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 big week for the ADHA media team producing material on bush foods / medicine and the #myHR and the use of smartphones to record the quality of their patient experience on the #myH! More hammer in search of a nail stuff I reckon!
Lots of commercial digital health news this week also as well as a few bits on digital vaccination records etc.
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Digital proof for vaccinated Aussies
The federal government is developing internationally recognised certificates to prove that Australians have received a Covid-19 vaccine as Scott Morrison flagged a four-phase plan to “get back to normal” and reopen the international borders.
Following a meeting of national cabinet on Friday the Prime Minister said he and state and territory leaders had agreed to the creation of digital vaccine passports that would be generated automatically every time an Australian was fully vaccinated.
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/practice/can-my-health-record-be-source-truth-aged-care-prescribing
Can the My Health Record be the 'source of truth' for aged care prescribing?
The big problem is that most aged care facilities don't actually use it
29th June 2021
My Health Record has traditionally done well in federal budgets and the most recent June budget was no exception.
It received $302 million to cover funding for the next four years.
But arguably the most significant line for GPs was actually in another section in the budget papers — the $45 million to improve uptake of the My Health Record and electronic medication charts in aged care.
The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety said the Federal Government needed universal adoption of the My Health Record in aged care by 2022 to help prevent medication misadventures.
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/opinion/i-dont-have-time-telehealth-and-escript-admin-crap
I don’t have time for telehealth and e-script admin crap
Dr Lilienthal is a GP and medicolegal adviser in Sydney, NSW.
30th June 2021
I am heartily pissed off with the ever-changing and confusing requirements for COVID-19 telehealth and e-prescribing.
Here is an example of a typical, time wasting, administrative shemozzle we GPs have to deal with. I am sure there are many other similar scenarios.
The situation:
While doing a telehealth consultation early one evening, with a young mother - non rebatable because, thanks to COVID-19, we hadn’t had a face-to-face consultation for more than 12 months – she asked me for an urgent repeat prescription for her son.
It was for a medication originally prescribed by a paediatrician to whom I had referred the young teenager.
Now, because I hadn’t seen the son for more than 12 months, I couldn’t offer the mother a rebatable consultation for this either and because neither of them had had their electronic medical records ‘enabled’ for consent to communicate electronically, I couldn’t send them e-scripts.
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ADHA launches automatic administrative service for healthcare providers
Monday June 28, 2021
The Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) is rolling out new technology that will reduce the administrative burden placed on healthcare provider organisations by allowing them to update key information from one place.
The new Provider Connect Australia service is estimated to deliver economic benefits of more than $30 million per year by 2025.
In the past, healthcare provider organisations have needed to fill out between 10 and 20 forms to notify different parts of the healthcare system whenever service or practitioner information has changed.
Organisations can now use Provider Connect Australia to update their contact details. The service will then automatically send the new details to other areas of the healthcare system, including hospitals, pathology and radiology services, public service directories, and secure messaging providers.
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https://wildhealth.net.au/health-tech-wins-big-in-nsw-budget/
1 July 2021
Health tech wins big in NSW budget
In what it is calling a record investment in health, the NSW Liberal government has committed more than $30 billion to the sector in this week’s budget announcement.
As expected, big chunks of change are heading straight to the pandemic front lines, funding PPE, vaccine distribution and pop-up clinics.
Major health infrastructure projects and rural health, all told, were allocated $4 billion for health capital projects across regional and metro areas.
Digital health was the next biggest winner, with $500 million in funding earmarked for various projects over the next four years, including the Single Digital Patient Record, Real Time Prescription Monitoring and the NSW Telestroke Service.
The Single Digital Patient Record initiative, which received $141 million in the budget, has been in the works for almost two years and promises to consolidate patient records from three different patient management systems.
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Brandon Capital, Uniseed back cancer biotech start-up in $10m funding
Carrie LaFrenz Senior reporter
Jun 28, 2021 – 5.00am
A Melbourne-based start-up spun out of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre has raised $10 million for the further development of its novel cancer immunotherapy that targets solid tumours such as breast and pancreatic cancers.
