Version 3 of the app will be released tomorrow on both Apple and Google stores and the addition of Bluetooth is not intended to replace signing in to locations via the QR code diary, but rather enhance the capability should someone test positive in the community.

Bluetooth tracing - not tracking, which would imply an active monitoring of the user's location at all times - allows the user's device to record which other Bluetooth-enabled devices it has come into contact with. If one of those devices is carried by someone who tests positive, the system can alert all those devices to let them know to get tested and to isolate until they get the all clear.

The system doesn't store information in a central repository so users can be assured there is no state-level monitoring of their movements. In fact, anyone who does receive a notification of a positive result near them at some point won't know who that person was or where they were, just that they've been near someone with a positive result.

Not all residents in New Zealand have a mobile device that is capable of this kind of activity, so the Ministry of Health continues to urge everyone to record their own movements around the country. Usage of the app remains high - around 2.4 million Kiwis are using the app and the ministry estimates around 90% of those have a device that is capable of Bluetooth tracing - but not all scan in as often as they should. The hope is that by combining QR code self scan-ins with Bluetooth tracing, any outbreak can be swiftly identified and squashed.

The ministry continues to work on trials of the Bluetooth contact tracing card for those who don't have access to a smart phone and the recent trial in Ngongotaha, just outside Rotorua, saw more than 50% of locals sign up to be involved. The trial is looking at both the technology and its usability but also at user acceptance of, and willingness to use, a card that needs to be worn on a lanyard or carried in an external pocket.

The Exposure Notification Framework (ENF) developed jointly by Apple and Google is currently in use in 25 countries around the world and is only available to public health agencies.

Users who already have the app will be able to upgrade to the new version from Thursday.

The same could be true for COVID-19 tracking. If we'd all downloaded the app, and used it for every location we visited over the past 100 days of COVID-free bliss, we could easily and readily track and trace everyone who came into contact with whoever our new Patient Zero is.

Instead, we have a situation where yesterday there were four cases, today there are 19 and tomorrow we're likely to see Auckland go into lockdown for weeks at Level 3 or potentially (if you clowns keep driving out of town to your baches) Level 4.

Sure, being able to track and trace the index patient and those with whom he or she interacted wouldn't solve the problem entirely. They'd still be infected and the outbreak would be stepped up.

But we could at least identify who was at risk and get them to isolate, and we could identify who they had been in contact with and get them to isolate.

That would seem to be enough to sort the bug out at that level. As Dr Michelle Dickinson (aka Nanogirl) put it, "The goal of the COVID-19 virus is to find a human host, replicate inside them then find another human host to spread to," and if we can stop the spread at that level, we're pretty good.

But it was not to be. The index patient infected four people (that we know of) and now we're up to 19 (that we know of) and by the time you're reading this it could easily be 50 or 100 people (that we know of) and spread beyond Auckland itself.

Somewhere in those 100 days we became complacent and did not continue to treat this as a live situation. Between the business owners calling for borders to be opened and the universities calling for exemptions for foreign students and the politicians making hay while the sun shone about how we were going overboard, we failed to remember the golden rule: pretend you've already got it and act accordingly.

If I think about my week it included one trip to the office, a couple of drinks with a number of media folk after work, a flight to and from Wellington, one weekend at an archery club shoot with about 100 people, a trip to Bunnings and another trip to a garden centre and drinks with the neighbours. I went to the gym five times, caught up with a friend at his new place of work, took my daughters to a variety of dance classes and places of employment and thankfully that was that.

But if I do have it, I'm about three steps away from infecting the entire country.

So, tracking and tracing is the start of the solution to the spread - along with wearing a mask and for some of us isolating.

Masks are a pain. I've just picked up takeaways (oh dear, I didn't check in either I now realise) and my homemade mask doesn't want to stay on my right ear, and they fog up my glasses. But I and the take away workers (Belly Worship - you go for the lychee pork but stay for the spicy pancakes) all wore them: everyone else went bare faced.

If you're outside Auckland you'll feel doubly self-conscious about wearing one. Don't be - pretend you don't care and put them on anyway because every bit counts and this could be how you squash the spread. Yes, you feel like a right pillock, but think of the alternative?

As you can see from that previous statement, we actually don't know how many people are affected in New Zealand at this point. It could be 19 or it could be 1400. We just don't know.

Data is the answer, but we don't gather it so we're unable to predict. If we follow the scientists' advice, we have to assume the worst, hence locking down the city.

So what are our options when it comes to T&T? Let's assume we have a budget to deploy a solution - let's say it's $100 million and we can do what we like, blue skies thinking, blank piece of paper.

That $100 million is a huge sum of money but spread among five million of us and it's a measly $20 per head of population, so any solution is going to have to rely heavily on existing kit to be a go.

Cellular networks that reach about 97% of the population (although only about 50% of the landmass). Cellphone penetration of more than 100%, evenly spread among the age groups. So it makes sense we would start there.

I can't think of a single cellphone for sale today that doesn't include Bluetooth capability and while many don't use it at all, and the rest of us use it for things like ear buds, we should be considering deployment of a solution that takes this network and device spread into account.

So we could deploy something that is cellphone based (whether smart app or dumb remains to be seen) and we would do well at capturing the vast bulk of the population.

We probably don't need to launch a separate device (sorry, Sam Morgan) and we certainly don't need something that has to be worn around the neck and carried lest we get picked off by the snipers at the checkpoints placed around our city, or whatever it is they're doing.

The bigger problem with an ID card of this type is social licence. It's one thing for me to carry a phone that I've chosen to carry but something else entirely for a government mandated tracking device to be placed on my person. There is a percentage of the population already marching in the streets about this - a tracking card would not go down well and I can't say I blame them.

We have questions about privacy for sure. Who has access to the data, what data does it require, how will it be governed, and so on. I might not want my kids to know I went to Giapo for an ice cream without them, so how secure is the data?

The best solution is to keep the data on the device until such time as the device owner is diagnosed as infections, at which point finding out who they potentially connected with is essential.

The current COVID app is relatively basic - by design - and is little more than a location diary. This is a very good starting point but we can do more. Let's upgrade to include the Bluetooth capability Apple and Google have developed. Let's think about daily health check-ins, such as the Flu Tracker project has. I wear a smartwatch these days and it can tell me my pulse and if I fall over wants to call an ambulance (it's OK little watch, I just jumped on the bed is all) so how about we put those to work as well.

Let's have an app that tells me where my nearest testing station is and what the wait time is. Let's have one with a chat capability so I can go through the basic diagnosis to determine whether I should go stand in a queue for three hours with the robot, not with a person. Let's have a way of storing my health information number so when I get to the end of the queue they can work out who I am in a timely fashion.

And let's make sure those who can't afford a smartphone get one, and a data rich plan to boot.

I'm pretty sure with a $100 million we could do all that and have change. And after all, change is what we need because it's been quite the year, and we're not done yet.

My father in law likes to remind the family that the wettest, coldest, darkest days of winter come after the winter solstice - the shortest day - when everyone is thinking about spring and that they can be quite miserable. But spring does come along, and then summer and it's warm again.

I think that might be a useful way to look at this outbreak. It's pretty miserable right now as we go into a second round of lockdown but … this is the right solution and we can come out the far side with our heads held high. If we follow the science and stick together.

Now an opportunity exists to allow promising new health tech innovations to fly, with ChristchurchNZ, KiwiNet, and Ryman Healthcare offering a prize package worth over $340,000 as part of its HealthTech Supernode Challenge.

The Challenge is seeking innovative "ideas, products or start-ups" from individuals or teams in three areas - aged care, rural care and an open category where applications can be across any remit.

Up to 20 finalists will be chosen to go through a six-week pre-accelerator programme allowing participants to develop their ideas with the input of healthcare and innovation experts on privacy and regulations, market validation, testing minimal viable products, business model development and investment funding options.

"This is your launchpad to invent the future of NZ healthcare with groundbreaking and innovative technology that solves real problems and has positive healthcare impact," say the organisers.

The intellectual property associated with the projects remains the property of the applicants 

• There's a cash prize package of $40,000 to be split between finalists as well as an automatic invitation to take part in the ongoing incubation programme at Te Ōhaka -  Centre for Growth and Innovation or ThincLab.

• If applicable, the overall winner may receive potential seed funding from WNT Ventures 

• If applicable, the overall winner may also be granted a market validation contract with CDHB which will provide the opportunity for customer discovery, product, and market validation.
• If applicable to Aged Care, the winner will also be granted exclusive access to Ryman Healthcare's innovation team which will provide the opportunity for the startup to pursue real customer discovery, product, and market validation.

While the HealthTech Supernode Challenge is being delivered by the Ministry of Awesome and the University of Canterbury's Centre for Entrepreneurship in Christchurch, it is a national competition - applicants can be from anywhere in the country.

The top finalists emerging from the pre-accelerator will present to a panel of experts at a Demo Night, to be held on 22 October at Manawa, in the heart of Te Papa Hauora Christchurch Health Precinct. Judges include Microbiologist and media commentator, Dr. Siouxsie Wiles and Ian Town, New Zealand's Chief Science Advisor at the Ministry of Health.

Applications are now open and close on August 16 - visit HealthTech Supernode Challenge for more details.

Now the director-general of health is being called on to fix our creaking health IT systems which doctors and clinicians consider to be holding back delivery of basic health services and acting as a barrier to the deployment of new health tech, such as wearables and even implants.

In an open letter to Dr Bloomfield, over 360 clinicians urge him to capitalise on the recent injection of funding into tech initiatives such as Covid tracing systems, to extend to the wider health system.

"COVID-19 and the rapid changes in our health system have exposed what clinicians have said for years, that our large technological debt is hindering care for our patients," write the members of the Clinical Informatics Leadership Network.

"Our technological debt is, at least in part, secondary to a continued lack of clinical informatics partnership, on top of inadequate investment in our health system's data and digital infrastructure."

Health review an opportunity for change

The call for action on technology in the health sector comes as a major review of the sector recommends a reduction in the number of district health boards, the establishment of a new health authority, Health NZ, ending elections for DHB members and creating a dedicated Māori health authority.  

Those proposed changes will be evaluated by a small group of ministers in the coming months, with a 3 - 5 year work plan implementing the structural changes required. That could allow opportunities to harmonise the use of technology and digital services across the health sector, with more central procurement and technology policies.

Health minister David Clark described the review recommendations as a "once in a generation opportunity" and he agreed with the "direction of travel" of those recommendations.

The Health and Disability System Review: Final report, released today, includes a section on Digital and data. Its recommendations to move from an "ecosystem of tens of thousands of systems that do not easily connect, to a system that routinely shares data and more effectively supports all those working in or using the system will require a staged approach".

The Digital and Data recommendations include:

- The Ministry should continue to be responsible for national data collections and the Health Information Standards Organisation.

- Health NZ should focus on aspects of digital that are required to manage and support improved delivery and performance of the system, such as developing and implementing the digital plan and ensuring appropriate interoperability and cybersecurity management.

- The Māori Health Authority should take a leadership role on Māori data sovereignty, Māori population health analysis and analytics, and ensure that the digital plan includes priorities that will help address equity issues for Māori.

- Priority should be given to developing data and interoperability standards that ensure data flows across the system and supports better clinical outcomes, empowered consumers and data-driven decision-making.

