The mutual broadcasting system presents Murder by Experts, with your host and narrator, Mr. John Dixon Carr, world-famous mystery novelist, whose books have been translated into 17 languages and have sold over 10 million copies, and author of the recently published detective novel, The Low Suspicion. Good evening. This is John Dixon Carr. Each week at this time, Murder by Experts brings you a story of crime and mystery, which has been chosen for your approval by one of the world's leading detective writers. Tonight, our guest expert is the noted mystery writer, Miss Helen Riley. From her vast knowledge of the field of mystery, Miss Riley has selected a fast-moving taught drama by Maurice Zim. And now we present William Zuckert in Return Trip. Our scene, a small, plainly furnished hospital room, late at night. The patient, a man in his late 30s, is flat on his back, staring up with pain-filled eyes at the ceiling.  Yes, there's someone to see you. Yeah? This is Superintendent Andrews of the State Institution. Oh, what have you got there? I've set up a recording machine out in the hall. Careful of the wire, nurse, when you close the door. The doctor said not to keep it. Yes, I'll make it as brief as possible. You may go now, nurse. Very well. Do you mind if I hook this microphone at the head of the bed? Suit yourself, fella. Well, it was a choice between a recording machine and a stenographer, and I figured that in your condition. Well, who said I was beefing? Go on, ask. Ask your questions. I have only one question. What happened? You mean I can tell this in my own way? That's great. Had an uncle once, you know, that was a writer. He wouldn't have gone near this kind of a story, though, with a 10-foot pen. No, he went in for happy endings. Uncle Mort wouldn't even have liked the beginning of this story. It was kind of dreary-like up there at the asylum that afternoon. There'd been quite a snowfall the week before, and as far as the eye could see, everything was a dirty gray, like a corpse that's been waiting too long for the undertaker. Well, around 4 o'clock, it got so dark, the lights had to be turned on in the institution. Then the wind started moaning like a lonely band shee. Fine day for a murder, as the fellow said. Well, there were three passengers sitting in the bus when I went outside for the return trip. Two men and a woman. Maybe I ought to call her a girl, because she wasn't much more than that. Anyway, these three passengers all had returned tickets, and I went down the aisle, collecting them. Driver, how soon do we start? Right away, miss. We're two minutes late already.  Now we'll never get out of these mountains before that blizzard lets loose. Can I have your ticket, please, mister? You really think there'll be a storm? Can't fail. Lady, when they have snow up in these Godforsaken mountains, by this morning on the bus coming up, a man was telling me about the time. The windbag was sitting right across the aisle from the girls' second row from the front. Halfway back in the bus sat the third passenger, all huddled up in his overcoat. He didn't open his trap. Well, that was the picture as we swung out onto the highway for the return trip. And this guy in back of me seemed to be itchy to start a conversation with somebody as soon as we got rolling. Might as well get acquainted, miss. 50 miles before we get the civilization. John Willard's the name. I said. Oh, I beg your pardon. Were you speaking to me? Oh, yes. I'm afraid I was thinking of you. Oh, sure. Sure, these visits, the institution, always depressing, aren't they? This is my first time. Oh, some friend? My husband. That's too bad. I hope. What's that? Some kind of siren. Yeah, that's the asylum alarm, all right? What that means? One of the inmates must be playing hide and seek with the keepers. That happens every once in a while. Gosh, what if it's my brother? Oh, is he the bustin' out kind? Oh, it sort of upsets him to see one of the family. But then we don't come to see him, and it's simply to see him even more. I see what you mean. Do they always catch them? Well, they'd tell me the place has never lost a customer yet. A moment ago, I was praying that it wasn't Jim. But now I don't know, even if they had to. Well, it would be better than seeing him as he was today. Anything would be better than seeing him. Hey, that's a police siren. Sounds like they're almost on top of us. Yeah, there they are. Look out, they're going to pass us. There's nothing. They're flagging me down. All right, now just keep your seats, everybody. Guards. With rifles. We're looking for somebody. Yeah, we heard the asylum alarm. See anyone along the road? No, not even a jackrabbit. Officer, who is it you? Greg, Steve Greg. Oh. That's a relief. Holly, take yourself a walk down the aisle. Keep your rifle ready when you look behind those back seats. Are you kidding? Hey, when was this coming out party? I don't know. Maybe as much as a couple of hours ago. Does this Greg have a gun? I can't guarantee he hasn't. It was a file that sprung him, a tiny steel file. Must have been working away at the bar since the day he was committed a month ago. His day