The Brandon Capital Partners-managed Medical Research Commercialisation Fund led the investment into biotech Currus Biologics, along with university commercialisation fund Uniseed,
The fresh funds will support Currus’ commercial development of its proprietary technology used in animal studies into humans and based on research from the Peter MacCallum – a first investor-led spinout from the centre’s research.
Currus chief executive Sam Cobb said human clinical trials are still about two years away but it is an exciting time for scientists to see their technology go from the bench and translate into a product that can get into people.
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https://insideageing.com.au/my-health-record-allows-people-to-upload-their-use-of-bush-medicine/
My Health Record allows people to upload their use of bush medicine
By Sean McKeown
2 July 2021
To mark NAIDOC Week 2021 (4-11 July), the Australian Digital Health Agency today released a new video (below) showing the importance of bush medicine in Indigenous culture and health and how My Health Record can be used to record its use.
Director of Clinical Services and Senior Medical Officer at Gurriny Yealamucka Health Service in Yarrabah Queensland, Yued Noongar man from Dandaragan WA, Dr Jason King, said “I ask my patients what bush medicines they are using and include that information in the medical records in our clinic and this feeds into My Health Record.”
The Agency’s video features Linc Walker, owner and tour guide at Kuku Yalanji Cultural Habitat Tours in Cooya Beach, north of Port Douglas in Queensland and pharmacist Brad Reilly from Live Life Pharmacy in Port Douglas. The tours have been running for 22 years and were started by Linc and his brother Brandon to help preserve ancient cultural activities and knowledge.
Linc said “We use traditional medicine because we’ve always used it. When we were young it was too far to town, the shops were too far away and so we had to do this. It’s part of our life still.”
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Digital records support preservation of bush medicine information
Published 2 July 2021
To mark NAIDOC Week 2021 (4-11 July), the Australian Digital Health Agency today released a new video showing the importance of bush medicine in Indigenous culture and health and how My Health Record can be used to manage that information for the holistic care of patients.
Director of Clinical Services and Senior Medical Officer at Gurriny Yealamucka Health Service in Yarrabah Queensland, Yued Noongar man from Dandaragan WA, Dr Jason King, said “I ask my patients what bush medicines they are using and include that information in the medical records in our clinic and this feeds into My Health Record.”
The Agency’s new video features Linc Walker, owner and tour guide at Kuku Yalanji Cultural Habitat Tours in Cooya Beach, north of Port Douglas in Queensland and pharmacist Brad Reilly from Live Life Pharmacy in Port Douglas. The tours have been running for 22 years and were started by Linc and his brother Brandon to help preserve ancient cultural activities and knowledge.
Linc said “We use traditional medicine because we’ve always used it. When we were young it was too far to town, the shops were too far away and so we had to do this. It’s part of our life still.”
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The Qld hospital where patients use their mobile phones to rate the service
Brisbane’s Princess Alexandra Hospital has been used in a pilot project that allowed cancer patients to provide feedback on the quality of care they received.
29 July, 2021
The PAH partnered with digital health company The Clinician for the recent project, overseen by the Australian Digital Health Agency. It gave clinicians greater insight into patient experiences, from the shock of a cancer diagnosis to the burden of paperwork and the stress of treatment.
As part of the project, cancer patients used their smartphones to complete a specially-designed questionnaire, allowing their data to fine-tune the information already held on hospital and clinician files as well as the patient’s My Health Record. This, in turn, could be used to improve the experience – not just for the patient but other patients like them.
“As clinicians, we can be focused on treating the symptoms that our patients are facing and this project has reinforced the importance for us of also focusing on our patients’ experiences when being cared for, which in turn can lead to better quality care, improved health outcomes and more accessible and effective health services,” said PAH acting executive director of nursing, Leanne Stone.
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PIP payments fall $1.5 million after govt imposes 'unfair' telehealth rule
The Federal Government is excluding telehealth consults from its calculations
28th June 2021
GP practices are losing income from the $350 million Practice Incentives Program because health officials are "underestimating" their patient load by ignoring consults they are doing via telehealth.