- Consumers should be able to control and access their own health data and information given the importance of Tier 1 services for improving equity, priority for digital investment should be given to initiatives that will accelerate interoperability between Tier 1 services. nHIP initiatives are one option for this.

- Digital systems in both Tier 1 and Tier 2 should support more delivery of virtual care and this should be prioritised to serve rural and other communities with access challenges procurement processes for service providers and suppliers of digital systems should be encouraged to adopt agreed digital and data standards. 

- A digital procurement framework that aligns procurement processes with the scale and risk associated with the investment should be adopted and decision-making rights clarified throughout the system.

Don't slip backwards

The clinicians lobbying for change will no doubt agree with the tone of the report, though the devil will be in the detail. They see an urgent need to move on upgrading IT systems and embedding digital literacy "before people and organisations slip back into old ways of working". They point to the Government's own National Asset Management Programme report released last week, which also has a section devoted to information technology.

It tells a story of outmoded software systems, siloed purchasing decisions at the DHBs and a lack of coordination and standardisation on developing and roll-out of technology and applications.

Warning signs are also coming from the DHBs themselves. The NAMP report notes:

"Another review in 2018, in the Northern Region, found over 1,200 applications across its four DHBs. Yet only 10 per cent of these applications appeared to be up to date, with the rest obsolete or becoming obsolete."

Many DHBs are running outdated and unsupported versions of Windows on their devices posing a cybersecurity threat in the process. 

With a more streamlined health sector, the opportunity may soon exist to improve the delivery of services supported by the innovative use of technology and digital services.

The app doesn't include the bells and whistles of Bluetooth and tokenisation that other nations have deployed, albeit with limited success, instead focusing on providing the user with the ability to check in and out of locations using a QR code.

These details are then stored locally on the phone - accessible only by the user. To share the results (should you test positive) a Ministry of Health official will call the user and talk through each day in the diary, working out times and locations from the data. Later versions may have the ability to upload that data directly to MoH contact tracing personnel, but for now it's a phone call.

The QR codes are provided by the Ministry of Building, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and relate to both the business-owner's business ID number and also location. This means they could be used in future by other agencies (police or emergency services, for example) when responding to issues at that location - thus reducing re-keying requirements for report writing.

This is all part of the Ministry of Health's approach to data sharing which is best described as being similar to "open banking" in that while data is held and privacy controlled carefully, access to the process and service should be open for other users to develop on top of the capability.

The tracing app in its first iteration is so basic and straightforward (a design decision made early on in the process to encourage trust and thus usage) that it doesn't meet the criteria for Level 2 business owners, who must record the names and contact details of visitors to their premises - so without a change to the rules it's likely businesses will still insist on users signing in to some form of record for their use. Just remember to take your own pen.

Internationally, these kinds of apps have popped up in various locations and are used with a varying degree of success. Despite more than four million downloads, the Australian app has yet to be used to track a single case of COVID-19 and with New Zealand's track record of infections suggesting we have little if any community spread, the chances of contracting the disease and reporting against it are slim.

However, users of the app will have much better ability to recall exactly where and when they visited locations should the need arise.

(DISCLAIMER: This writer also works for a company involved in the creation of the app, although he didn't know it at the time.)

Australia's contact tracing app, based largely on the Singaporean equivalent, was released on April 26 and less then 12 hours later had run into trouble with one researcher uncovering two major flaws that allow malicious users to track individuals over a period of time.

Despite sharing this with the relevant Australian government security agencies as well as health officials, responses were slow in coming and issues remain with concerns around how the data is encrypted, whether the process for managing data flows between app and server is up to the task and a number of other minor issues.

The Australian app has been downloaded more than two million times.

Meanwhile in the UK the government issued tracing app has come under fire from a government select committee even before the app was released to the general public.

Currently the app is being trialled on the Isle of Wight but parliament's joint committee on human rights has said the app falls foul of the government's own Data Protection Act and cannot be deployed across the already beleaguered nation.

The UK government may decide to change the law, or even move to a different app, to ensure privacy concerns are addressed, and following some users in the trial group being told they're exposed to COVID-19 when they hadn't left their houses - something of a major problem with the app.

Germany, and much of the EU, has opted for a decentralised approach to both health care in general and contact tracing in particular. Opting to use the API developed jointly by Google and Apple (which promises to ensure apps working on the two platforms will talk to each other efficiently), the German government has thrown its hat into the peer-to-peer ring rather than opting for a centralised process. This ensures the data is held on the user's phone and is only shared with the servers (and then out to the user's wider contact group) if a positive diagnosis is revealled, something which solves a lot of the privacy concerns.

If New Zealand does deploy an app (very much up in the air still) it is likely to launch a basic, manual app requiring the user to scan QR codes as they enter or leave properties, and will continue to monitor developments on a more advanced app as things progress. In order to open borders with Australia and joint app is likely to be favoured but while the Australian model has issues that's unlikely to be acceptable to New Zealand privacy groups or officials in the short term.

The three tools are the Mentemia app developed by former All Black Sir John Kirwan, a health journal app called Melon and an e-therapy programme called Staying on Track.

"We know that sudden change, such as the loss of a job or income, can place real stress on people. Added to that, the pressure of being at home and the isolation that may come with that, means these apps have never been needed more," says Clark.

"These three online tools give people practical ways to support their mental wellbeing and I would encourage anyone to take a look at them."

The Mentemia app was originally aimed at serving workplaces but the extra funding means it is now available to all New Zealander throughout the Covid-19 response. Created by Kirwan and tech entrepreneur Adam Clark, Mentemia provides users with practical tips and techniques to help them take control of their wellbeing.

The Ministry of Health is also working with Mentemia to create content and tools specifically to support front line health workers and government employees in essential services.

The Melon app provides a health journal, resources and self-awareness tools to help people manage their emotional wellbeing. Melon, which is led by founder and CEOSiobhan Bulfin, also provides an online community for New Zealanders to connect and support each other and daily webinars for health and wellbeing. Melon will soon be launching additional resources to specifically support 13 to 24 year-olds. 

The third support tool is Staying on Track and is designed to help people who are experiencing worry and distress. Its cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) teaches practical strategies to cope with the stress and disruption to everyday life from Covid-19. It is has been developed by The Wise Group, a collection of community organisations.

"This is an incredibly tough time for many Kiwis, and we want people to know that they are not alone, and that there is support out there. The tools released today sit alongside the range of Government support on offer," Clark says.

The call comes after Wellington, Kāpiti, and Wairarapa's primary health organisation (PHO) Tū Ora Compass Health confirmed a massive data breach that could affect up to one million New Zealanders.

The Ministry has required all Primary Health Organisations and District Health Boards (DHB) to review their cyber security and report back by to the Ministry October 8.

The breach is still under investigation but it is believed no doctors' notes were involved, however the breach does include personally identifying information (PII) such as names, ages, ethnicities, and addresses.

Tū Ora Compass Health provides data services to Think Hauora and patient services to Cosine, Te Awakairangi Health Network and Ora Toa. The attack was initially thought to affect the PHO's website, which was defaced in August, but subsequent investigations show a series of breaches dating back to 2016 involving data dating back to 2002.

"Tū Ora holds data on individuals dating back to 2002, from the greater Wellington, Wairarapa and Manawatu regions.  Anyone who was enrolled with a medical centre in that period could potentially be affected. 

"Tū Ora does not hold your GP notes, these are held by individual medical centres.  This means the notes made on consultations you have had with your GP are not at risk of being illegally accessed through this cyber attack," says the PHO in a statement on its website.

The "Digital, data and technology services - minimum requirements" sets out the ministry's expectations regarding minimum capability for digital services and security is at the forefront.

"All new digital services and the data they collect and hold must be conformant, and in some cases compliant, with Ministry of Health published HISO standards, roadmaps and architecture guidelines and integrate with Ministry of Health mandated national digital services (such as the National Health Index)."

Services should be "integrated to support a consistent, and where possible seamless, user experience and avoid unnecessary duplication of data and functions" and the use of cloud delivery should be "considered" for all services rather than locally hosted or managed technology.

Meanwhile Capital and Coast DHB is mopping up after a phishing scam caught out a staff member and resulted in thousands of fake emails being sent from their email account.

"This incident was a case of human - rather than system - error, and we remain confident in the robust security measures and protocols that protect our systems and data," said chief digital officer Tracy Voice in a written statement.

"As a precaution, however, we have further enhanced our security measures and protocols. We will also strengthen our regular education for staff about these sorts of attacks and how to remain safe while using email and the internet."

No customer data was exposed by the attack, says the DHB.

Anyone who receives an email from a CCDHB email address should phone to verify its authenticity, says the DHB.

Panel discussions, interactive workshops, talks and more, this conference includes invited guest speakers from both the Healthcare and Information Technology industries, including ITP's own Victoria Maclennan, Managing Director of Optimal BI, Chair of the Digital Skill Forum.

Also speaking are Dr. Robyn Whittaker, Associate Professor, National Institute for Health Innovation, University of Auckland and Clinical Director Innovation, Waitemata District Health Board, Gabe Rijpma, Beachhead Advisor and Senior Director for Health and Social Service in Microsoft Asia, and Dr Angela Lim, CEO of Clearhead among others. 

The conference will host approximately 70 attendees including invited company representatives and New Zealand digital health leaders and influencers. Limited sponsorship and exhibition opportunities are still available and there is also the option to host senior staff and clients as a Conference Support Partner.

Registrations are now open.

Australians had been protesting about the lack of clarity relating to privacy issues, access to records and the ability to amend existing or erroneous data. The government had put a deadline on opting out of the system (October 15) but opponents are saying that needs to be extended while the problems with the system are worked out.

Yesterday the Australian Acting Privacy Commissioner Angelene Falk said the public were right to be concerned about privacy implications.

"Australians rightly are asking questions around the security and privacy of that information and this is a very important opportunity for there to be that debate and certainly I welcome it," she said.

Today, the Australian health minister, Greg Hunt, has bowed to pressure and will introduce a new amendment to address the issue.

"The amendment will ensure no record can be released to police or government agencies, for any purpose, without a court order," he said in a written statement.

Australians now have an additional month in order to opt out of the scheme if they so wish.

Australian health minister Greg Hunt says he expects up to 10% of eligible patients to opt out of the MyHealth Record programme, following widespread concerns about privacy issues. 

It's not only patients who are concerned - doctors and health care practitioners are expressing concern over possible interference in the doctor-patient relationship, and privacy advocates are pointing out that the rules governing the programme seemingly allow police to access medical records without needing a warrant or other court order.

MyHealth Records is a patient record system that has been in place for six years, but which will automatically generate records for every Australian unless they opt out by 15 October. Several social media campaigns are underway warning Australians to check their records for accuracy after mistakes have been revealed in records. Patient records in the system cannot be deleted for 30 years.

Vision Australia, an advocacy group for visually impaired Australians, has warned its members to opt out as the service doesn't appear to meet a number of vision accessibility requirements, making it impossible for its users to verify data or to make use of the service.

The Australian government has also come under fire from the UN for its privacy rules during a panel discussion at an Australian Human Rights Commission's technology conference in Sydney. The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to privacy Professor Joseph Cannataci suggested Australia needed to beef up its domestic privacy laws before it tells other nations how to run their own country.

