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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There seems to be a lot of NBN and commercial news – with the Digital Health environment in Queensland seemingly still be causing trouble – to say the least!
I wonder who is going to step into the breech in FNQ to replace MMEx.
The saga with CSL and an inside job stealing data would seem to be a warning to all!
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Queensland Health's IT problems can be overcome, new eHealth head says
By Stuart Layt and Lucy Stone
October 15, 2019 — 9.12pm
The new head of eHealth Queensland insists he can turn the troubled Queensland Health IT system into a world-class tool, but only if all the state’s health bodies work together on it.
Damian Green took up the position last month, following nearly a year of trouble affecting Queensland’s health IT systems.
His predecessor, Richard Ashby, resigned in January following conflict of interest concerns.
Dr Ashby had been referred to the Crime and Corruption Commission for an alleged inappropriate relationship with a staff member involved in the rollout of the Patient Administration System (PAS).
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https://www.cairnspost.com.au/news/cairns/multimilliondollar-fnq-health-software-rollout-a-botched-it-project/news-story/081bcdfe1a6afeb1d1274d0caf4287ed
Multimillion-dollar FNQ health software rollout a 'botched IT project
'The Cairns Post
The Cairns Post revealed yesterday that the $35 million Regional eHealthProject, which was due to be completed last month, has been delayed due…..
Delayed hospital project sparks fury
The State Opposition has accused the Palaszczuk Government of wasting millions on a botched IT project in the Far North.
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Claim that hospital bosses ignored expert advice
The Cairns Post
A former health worker responsible for rolling out a software program to the Far North’s health facilities has revealed why the delayed project has experienced dramas since it was launched.
'We had problems from day one': Former health worker reveals why FNQ software rollout has stalled.
The Regional eHealth Project, a digital records program planned for the region's rural and remote health facilities, was due to be completed last month.
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Digital inclusion in Australia still has way to go
Three decades since Tim Berners- Lee unleashed the World Wide Web on to the world, progress towards closing the divide between those Australians who are and aren’t enjoying the benefits of his invention is stubbornly slow.
While the recently released Australian Digital Inclusion Index (ADII) created by Roy Morgan and supported by Telstra and partners shows Australia making broad progress in terms of improving access, affordability and digital ability, digital inclusion scores remain low among the elderly, disabled and low-income earners.
At the conclusion of Digital Inclusion Week last week, the chairman of the Australian Digital Inclusion Alliance and chief executive of not-for-profit social enterprise Infoxchange, David Spriggs, said the numbers masked growing inequality in digital access and skills across Australia.
“Our real concern is there are still significant gaps and those gaps are widening for a number of groups,” Mr Spriggs said.
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Thursday, 17 October 2019 11:00
Retail, healthcare lead the way in IoT adoption: survey
The retail and healthcare sectors are the two business and industry sectors leading Internet of Things (IoT) adoption around the world, according to a new survey on ‘intelligent’ enterprises.
The third annual “Intelligent Enterprise Index from global IT services provider Zebra Technologies shows that retail organisations – under overwhelming pressure to improve the customer experience - have gained the most momentum in the last 12 months, graduating from the bottom of the 2018 vertical Index rankings to nearly the top of the 2019 list - second only to healthcare.
And the Index reveals that a record 61% of enterprises worldwide are on the path to becoming “intelligent,” compared to only 49% in 2018.
Index scores are calculated using 11 criteria that include Internet of Things (IoT) vision, adoption, data management, intelligent analysis and more.
Index scores are calculated using 11 criteria that include Internet of Things (IoT) vision, adoption, data management, intelligent analysis and more.
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Doctor, patient details allegedly stolen in CSL espionage scandal
By Sarah Danckert
Updated October 18, 2019 — 10.48amfirst published at 12.00am
The doctor accused of corporate espionage against one of Australia's biggest companies, CSL, allegedly stole computer files containing patient information and the details of 800 doctors working with the blood giant, court documents show.
The documents show a trove of CSL's trade secrets, including information about a therapy that is key to CSL's profit growth, were allegedly taken in the raid.
