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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A rather boring week as I saw it with lots of bits and pieces going on! The highlight seems to be how many big administrative systems seem to not quite work as advertised!
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Qld Health's SAP implementation led to $540m in invoices paid late
By Justin Hendry on Sep 28, 2020 10:02AM
System issues, poor staff training mar project.
Problems with Queensland Health’s SAP enterprise resource planning system last year resulted in $540 million in late payments to vendors over just three months, the state’s auditor has revealed.
An investigation [pdf] by the Queensland Audit Office uncovered “significant issues” with the new S/4 HANA system after go-live in August 2019.
Some of the issues were technical or to do with the software's functionality, ultimately resulting in a re-platforming to improve performance; others were attributed the department's implementation and to a lack of user training.
The $135 million system replaced Queensland Health’s 22-year-old and out-of-support SAP ERP called the finance and materials management information system (FAMMIS), in all 16 hospitals and health services across the state and the department.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/wa-health-embarks-on-massive-payroll-system-overhaul-554135
WA Health embarks on massive payroll system overhaul
By Justin Hendry on Sep 30, 2020 6:58PM
Kicks off procurement with $8.5m in initial funding.
Western Australia's health department has started searching for an integrated HR, payroll and rostering solution to serve its 50,000-strong workforce after receiving $8.5 million to kick off the procurement.
WA Health’s shared services unit, the Health Support Service (HSS), approached the market for the new HRMIS on Wednesday, actioning a key recommendation in the government’s sustainable health review.
The review, released last year, called for widespread IT reform across the WA health system, including replacing the WA Health’s ageing HR, payroll and rostering system with a single workforce information system.
The government has committed $8.5 million in the upcoming budget to finding a HRMIS, and plans to use a proof-of-concept process - capped at $250,000 - to find a solution that meets the needs of the department.
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/generic-drug-be-default-gp-scripts-next-year
Generic drug to be the default on GP scripts from next year
GP software will be updated by February to issue scripts under the medication's active ingredient
2nd October 2020
GP scripts will have to use generic names of medication from February under a Federal Government plan to encourage more patients to take generic medicines.
Known as Active Ingredient Prescribing, it was first unveiled in the federal budget two years ago but its introduction was delayed because of COVID-19.
The Federal Health Department is stressing doctors can still prescribe branded drugs when they believe it is clinically appropriate.
But they will have to use the generic name first, then the branded drug name and then tick the ‘Do Not Substitute’ box.
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/5-doctors-receiving-telehealthrelated-patient-complaints
5% of doctors receiving telehealth-related patient complaints
Will complaints go down as video and phone consults become the norm?
28th September 2020
Some 5% of doctors have had a patient complain to their practice about telehealth consults, a survey has found.
Indemnity provider Avant asked 1300 doctors — half of whom were GPs — about their experiences with phone and video-based care over the last six months.
While 87% of doctors wanted Medicare telehealth funding to continue, there were potential medicolegal risks involved with the technology due to the potential for miscommunication and misunderstandings, Avant said.
One GP said one of their patients had complained about being offered telehealth because they were “offended or alienated by the inference they may be infectious”.
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https://digitalhealth.org.au/blog/a-new-pathway-to-fellowship-for-digital-health-executives/
A new pathway to Fellowship for digital health executives
A new pathway to Fellowship for digital health executives has been announced by the Australasian Institute of Digital Health.
The move is part of the Institute’s foundation year strategy to grow recognition for individuals with depth of knowledge in digital health and health informatics within the ranks of senior executives across the health system.
All Fellows and Associate Fellows who are executives will also automatically join the Institute’s Digital Health Executive Network (DHEN), a community of practice bringing together senior executives and leaders from across the digital health ecosystem.
DHEN Chair Richard Royle said: “There is a growing global interest from health executives taking the lead on digital in their organisations – never more so than in 2020 as together we face the challenges of a pandemic. Digital health executives and leaders are set to continue to be at the forefront of guiding the health sector through transformation and change.”
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Year-end target for digital platforms code of conduct legislation
Federal government plans for legislation backing the digital platforms code of conduct are now aimed to be introduced into parliament by the end of this year.
The original plan was for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to hand its final recommendations to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg by the end of September, with legislation ready for the end of October.
Communications Minister Paul Fletcher told The Australian on Tuesday “our plan is to have the legislation introduced into parliament by the end of this calendar year”.