CIO Magazine quotes Cannataci saying, "In order to be able to set an example on the international front you can no longer be in a position where Australia [is] without a bill of rights, without remedies for privacy on the domestic front, without a whole range of safeguards which exist in other places," something he says the Australian Law Reform Commission has also recommended. However, the Australian government rejected such suggestions.

Meanwhile, Singapore's largest health care provider, SingHealth, is reeling following the discovery of a data breach which may affect as many as one quarter of Singaporeans. 

SingHealth reports that "non-medical personal data of 1.5 million patients" had been "accessed and copied", including their national identification number, address, and date of birth.

Vodafone New Zealand has launched a new app that uses your phone to help crunch cancer research data while you sleep.

The Vodafone DreamLab app (available for both Android and iOS) was developed by the Vodafone Foundation in Australia and is now available for New Zealand users. The app was built in partnership with the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and is currently devoting spare processor cycles to Project Genetic Profile - a programme of work to help researchers better understand the genetic make-up of four different cancers. The aim is to help personalise treatment plans to each individual patient in the future.

A second project (named Drugs Repurposing Using Grids of Smartphones, or Project DRUGS for short) is looking at ways to speed up the drug discovery process - that is, using existing drugs to treat different types of cancer.

Such programmes of work are not new to the computing world. The ever-popular Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) At Home programme has been in place for many years and uses a screen saver model to "borrow" processor time from computers that have the screen saver operating. 

Since its launch in 1999, SETI@home has logged millions of days' worth of processing time. In 2011, SETI@home was averaging 3.5PFLOP (petaFLOPs) and was in operation on some five million computers in 226 countries.

Anyone can sign up to use the DreamLab app - there is no requirement to be a Vodafone customer, however the company does zero rate any data being transferred over its mobile network.

Not content with building an empire on music players, they had to get into phones. Not content with redefining the mobile phone market, they had to get into personal computers (real ones, tablets). Not content with disrupting computing, they had to get into the interface market (hello, Siri). Not content with the interface market they had to get into healthcare.

Sorry, what?

Apple, you see, is now offering healthcare services to its staff because a: it has to soak up all that unpaid tax and prove it's a good corporate citizen somehow and b: the US healthcare system is so broken that even a sitting Vice President considers selling his house to pay for medical bills.

Apple has teamed up with Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase to offer healthcare services to their employees and while from this distance that seems like so much "meh", to the US health insurance market it has sounded the alarm bells like nothing before it.

To have the companies responsible for so much disruption come to their neck of the woods, even in so mild a way as an employee health scheme, sent shares in large US health schemes plummeting.

Of course, for the rest of the First World (New Zealand included) such schemes aren't necessary because of our communist leanings and willingness to pay for each other's health care (editor's note: I have argued about this online many times with Americans who cannot believe I don't estimate and begrudge every penny spent on healthcare) but what Apple and Amazon do in the US seems destined to percolate throughout the rest of the world as well, albeit in other forms. And so we should expect to read more about the move into healthcare in the future.

In fact, why wait. Look, Apple's just signed a deal to update its health records capability in the iOS app and is partnering with a US-based health records company that isn't New Zealand's Orion Health.

The moral of the story: all your records are belong to us (kids, if you don't understand this meme, ask your grandparents).

New York Times - Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Team Up to Try to Disrupt Health Care

NBR - Apple partners with Orion Health foes as it enters medical records market

Guardian - Joe Biden: Obama offered money to help support my ailing son's family (2016)

Operational Security

I'm a bit fit but I don't have a personal step tracking thing, mostly because I gave up wearing watches a while ago (they get in the way when you're touch typing I find) and partly because the kids got stuck in to measuring their steps and spent their money on a couple and now that's their domain.

But I shall have to get a bit closer and have a look at the settings because by the looks of it, these devices work exactly as they're intended.

(Editor's note: I've always wanted to do the italics thing at the end of the line. It's so very Lovecraftian. But I digress).

Fitbits are good for tracking your steps, tracking your fitness, tracking your location. They're designed to be a cheap and easy way for runners or cyclists or any of those other sporty people who get out to map their path, track their effort and so gamify staying fit.

The key word in all of this is "track" because of course they're designed to track your location. That's what they do. Being surprised that they track and then share that location is a bit redundant. It's like complaining when you burn your arm on the stove top. It's supposed to be hot.

I suspect where the trouble started is in the gamification process. By turning these efforts into achievements and then pitting user against user, these devices took the whole tracking thing one step further than many expected. So, instead of Annie and Brian in the office pitting their distance and effort against each other, we have Captain Chuck and PFC Dave out on operations in the desert jogging around the base inadvertently yet deliberately revealing their location.

While we can have fun at the idea of security personnel being so insecure, there's something more serious at stake. These devices worked as they're supposed to but not as users expected and we're likely to see a lot more of that as we get into the Internet of Things (IoT) and of course the home automation market.

"What do you mean, my voice-activated speaker is listening to everything I say?"

Well, that's what it's for. You've planted an all-seeing, all-listening bug in your own living room and did so deliberately. That the Amazon or Google or Apple device hears everything you say or do shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, but I bet we'll have a few jittery cases before we're done.

And so we should. What rules govern these services? Who decides what happens to the data? Do users know that the devices will figure out what time everyone gets up, what time everyone goes to bed, what kind of products they order between 8pm and 8.15 and so on?

All that is yet to be decided but, as is our way, it's likely to be decided after we've all gone out and bought one. Sorry, "after we've all gone out and bought one."

The Spin Off - Can you trust your Fitbit? (ahem)

The Register - Thar she blows: Strava heat map shows folk on shipwreck packed with 1,500 tonnes of bombs

Tech Review - Strava's privacy PR nightmare shows why you can't trust social fitness apps to protect your data

Xero departs

The darling of the New Zealand stock exchange, Xero, has departed our shores preferring to delist from the NZX and have a single listing in Australia.

The reasons given, access to a larger pool of capital, a broader range of investors and better analyst and broker coverage, should send shivers down the spines of both the yet-to-be-appointed national CTO and the Minister of Economic Development, because it is a clear indictment of the New Zealand financial markets and their inability to invest in technology companies.

The future of New Zealand's economy needs a second and third string to its bow and digital/high tech companies should be a major part of that growth, but there's no point developing really good IT ideas locally if you can't get the funding you need to grow the business.

Just look at PowerbyProxi - a local company with a great idea (wireless charging for any device that uses batteries) that tried to list locally a few years ago but ended up being unable to attract the right investment. Last year it was bought outright by Apple for an undisclosed sum, rumoured to be around $90 million.

All that IP, all that potential, all that opportunity now owned by a large international player instead of by a local developer.

We need to resolve this and soon. It's still far easier to invest in the local housing market and become a landlord than it is to invest in the sharemarket, let alone a tech company. That needs to be high on any economic development agenda.

Stuff - NZX swallows bitter pill in Xero delisting

Xero - Rationale for transitioning to a single listing

NBR - Craigs bowls an underarm delivery to Xero

Stuff - Apple snaps up NZ's PowerbyProxi

NZ Herald - Stock Takes: PowerbyProxi talks set scene for market listing (June 2014)

Our health system is broken in so many ways. It is trapped in a 1980s service delivery model, way too complex for a country with 4.5 million people, underfunded, and riddled with waste.

Recently I took part in the annual Health Informatics NZ (HINZ) conference. There is great work being done by masses of competent people. However, nearly all of it is operating only in one DHB, hospital or service area. Silos abound. Inefficiency, with wasted opportunity, is endemic.

The customer interface to health services hasn't changed for a century. We still start, nearly always, by making an appointment with a GP whether or not our issue needs that level of expertise.

Compare that to the customer interfaces in banking, aviation, government services, retail and travel. All those sectors have been re-engineered from scratch to utilise the huge efficiency gains of the digital era. Routine transactions have been automated. Customers who need personal attention are escalated to a real person, of increasing seniority, only if required. All that happened twenty years ago.

By contrast in primary practice for example, there is rarely an automated option. Customers start at the top with a face-to-face appointment with a GP - the most expensive and scarce resource in the system - from where they might be delegated down.

So why does large scale modernisation elude health services? Here's my considered view.

1 The System is Absurdly Complex

Health is a unique blend (I might say hotchpotch)  of public and private sectors. Hospitals are run by 20 DHBs. Primary care used to be run by self-employed GPs but has increasingly been corporatised, subsidised by public money channelled through the Ministry, DHBs and primary health organisations. Specialists earn eye-watering sums as private entrepreneurs. Allied services like physios seem to be private. Testing labs are a mystery - I've no idea who pays for my blood test. Pharmacies charge for drugs but the price I pay for a prescription seems unrelated to the cost.

A torrent of taxpayers' money sloshes around the sector under the charge of the Ministry of Health. Some is devolved to DHBs who cycle it around their regions in various ways - spending it directly or through external contractors. Some goes to NGOs, Pharmac and health quangos. Along the way the flow is complicated by ACC, co-payments from patients, private health insurance and incentives. Every level of bureaucracy takes its administrative cut.

That process is so complex that nobody really understands it - witness the fact that the Ministry (more about them later) recently made the public service blunder of the decade in sloshing millions to the wrong DHBs and having to send in pumps to syphon it back.

But with that complexity and lack of understanding comes understandable  terror of unintended consequences if we make changes, so we continue using band aids where surgery is needed.

Solution - lets start by developing a vision of a 21^st century health system and customer interface, based on the opportunities of the digital era. This cannot be delayed any longer.

2 Political Leadership Has Been Poor

Sorry, but Jonathan Coleman was a disaster as Minister of Health - preoccupied with keeping health off the front page at a time when the challenges it faces mean that is exactly where it needs to be. His lack of a sense of accountability to the public set him apart from any other Minister in recent rimes. Every depressing time when media reported that numbers of patients had died or gone blind through service deficiency or under funding in health, Coleman was "unavailable for comment." His contribution was to cynically cut back on real funding at a time of massive increases in need due to increasing public expectations, the aging population and record immigration.

No wonder he disestablished the Health IT Board (along with its consumer panel that I chaired) and its parent National Health Board. It was working - albeit slowly but effectively - on the daunting task of coordinating non-interoperable health sector IT functions in a hugely complex environment. At least it delivered on its flagship project of Personal Electronic Health Records for many - I am among allegedly 400,000 Kiwis who have online access to my PEHR but millions more can't yet access them or don't know they exist. 

It seems part of a pattern in health - anyone, or any institution that starts making progress gets killed off by the system. Conversely, flurries of activity with no discernible outcome get rewarded.

Yet nothing that I can see was put in place to replace either Board. That begs the mega-billion dollar question - who is now responsible for overseeing the challenging task of changing this complex system to align with the digital age? I have no idea.

Solution - good luck to incoming Minister David Clark, he will need to grasp the nettle and start a process of systemic redesign.

3 The Ministry of Health is Dysfunctional

The prize for the most conspicuous incompetence in the public sector must go uncontested to the Ministry of Health. 

The blunder above aside, my observation from working with it over the years is that it is so consumed with perpetually re-structuring or "transforming" itself internally that it doesn't spare a thought for its core task of leading the decades-overdue task of restructuring its sector.