was short. Nobody back here. Now check the gents for identification. I know how it is, driver. Can't take chances. Oh, of course not. He is mine. OK. I didn't really mean that. Your name, Frank Caniston? You're going to raid, catch it. Friendly, Cass, ain't you? You know, that's the first peep that passenger has let out. I was beginning to think he was a deep mute. Yeah. Well, here, driver, you can have the stuff back. Oh, thanks. What about you, mister? It's OK. Holly, his name's John Willard. I checked his identification. OK, Doug. Come on, then. Let's cram. We got to find Greg before he finds anybody. Yeah. Driver, you can turn around and go back. Go back. Why? Look, this Greg is a killer, a ruthless, senseless killer. What I mean is, when the mood strikes him, he strikes. Oh, what's that got to do with us turning back? Didn't I tell you this guy kills even without reason? Now he's got plenty of reason. He's got to get out of these mountains, but quick. If he's down the road, there are a lot of ways he could stop a bus. I say turn back. Put that blizzard's lab a break any minute. We could be snowbound up here for days. If I had to spend even one night in that institution, so help me, they'd have to keep me there. Listen, driver. Now just a second, Mr. Willard. You're just one passenger. There are three. What about you, miss? Well, whatever you say. Mr. Keniston? I say keep going. That settles it. Hurry up, Denton. No, wait. What does this killer, Greg, look like? Hide about 5 feet 10. Wait about 165. Dark hair, brown eyes, 37 years old. Denton, get the lead out of your britches. But I still think they were the two. We warned them, didn't we? Now, if they meet up with them, it's their funeral. Yeah. Well, we can take care of ourselves, fellas. Well, after the guards left, I really set that bus to Roland. Out of the mirror up above the driver's seat, I could see that the girl was plenty scared, but she had nerve. I'll say that for her. Willard, the windbag across the aisle from her, gave up trying to draw her into a conversation. And as for the third passenger, Keniston, sitting half ways toward the back, he kept acting like a clam afraid of losing its oyster. Might as well have had locked your, if you get what I mean. Well, we hadn't gone more than another mile or two before the wind started to rise.  Got black as the inside of a tomb until the snow started to fall. But with that wind whipping it around, it didn't exactly fall. It was a real howlin' blizzard. This is getting on my nerves. What have we got here anyway, a collection of zombies? Somebody say something. I was just going to say. You were going to say the weather is rotten. Yeah. And she can say that again. No, that isn't what I was going to say. No? Hurrah. That'll give us two topics of conversation. We'll save the weather for later. Well, go ahead, lady. I can't think of a better antidote for the screaming memies right now than your voice. It occurred to me why the guards asked for identification. Yeah? The description of Killer Greg, 5'10", 165 pounds, dark hair, brown eyes, 37 years old. So what? It's a remarkable thing. That description would fit you, Mr. Willard. Oh. And Mr. Keniston. What's that? Me? And for that matter, the driver. Say, now look.  So could a million other men. Forget it. Forget it. Hey, Keniston, what's eating you anyway?  I don't happen to feel like talking. Yeah? Personally, the more I think of what she said, the more remarkable it becomes. Yeah. She's got something there. Only remarkable isn't the word. Mr. Willard, what are you thinking? This man, Greg, may be insane, but he's not Tom. Oh, no. Put yourself in his place. He knows he hasn't got a ghost of a chance making his getaway in that hospital clothing, see? So he borrows the wardrobe and identification of some stranger. You follow me? We're way ahead of you, Willard. Because it wouldn't be difficult for a killer. Say not. But that still isn't the end of his problem, see? He's fighting against time. He's got to get out of these gut-forsaken mountains down to civilization before they can throw a noose around the whole area. And he knows that if he's brought back alive, he'll be wearing a straight jacket until he's as old as Methuselah. Got quite an imagination, Willard. Thanks. Now, the odds that Greg will be able to get himself transportation are mighty slim, except for this bus lie. So let's suppose. You got a great imagination, all right. You got it all figured out. It's a bit too bad, if you ask me.  