The code of conduct is aimed at governing negotiations between media companies and the digital platforms, compensating the media companies for their content used by Google and Facebook.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/son-of-mygov-working-beta-quietly-arrives-554004
Son-of-myGov working beta quietly arrives
By Justin Hendry on Sep 29, 2020 6:55AM
But most services still on their way.
The Digital Transformation Agency has quietly launched a working beta of the Facebook-inspired government digital service platform expected to eventually replace the beleaguered MyGov portal.
But only limited functionality is available to users as the platform currently stands, with services from Services Australia, the Australian Taxation Office and other agencies yet to be linked.
The second release of the beta.my.gov.au test site publicly launched last week, adding new features to the government’s vision of digital citizen interaction presented by the DTA earlier this year.
It supersedes an initial beta launched in June, which offered users a first look at the now $28 million myGov update platform, otherwise known as the government digital experience platform (GOVDXP).
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/practice/app-review-covid-coach-support-through-pandemic
App Review: COVID Coach - support through the pandemic
The app contains tools to treat commons issues such as anxiety that might be exacerbated by the pandemic
1st October 2020
While Australian media debates the pros and cons of the COVIDSafe app, the US Department of Veterans’ Affairs has released its own COVID-19 app.
It’s a far more straightforward affair that focuses on supporting, rather than tracking, people and has been made available across the world.
COVID Coach contains a bunch of tips and tools to help people cope with stress, loneliness, insomnia, relationships and other common problems that may be exacerbated during the pandemic.
The tips are simple and unsurprising, but the tools are impressive, with a variety of audio tracks for meditation and mindfulness. There are also tools for users to create lists of things for which they’re grateful, using text, photos or audio.
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https://which-50.com/rmit-to-offer-digital-health-course-developed-with-aws-and-telstra/
RMIT to offer Digital Health course developed with AWS and Telstra
Joseph Brookes October 1, 2020
RMIT Online is partnering with Amazon and Telstra to offer a new post graduate program in digital health in response to increased demand for digital health professionals.
RMIT’s Online school announced today it will offer a Graduate Certificate in Digital Health starting in April next year. Co-designed by the university, public cloud giant Amazon Web Services and Telstra Health, Australia’s largest e-health company, the course will upskill students in patient care through technology. Digital Health CRC, a government funded research cooperative, also contributed to the course design.
The online course is aimed at working health professionals and will take 12 months to complete studying part time. The Graduate Certificate in Digital Health is credentialed by RMIT University.
In a statement today the university said COVID-19 has triggered widespread disruption to public health and led to an upsurge in digital transformation projects. The shifts have contributed to an increasing demand for digital health specialist, which the university expect to continue for a decade.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/govt-commits-800m-to-digital-infrastructure-upgrade-554058
Govt commits $800m to digital infrastructure upgrade
By Justin Hendry on Sep 29, 2020 1:07PM
Bulk of funding flows to digital ID, business register modernisation.
The federal government will inject more than $676 million to continue the development of its digital identity system and streamline the country’s business registers in a bid to help businesses weather the impacts of the pandemic.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison unveiled the funding as part of an $800 million digital business plan aimed at reforming how businesses interact with government in the wake of the coronavirus.
Ahead of next week’s delayed federal budget, Morrison said businesses had undergone “a decade of change in months”, relying on digital technology to continue operating through the crisis.
“Our JobMaker Digital Business Plan provides significant backing to continue that digital push and expand opportunities for businesses to grow and create more jobs,” he said announcing the package on Tuesday.
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Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration to undergo a AU$12m digital transformation
It's expected to make it easier for medicines and medical devices to get the tick of approval.
By Aimee Chanthadavong | October 2, 2020 -- 05:41 GMT (15:41 AEST) | Topic: Digital Transformation
Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is getting a digital makeover, after the federal government announced on Friday it would invest AU$12 million over four years to make it happen.
As part of the revamp, TGA's business systems and infrastructure will be digitised and cybersecurity measures will be bolstered.
Specifically, it will enable medical companies to use automatic data transfer to deliver drug reaction reports on patient safety from their own internal databases into the TGA Adverse Events Management System (AEMS) database, saving up to 15 minutes per report. This will be a change to the current process that requires reports that are submitted in PDF format, as well as other formats, to be manually entered into the database.
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Aspen Medical's infrastructure overhaul puts it into gear for Fijian hospital project
The company has ripped and replaced eight core legacy systems with a single cloud platform.