The data breach at CSL's main operating subsidiary, CSL Behring, is part of a major alleged corporate espionage attack that has stung Australia's third biggest company.
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https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/one-million-pages-stolen-aussie-giant-accuses-former-exec-of-espionage-20191016-p5314d.html
'One million pages stolen': Aussie giant accuses former exec of espionage
By Sarah Danckert
October 16, 2019 — 4.32pm
Australian blood giant CSL has been rocked by an alleged corporate espionage attack, with a former "high level" employee accused of stealing tens of thousands of its documents - including trade secrets - in order to land a job at a key competitor.
CSL's main operating subsidiary, CSL Behring, has launched court action in America alleging its competitor, Dutch pharmaceuticals group Pharming, and former CSL senior medical officer Joe Chiao misappropriated CSL's trade secrets when they took 25 gigabytes of data.
Court documents reveal that CSL alleges the raid pilfered 1 million pages of company information across 21,000 files. CSL last week secured a temporary injunction against Dr Chiao and Pharming.
Born out of Commonwealth Serum Laboratories, CSL is Australia’s third largest publicly listed company and considered one of the country’s best ever exports with operations around the world and a market capitalisation of $114 billion. On Wednesday its shares, held by all major Australian super funds, hit a fresh record high of $253.83.
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CSL says no patient data was stolen by ex-staffer
Oct 18, 2019 — 1.23pm
Global biotechnology company CSL says based on its investigation to date, no identifiable patient data was obtained by its former employee whom it accuses of stealing trade secrets.
In a statement provided to The Australian Financial Review CSL looked to ease any concerns about stolen patient data.
"Any data involved was de-identified, aggregated information regarding the way that patients use CSL Behring’s and other products. We have no reason to believe these files contain any patient-specific or identifiable information."
As reported by the Financial Review on Wednesday, CSL has filed a lawsuit in the US against Dr Joeseph Chiao on October 1 accusing him of deliberately downloading highly sensitive, proprietary commercial information and trade secrets that the company believes he intended to pass to his new employer, Dutch group Pharming Healthcare Inc.
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Grand plans hatched for CSL attack at Budapest hotel
By Sarah Danckert
October 19, 2019 — 12.00am
Lush Margaret Island is an oasis that sits in the Danube River a stone's throw away from the buzz of Hungary's twin capitals Buda and Pest.
Marked by beautiful promenades, sprawling public baths and landscaped parkland, the island’s heritage hotel complexes are a favourite with the business conference set.
It was here in late May that two doctors held a secret meeting in the Grand Hotel Danubius to hatch a plan that would ultimately spark allegations of a massive corporate espionage attack on Australia's third-largest company, plasma giant CSL.
By October CSL's main operating subsidiary CSL Behring would be suing one of the doctors at the meeting in the US courts alleging he stole one million pages of CSL's trade secrets to land a plum job as executive medical director at rival group Pharming. The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald would break the news just as CSL was celebrating its 25th anniversary as a listed company, and as its shares hit fresh record highs at $253.83.
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Medibank moves on from ‘IT disasters’
Medibank is at the tail end of its tech transformation, having lifted its mobile app rating from one star — the lowest possible rating — to 4.7 stars, making it now the highest rated health insurance app in the app store.
The company's IT mission dates back to three years ago, when it was consistently slammed for its poor mobile app and subpar website.
"There were headlines about our 'IT disasters', when we couldn't deliver over a million tax statements," Medibank's senior executive for digital services and solutions Andrew Palmer told The Australian.
"We had the highest number of complaints to the ombudsman. Things weren't great. That cascaded to things like our Twitter feeds, and there was a lot of functionality we should've had that just didn't exist. We had regular outages across our digital platform, and customers are of course very vocal in sharing feedback about their digital experiences."
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MedAdvisor wins 3-year contract from Chemist Warehouse, Australia’s largest value pharmacy retailer
Key Highlights:
· Chemist Warehouse, the largest turnover pharmacy retailer in Australia, has selected MedAdvisor’s PlusOne pharmacy software for its 450+ pharmacies and signed a 3-year agreement with MedAdvisor.