Under the system, the Department of Health calculates a number of the incentives based on patient load measured in Standardised Whole Patient Equivalents (SWPEs).
However, Dr David Ringelblum says his Melbourne practice, which he part owns, has seen an 11% drop in its SWPE because only the care provided face-to-face is being counted.
As a result, the practice’s payments have fallen 26% in the past three months, compared with a year earlier, despite seeing almost an identical number of patients.
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/medicare-losing-dozens-phone-consultation-items-today
Medicare losing dozens of phone consultation items from today
Most items for telephone consults have been deleted with the new financial year.
1st July 2021
The majority of MBS items for telephone consultations have now been deleted, with the new financial year bringing a swathe of updates to the MBS.
But thanks to indexation, the rebate for a standard Level B consultation is now worth an extra 35 cents.
Applied across the MBS, it's an increase of roughly 0.9% on the 2020-21 financial year
Changes coming in today include the removal of almost all the telephone-based consultation items, including those for level C and level D consults, which were claimed more than three million times over the past 12 months.
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World leading AI behind innovative X-ray technology
State-of-the-art chest X-ray software developed by Australian scientists will aid practitioners to make more accurate interpretations of medical images to diagnose some of the most common and life-threatening illnesses, using world-leading artificial intelligence.
The device, called the Annalise CXR, has been found to “significantly” improve radiologists’ ability to read chest X-rays, both when assisted by the device and when it was used on its own, was developed by medical imaging company annalise.ai, a joint venture between Australian healthcare technology company Harrison.ai and international company I – MED Radiology Network
A study into its effectiveness, published in The Lancet Digital Health on Thursday, found that radiologists using the Annalise CXR were significantly more able to perceive 102 chest X-ray findings in a non-clinical environment, were statistically on par for 19 findings and had no drop in accuracy.
The study also assessed the stand-alone performance of the model against radiologists in identifying chest X-rays, finding that it identified 117 out of 124 findings, making it 94 per cent more accurate than an unassisted radiologists, significantly boosting its diagnostic abilities.
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https://www.miragenews.com/cancer-patients-use-smartphones-to-provide-586000/
June 28, 2021 4:02 pm AEST
Cancer patients use smartphones to provide feedback on their care experience
Australian Digital Health Agency
Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH) and digital health company The Clinician, have successfully completed an Australian Digital Health Agency pilot project that enabled cancer patients to use their smartphones to provide feedback on the quality of care they received.
Acting Executive Director of Nursing at PAH, Leanne Stone, said this was an important project for the hospital as a cancer diagnosis was confronting enough for the patient, who are often inundated with multiple forms and documents both prior to and during their treatment.
“As clinicians, we can be focused on treating the symptoms that our patients are facing and this project has reinforced the importance for us of also focusing on our patients ‘ experiences when being cared for, which in turn can lead to better quality care, improved health outcomes and more accessible and effective health services,” Ms Stone said.
Amanda Cattermole, CEO of the Australian Digital Health Agency, said “PAH in partnership with The Clinician were funded by the Australian Digital Health Agency to develop a digital solution to improve the patient experience and the quality of patient-sourced health data for their healthcare providers.”
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Roche–ANDHealth partnership to drive digital health industry growth
Friday, 25 June, 2021
Roche Australia has joined ANDHealth’s cooperative digital health commercialisation initiative to support the development and growth of Australia’s digital health ecosystem.
Local support for innovation, significant investment in digital health infrastructure and successful management of the COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented opportunity to deliver a robust, sustainable digital health industry. However, the industry is hampered by commercialisation challenges including access to capital, customers and expertise. ANDHealth’s partnership with Roche will provide Australian digital health entrepreneurs and innovators with access to world-class skills and expertise to meet these challenges.
“The partnership with Roche is a key milestone in enabling us to achieve our vision of creating a world-leading, integrated ecosystem for the development, commercialisation and implementation of evidence-based digital health technologies in Australia,” ANDHealth CEO Bronwyn Le Grice said.