By Aimee Chanthadavong | October 1, 2020 -- 13:31 GMT (23:31 AEST) | Topic: Digital Transformation: A CXO's Guide
June 2021: That's the deadline Aspen Medical has been given to get all of its systems in order before the company is officially charged with managing two of Fiji's major hospitals under a 23-year public-private partnership with the Fijian government.
Under the deal, which was signed in January 2019, the global medical firm will be responsible for transforming the critical medical infrastructure of Ba and Lautoka hospitals, as well as renovating and rebuilding parts of each hospital.
The arrangement is part of the Fijian government's plan to modernise the country's health system.
Speaking to ZDNet, Sanja Marais, technology and innovation general manager at Aspen Medical, explained how the back-end systems of each hospital are currently tied to the Fijian Department of Health. She said while the existing systems -- including everything from enterprise resource planning (ERP) to procurement and inventory manager -- are "sufficient in the way they run", there are opportunities to upgrade them so that they are more "progressive".
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ATO re-tenders for myGovID anti-spoofing facial recognition software
By Justin Hendry on Sep 28, 2020 11:41AM
Liveness detection public beta now not expected until September 2021.
The Australian Taxation Office has gone back to the market to find a facial recognition solution to underpin the government’s myGovID digital identity credentialing app.
The national revenue agency issued a tender for a 'liveness' solution late last week, more than two years after the Digital Transformation Agency first sought to test such a mechanism.
It means a public beta of the app’s facial recognition component will now not take place until September 2021.
Liveness detection, or a proof-of-live test, is required for myGovID to move past being simply a digital equivalent of the 100 point ID check.
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https://itwire.com/development/unsw-leads-research-into-speech-recognition-systems.html
Friday, 02 October 2020 09:40
UNSW leads research into speech recognition systems
Engineers from the University of NSW are leading a research project aimed at closing a gap in speech recognition systems that they say have until now performed badly in understanding young users of technology.
The project will see UNSW Sydney researchers sample the voices of Australian kids so that they can be better understood by devices that use voice recognition software.
And the researchers say the benefits could also flow into education and speech therapy where digital devices could provide “immediate and ongoing feedback in speech training and other learning tasks”.
UNSW says that up until now, speech recognition software that powers virtual assistants like Google Assistant, Alexa and Siri has relied on a growing database of adult voices.
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https://itwire.com/health/monash-researchers-apply-machine-learning-to-epilepsy-diagnosis.html
Friday, 25 September 2020 15:37
Monash researchers apply machine learning to epilepsy diagnosis
Researchers at Monash University, in conjunction with Alfred Health and The Royal Melbourne Hospital, have applied machine learning to increase the speed and accuracy of epilepsy diagnoses.
The current diagnostic process is quite lengthy and may involve multiple EEG recordings to detect abnormal activities.
The Monash study has monitored over 400 EEG recordings of patients with and without epilepsy from Alfred Health and The Royal Melbourne hospital.
This dataset has been used to demonstrate how a particular machine learning model can help recognise the signs of epilepsy and facilitate the automated labelling of EEG data.
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https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2020/09/uq-and-ibm-launch-centre-of-excellence
UQ and IBM launch Centre of Excellence
22 September 2020
The University of Queensland has partnered with IBM Australia to launch a Centre of Excellence which will support researchers working across health, manufacturing and environmental sciences.
The IBM@UQ Centre of Excellence will help address the challenges associated with extreme data growth, data organisation and data storage.
UQ Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Bronwyn Harch said as research efforts become increasingly data-rich, it was vital UQ provided researchers with the resources and capabilities to store and access huge amounts of information.
“Our relationship with IBM helped us set up this Centre of Excellence with the latest technology,” Professor Harch said.
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https://www.finnewsnetwork.com.au/archives/finance_news_network286909.html
Respiri (ASX:RSH) asthma care beyond the clinic
Respiri Limited (ASX:RSH)
CEO Marjan Mikel discusses clinical results from the company's innovative
asthma management tool wheezo, a combination eHealth app and handheld device,
as well as the company's strategy and outlook.
Rachael Jones: Hello. I'm Rachael Jones for
the Finance News Network. Joining me today from Respiri (ASX:RSH) is CEO
and Executive Director, Marjan Mikel. Marjan, welcome to FNN.