· MedAdvisor will earn recurring SaaS licence fees plus patient messaging fees fromChemist Warehouse’s retail pharmacies for at least the next 3-years.
· MedAdvisor will provide Health Programs to Chemist Warehouse customers for the first time, creating a significant increase in the available audience for direct and in-pharmacy Health Programs.
· The Health Programs promote health literacy and improved medication adherence to enhance health outcomes and are principally funded by government (through Federal Government programs) and leading pharmaceutical companies (through MedAdvisor).
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Friday, 11 October 2019 13:45
Global PC market achieves record growth: analyst
The global PC market, inclusive of desktops, notebooks and workstations, grew 4.7% in the third quarter of this year to 79.9 million units, recording the best growth performance since the first quarter, according to a new analyst report.
Lenovo and HP placed first and second, with what analyst firm Canalys’ describes as “impressive performances”, particularly in Japan and the United States.
Lenovo shipped a total of 17.3 million units while HP shipped 16.7 million units.
Third-placed Dell also grew in line with the market at 5.2% and shipped 12.1 million PCs in the quarter, with Apple and Acer rounded out the top five, taking fourth and fifth places respectively, and also growing shipments - albeit by 1.5% and 0.8%. Canalys, however, warns that this is a short-term boost, effects of which could wear off as early as Q1 2020.
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Alcidion ASX Announcement
Appendix 4C: Positive cash quarter achieved in Q1, FY20 sold revenue up 16%
Oct 14th 2019
Highlights:
- $12.9M revenue already contracted for FY20; 16% increase on Q1 FY19;
- $2.5M of new contracts sold in Q1, adding $1.2M revenue to be recognised in FY20;
- Total sold revenue out to FY25 is $34.0M;
- Strategically important contract signed with Healthscope – first sale to a major private hospital group of our data and analytics capabilities;
- Cash surplus from operations of $136K for Q1 FY20; representing the third consecutive quarter of positive net cashflow; and improved cash reserves of $4.4M
Melbourne, Victoria – Alcidion Group Limited (ASX:ALC) (Company) has today released its Appendix 4C quarterly cash flow statement for the period ended 30 September 2019 (Q1 FY20).
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Wednesday, 16 October 2019 11:15
Nanomesh drug delivery may help in fight against antibiotic resistance
Scientists have found a way of fabricating nanomesh so that it can be used as a drug delivery system for antibiotics, in what could be a step in the fight against global antibiotic resistance.
A statement from Flinders University said its researchers, along with Japanese collaborators, had produced a nanomesh that was able to deliver drug treatments.
Flinders doctoral student Melanie Fuller tested the effectiveness of the nanomesh for a fortnight after two antibiotics, Colistin and Vancomycin, were added to the mesh with gold nanoparticles.
Ingo Koeper, an associate professor at the Flinders Institute for Nanoscience and Technology, said pieces of mesh 20cm by 15 cm were produced, containing fibres that were 200 nanometres in diameter.
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ADHA use of AWS Services to Support the National Clinical Terminology Service
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Sharing Knowledge About Immunisation – new website for parents
A new website is available to help parents find independent reliable information about childhood immunisations.
Date published: 14 October 2019
Type: News
Intended audience: General public
Sharing Knowledge About Immunisation (SKAI) is a new website for parents and carers of babies and young children which answers common questions about childhood immunisations.
The SKAI website includes:
- reliable information about childhood vaccines on the National Immunisation Program
- answers to common questions about childhood immunisations
- videos that explain how to get your child vaccinated
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Sydney LHD rolls out PowerChart Maternity for newborns
Nathan Eddy | 16 Oct 2019
Sydney Local Health District in New South Wales announced the rollout of the PowerChart Maternity system, which tracks a woman’s pregnancy and creates a fully integrated electronic medical record for newborn babies.