“The relationship between our two organisations further strengthens the ANDHealth model of support for the growth and maturation of Australia’s digital health industry — growth that will deliver highly skilled jobs, create economic opportunity and deliver better health outcomes for all Australians,” she said.
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https://themarketherald.com.au/pacific-knowledge-systems-asxpks-renews-key-contracts-2021-06-29/
Pacific Knowledge Systems (ASX:PKS) renews key contracts
Health Care
ASX:PKS MCAP $92.41M
Lisa Simcock Markets Reporter lisa.simcock@themarketherald.com.au
29 June 2021 15:20 (AEST)
- Healthcare tech company Pacific Knowledge Systems (PKS) renews key contracts and wins new clients
- The company has seen a near complete contract renewal rate — keeping 99 per cent of its customers
- Notably, this puts PKS ahead of expectations of recurrent revenue exceeding 70 per cent of total operating revenue
- New contracts have been signed with Ramsay hospitals, which includes WA's Joondalup and Hollywood Private hospitals, as well as Brisbane's Greenslopes hospital
- On the market this afternoon, PKS is up 6.41 per cent and is trading at 41.5 cents per share
Pacific Knowledge Systems (PKS) has successfully renewed key contracts and won new clients.
As the end of the current financial year is coming to a close, the healthcare technology company has seen a near complete contract renewal rate — keeping 99 per cent of its customers.
Notably, this puts PKS ahead of expectations of recurrent revenue exceeding 70 per cent of total operating revenue.
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Wednesday, 30 June 2021 01:03
Facebook Australia expands local alerts to Health, Police and Government Agencies
Facebook Australia has announced the expansion of its Local Alerts product to all eligible state and territory health, police and lead central government Facebook Pages.
Facebook says this expansion will help government agencies connect with communities to find missing persons, share information on COVID-19 breakouts or ‘hotspots’ and provide critical updates during disasters or significant hazards.
Local Alerts are designed to help authorities communicate urgent, need-to-know or actionable information to communities in emergencies as well as less critical situations where timely information is valuable.
When authorities with access to the product mark posts as Local Alerts, Facebook will send a notification to Page followers located in the affected area and mark the post as an alert to make it stand out in News Feed.
The Local Alerts product was originally launched by Facebook late last year in Australia to all state and territory fire and emergency service agencies.
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HotDoc system deployed in two major Australian hospitals for COVID-19, flu vaccination bookings
Adam Ang | 02 Jul 2021
HotDoc, a Melbourne-based patient engagement platform provider, has partnered with two major hospitals in Australia for vaccination booking projects.
WHY IT MATTERS
This week, Austin Hospital in Melbourne started using HotDoc's complete scheduling solution and tools for eligibility screening and stock management for COVID-19 inoculations. The hospital aims to schedule approximately 1,000 COVID-19 vaccination appointments each day.
HotDoc said its platform will also be deployed at St. Vincent's Hospital in Sydney for booking administration of influenza vaccination for staff, featuring walk-ins, appointment calendars and online consent forms. It will also enable the hospital to conduct online patient verification check enhancements through Medicare Check and the submission of immunisation records through its Australian Immunisation Register-integrated platform.
HotDoc estimates that its platform has enabled 2.5 million appointments for COVID-19 vaccinations to date.
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Australia invests in seven research projects using data to improve primary care
Adam Ang | 29 Jun 2021
The Australian government has set aside a combined investment of AU$12.9 million ($9.78 million) in seven research projects that leverage data to enhance the primary care system in the country.
WHY IT MATTERS
The 2020 Primary Healthcare Research Data Infrastructure grants support projects to improve residential aged care, urban and rural general practitioner-led practices, Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations and other health professionals such as nurses, midwives, allied health, pharmacists and dentists.
Among the seven projects, the South Australian Health Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), an independent research institute based in Adelaide, will receive AU$2 million ($1.5 million) for its Registry of Senior Australians (ROSA) project.
According to a statement by Health Minister Greg Hunt, SAHMRI wants to expand the registry to "understand emerging issues" and continue researching on "key and currently unknown" residential aged care impacts.
