free upgrade to full fibre.
The documents also describe the end-to-end process and responsibilities that NBN Co and retail service providers (RSPs) will assume, in preparation for the commercial launch of the upgrade program in November.
On the qualification side, the minimum order needed to trigger a free fibre upgrade is just as NBN Co has described over the past six months.
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NBN Co accused of turning a blind eye to its subcontractor workforce
By Ry Crozier on Sep 14, 2021 5:18PM
Pay rate row escalates.
NBN Co has denied ignoring the welfare of its subcontractor field force that does its installation and maintenance work, though it relies heavily on the word of its delivery partners that everyone under them is treated fairly and lawfully.
CEO Stephen Rue and chief operating officer Kathrine Dyer were grilled by a parliamentary committee on Tuesday afternoon, which earlier heard damning evidence of pay and conditions from disaffected subcontractors.
The company was accused point-blank of turning a blind eye to the issues and not caring about people that performed NBN work.
“We do care,” Rue said. “I’m not sure we’re saying that [it’s not our problem].”
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nbn-subcontractors-describe-diabolical-working-conditions-569793
NBN subcontractors describe diabolical working conditions
By Ry Crozier on Sep 14, 2021 1:47PM
With a workforce practically dependent on a temporary payment.
Contractors performing installation and maintenance work for the NBN described diabolical working conditions to a parliamentary inquiry, with work unevenly distributed, poorly paid, and handed to an unending supply of inexperienced ‘technicians’.
The inquiry comes on the back of national protests earlier this year by subcontractors and unions over pay and conditions, which is also the subject of a separate NBN Co-commissioned KPMG audit.
Several NBN contractors and subcontractors that appeared before the committee on Tuesday shared their experiences of working on the project, including the gradual erosion of their income.
NBN Co is currently paying contractors a $75 top-up fee on each job they perform while the KPMG audit is underway.
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Tuesday, 14 September 2021 12:01
VIDEO Interview: MATE GM Mark Fazio talks NBN & mobile pricing, no change to upload speeds, Mates Rates & plenty more in wide-ranging chat.
GUEST INTERVIEW: Unlike some telcos that have halved NBN upload speeds and raised prices in the middle of the latest pandemic lockdowns, MATE hasn't done so, while also avoiding the ridiculousness of cheaper prices for 6 months after which prices go up, while offering competitive NBN and mobile pricing, and genuinely good deals through its new "Mates Rates" service.
Imagine your telco halving your 40Mbps upload speed to 20Mbps in the middle of the lockdowns where everyone is Zooming into meetings and home schooling, and then imaging those telcos raising your prices!
Well, various Telstra and other NBN RSP customers don't have to imagine this, as they're experiencing it as reported online, much to their chagrin and annoyance, as Whirlpool users have reported.
And what about the situation where NBN providers are now offering a discounted price for the first six months, only to have that price lifted after six months? Why don't NBN providers have the good sense to offer one price that stays consistent?
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Tuesday, 14 September 2021 09:24
Catholic Education Diocese of Wollongong ensures uninterrupted student learning with NBN Enterprise Ethernet
Ethernet services to provide a redundant network for the Catholic Education Diocese of Wollongong (CEDoW), ensuring that student learning is never interrupted by internet outages.
The Diocese of Wollongong incorporates 38 Catholic systemic schools, spanning across the Illawarra, Macarthur, Southern Highlands and Shoalhaven regions of New South Wales. It has 19,500 students and 2,500 staff, including casual employees, across the schools.
As part of its High Availability Network Architecture (HANA) strategy, CEDoW needed to introduce network redundancy for its schools. This meant putting a contingency network in place so that learning and teaching could continue as normal if the primary network services were to fail.
CEDoW said with the shift to remote learning due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, the added pressure on networks from cloud-based programs, and bandwidth-hungry technology such as streaming services, the CEDoW IT team and Vertel implemented a solution that could withstand these growing network demands.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nbn-co-asked-once-more-to-produce-detailed-financial-data-569738
NBN Co asked once more to produce detailed financial data
By Ry Crozier on Sep 13, 2021 12:13PM
For industry examination as part of regulated price review.
Retail service providers seeking to build a new model to set NBN pricing and cost recovery have sought a range of data from NBN Co to progress their work.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) reported that the request was made at a meeting on August 19, for which meeting notes were only published on Friday last week. [pdf]
RSPs have wanted a breakdown of NBN Co’s costs for several years now but have so far been thwarted in their attempts to access figures.
Data points from NBN Co are crucial to understanding key issues such as whether or not the costs of building the network so far are “efficiently” or “inefficiently” incurred, and how NBN services can be priced in future to meet industry and customer needs, in addition to the needs of NBN Co and its shareholders.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/australias-top-rsps-say-nbn-arpu-is-already-15-too-high-569722
Australia's top RSPs say NBN ARPU is already $15 too high
By Ry Crozier on Sep 13, 2021 6:01AM
Telstra, Optus, TPG, Vocus and Aussie Broadband give first indication of NBN price negotiation position.
Australia’s top retail service providers (RSPs) are approaching the renegotiation of NBN pricing with a jointly-held view that NBN Co’s average revenue per user (ARPU) is already $15 above where it should be.
A joint paper by Telstra, Optus, TPG Telecom, Vocus and Aussie Broadband, submitted to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) on September 1 and sighted by iTnews, proposes a restructure of how NBN Co accounts for its costs and of the charges it levies to recover them.
Industry flagged the need for a new model back in July, one that would separate the costs to build the NBN to date into ‘efficient’ and ‘inefficient’ categorisations, and limit NBN Co to recovering only those costs deemed to have been efficiently incurred.
RSPs have wanted a breakdown of NBN Co’s costs for several years now but have so far been thwarted in their attempts to access figures.
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Enjoy!
David.
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