The system, which was developed by Cerner and tailored specifically to fit Sydney LHD, went into use on the first of the month, and is part of the wider digital transformation of the hospitals in Sydney and across NSW.
The main goal is to create an EMR for Australians starting from the moment they are born, which will put the individual medical history from day one in one place, and help clinicians reduce the paper workload through the elimination of duplicate records.
The PowerChart Maternity system generates a digital health record for babies born at Royal Prince Alfred and Canterbury Hospitals in the Sydney LHD, and that EMR is also connected to different health systems across NSW through integration with HealtheNet.
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Mobile devices release clinical time at Counties Manukau Health
Thursday, 10 October 2019
eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth
Counties Manukau Health has introduced more than 500 Windows 10 tablet devices for clinicians to use in hospital patient care and on community home visits.
The project started rolling out in September 2018 and now has more than 500 large and small screen devices used across the organisation, including 90 of the Microsoft Surface Go.
The Surface Go uses secure facial recognition for fast login and is installed with the organisation’s top 15 clinical apps, including Clinical Portal, eReferrals, eRadiology, ePrescribing and eVitals.
Health informatics and medical administration fellow Brian Yow says the mobile devices empower staff by allowing them to do things such as remotely view results and sign-off letters, as well as facilitate patient care by showing X-rays and ordering tests at the bedside.
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Clamp on crooks seizing 'ported' numbers
New regulations will help stop fraudsters using people's phone numbers to compromise their bank account details, email accounts and driver's licences.
Finbar O'Mallon
Australian Associated Press October 16, 2019 7:43am
While Australians are easily able to keep their number as they transfer between phone companies, the streamlined method also puts them at risk of being scammed.
But new rules set to be introduced by the end of April next year will mandate stronger verification measures for the transfer process, known as porting.
Telcos will be required to use new authentication measures to confirm the person bringing their old number is who they claim to be.
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Trujillo's legacy lives on in the NBN
The divisive American was back in the headlines this week as the current and former heads of Telstra battled it out over the NBN.
Oct 19, 2019 — 12.00am
Sol Trujillo. It's 10 years since the ex-Telstra boss left these sunburnt shores to return to his native United States, and still the mere mention of that name raises temperatures, provokes foul language and, occasionally, elicits gushing praise.
The enduringly divisive power of the moustached American was aptly demonstrated this week, when Telstra's current chairman John Mullen made the unusual decision to apologise for Telstra's role in undermining the construction of the national broadband network.
"There's no doubt in my mind that Telstra made life pretty difficult for the government to achieve its objectives at that time, and mea culpa that," Mr Mullen said on the sidelines of Telstra's annual general meeting. A barrage of commentary followed, as key players of the time came out of the woodwork to set the record straight.
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NBN Co downsizes wireless, satellite footprints by 130,000 'premises'
By Ry Crozier on Oct 17, 2019 1:25PM
Because those 'premises' don’t actually exist.
NBN Co has removed 130,449 non-existent “premises” from its fixed wireless and satellite footprints, the latest in a series of culls required as the company has cleaned up national address records it relies on.
The company’s weekly report [pdf] revealed the anomaly, which was first reported by former NBN Co CTO Gary McLaren on his blog.
“A total of 111,636 fewer lots/premises were ready to connect during the week,” the weekly report states.
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'Very wrong': NBN boss slams critics of Australia's broadband speeds
By Jennifer Duke
October 17, 2019 — 12.00am
National Broadband Network chief executive Stephen Rue has hit out at claims Australia's internet service is slower and lags behind countries like Thailand and Paraguay after major client Telstra publicly lashed the taxpayer-funded company.
The NBN Co came under fire from Telstra chairman John Mullen on Tuesday, who claimed the government would have saved money if it had allowed telecommunications companies to build the network themselves and merely subsidised regional areas where providing the service didn't make commercial sense.
Mr Rue said he had "no comment to make on history" as the NBN Co was created regardless and needed to be used to its full potential.
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NBN Co claims it will take Australia to 13th in the world for broadband
As CEO calls high-speed broadband a human right.