Marjan Mikel: Hi. Thank you for that,
Rachel.
Rachael Jones: Now, first up, could you
start with giving us an introduction to the company?
Marjan Mikel: In the world today, there are
over 340 million patients that suffer from asthma. And once they leave the care
of their doctors, they have absolutely no way of knowing how well their asthma
is being managed. This is where Respiri and wheezo come in. We provide the
patients with a device and an eHealth SAS platform that allows them to monitor
how well their asthma is being controlled and managed once they leave the care
of their doctor, and then allow that information to be shared across their
carer base.
Rachael Jones: Thanks, Marjan. Now, before
we talk about the device, can you remind us about the incidence of asthma and
how it is being managed?
Marjan Mikel: Asthma is the third-largest
disease state to afflict the human race after cardiovascular disease and
diabetes. For instance, in Australia, there are 2.7 million patients with
asthma. That's about 11.5 per cent of the population. And even today, in this
first world country of ours, 400 people die of asthma every year, and they shouldn't.
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4D Medical soars 12pc on quick TGA approval
Yolanda Redrup Reporter
Sep 30, 2020 – 1.25pm
Local lung-imaging medical technology company 4D Medical has had its lung airflow imaging device approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration six months ahead of schedule.
The news catapulted the company's share price up almost 12 per cent in morning trade on Wednesday, with the stock trading at $1.70 at 12.30pm.
The announcement came less than two months after the company listed on the ASX with an issue price of 73¢ per share.
4D Medical chief executive Dr Andreas Fouras told The Australian Financial Review the approval of its XV Lung Ventilation Analysis Software was not expected to come through until 2021.
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COVID reveals NBN shortfalls and pricing ‘mismatch’, says Optus CEO
Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin has endorsed wholesale changes to the NBN model, including looking at making major data guzzling websites contribute to the cost of the network, during her first major address to the business community as head of the telecom giant.
Speaking at a Trans-Tasman Business Circle event on Tuesday Ms Bayer Rosmarin, who became CEO in April, said that the large spikes in data usage through the COVID crisis had demonstrated the “mismatch” in the NBN pricing system.
“I think COVID-19 and the rapid increase in data consumption have shown some of the challenges of the current model of CVC charging where all of us provide customers with a fixed price for access to their internet, but then the NBN charges us on a variable basis,” she said.
“Clearly that creates a mismatch that was brought to the surface through COVID.
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Telstra launches 5G broadband with government's blessing
James Fernyhough Reporter
Sep 29, 2020 – 4.07pm
Telstra has released the details of its much-anticipated 5G fixed wireless product, confirming it will use the fifth-generation mobile technology to deliver a high-speed broadband alternative to the national broadband network.
The move, which will put Telstra in direct competition with the NBN, has raised the prospect of a dispute over a non-compete agreement signed by Telstra and NBN Co.
But Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said on Tuesday he was confident Telstra's decision to compete with the NBN on 5G home broadband would not violate the definitive agreement signed by the two parties.
Telstra's "5G Home Internet" product, delivered over its mobile network through a wireless modem, will offer download speeds of between 50 and 300 megabits per second for $85 a month, with a monthly data allowance of 500GB.
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Telstra lays down 5G gauntlet for NBN Co with fixed-wireless product
By Supratim Adhikari
September 29, 2020 — 12.00am
Telstra is about to launch a 5G fixed-wireless product to directly compete against the NBN, getting the ball rolling on selectively using its 5G mobile network to try and steal customers away from the $57 billion fixed-line network.
With Telstra and its peers locked in a tussle with NBN Co over the high wholesale prices charged by the company in charge of the national broadband network, the launch of the "5G Home Internet" product sets the scene for Telstra to keep more money in its pocket by bypassing the NBN.
The telcos can avoid paying the wholesale price to NBN by connecting a home directly to their 5G fixed-wireless services, which offer high-speed plans at prices comparable to existing NBN plans.
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Tuesday, 29 September 2020 11:26
ACCC says fixed-line NBN connections held up well in May and June
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says fixed-line NBN broadband services have held up well in May and June despite the increased demand.
The ACCC said its its quarterly Measuring Broadband Australia report that this was the first time detailed results were available on how the network fared during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have seen an improvement in download speeds for all speed tier plans and across all retail service providers during the period from May to June,” ACCC chair Rod Sims said.