Bureaucratic, ineffective, fiefdom-driven, cumbersome, risk-averse to a fault, and way out of touch with its real purpose - far more attuned to shutting down constructive debate than fostering it. It needs nothing less than demolishing and rebuilding.

Solution - scrap the Ministry and replace it with smaller, smarter units with a very different culture and leadership style.

4 "Clinical Leadership" has Been Overcooked 

Clinical leadership is a mantra in health - nothing happens without the docs agreeing - which always requires an evidential base.

That's fine to a point. There are many superb leaders among the clinicians - I've been privileged to work with a number. Doctors generally are smart, committed, outstanding people.

But intelligence doesn't automatically make them great change-agents. Doctors are inherently conservative. Thank God for that when they are wielding the scalpel, but it's a serious drawback when they're contemplating changes to the way of doing things. Dr Lance O'Sullivan told a conference recently that NZ could more than halve the number of GPs if we used them more selectively, to which I can only agree.

Many changes are simple common sense. Clinicians should absolutely be at the centre but so should informed health service consumers, professional administrators, and nurses. No one group should have power of veto. And as with any occupation, there can be a fine line between professional caution and patch protection. 

Solution - doctors should be part of the change but not dominate; an eclectic group including smart health service consumers should lead.

5 Shared Services Companies Are Barriers to Change 

Academics and consultants foisted shared services companies onto hesitant DHBs to achieve economies of scale in services like personnel, finance and IT. In theory they are servants of, and accountable to, the DHBs in their region collectively.

The problem is they became the reverse. Once appointed, and with the DHB having lost control of these core functions, they grow like head lice on a five-year-old - they become the master and the hapless DHB the servant. In IT terms that means there is always an excuse to delay, either to wait for other DHBs in their region to catch up, or to dovetail with inconsistent regionally- or nationally-imposed timetables. And of course, there is never any money - see item 1. So nothing changes. 

Solution - abandon this failed experiment and give CEOs full control of their destiny.

In Summary 

IT specialists are playing a competent and highly constructive role introducing IT-enabled projects but are hampered by two massive barriers. First, inability to take the best pilots and nationalise them. Second, inability to re-engineer service delivery around the potential of the digital age. Technology is best when systems are re-engineered to take advantages of the efficiencies it offers. Superimposing 21^st century technology on a creaking 20^th century structure and business process denies most of the potential benefits.

But health IT works in glorious isolation from any vision of, or debate about debate about the future structure of health services overall - if one exists. It has been perceived as a service activity to one side, when it should be the mainstream enabler of a sectoral re-build.

There are many extremely capable people leading health IT projects - all power to them within their limited mandates. But back at base many more professionals are jaded, project-fatigued, cynical about pilots that go nowhere, overworked, bitter about underfunding, patch protective, or change-resistant.

The whole health sector nationwide needs to be mobilised and enthused. It needs leadership, energy, commitment, and reallocation of money. Meanwhile time has run out - opportunities are being lost, resources are squandered, the clinic is unattended and the grey tsunami is waiting outside the door.

Welcome, Minister Clark.

Ernie Newman is a Digital Economy Consultant based in the Bay of Plenty. His involvement in the digital economy dates back to 1999-2012 as CEO of TUANZ, the Telecommunications Users Association. Recent assignments in health have involved telehealth and consumer issues for 2 government agencies, 3 District Health Boards and a Pacific Island health organisation.

The applications discussed range from modelling of human physiology, understanding our place in the genome, the evolution of CT scanning and using IT to help improve management of chronic illness.

Each event is free to attend and the series runs until May 26. All the lectures will be streamed live.

The series is named for Peter Gibbons, who died in 2008. Dr Gibbons research focused on the boundary between Mathematics and Computer Science. Gibbons was involved with the University of Auckland's Department of Computer Science from its inception in 1980 through to his retirement in 2004.

Past Gibbons Lectures have covered issues ranging from human-computer interaction through to security and privacy in the information age, the legacy of Alan Turing and the application of computer power.

The lecture series is run by the University of Auckland Department of Computer Science in association with IITP.

El Capitan is available now, although downloads are running a tad slow as is the way with such things it would seem.

New in the operating-system-that-isn't-iOS is … well… the wallpaper looks nice and there's some added functionality for the notepad app…

Pretty much it's fair to say this is an incremental update that you should go for anyway because of the obvious security requirements but beyond that, it's business as usual.

Which begs the question, what is the future for Apple with its two-tier operating system approach? So far it's kicking Microsoft's "One OS to rule them all" approach (predominantly because Windows 8 was just so hopeless - maybe 10 can resolve that particularly issue but it feels too late to me) but will that continue, especially as the world moves to a more mobile-first platform.

Wired: El Capitan Is the Future of Your Mac-And Your iPhone

Stuff: Five changes to latest Mac software

ZDNet: Don't panic: Microsoft mistakenly posted a 'test' Windows update patch

Orion signs deal with UK's Boots the Chemist

Orion Health, New Zealand's top performing healthcare system software company, has signed on with Boots, the UK pharmacy chain, to roll out its technology to 2,400 Boots stores across the UK and Ireland.

Normally this would be heralded as great news but a funny thing happens when software companies list on the stock market - good news starts to look like my old school reports. "C+, could do better".

This annoys me, because I really put some effort into that geography report. I'm sure it annoys Ian McRae as well because surely a deal of this scale should be worth a bit of an uptick in the hivemind that is modern day share trading.

Instead, shares in the company continued to slip away from its peak.

NBR: Orion Health inks technology deal with Boots UK

ZDNet: UK pharmacy chain Boots to roll out Orion Health software

Health Start-up Weekend

Speaking of health, Wellington plays host to New Zealand's first start-up weekend aimed at the health sector.

Health IT, in association with Microsoft, Xero and Massey University, are hosting the event which will see teams of would-be entrepreneurs and developers come together to create beautiful music. Or something like that.

Book in the weekend of Novembr 6-8 in your diaries.

Startup Weekend Wellington HEALTH November 2015

Fastest in the world - NZ LTE rules the roost

Just like an Indian motorbike with a dodgy Welshman doing a Kiwi accent, a UK analytics firm says New Zealand has the world's fastest mobile broadband.

More importantly, we've dethroned Australia as the leading contender in the 4G world.

The report says New Zealand's 4G rollout consistently delivers faster speeds than anyone else, presumably off the back of Spark and Vodafone both opting to use twice the spectrum of other operators.

This means the average real world download speed on 4G in New Zealand is 36Mbit/s, compared with 21Mbit/s in Australia, 13Mbit/s in the UK and a paltry 10Mbit/s in the US.

Oddly the report doesn't reference Vodafone New Zealand at all, despite assessing other Vodafone companies around the world.

Stuff: NZ has the fastest 4G speeds in the world

Open Signal: The state of LTE

MYOB buys another NZ software house

Accounting software house MYOB has been on something of a spending spree lately buying PayGlobal and Ace Payroll for multi-million dollar sums.

Now it's picked up Hastings-based payroll provider Information Management Services (IMS) in a deal worth up to $9.7 million.

MYOB SME Solutions General Manager James Scollay said the acquisition will drive the company's growth strategies in developing new online payroll solutions.

But given the whole world is moving to cloud-based solutions for everything (or so it seems) what is it about these companies that gives MYOB the urge to reach into its pocket?

Currently around one quarter of the MYOB user base are doing so via its cloud offering - the remainder are still in the habit of owning and driving their own software.

So far Xero's not-shy-for-a-word CEO Rod Drury has not commented on the deal.

ZDNet: MYOB buys New Zealand payroll firm for NZ$9.7m

Scoop: MYOB buys NZ payroll provider Information for up to $9.7M

NBR: MYOB buys third NZ payroll provider

OMG Tech Rangers now officially launched: paddling in N4L's Pond

Started by Vend's Vaughan Rowsell and science communicator Michelle Dickinson (and let's not forget Rab Heath, the power behind the throne), OMG Tech Rangers was launched Wednesday evening at Spark's Auckland headquarters.

OMG Tech was set up to help get kids excited about all aspects of the technical revolution that surrounds us.

Vaughan started the charitable trust behind the Rangers in his mother's name. As a low income, single parent, his mother transformed his life with "a simple act of kindness", when she took out a bank loan to buy her tech-obsessed kids a ZX Spectrum computer so they could do more than just read about computing.

From there, an empire was born and OMG Tech is Vaughan's way of saying thanks to his mum.

The rest, as they say, is history and OMG Tech is now holding workshops throughout the land for kids of all ages to take things apart, put them back together and find their feet in this tech industry of ours.

So successful has the pilot work been that Network 4 Learning has signed up OMG Tech as an educational supplier.

"N4L is excited to announce that OMG Tech, a charitable education initiative getting more Kiwi kids interested in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering & maths), will be using online learning hub Pond to make its educational resources accessible to all New Zealand schools.

Pond will serve as a primary platform for OMG Tech learning resources and ongoing discussions about its programmes among the education community. Every teacher in New Zealand will be able to find OMG Tech resources in Pond, use them to help deliver OMG Tech programmes in their own communities, and connect with other teachers wanting to get involved."

Just a brief disclosure note: I helped the OMG Tech guys think about sponsorship and media in the very early days but honestly, not much more than saying "I think it's swell. Make it so."

OMG Tech! - A Low-Decile Educational Charity Trojan Horsed as a Tech Startup

NZ Herald: Opening the tech door for kids 

OMG Tech

Myles Ward leaves IRD

And finally it's farewell to Myles Ward, CTO of Inland Revenue, who is leaving IRD for the greener pastures as Chief Executive of Health Alliance.

Myles joined IRD in 2006 and has been a key figure in various IT roles, culminating in the CTO role. He has also been one of the key figures behind the transformation project.

Giles Southwell will be interim CIO until a permanent appointment is made. Myles has been integral to a changing culture within the tech team at IR, and IITP wishes him well in his new role.

Encouraging an Open Privacy Policy

New Zealand has signed an open letter calling for mandatory, pre-download disclosure by app maker privacy policies. The Office of the NZ Privacy Commissioner joined 22 overseas privacy enforcement agencies urging app marketplaces to post links to privacy policies, making it clear what personal information the app will collect and use. The December 9 letter was sent to Apple, Google, Samsung, Microsoft, Nokia, BlackBerry and Amazon.com, but is intended for all companies that operate app marketplaces.

The letter states that a Global Privacy Enforcement Network (GPEN) Privacy Sweep surveyed the types of permissions sought by more than 1,200 popular apps, and the extent to which consumers were informed about each app's privacy practices. The sweep confirmed many app makers were not up front about the information being collected, if they had any privacy policy at all.

In fact, 85 per cent of them failed to clearly explain how they would collect, use and disclose personal information. While the letter acknowledges the responsibility of app makers to be forthright, it called on app marketplaces to make privacy notification clear and mandatory. The New Zealand Privacy Commissioner has published guidance to help app makers understand their legal obligations under this country's Privacy Act when collecting personal information through mobile apps.

Scoop: App Markets Urged to Make Privacy Policy Very Public

The open letter to app stores around the world from the Global Privacy Enforcement Network

Read the NZ Privacy Commission's Need to Know or Nice to Have guidance here.