NBN Co claims Australia could rate as high as 13th in the world post NBN rollout for broadband - ahead of New Zealand and the UK - as long as its own measure of success is used.
The network builder provided advance copies of its inaugural ‘global broadband speed report’ - prepared by consultancy AlphaBeta - to The Guardian and The Sydney Morning Herald overnight.
iTnews revealed exclusively last week that NBN Co would launch the report to “debunk” country speed rankings by the likes of Akamai and Ookla, while offering up its own broadband speed ranking system.
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Friday, 18 October 2019 10:22
Home phones on the way out, mobiles in ascendancy: survey
Landlines may become extinct earlier than expected according to comparison website Finder which says that a recent survey of several thousand Australians reveals they are using mobiles and only have a home phone because it came with their Internet service.
Finder says the survey of 5,135 Australian home phone owners revealed that 56% of Aussies own a landline phone, but with just 18% regularly using it for phone calls and a further 18% who only have one because it came with their Internet.
And with the survey finding that one in ten (11%) home phone owners admitted to never using their handset, Finder says the number of Aussie homes with a landline connected has already declined.
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Telstra chairman blames Trujillo for NBN mess
Oct 15, 2019 — 10.31am
Telstra chairman John Mullen has put the blame for the NBN fiasco on the company's former chief executive, Sol Trujillo, blowing on the embers of one of the bitterest power struggles in Australia's recent political and corporate history.
Speaking at Telstra's annual general meeting on Tuesday, Mr Mullen said Telstra's "recalcitrance" had been a major factor in the Rudd government's decision in 2009 to build the national broadband network itself rather than commission the private sector to do it.
That decision will have cost Telstra about $3.4 billion a year in earnings by 2022, and has already resulted in a halving of its dividend.
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Telstra says Australia would have gotten 100Mbps without NBN
Ramps up criticism of government-backed telco project.
Telstra chair John Mullen says Australia would have ended up with 100Mbps services “to the majority of the population” - though not to regional and rural areas without subsidy - even if the NBN had never been dreamt up.
Mullen used the telco’s annual general meeting (AGM) to attack NBN Co on multiple fronts, including affordability and incursions beyond its mandate.
However, he stopped short of calling for a drastic policy change, instead asking only that NBN Co respect its boundaries.
But Mullen also suggested that the problems with the NBN today - which are the subject of two Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) inquiries - could have been avoided had the government not created the NBN in the first place.
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ACCC to examine 'unfair' pricing of most basic NBN plans
By Tim Biggs
October 14, 2019 — 3.51pm
The affordability of low-speed NBN connections is under fresh scrutiny, with the competition watchdog worried that consumers on basic and inexpensive ADSL services face a steep price rise when moving to an equivalent NBN plan.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has launched a new inquiry that will consider whether the prices of entry level NBN plans are reasonable. Few NBN service providers offer unlimited plans with low-speed 12Mbps downloads, and those that do price them at around $60 per month which is not significantly less expensive than the more popular 25Mbps and 50Mbps plans.
The ACCC cautioned NBN Co in late 2018 when a new wholesale pricing model resulted in many service providers ditching 12Mbps in order to push consumers towards faster plans. In April this year, the regulator made a statement expressing concern about the state of low-speed plans, and suggesting consumers should be able access such services at a similar price to their existing ADSL plans.
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Australians would have faster, cheaper internet had NBN not been built: Telstra chairman
By Jennifer Duke
October 15, 2019 — 10.43am
Telstra chairman John Mullen has claimed all Australians would have access to high-speed internet at a "fraction of the cost" if the government had not proceeded with the $50 billion National Broadband Network project.
Mr Mullen admitted to shareholders at Telstra's annual general meeting on Tuesday morning that the country's biggest telecommunications company should bear some of the blame due to its "recalcitrance in helping the government at the time".
"The creation of the NBN 10 years ago has had a seminal effect on our industry and Australia," Mr Mullen said.
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Telstra 'reassured' as ACCC looks into NBN pricing
Has wanted a price cut for the past year.