It will use new data gathered on immunisation, rehabilitation and social welfare to further research and "embed ROSA as the only national data solution for policy and practice change in residential aged care". ROSA's model collates diverse datasets from different organisations across Australia to form a "whole picture of the ageing pathway".
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/apac/university-sydney-receives-grant-mental-health-tech-trial
University of Sydney receives grant for mental health tech trial
It will try out a new model of youth mental health care that is more personalised and digitally enabled.
By Adam Ang
July 01, 2021 04:07 AM
The University of Sydney has obtained an AU$3.4 million ($2.5 million) grant from the federal government's Clinical Trials and Cohorts Studies scheme to try out a new model of care for young people in the early stages of mental health problems.
WHAT IT'S ABOUT
In a press release, the university said its Brain and Mind Centre collaborated with Orygen, Deakin University and the University of Notre Dame for the five-year Youth Model of Care trial that will commence "early next year."
The trial will involve around 1,500 young people currently enrolled in a mental health service seeking treatment for mood disorders.
It will provide participating clinicians access to a digital platform that includes detailed assessment measures, longitudinal tracking and interactivity, combining measurement-based care and real-time health care.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/chemist-warehouse-goes-live-with-slyp-digital-receipts-566620
Chemist Warehouse goes live with Slyp digital receipts
By Kate Weber on Jun 28, 2021 5:28PM
Accessed via NAB mobile banking app.
Chemist Warehouse has gone live with Slyp’s digital receipt product across 460 stores.
Slyp’s digital itemised tax receipts, known as 'smart receipts', will now be offered to NAB mobile banking app customers when they make purchases at the Chemist Warehouse.
Australian fintech Slyp integrates with a retailer’s point of sale system to send an itemised receipt to eligible consumers.
Slyp smart receipts can be found in the receipt section of the NAB mobile app for purchases made in participating retail and hospitality venues across Australia.
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Chemist Warehouse goes digital with NAB and Slyp
NAB has today announced that one of its largest transaction customers, Chemist Warehouse will be offering its customers the option of itemised, digital receipts, using Slyp technology.
This function is now live across more than 460 stores across Australia with itemised smart receipts instead being delivered directly to customers via the NAB mobile banking app.
More than 120,000 NAB customers have already opted in to receive digital receipts ensuring the bank and Slyp are on track to make digital receipts used by half of all Australian by the middle of next year.
Andrew Irvine, Group Executive for NAB’s Business and Private Bank said, “The explosion of new technology is making many things extinct and traditional paper receipts are no exception.
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01 Jul 2021 8:00 AM AEST
Voice-assisted tech giving voice to people living with Parkinson's disease
Monash University research has found voice-assisted technologies are able to support people with speech difficulties, such as Parkinson’s disease, and could enhance early speech and language therapies.
In 2018, over 1.35 million Australian households owned a smart speaker like Google Home and Amazon Alexa. While these technologies are primarily being used for general household tasks like streaming music, checking the weather forecast and setting alarms or reminders, new research has identified how these voice-assisted technologies can have additional uses for people with speech impairment.
A collaboration project by researchers at Monash University and Ulster University, this study is the first of its kind to explore the experiences of using voice-assisted technologies by people with speech impairment.
Of the 290 participants from the UK living with Parkinson’s disease who took part in the online survey, the key findings were:
- 90% owned a voice-assisted device
- 71% used it regularly
- 31% used the technology specifically to address the needs associated with their Parkinson’s disease
- Of these users, 55% sometimes, rarely, or never had to repeat themselves when using the technology and when asked about speech changes since they started using it, 25% of participants noticed having to repeat themselves less and 15% perceived their speech to be clearer
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https://idm.net.au/article/0013489-digital-health-agency-flies-edrms-cloud
Digital Health Agency flies into EDRMS Cloud
Friday, June 25, 2021 - 12:36
The Australian Digital Health Agency, the government agency in charge of the country’s $A2 billion My Health Record system, has adopted iCognition’s Electronic Document and Records Management as-a-service cloud solution, EDRMSaaS.
iCognition won an open tender to deliver the SaaS solution in a contract worth over $A500K.