COM COM Come on

Spark announced this week it will raise prices for certain home phone and broadband plans from 1 February 2015 by between $2.50 and $4.25 a month. It's an unsurprising move in the wake of the Commerce Commission's draft decision reported at the beginning of the month on Chorus copper wholesale pricing. Spark will raise the price on its home phone-only plans, its 40GB and 80GB broadband ADSL and VDSL service, and its business copper broadband plans. Com Com's draft decision signalled a $5.40 rise in wholesale charges for home phone lines, and a $4.54 increase in broadband lines.

ISPs were not happy with the decision and announced price increases as the prime option for mitigating losses. Pricing plans had been in place based on previously set copper and broadband charges, but under the draft decisions, the ISPs would either have to pass the increase on to consumers or take the differential in the gut. Vodaphone and Callplus will likely raise their prices as well. The Commerce Commission hasn't declared if new pricing will be backdated, as is the wish of Chorus, and the bane of service providers. Not everyone in New Zealand is convinced the ISPs must raise prices, as Bill Bennett explains in his thorough summary of the roots of the coming copper price flux.

TechDay: Lower End Customers to Feel Price Rise After ComCom Decision

Bill Bennett: Behind the Broadband Price Rise

Microsoft Recruits

As we head into the summer holiday season, a lot of university students will be taking time off, and a lot of others will be working summer jobs and internships. Which group is luckier all depends, but for 90 plus uni students, summer 2014-2015 will be the first step in IT careers. TechBlog has already discussed programmes, like Summer of Tech. Microsoft this week announced that it is placing 94 students in tech roles through the 2015 Microsoft Student Accelerator summer work programme. Students in the 10 week programme are placed with participating companies in the IT industry, working on Windows App and Microsoft Cloud development projects, required skills to be considered for the programme. Microsoft has trained more than 600 students in Windows App and MS Cloud development over the last six months. Microsoft matches the students in groups of three with their preferred employer candidates, based on their abilities and preferences, and the companies' feedback from the interviews. The final 94 students earned their placements meeting with perspective employers in speed dating-style interviews.

Computerworld: Kiwi Students Take First Steps in IT Career

Geekzone: MSA programme helping address New Zealand shortage of skilled IT professionals

N4L at One

Around 40 schools in New Zealand have been using the Network for Learning (N4L) Managed Network for more than a year. The government funded N4L connections provides broadband internet connection with no data caps, web filtering, and security services. Participating schools say the programme has helped bolster digital initiatives, such as networking additional devices in the classroom, which has especially helped lagging students concentrate on particular areas with personalised instruction. The N4L programme has grown from 40 early adopters to 1,200 schools, or 40 per cent of all New Zealand schools. All schools will be able to connect to the Managed Network by the end of 2016. In addition to building the Managed Network, N4L has developed a digital learning hub called Pond, which 2000-plus teachers from more than 700 schools are now using to find learning resources and share classroom practices with their peers. Pond can be accessed by every teacher with any internet connection.

See a map of N4L activated schools

Computerworld: Kiwi Schools Fast Track Digital Learning

Growth Grant Spurt

More tech companies are eligible for government research and development grants administered by Callaghan Innovation. Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce named 15 companies that qualify for $13 million in Growth Grants, on top of the 22 new companies announced in October. The IT companies that made the list include app maker CEREBRALFIX Limited; trade analytics shop Flintfox International Limited; parking management solution provider, Frogparking Limited; business software maker i-lign Limited, and data warehouse specialist Wherescape.

NBR and other media are highlighting the eligibility of Chatham Rock in this new round. That company is working to mine phosphate from the New Zealand sea bed, with applications in agriculture to enrich pasture land. Recipients of the three-year grants can claim back 20 per cent of R & D spending up to $5 million a year. To qualify, a business must commit to spend at least $300,000, and at least 1.5 per cent of revenue, a year on R&D occurring in New Zealand. They must also be domiciled in New Zealand and maintain or increase their spending on R&D over the course of the funding. A total of $566 million funding is available for use over the next four years.

Computerworld: 15 Tech Firms in Line for Grants

NBR: Chatham Rock Listed for Callagahan Innovation Grant

UNISYS wins NZTA contract

Unisys New Zealand has won a six-year contract as prime system integrator in the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) effort to modernize its national Crash Analysis System (CAS). According to a statement, Unisys will lead the design and implementation of a new version of the CAS based on an open platform, wth Unisys delivering the CAS under a SaaS model from its Auckland data centre, and providing technical support.

The aim of the project is to improve analysis of trends and road conditions and to help in road design to prevent crashes, and to measure the efficacy of previous road safety projects. There are 30,000 road crashes reported in New Zealand every year, of which around 10,000 involve injuries. CAS is used to capture and analyse information about road crashes to help determine the cause of individual crashes as well as to identify trends and contributing factors such as high speed or road curvature.

Previously, New Zealand Police would record key crash information on paper and that information was then later manually entered into the CAS. The new solution will leverage the Police's investment in mobile technology, which includes Intergraph's Mobile Responder, to capture the data electronically while at the scene. The CAS contract was awarded to Unisys as a result of a competitive tender process.

Scoop: Unisys to Modernise Crash Analysis System

Computerworld: Unisys Bags Six Year New Zealand Transport Agency Crash Analysis Contract

Fixed Line Flux

The biggest news this week, by far, was the Commerce Commission's decision on maximum wholesale prices Chorus can charge. The newly proposed pricing is seen as approaching the final say after a long back-and-forth between Chorus and ComCom, and while it may have helped Chorus on the stock exchange, it has thrown the rest of the market for a loop.

The proposed maximum monthly rental price that Chorus can charge for its unbundled copper local loop (UCLL) is $28.22, an increase on the current price of $23.52 that was established by international benchmarking at the end of 2012.The additional proposed maximum monthly rental price for the unbundled bitstream access (UBA) service is $10.17, a small decrease on the price of $10.92 that was established by benchmarking at the end of 2013, and which came into force yesterday. The aggregate prices, however, marks a $6.50 decline from the nearly $45 price that had been in place until this week.

The response from other companies has been dismay, as iStart put it. Spark released a statement indicating its intention to undertake an urgent review of all of its broadband and fixed voice customer pricing, with Managing director Simon Moutter saying that the announcement was "unexpected" and the company would now be facing increased annual costs of $60 million per year based on the new numbers. As Bill Bennett explains in an interview on TV3, telcos have been planning for 2015 based on the prior numbers, and companies will be forced to either suck up the loss incurred by this sudden differential, or risk passing the cost on to customers, neither of which are pleasing to any corporation.

TechDay: Commerce Commission Releases Draft Chorus FPP Prices

Computerworld: Copper Pricing Decision a Kick in the Guts for Unbundlers

3News: Telcos Face Pricing Dilemma (Bill Bennett Interview)

iStart: Industry Dismayed Over ComCom Pricing Plans

Backbone is Better

What's better than a hot address for a business? A reliable IT network. By a very wide margin, according to the Regus Global Business Survey. The research says that when it comes to an ideal workplace, 82 per cent of companies surveyed rated reliable IT services number one. The survey took into account some kiwi firms, although the news isn't clear on how many. For what the survey is worth, 63 per cent of respondents say a "smart look" is key to an ideal workplace, and 55 per cent said professional front desk was also important. People were less concerned about links to transport, or car parking (so, probably not a lot of Aucklanders responded to this survey). The bottom line, though, is making sure the IT services are fast, reliable and always running.

Computerworld: All Kiwis Want for Christmas is Fast, Reliable IT

Super Year for Nanogirl

This year's Prime Minister's Science Prize for Science Communication has been awarded to Dr Michelle Dickinson, capping off a prize-winning year for the University of Auckland senior lecturer in Chemical and Materials engineering. Dickinson was also named Science Communicator of the year at the annual New Zealand Association of Scientists awards last month. Dickinson is a well known champion of science education, having set up a charity to teach children about robotics, coding and 3D printing. Her award, worth $100,000, makes it three in a row for University of Auckland in the science communications category, with Dr Siouxie Wiles, a senior lecturer in molecular medicine and pathology in the Faculty of Medical Health Sciences winning in 2013 and Professor Shaun Hendy of the Department of Physics in 2012.

3News: Science Prize Goes to Nanogirl

Scoop: Prize Winning Year for Science Ambassador

NZTech Appoints New CEO

The New Zealand Technology Industry Association, long hand for NZTech, has named Graeme Muller as its new CEO, replacing Candace Kinser, who has taken the New Zealand lead for Palantir Technologies. NZTech represents almost 100 tech companies, universities, polytechs and government agencies. Muller comes from a research background, including a succession of roles for IDC.

Computerworld: NZTech Appoints New CEO

Security Today and Tomorrow

2014 marked a trend of increasingly sophisticated attacks on infrastructure, according to Bitdefender. Companies have become the focus of targeted attacks by hackers who want to take advantage of the wide surface area to extract financial data and other valuable information. Bitdefender predicts five key trends for 2015, pointing to attacks on mobile payment technologies  and other security challenges. Botnet anonymisation will continue to make attack systems difficutl to track, while vulanterbilities in open source may prove tempting targets. Personal smart devices connected to enterprise networks will also be in the target zone. Alarmingly, Bitdefender predicts that cybercriminals will go into the business of selling crimeware kits, spreading the technology and widening the attack base.

TechDay: The Biggest Malware Threats of 2014 and top 2015 predictions

WIFI WARS

Rival industry groups are setting the scene for a wifi access point war. Wifi is getting fast enough that Gigabit ethernet can't keep up with the most advanced access points, which use 802.11ac Wave 2 technology. Users could go to 10-Gigabit ethernet, but for most that would require installing more advanced cable. So the search is on for something in between that works on the most common kinds of cable over at least 100 meters. Two rival camps will have to work out which technologies go into the standard and which don't. The MGBase-T Alliance, one of the contenders which formed last June, includes vendors Avaya, Aruba Networks and Brocade Communications, as well as component vendors Broadcom and Freescale Semiconductor. They will be up against the NBase-T Alliance, formed in late October by Cisco Systems, Xilinx, Freescale and Aquantia, a company that's already making 2.5G/5G components.

PC World: Showdown Coming on Ethernet Standard to Serve Faster Wifi

This Year's High Flyer  

A US-based New Zealand-born scientist and researcher has been inducted into New Zealand's Hi-Tech Hall of Fame. Dr Catherine Mohr serves as the Director of Medical Research for Intuitive Surgical in San Francisco, and specialises in developing surgical robotics technology. Mohr was born in Dunedin, and although she moved to the United States with her family as a child, she retains her New Zealand citizenship. She began her career as an engineer, receiving her Bachelors and Masters of Science in mechanical engineering at MIT in Boston. Mohr also went to Stanford University School of Medicine with the aim of working at the intersection of engineering and medicine. She has served as a scientific advisor for several start-up companies in Silicon Valley and government programmes here in New Zealand. Dr Mohr has over a dozen patents to her name, is the author of numerous scientific publications, and has TED talks that have been viewed over one million times. Past inductees are:

• 2013 Bill Buckley
• 2012 Sir Ken Stevens
• 2011 Brent Robinson
• 2010 Paul Hargreaves
• 2009 Selwyn Pellett and Rod Drury
• 2008 Dennis Chapman, Ian Taylor, and Sir Gil Simpson
• 2007 Trevor Eagle, and Sir William Gallagher
• 2006 Sir Peter Maire
• 2005 Sir Woolf Fisher and Maurice Paykel
• 2004 Neville Jordan
• 2003 Sir Angus Tait

HiTechNZ: Dr. Catherine Mohr Named 2014 Flying Kiwi

Techday: Surgical Robots Technologist Named 2014 Flying Kiwi

Won't you take me to Gigatown?