Telstra has called a fresh Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) inquiry into NBN Co’s wholesale pricing “reassuring”, renewing its hopes of less “costly and complex” wholesale products.
The telco has been locked in a public battle with NBN Co over prices it sees as “unsustainable”.
A year ago, Telstra CEO Andy Penn called for a “more than $20” a month cut to NBN Co’s wholesale charges because reseller margins were “rapidly falling to zero”.
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Monday, 14 October 2019 14:12
NBN Co ‘welcomes’ ACCC inquiry into broadband pricing
NBN Co, the operator of the National Broadband Network, says it welcomes any additional options the ACCC may identify through its Access Pricing Inquiry to promote competition and the interests of customers.
NBN Co issued a statement on Monday afternoon in response to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s announcement that it is undertaking an inquiry into whether Australians are able to access basic broadband plans on offer at “fair and affordable prices” - but qualified its response by saying it should be allowed "the opportunity to grow its revenues and re-invest in the network".
In a written statement to iTWire, an NBN Co spokesman said the company has been “working cooperatively with the ACCC, Retail Service Providers (RSPs) and industry groups to ensure our entry level wholesale pricing provides a smooth transition for customers migrating from legacy phone and internet services to the nbn”.
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NBN Co faces ACCC challenge to set prices
With particular focus on finding affordable options.
NBN Co is facing a formal challenge to its ability to set its own wholesale prices with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) opening a new inquiry with a particular focus on entry-level pricing.
The move is a fresh blow for NBN Co, which now faces both service standards and pricing regulations.
However, the ACCC’s intervention on entry-level pricing is also two years in the making, the result of a sustained campaign by NBN Co to squeeze customers on its cheapest plans, with disastrous results.
Though NBN Co has largely backed down on the 12Mbps squeeze, the damage has been done with an exodus of users from the tier, as providing services on it became uneconomic for retail service providers.
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ACCC launches probe into NBN pricing
The competition regulator is examining whether NBN Co’s wholesale charges are leading to unfair outcomes for some consumers.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission on Monday announced it was launching an inquiry into pricing and its effect on homes migrating from their existing ADSL services to the National Broadband Network.
The ACCC inquiry is particularly focused on entry level NBN plans, offering 12 megabits per second (Mbps) download speeds and 1 Mbps upload speeds, and whether consumers opting for these plans are getting a raw deal.
“We have concerns that NBN Co’s wholesale pricing has resulted in unfair outcomes for those consumers who have no need for, or do not want, higher speed plans,” ACCC chair Rod Sims said.
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Sorry Vocus, NBN isn't going anywhere
Oct 14, 2019 — 12.00am
Life is hard if you're a telco.
First it was the NBN barging in and kicking the private players out of the residential fixed-line market. Then it was an explosion of mobile competition forcing down revenue. Then it was the NBN charging so much for its wholesale plans that retailers couldn't make any margin.
And now, it's the NBN muscling in on the last sacred grove of the private fixed-line sector: the enterprise market.
Around a year ago, NBN Co announced plans to aggressively sell its fibre network to Australian businesses – a big development, since until then NBN had been focusing its attention on rolling out a residential network.
Within months it had done major deals with Woolworths, Coles and Australia Post: deals that would otherwise have gone to the private sector.
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NBN Co to revive HFC self-installation option
After pausing launch plans in 2017.
NBN Co is set to revive a self-installation option for the internal ‘NBN connection box’ in the HFC footprint, with up to a quarter of premises anticipated to be eligible.
The company is set to run a test of the self-installation option until mid this month, before making it available as a formal installation option for HFC users.
NBN Co already allows some fibre-to-the-curb (FTTC) users to self-install the NBN Co-supplied connection box (or NCD), provided they meet certain conditions - denoted by the “service class” for that premises.
The company had flagged a similar self-installation option for HFC users back in 2017, but a spokesperson told iTnews the “HFC self-install launch was paused in 2017 to allow us to further refine and build the process to maximise success for self-installations.”
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Enjoy!
David.