The ACCC said MyRepublic and iiNet had shown the biggest improvement in peak-hour download speeds, improving by 5.4% and 4.0% respectively, since the last report.
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https://itwire.com/telecoms-and-nbn/telstra-s-targeted-launch-of-5g-home-internet.html
Tuesday, 29 September 2020 09:59
Telstra's 'targeted launch' of 5G Home Internet plus NBN speed boosts on non-FTTN plans, too
With Telstra receiving payments from NBN Co for each Telstra customer that connects to an NBN connection, Telstra's 5G Home Internet rollout has to be targeted, but promises from 50 to 300Mbps speeds with a 500GB data cap for $85 per month - and there are 215Mbps Superfast and 250Mbps Ultrafast options for FTTP and HFC but not FTTN customers, and faster typical evening speeds, too.
At a post that is still yet to be published to Telstra Exchange at the time this article was published on iTWire, Telstra has announced a proper 5G Home Internet service at last, similar to the Optus 5G offering, but in a targeted way, or at least initially.
According to Supratim Adhikari, who was obviously given prior access to this news as he published an article this morning at 12.00am at the SMH entitled "Telstra lays down 5G gauntlet for NBN Co with fixed wireless product", there are billions of dollars of future payments at stake, with Telstra already having earned $8.9 billion from 2012 to 2020 in "one off payments" from NBN Co when customers move from a Telstra connection to an NBN connection.
Adhikari quotes an anonymous Telstra source claiming "wiggle room" that allows Telstra to "respond to changes in the mobile market", which includes the fact that Optus is yet to make more 5G fixed wireless changes and announcements before the end of 2020.
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Telstra sets conservative speed expectations for 'up to gigabit' NBN add-on
By Ry Crozier on Sep 29, 2020 11:39AM
Reinstates 100Mbps tier for FTTN/B/C users.
Telstra is set to offer NBN Co’s "ultrafast" broadband product with up to gigabit speeds, but has set a conservative expectation of 250Mbps speeds for the evening peak.
The telco said today it would offer NBN Co’s ‘superfast’ and ‘ultrafast’ speeds as add-ons to its 100Mbps product.
It also reinstated the availability of 100Mbps services to fibre-to-the-node (FTTN), fibre-to-the-basement (FTTB) and fibre-to-the-curb customers (FTTC), after stopping sales earlier this year.
“If you’re on our NBN 100 premium internet plan and on a compatible NBN technology type, you’ll now be able to add on superfast or ultrafast speeds to your monthly bill,” Telstra product and technology connected home and business executive Michele Garra said in a blog post.
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Will NBN 3.0 close the digital divide, or open it wider?
As far as policy backflips go, the decision to upgrade the NBN was a reverse two-and-a-half somersault performed in the sneer position, but will people be left better or worse off?
John Davidson Columnist
Sep 28, 2020 – 12.33pm
For months critics of the Australian government's ill-conceived National Broadband Network have been calling on ministers to use the coronavirus pandemic as political coverage for a long-awaited policy backflip.
Last week, that backflip finally came, when the Minister for Communications, Paul Fletcher, announced that a large part will be converted from an old-fashioned copper network, to the fibre-optic network critics had been calling for.
As far as policy backflips go, it was a reverse two-and-a-half somersault performed in the sneer position. In an oped in this newspaper, Mr Fletcher insisted that the ALP's original plan for the NBN – rolling fibre to just about every home in Australia – would have resulted in far fewer Australians having access to the national network.
"Compared to Labor’s insistence that every home needed fibre rolled all the way to the front door, our plan allowed a much quicker rollout.
"Had we stuck to Labor’s plan, today there would be about 5 million fewer premises able to connect," he wrote.
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Upgraded NBN a more attractive takeover target
Sally Patten
Sep 28, 2020 – 12.00am
Upgrading the national broadband network is "fantastic" for Australia, says Telstra chairman John Mullen, adding that the improved NBN network could be an attractive acquisition target for Telstra's infrastructure arm.
"A more efficient better quality NBN would make it more attractive for all potential investors," Mr Mullen said.
"Hopefully, we will have a seat at the table and have a role in that solution," he said, referring to suggestions that the federal government will eventually sell the NBN, potentially after the next election when it will be looking to pay off record debt.
Telstra's infrastructure division, known as InfraCo, would need to be demerged from the rest of the group's businesses before it was able to buy the NBN for competition reasons.
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Enjoy!
David.