Dunedin beat out four other finalists in a competition for funds and discounts for building up ultrafast fibre uptake. Dunedin will receive access to One Gigabit per second internet access at entry level wholesale prices for three years; $200,000 to support entrepreneurs and innovators taking new services to market over the gigabit fibre connection in Gigatown; and $500,000 over three years for organisations that showcase how gigabit infrastructure and UFB can be activated for community programs. Other towns in the running were Wanaka, Gisborne, Nelson and Timaru. Finalists competed on creating a written application and video outlining the town's ''Plan for Gig Success", describing how they would use high speed fibre to stimulate the local economy and add social benefits to the community. The competition was launched last year, with 50 municipalities in the running. Wanaka says it is pressing ahead with a number of its initiatives despite missing out on the national Gigatown ultra-fast broadband (UFB) competition. The town plans to open a new incubator-style facility in its old police station, to give entrepreneurs office space, mentoring, and investment contacts.

Computerworld: Dunedin Mayor Comments on Winning Gigatown Competition

Otago Daily Times: Dunedin Wins Gigatown

Scoop: Wanaka Goes Ahead with Projects, Despite Gigatown Loss

Kiwi Tech Firms Rock Fast 500

Voyager Internet was the highest ranked company in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific 2014 list. The networking and telecommunications company, which earlier this month was named number 1 in the Deloitte Fast 50 for New Zealand, took 23rd place in the regional listing, based on its 1391 per cent growth over three years. Software company Vend ranked 30, while I Love Ugly took 31st place in the annual report, both of which posted above 1000 per cent growth. By contrast, the number one company, South Korea-based software company Daum Kakao Corp boasted 11,618 per cent growth in the same period. Fifty one Kiwi companies made the list, with a dozen in the top 100, according to NBR. Computerworld wrote up a short profile of database and cloud services provider Enterprise IT, which came in 359th for posting 112 per cent revenue growth.

Computerworld: Growth Puts Auckland Tech Firm on Fast 500

NBR: Kiwi Firms Make Up 10 Per Cent of APAC Fast 500

To see the full list, click here.

Orion's Exchange Debut

Orion Health Group surprised investors and brokers when shares rose 14 per cent in the first day of the company's listing on the New Zealand and Australian exchanges. The health care management software maker's initial public offer raised $120 million in new capital. Orion will use the new funds to accelerate research and development, including a blue sky initiative involving big data analytics and predictive modelling software. Meanwhile, the company recently announced the winners of its second Codeworx competition. The competition calls for New Zealand school students to come up with a solution to real life or everyday problems, using the credit-card sized Raspberry Pi computer. Dylan Townsend, 14, of Mission Heights Junior College won first prize for an invention that alerts drivers to children, pets or objects on the driveway, which won him $1,250 prize money personally, and another $2,500 worth of digital equipment for his school.

For more about Codeworx, click here.

Techday: NZ Students Win in Orion Competition

Otago Dailty Times: Orion Group Share Debut Surprises

PoS-sible Problem

Cybercrime firm IntelCrawler says it has discovered a new use for malware that is designed to attack Point-of-Sale systems. The malware program called d4re|dev1| is designed to steal payment card information is said to also infect ticket vending machines and electronic kiosks, attacking multiple PoS systems including QuickBooks Point of Sale Multi-Store, OSIPOS Retail Management System, Harmony WinPOS and Figure Gemini POS. PoS malware has been directly responsible for data breaches at several large retailers over the past two years, grabbing payment card data from RAM in the PoS device. Weak security administration is said to be the most common open door for exploitation, along with policy violation by employees using terminals to use the internet.

PCWorld: POS Malware Also Targets Electronic Kiosks, Vending Machines

SC Magazine: Researchers ID POS Malware

Europe Mobilises for Net Neutrality

The Federal Communications Commission in the US is unlikely to move on net neutrality policy any time soon, but in Europe, activist groups and members of the EU Parliament are urging states to maintain strict rules to prevent the rise of tolling for faster content delivery. A group of 131 MEPs backed a letter submitted to a meeting of telecommunications ministers who are discussing Italy's plans to neuter net neutrality. "The initial impressions of your proposals concern us, as they would water down precisely those strong definitions of net neutrality and specialized services that are needed in an EU Digital Single Market," the group wrote in a letter to the Italian presidency on Wednesday. Net neutrality should be enshrined in EU law with clear definitions and strong provisions as adopted by the European Parliament in April, they said. A similar call came from 16 civil society groups that urged the Council to adopt strong net neutrality rules and reject the Italian proposal. Groups have set up a campaign website to mobilize EU citizens urging them to contact their Council representatives and tell them to back strong net neutrality.

Computerworld: Pressure Mounts in Europe for Strict Net Neutrality Rules

Computerworld: FCC Chairman Gives no Timeline for Net Neutrality Decision

Broadband Update

The latest figures released by Communications Minister Amy Adams indicate a 40 per cent quarter-to-quarter increase in Unified Fast Broadband connections. Computerworld reports that in the three months to September 2014, 15,500 more end users connected to UFB, bringing the total to 55,000. The recent stats push the national uptake of UFB to 10 per cent, from seven per cent in the previous quarter. What that boils down to is 10 per cent of the 536,000 customers within reach of broadband are now connected. The minister's statement also highlighted that Te Awamutu became the second town in New Zealand to have its UFB build complete, and 2,200 schools now have fibre installed and ready for service.

Computerworld: Half million Kiwis Can Now Connect

NPR: 10 per cent within reach now hooked up to UFB

New competition for RealMe

An Australian company called edentiti has teamed up with Wellington identity verification company Personal Information Management to roll out a greenID online identity service, Computerworld's Randal Jackson reports. The two companies plan to emerge their respective technologies for a new iteration of greenID to come out in the first quarter of 2015. The greenID is already used by several New Zealand customers for particular services, including NZ Post, which also happened to have co-developed RealMe. PIM already has access to New Zealand government databases through an arrangement with the Department of Internal Affairs, and has formed a relationship with the Automobile Association. RealMe is used as a one-time sign in across multiple online government services. Computerworld mentions, without going into detail, that users have faced complications in the RealMe signup process, and that enrolment has been less than anticipated. Earlier this year, an Australian government paper suggested that Canberra copy the RealMe system as a way as an alternative to the 20 or so online verification schemes employed by federal agencies.

Computerworld: Gov't-backed RealMe Faces Stiff Competition

Interest: Aussie Gov't Eyes Potential Use for NZ's RealMe

Tech Priorities in 2015

A Gartner survey puts BI and analytics tied for the top technology priorities for CIOs looking ahead to 2015. The global survey, which included 161 respondents from Australia and New Zealand, ranked cloud and mobile near the top of the list for ANZ CIOs, followed by infrastructure, data centre, and ERP. Security and legacy architecture were further down the ANZ list. According to TechDay, Gartner analysis shows ANZ organisations are slightly behind the curve in terms of some technology trends. Meanwhile according to a survey by Computerworld, 24 per cent of US employers plan to add more IT people. According to its 2015 forecast, the top five skills in demand next year will be in programming/application development, project management, IT help desk, security, and web development. Computerworld's survey ranks BI/Analytics at number seven, with 24 per cent of respondents to hire for that skill in the next 12 months, moving up from No. 8 in the 2014 forecast.

TechDay: BI and Analytics Top Kiwi CIO Tech Priorities List

Computerworld: 10 Hottest IT Skill for 2015

Palantir Hires ex- tech industry group CEO

Candace Kinser, formerly the CEO of vendor-based industry group NZTech (previously NZICT), has taken a lead NZ role with analytics company Palantir Technologies, one of the main competitors to New Zealand's own Wynyard Group. Kinser headed NZTech, in which the US-based Palantir is a member, for three years before taking the "leverage lead" position in October, as Computerworld describes it. Palantir, named for a magical orb from The Lord of The Rings universe, provides a platform for customers to analyse data across multiple "silos" and can incorporate geospatial technology, large scale data mining, algorithmic engines and data integration. Palantir technology is deployed across multple sectors in 100+ countries, and according to Computerworld, has plans to hire engineers and developers in New Zealand. Palantir is now considered one of the most valuable private companies in technology, with a reported valuation of US$9 billion.

Computerworld: Ex NZ Tech CEO Heads Up Local Operations for Palantir

Fortune: Palantir Raises $50 Million in New Funding

A Botnet Evolution

A Trojan program behind a long running instant message spam and rogue ticket purchase botnet has been updated to become stealthier and more resilient, according to multiple reports. Analysts in the US are claiming that the botnet could be used to launch targeted attacks against corporate networks through infected devices that can be used as proxies. The mobile Trojan was discovered in 2012 and was the first Android malware to be distributed as a drive-by download from compromised websites, according to PC World. Devices visiting such sites would automatically start downloading a malicious .apk file and execute by a single click if the user has enabled unknown sources on their mobile. The NotCompatible.C botnet has been used to send spam major networks and platforms in the US, and to launch a brute-force password guessing attack against WordPress sites. Researchers believe that the botnet is likely rented to other cybercriminals for different activities.

PC World: Botnet Evolves, Posing Potential Corporate Network Threat

Dark Reading: The Rise of the Resilient Mobile Botnet

The Not So Great Firewall of China

Considering more than a quarter of the world's internet users--about 630 million people--live in China, it makes sense for that continent sized nation to host the World Internet Conference. The government's sophisticated censorship programme, however, gives one pause, especially as China seeks to gain more influence in global Internet governance. As more than 1,000 participants from over 100 countries and regions gathered in Wuzhen on Wednesday, the host government was shutting down access to EdgeCast, an affiliate of US-based Verizon. EdgeCast provides local servers to accelerate website performance, but its clients include software company Mozilla, publishing company The Atlantic and content management system Drupal, all of which have been barred in China for the time being. This is par for the course as the Chinese government routinely blocks thousands of foreign websites, from news providers to social media platforms. The top internet watchdog Cyberspace Administration of China organised the conference, which includes sessions on global internet governance, cyber security and mobile internet.

Stuff: China Blocks Sites as Internet Conference Begins

BBC: China Web Conference Opens Amid Internet Freedom Criticism

That Human Factor

Security threats to company data on employee mobile devices are real, but the true enemy may be within, according to research covered by TechDay this week. In fact, most IT professionals in Australia and New Zealand surveyed by Check Point Software, in its third annual mobile security report, say careless employees are a much bigger challenge than cybercriminals. Inevitably, despite such concerns, personal mobile device use on corporate networks is proliferating, with 90 per cent of respondents saying the number of personal devices connecting to corporate networks is growing, and 74 per cent reporting the number of personal mobile devices on their corporate networks had more than doubled in the past two years. As TechDay writes, the lines between managed and non-manged environment are porous, making it easy to transport corporate data outside business security measures. More than 80 per cent of the professionals expect mobile security incidents to increase this year. The cost to clean up after a breach is a significant concern among those surveyed. The ANZ results tracked closely to the company's global survey report.