EDRMSaaS.Cloud offers a SaaS deployment of Micro Focus Content Manager, including iCognition’s in-house developed solutions for collaborative workspaces, publishing, line-of-business application connectors, data migration tools and specific automated functions.
The Australian Digital Health Agency was established in 2016 taking over operation of the former Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR).
It is a statutory authority jointly funded by the Commonwealth and the states and territories. The Agency expects to have more than 500 EDRMSaaS users working from offices in Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra.
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https://www.hinz.org.nz/news/571328/450000-patient-records-uploaded-to-Your-Health-Summary-.htm
450,000 patient records uploaded to Your Health Summary
Sunday, 27 June 2021
NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth
The primary care health records
of close to half a million patients across Auckland have been uploaded to the
shared care record system, Your Health Summary (YHS).
The solution is designed to ensure better continuity of care and safety for
patients by ensuring their important health information is accessible by
authorised healthcare providers that deliver care in a range of care settings,
says YHS clinical director Daniel Calder.
The summary includes information about medications, allergies, results and
long-term health conditions and is supported by the Northern Region Health
Co-ordination Centre and Metro Auckland PHOs.
Nearly 150 practices have signed up since it went live in April 2020, with
450,000 patient records from across Auckland uploaded to Your Health
Summary, and 315 clinicians have submitted
signed access applications.
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https://www.hinz.org.nz/news/571695/Hira-detailed-business-case-being-developed.htm
Hira detailed business case being developed
Tuesday, 29 June 2021
NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth
The detailed business case for tranche one of Hira is being
developed and will need Cabinet approval before funding is released.
In Budget 2021, Government announced funding of up to $385 million over four years (and a further $15 million in capital funding
in 2025/26) for health sector digital infrastructure and capability.
The Budget announcement includes funding for Hira, formerly known as the
National Health Information Platform, which will “enable access to a virtual
electronic health record as needed by drawing together a person's latest health
data from trusted sources to create that data".
Health Minister Andrew Little spoke about the pressing need to upgrade the country’s health IT systems during an emergency debate in Parliament on June 29.
The Minister said the ongoing need to maintain investment in health IT systems is “absolutely crucial” and accused the former National government of neglecting this area.
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https://www.hinz.org.nz/news/571868/Full-inquiry-into-Waikato-cyber-attack.htm
Full inquiry into Waikato cyber attack
Wednesday, 30 June 2021
NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth
There will be a “full, independent inquiry” into the Waikato DHB cyber-attack to provide a clear picture of what happened and what lessons can be learned for the future, the Health Minister says.
The DHB was hit by a ransomware attack on May 18, causing a full outage of its Information Services across the region.
Patient and staff details stolen during the attack have now been posted online by the cyber criminals.
Health Minister Andrew Little spoke about the attack during an emergency debate in Parliament on June 29, promising a full independent inquiry, once the DHB has remediated their systems and returned to business as usual.
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Wednesday, 30 June 2021 16:41
ACCC reports NBN speeds pick up as more households wanted for program
Fixed-line NBN broadband services reached a new performance high in February 2021, the ACCC’s thirteenth quarterly Measuring Broadband Australia report reveals.
Retail service providers achieved between 86.8 and 99.1% of plan speeds across the major NBN fixed-line plans during the busy evening hours of 7pm to 11pm, the latest report shows. This is the highest result since the ACCC started the Measuring Broadband Australia program in 2018.
The difference in download speeds between retail service providers also narrowed slightly since December 2020. Overall, average download speeds were 95.7% of plan speed during the busy evening hours, and 96.7% during all hours of the day, marginally higher than in the December 2020 report.
“These latest results suggest the NBN is performing well and retail service providers are largely delivering what consumers expect and have paid for,” ACCC commissioner Anna Brakey said.
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ACCC uncovers small number of NBN gigabit users seeing only 100Mbps
By Ry Crozier on Jun 30, 2021 12:25PM
Asks retailers to check up on in-home setups.
The ACCC's first attempt to understand how up to gigabit NBN plans perform has uncovered a subset of users getting only 100Mbps speeds due to limitations with their modem or home gateway.