TechDay: The Fool Within Bigger Threat Than the Enemy at the Gate

Marketwatch: Global Security Report Highlights Careless Employees

Xero widens US footprint

New Zealand born and bred cloud service provider Xero has acquired Seattle-based online payroll company, Monchilla for US$4.1 million cash and 240,000 shares. The purchase will allow the company to rapidly extend its payroll offering to US customers. Monchilla founders Couch and Nanjuan Shi, formerly of Microsoft, will continue on with the company to complement design of the Xero's US product, based on Monchilla's solution to the complexity of electronic payroll state filing, Monchilla was still in the initial stages of launching and building a customer base. Stuff reported on the acquisition last week before its completion, writing that Xero was in the market for intellectual property, making Monchilla's low revenue data immaterial to the Kiwi firm's intent.

Computerworld: Xero Completes Multi-Million Dollar Acquisition of US Company

Stuff: Xero to Buy US Firm Monchilla

Infrastructure as Vapour

A build-out of datacentres is spelling the inevitable doom for closet-server rooms and in-house hardware. Well, not doom, but decline. Tech analysis firm IDC this week issued a survey report indicating the number of datacentres being built will peak and dive through 2017. All that compute, storage, backup and the like still has to go somewhere, which is why IDC says that as new datacentre construction starts to fall, global datacentre capacity will increase from 1.58 billion square feet this year to 1.94 billion square feet in 2018. IDC attributes the slowdown to a drop in server rooms and internal server closets, beginning in 2016. Enterprises that once did that sort of thing are turning over internal infrastructure management to cloud-based IaaS providers, a scenario that may translate into greater use of on-premise and hosted managed services for existing IT sitting alongside new shared cloud services delivered from "mega" datacenters. This predicted dawn of consolidation and retirement has been in the works, and as ZDNet point out, it has been brewing. According to the publication, 2014 has been the year of the CxO "investigating, piloting and actively moving production workloads into the Cloud" though a key pain point for shifting into the cloud is messaging and email, which larger enterprises want to keep private, despite headaches in managing and running it themselves. ZDNet also points out that driving the tear-down of the internal datacenter space is legacy application transformation.

Enterprise Tech: Cloud Services Reshaping Datacentre Build Outs

ZDNet: 2014 is the Year the Cloud Killed the Datacentre

Microsoft pushes .NET Beyond Windows

Microsoft announced at a developer conference this week that it will open the full server-side .NET core stack as an open-sourced .NET core for Linux and Mac OS X. The company's move will add to the list of open source technologies rolled out last April, which included ASP.NET, the Roslyn .NET compiler platform, the .NET Micro Framework, .NET Rx and the VB and C# programming languages. Microsoft officials said they planned to make these technologies available via a newly created .Net Foundation. The new technology components will roll out under the MIT open-source license. The move is allowing developers to build ASP.NET 5.0 applications that can be deployed and run on Windows, Linux and/or Mac environments. The company expects most .NET developers to deploy their server-side apps on Windows and Linux, but is providing Mac compatibility mainly for the development environment choice. Microsoft is using GitHub for hosting the core framework porting and open-sourcing work. Microsoft is not planning to open source the client side .NET stack.

Computerworld: Micorsoft Open Sources Net Server Stack

ZDNet: Microsoft to Open-Source More of .NET to Linux and Mac OSx

Voyager's Fast Pace

Voyager Internet took the top spot in this year's NZ Deloitte Fast 50, clocking a 1,391 per cent recent revenue growth. Fast 50 ranks companies by measuring revenue growth over three years, monitoring a range of sectors from manufacturing to consumer products, exporters and mature business. Voyager focuses on business and wholesale internet service, hosting, broadband, voice communication services and cloud telecommunications serving more than 25,000 customers. CEO Seeby Woodhouse tells Computerworld that the Auckland-based company will pick up the pace in retail and wholesale UFB business, which it expects to go live in all 33 UFB by mid-2015. Other tech companies on the Fast 50 include cloud-based POS provider Vend, at number four, experiencing 1097.74 percent of growth. Digital marketing design and strategy company, Touchcast, was ranked sixth, with a growth of 804.98 percent.

Computerworld: Voyager Accelerates UFB Rollout Schedule

TechDay: Voyager Takes Top Spot in Deloitte Fast 50

Click here to see the entire Fast 50 list.

Power Drill

Parts of Auckland lost power for three days over one weekend in October, leaving 85,000 customers in the dark. The event has prompted IT services company CodeBlue to offer a no-cost "data resilience strategic audit" to qualifying organisations in the Super City that host 20 to 300 IT users. According to a statement posted to Scoop, the assessment is a no-strings-attached risk management exercise to determine an organisation's backup strategy, and how quickly it can get employees up and running after a major outage. The company points to a history of significant blackouts in Auckland since the well-known event in 1998 that shut power down to over half of Auckland's businesses for six weeks, thanks to a burned out cable. Other events did not impact the city (or New Zealand GDP) anywhere near as much, however the October outage is said to have cost affected businesses hundreds of millions of dollars.

Computerworld: When the Lights Go Out, And They Will...

Scoop: CodeBlue Pilots Free Data Resiliency Audit Service

Career Care

Going by Absolute IT's annual Remuneration Report, tech professionals with a degree and a decade of experience will earn 12 per cent more than those without a degree. As Computerworld writes, that gap increases over time. Absolute IT is rolling out a service that is designed to help IT professionals figure out how to tackle certifications and professional development. Meanwhile, the oft-reported shortage of skilled IT workers in New Zealand may see a new generation of women emerging from university and ready to take those jobs, if the Summer of Tech internship programme is taken as a bellweather. According to a separate Computerworld piece, that programme is placing more female tertiary students in paid internships than in any other year. For 2014-2015, 33 women will take up internships in high tech companies, out of a record 106 students placed in total, a 40 per cent national increase over last year, and the best year for the programme since its inception in 2006. The Summer of Tech is a non-profit programme supported by Grow Wellington, Wellington City Council and technology companies.

Computerworld: Why Ambitious Kiwis Should Invest in Their Tech Careers

Computerworld: More Women Taking ICT Internships in Summer of Tech Programme

SMEs Get Hip to Online

A regular MYOB report shows that more SMEs are using websites, social media or both to increase their market visibility than they did five years ago. As of 2014, 43 per cent of small kiwi firms (which make up the bulk of the New Zealand economy) are now engaging online. This is up from 27 per cent in 2010. Social media showed a market increase from 25 per cent to 42 per cent of SMEs using a social media platrofm for business purpose. Over half of all local businesses (52 per cent) now accept online payments and 39 per cent use tablets in the workplace, according to media reports. The Five Year MYOB Business Monitor Report, which canvases the biannual national survey of over 1000 SMB operators since July 2009, shows businesses have recovered generally from the GFC, with almost twice as many reporting revenue growth than revenue loss. Much of the recovery in the SME sector has come without significant growth in either wages or employment, as investment intentions in both areas have remained static over the last five years.

Computerworld: Report Highlights Turnaround Among NZ SMEs

Read the article posted to Scoop.

Telco jobs to go

Spark and Vodafone will be shedding staff into the new year. It is uncertain the extent of the cuts at the company formerly known as Telecom, but a spokesperson told media that rumors of a 20 per cent reduction in the "Connect" technical department were off the mark. The news comes on the back of a statement from Vodafone stating that the company would be looking to cut up to 250 of its permanent staff members, as well as a significant number of its contractors, by the end of the financial year, according to the Herald. The companies claim that an "increased demand for low prices" and competition are pressuring them to cut staff. The Herald reports that Vodafone as recent as a month ago denied there would be major job cuts within the business, following internal speculation and concern among staff. Vodafone said last month that it would be reducing the number of contractors, as the TelstraClear two year, $840 million merger with TelstraClear had yet to be completed.

Herald: Spark Confirms Job Cuts as Vodafone Downsizes

Techday: Vodafone Axes Staff As Part of Restructure

Locked In

Telcos in New Zealand appear to be going back to the days of locking SIM cards to devices they sell their customers, according to Juha Saarinen, writing in the Herald. The practice ensures users will stay in the telco's network by making it impossible to swap the SIM card for a handset on offer by a competitor. The idea of locking the SIM to a card pre-empts that move by making some phones free or virtually free, an attractive proposition, especially if they want a new, and otherwise costly model that carries the latest features. While commonplace overseas, SIM locking didn't get far for Vodafone when it backed down after the Commerce Commission raised concerns, but according to Saarinen, 2Degrees is talking about putting the practice into effect ahead of the Christmas and back-to-school shopping seasons. The SIM lock won't be permanent if customers wait a set period, or pay $30 to unlock their phones. Saarinen points out that in the US, SIM locking has been deemed anti-competitive. ComCom has indicated it won't do anything about prosposed SIM-locking, Stuff reports. A spokeswoman told the outlet ComCom would keep an eye on the practice but didn't believe the current situation was likely to undermine competition in New Zealand's $2 billion mobile market.

Herald: Return of SIM Locking Shackles NZ to the Past

Stuff: 2degrees "Forced" to Lock Phones

Salud, East Coast

A recently launched initiative to bring more health services to people living in remote areas through teleconferencing was announced in September. Telehealth connects people on the East Coast to health professionals based in Gisborne, through software and webcams installed on computers at six clinics up and down the East Coast, as well as in Gisborne Hospital's emergency department and mental health department. A company called K&L Technologies is working with Ngati Porou, in conjunction with the Ministry of Health and Bay of Plenty District Health Board, to implement the video conferencing network across six clinics. The company announced this week that it is also working with Ngati Porou to build a datacentre, to allow the iwi greater control and ownership of their information and reduce data sovereignty issues. Marcus Lloyd, Ngati Porou group IT manager, says he is excited about the new partnership. "Working with K&L Technologies is helping us advance our aims to become the most technologically advanced iwi in the country. Their expertise and enthusiasm with allow us to deliver services and value to our people, utilising the best technology and people available." As part of the implementation, K&L has entered a 12-month contract to provide all network, software and fleet maintenance and support, as well as an inbuilt help desk system 24-hour help desk via Google Apps, to Ngati Porou Hauora staff.

Techday: IT Provider Partners with Iwi to Improve Health Services

Scoop: Telehealth to Improve Health Care on East Coast

Game Day

Auckland-based Media Design School is holding its second Girls in Games event on 1 December. Girls in Games is an immersive workshop that covers the basics of game development, art, and design, open to girls aged 14-18 in the Auckland region. The workshop allows participants to create games that they can demonstrate to others. Organisers say New Zealand's expanding game design industry makes it essential to encourage students in secondary schools to consider art and game engineering as viable career options. Media Design School offers specialist degrees for emerging creative industries including Bachelor of Art and Design in 3D Animation and Visual Effects, Bachelor of Creative Technologies (Game Art), Bachelor of Software Engineering and Bachelor of Media Design. The school is part of an international private university group with 70 institutions in 29 countries. Girls in Games will take place at Media Design School on Monday 1 December 2014 from 9.30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Scoop: Media Design School to Host Second Girls in Games Workshop

That's Handy

Google has released a security testing tool to help ensure HTTPS connections aren't undermined by common configuration mistakes or known bugs, ZDNet reports. Thr 'nogotofail' tool, named for a bug that affected Mac and iOS systems earlier this year, helps users confirm that internet-connected devices and applications aren't vulnerable to transport layer security (TLS) and secure sockets layer (SSL) encryption issues, such as known bugs or misconfigurations. This has been the year of discovery for SSL and other security vulnerabilities, with many known attacks including POODLE, BEAST and other exploiting the so-called "man-in-the-middle" position in data traffic flow. The tool tests for common SSL certificate verification issues, HTTPS and TLS/SSL library bugs, SSL and STARTTLS stripping issues, and cleartext issues. It can be deployed on a router, a Linux machine, or a VPN server and works for Android, Chrome OS, iOS, Linux, OS X, and Windows - basically any device used to connect to the internet.

ZDNet: Google Releases Nogotofail to Sniff Out Known HTTPS Flaws

ITPro: Swamped by Network Vulnerabilities?

Autocorrect for Coders

Computer scientists at Rice University in Texas and two other institutions have embarked on a US$11 million project to create a tool for helping software developers automatically complete and correct their code. The project, known as PLINY, is underwritten by the US Defense Advanced REsearch Projects Agency, aims to create a tool that instantly compares code with a huge database of publicly available computer programmes. A PLINY official describes it as a more sophisticated version of the "autocomplete" and "autocorrect" functions common to applications. The PLINY system will have a data-mining engine for comparing and contrasting known code in a database, and will analyze it to purge any errors. It will be able to work across all programing languages and code specifications. Project leaders plan to have PLINY ready to deploy within four years.

Voice of America: Computer Programming May Get a Lot Easier

Spending a week in a foreign country undertaking a market assessment for a New Zealand industry is a fascinating experience, and in this case uncovered some major opportunities for New Zealand's Health IT sector - along with some great people and even a bona fide South American riot.

Santiago, Chile is a city of contrasts: Modern in parts but with lots of heritage

Chile is an interesting country and one of the first things that struck us was the friendliness of the people and their willingness to assist. In fact from doctors in hospitals and IT professionals, through to the Chilean Minister of Health himself, all were willing to engage and were incredibly generous with their time.

But why? Put simply, the Chilean culture is based on creating and building relationships - an important point for anyone looking to do business in the region. Operating in Chile will involve establishing a local presence and building relationships and commitment and it's not a country to simply make a quick buck in from afar.

Why Chile?

The visit and market assessment was part of a large annual MBA international business trip, however it wasn't just blind luck that led us to Chile. In fact the two University of Auckland MBA cohorts undertook significant research on potential markets before settling on Chile, and while different groups were looking at different industries, Chile provides an excellent case study for Health IT.

Chile also enjoys one of New Zealand's longest-standing trading relationships and it's size (population: 17 Million) and location makes it a perfect gateway to Latin America. As the first South American country to join the OECD and with the highest nominal GDP per capita in Latin America, Chile is seen as progressive and growing.

The Chilean health sector

The health sector in Chile is dispersed and provides for a population recognised as having significant disparities in income. There is a continued phase of investment in healthcare infrastructure and modernisation of public health services by the Ministry of Health, including plans to build 68 hospitals over the decade ending 2018, with 19 already completed.

Something you don't see every day in NZ: razor wire and armed guards on public hospitals

From a Health IT perspective, there is a strategic commitment to interoperability and integration such as a national Electronic Health Record (EHR) and Electronic Medical Records (EMRs).

Chile recognises that a modern health system is essential and are investing heavily, especially in Health IT, to make that a reality. With an average spend of $USD10-15M on Health IT per new hospital - plus hundreds of existing hospitals looking to modernise - that makes for a great market opportunity for kiwi Health IT companies looking for new export opportunities.

The Health IT Team, meeting with the Chilean Minister of Health. From left: Dianne McAteer, Paul Matthews, Chilean Health Minister Dr Jaime Mañalich, Marcus Bosch and Dr Andrew Ewens.

Procurement "as a Service"

Not unlike the model found increasingly in New Zealand, Chile's prevalent Government procurement model is based around closed all-of-Government pre-qualified panels of providers.

However unlike New Zealand, the Chileans have this down to a fine art. In fact the Government purchases everything from tables and chairs to desktop computers on a Services model - paying a fixed monthly subscription for the use of assets. For example, they pay around $US30 per month for the use of each reasonable-spec desktop computer in Government.

This model was extended to Health IT through an initiative called SIDRA. The SIDRA tendering program identifies companies that will be funded by the Ministry to provide Health IT solutions to the Chilean Public Health sector over the next few years.

Health IT Opportunities

Chile's National Health Strategy and E-Health Roadmap outline the Government's objectives.  Speaking with IT and medical folks, these strategies were considered ambitious and aspirational however perhaps with an implementation pathway lacking. Despite some advances and an increasing focus, Health IT is generally underdeveloped in Chile, presenting potential opportunities for kiwi health IT. 

For example, over 80% of medical records are still paper based, resulting in significant inefficiency and inability to share patient records amongst medical professionals. This, combined with a lack of standards, causes problems; however the Ministry of Health understands the issue and is working hard on both the creation of standards, and the funding of Health IT modernisation.

Within the next few months the Ministry of Health is intending to release the next phase of SIDRA, the pre-qualification panel-based Health IT procurement programme. This will again be on a per-user service model and offers a great opportunity for market entry but also a potential barrier: companies who don't participate will likely be locked out of the market for several years.

Another area of significant opportunity is telemedicine, due to Chile's unusual geography (the country is 4,270 km long but just 177 km wide on average).

Is it worth it?

Chile is a growing and developing market, currently investing heavily in Health IT. The market opportunity for Health IT stretches into the hundreds of millions and the Chileans very much look to countries like New Zealand to lead the way.

While there is a need to establish a local presence and build longer-term relationships, those companies prepared to make that commitment will find significant opportunity in both Chile and the wider region.

Paul Matthews is Chief Executive of the Institute of IT Professionals. His Executive MBA group, formed to look at Health IT given their shared interest, also included Dr Andrew Ewens, an emergency physician from North Shore Hospital, CEO Dianne McAteer, and Marcus Bosch, a senior executive with Housing New Zealand.

Epilogue

South Americans are a passionate bunch and while in Chile, we came across a major protest which soon escalated into a full riot.

Something else we don't see every day in New Zealand:

This article first appeared on NBR Online.

He says it's a logical step for health services to utilise modern communications technologies, and that telehealth is a vital part of an evolving ecosystem that targets appropriate services and situations.

Global trend

Earlier this year the OCED released a report 'ICTs in the Health Sector - toward smarter health and wellness models' which neatly sums up the new approach to healthcare:

"Today's health care is reactive, episodic, and focused on disease. The new health care will need to be pro-active, preventive, and focused on quality of life and well-being. Current health care is hospital- and doctor- centred. The new smart models will need to be patient- centred and much care will be provided at home and include the broader social network (with family and community contributing significantly to individual health and well-being.)"

NZ experience

Telehealth is a component of the National Health IT Plan, and while there have been several successful implementations around the country, few applications have had sufficient scale to show telehealth's full potential.

This is partly why the Telehealth Demonstration Project was launched. It is a tripartite initiative of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, the National Health IT Board and the Bay of Plenty District Health Board.

Bay of Plenty was chosen because the clinicians and management are telehealth-literate and have a track record of innovation. Some telehealth initiatives that were already underway were in the areas of speech language therapy and mental health.

In addition, the region itself has the "appropriate demographics" - an aging population, remote communities, and Maori health challenges. It also helped that Ultra Fast Broadband (the government-backed national fibre broadband rollout) is more advanced in the Bay of Plenty than in most other regions.

Flagship implementation

The heart of the project is the creation of a Telehealth Community centred in Opotiki, a town with a population of 8950, and which is the northern gateway to the East Cape.

The project has set up Cisco Jabber cameras in 10 GPs' rooms, nurses' areas, and in the Assessment Room at Opotiki Health Centre. These link with outlying centres, GPs' homes after hours, palliative and district nursing services, and the Whakatane Hospital emergency department.

Since going live earlier this year the telehealth project has enabled clinical support for Opotiki nurses after hours, support for aged care facilities, and specialist consultations with Opotiki patients.

In addition, it has provided GP consultations for outlying areas when no doctor is available. For example there are many isolated settlements near East Cape towns such as Te Kaha (pop. 373), and getting GPs to visit on a regular basis is a constant challenge.

During Newman's presentation he featured an online demonstration to the Maori health centre (Hauora) on Matakana Island - a community only reachable by boat. With the benefit of a connection enabled by the Rural Broadband Initiative (the companion rollout to the UFB) and the Cisco high definition camera (about $400) the picture quality was superb, making it clear how conditions such as skin rashes can be confidently and accurately diagnosed by video.

Newman says the approach adopted by the project team is "Build it and they will come".

If the technology exists to enable remote consultations via a high definition video link then what specialist healthcare can be delivered? Here are a three examples:

District/Palliative Care Nurses

A trial is underway with district nurses in Tauranga and Whakatane, as well as Eastern Bay and Waipuna hospices, where physical visits to patients are interspersed with virtual ones if the patient has a computer or tablet, a camera and a broadband connection.

Aside from cutting down on travel time and potentially increasing the number of 'visits' available to patients, when the nurse is engaged in a virtual consultation from a healthcare centre or hospital, he or she is has access to a GP or specialist for advice if required.

Aged Care Facilities

The project team is trialling cameras in aged care facilities. Depending on the circumstances this can take the form of a telehealth "kiosk", a consultation room, or a mobile trolley. The telehealth facilities are used for after-hours advice from GPs, specialist follow-up, speech language therapy, dietary and mental health services, and geriatrician support for nursing staff.

Remote Monitoring

Patients in the community with long term conditions, what is known as "frequent fliers", can have their condition monitored remotely. Sensory devices are installed at home and monitored from a central point. With more equipment available on the market the prices are falling to very attractive levels. This has been trailed by the Bay of Plenty District Health Board through Te Whiringa Ora, Whakatane for several years.

Roadblocks

As you might expect, when you introduce a new way of delivering an essential service, there are plenty of issues to address. These include:

• On-going funding model.
• Clinical and administration support (bookings, documentation, room hygiene).
• Politics (medical, management, iwi, communities)
• Workflow/team care.
• Medico-legal issues.

Success

Telehealth fits well alongside other key drivers of health sector change, such as greater use of nurses and pharmacists, more self-management of health, and care in the community rather than institutions. But to be successful it's vital to get the clinical leadership on board, so they can ensure that telehealth is an integral part of the way their teams deliver healthcare.

Also, if telehealth is to become a 'business as usual' tool, then the technology itself must be reliable and user-friendly. It doesn't have to be 'gold-plated' either - simple equipment such as Cisco's Jabber cameras can be very adequate, Newman says.

If you get it right, then telehealth can be a win for everyone. Medical practices can enjoy efficiency gains and be financially better off, aged care services can improve and become cost-neutral, patients can benefit from the convenience of not having to travel to the main centres for basic care and the District Health Board will see fewer emergency presentations and unplanned admissions.

Newman says that in the Bay of Plenty they have made a good start, but there is a long way still to go.