The consumer watchdog released its first measuring broadband Australia report [pdf] on Wednesday that specifically examined up to gigabit tier services for the first time.
Though the sample size is relatively small - 52 services, it provides some indication of the performance fluctuations that an up to gigabit user might expect to see over a 24-hour period.
“Users on NBN very high speed connections attained an average download performance range of between 608 and 745Mbps,” the report found.
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Monday, 28 June 2021 15:43
Telstra announces 75% coverage in major 5G rollout milestone
Three-quarters of all Australians now can now access Telstra 5G where they live, and Telstra’s 4G network now covers more than two million square kilometres of the Australian continent.
Telstra group executive networks & IT Nikos Katinakis announced Telstra had achieved a goal, set last year, to roll out Telstra 5G to 75% of Australians by the end of June 2021.
“One of our priorities over the last year was bringing Telstra 5G to as many people as possible and this major milestone means that now three-quarters of Australians live where there is Telstra 5G,” Katinakis said.
In the last six months alone, Telstra has switched on 5G services in selected areas of more than 100 regional towns and cities including Echuca-Moama, Castlemaine, Port Douglas, Yass, Murray Bridge, Devonport, and Esperance taking the total to more than 200 towns and cities nationally.
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Friday, 25 June 2021 14:51
Telstra apologises and clarifies its "responsibility and commitment to clarifying your NBN speeds"
Not all non connections are capable of delivering the maximum speeds of higher speed NBN plans, and Telstra has apologised for not communicating this properly in the past, and said "we have made significant improvements to how we manage communicating nbn speed information to our customers", so what else does Telstra's California-based global connectivity and platforms exec, Sanjay Nayak have to say about it all?
Over at the Telstra Exchange blog, Telstra's Sanjay Nayak has published a blog post titled: "Our responsibility and commitment to clarifying your NBN speeds."
Here's what Sanjay Nayak has to say, in full:
"One of the issues internet providers face when providing customers with an internet service that relies on an nbn connection is that not all nbn connections to the home are created equal – they’re not all capable of delivering the maximum speeds of higher speed nbn plans.
"The maximum download speed you can achieve on your nbn connection – the speed to the household - is primarily dependent on the technology type delivered by NBN Co to your property. It’s impacted by a range of factors, including how far away your house is from the closest nbn point.
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Friday, 25 June 2021 13:48
NBN Co to recommence taking HFC orders from 26 July 2021
NBN Co announced that it will recommence taking orders from 26 July 2021 to connect new customers to the NBN network via HFC technology.
NBN Co confirmed that it has worked through the recent supply chain issues related to the worldwide shortage of silicon chipsets used to manufacture and supply HFC modems. It has received regular scheduled deliveries of new HFC modems and now has sufficient stock on hand, with further deliveries expected, to support ongoing customer demand for new HFC connections.
NBN
Co had planned to recommence taking new HFC orders from 24 May but postponed
its plans when it encountered issues with the rollout of a new workforce
scheduling system.
NBN Co has made good progress in recent weeks in taking steps to resolve the
issues that have affected the workforce scheduling system and availability of
field technicians for new connection and service appointments.
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Cosmic gulp: Astronomers see black hole swallow neutron star
By Seth Borenstein
June 30, 2021 — 4.05am
Los Angeles: Talk about a heavy snack. For the first time, astronomers have witnessed a black hole swallowing a neutron star, the most dense object in the universe – all in a split-second gulp.
Ten days later they saw the same thing, on the other side of the universe. In both cases, a neutron star – a teaspoon of which would weigh nearly a billion tonnes – orbits ever closer to that ultimate point of no return, a black hole, until they finally crash together and the star is gone in a gobble.
Astronomers witnessed the last 500 orbits before the neutron stars were swallowed, a process that took far less than a minute and briefly generated as much energy as all the visible light in the observable universe.
“It was just a big quick [gulp], gone,” said study co-author Patrick Brady, an astrophysicist at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. The black hole “gets a nice dinner of a neutron star and makes itself just a little bit more massive”.
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Enjoy!
David.