Really, Keniston? Well, I'll leave it to the lady here on the driver. Do I look insane? Well? Search me. There were times, long periods of time, when Jim didn't either. As my husband, I mean, that was the terrible part of it. He would be just like the old days, and we'd be so happy together, and then all of a sudden, without warning, he would... It's Ketterston's been acting crazy, not me. I'll bet I wouldn't take a half a dozen psychiatrists to prove that he's... Hey, an avalanche! It's coming down on us! Hold on! Ah! After the avalanche struck, I sat there, gripping the steering wheel, sort of stunned. And there wasn't a sound except for the wind. And it was muffled by the snow barrier that packed us in. Even on the far side, the bus was buried up to the middle of the windows. Well, all this was only a matter of seconds, I suppose. And then suddenly, the quiet was broken by the most gargoyle racket. Was as if somebody had up and given the signal for my passengers to go completely crazy. Get me out of here! Now take it easy! Get me out of here! Look out, Willis! Got an axe! The axe! Take it away from here! Go with that axe! Well, I did it. He's the one! He's the one! Lucky, I saw him grab the fire axe from up on the rack. It's what the district attorney likes to call a lethal weapon. And then some. Step back, he's coming to... Yeah, time up. Yeah, you'll find a rope in the dashboard. Compartment, get it for me, huh? Orch, you for this? You will. I was going to smash a window, so we could get out of here. Oh, yeah? Sure! What'd you think? Oh, so that's... Here's the rope, driver. Thanks. You can't do that!  I'm not Killer Greg! Maybe... Maybe he isn't. Maybe. But like the guard says, we can't take chances. Now, if you're innocent, Misty, you can prove it to the authorities. If we ever lived that long, have you forgotten that we're trapped here by an avalanche and a blizzard that could go on and on and on? Just the same... Stop, stop!  What do you mean, Miss? Well, it's just that there's no proof that Killer Greg is on this bus. Well, if you put it that way, I... It's all my fault, and I'm very sorry. My only excuse is that I was so upset by seeing Jim, my husband. I still say that, Willard. No, no. We've got to start acting like rational human beings. You let poor Mr. Willard up from that floor. All right. But I'm warning you, Willard, no funny stuff. Snap out of it, driver. We've got to get out of this mess. Hand me that axe. Do I look that dumb? All right, then use it yourself! We're going to smash a window so we can crawl out. Willard, what makes you think the windows won't open? Huh? Then open one. What for? To let in the blizzard? But we've got to get out of here. Not me. Take a bear to make even a city block in that blizzard. But we can't stay here. Why not? We're not freezing yet. Driver's right. Our best chance is to sit pat until the storm lets up. But what if it doesn't? Even when the weather clears, we can send out a party for help, huh? Yeah, or maybe a road clearing crew will come to our rescue. Yes. I suppose that's the same thing to do. Wait here. Well, how about you, Willard? You also decided to do the... same thing? I don't like that crack, Caniston. One more like it. Now, look, we're not starting that again. That's going to be a long night. Just as well make ourselves comfortable and try to get some sleep. Sleep? Cut it out.  That's the only one that runs the full width of the bus. You can use your lap rope for a quilt, huh? All right, driver. I, uh... want to apologize again to everyone for the way I behaved. Casting suspicion. Forget it. Forget it. Need any help? No, no thanks.  Look, please... What? What's the matter? Why are you staring at the floor? Well, say something. Look. A file. A tiny steel file. One that... Not to the avalanche hit. There was a mad scramble. One of you lost it, then.  Greg. Killer Greg. Well, we just let her wear herself out, kicking and banging on the door. Nobody said a word. Willard and Keniston just stared at me and at each other. By and by, the girls stopped her fussing to stand and stared at the three of us in rotation. But it made your flesh crawl. And outside, the blizzard was getting worse, if possible. Finally, I reached into the watch pocket of my pants and brought out the old timepiece. What... what time is it? Uh, broke the crystal. Still says a quarter to four. It's five-thirty. It's only an hour and a half since we started out. Only an hour and a half. Five-thirty in the afternoon. And at the very best, we're stuck until morning. Fourteen, sixteen hours. Might as well be forever. Now, look, Miss, we just got to make the best of it. I still think you ought to go back to the rear seat. And sleep? If you can, yeah. Willard, the driver and myself will be keeping a rather, uh, close eye on each other in the light of recent developments. You'll be all right, especially if you take that axe away from the driver. Huh? Let her have it for her protection. Sure. Let her have it. You'll give it to me. Okay. You, uh, holding on to the file, too? Of course she is. The file could also be, uh, lethal weapon. Well, she took the axe and the file back to the rear seat with her, and we all sat down to wait. Have you ever fought against sleep, with the cold numbing you and the wind lulling you? You know, sometimes even the fear of sudden death can't win against those odds. Time and time again, the girl's eyes would close just for a second. Then they stayed closed longer, her head nodded and her body slumped over against the corner of the seat. I got up and started down the aisle.  Where are you going? Her lap robe slipped to the floor. I was gonna pick it up and cover her so she wouldn't freeze. Any objections? I'll do it. I don't know who you want, Caniston. Go ahead, driver. Now, you see, Caniston, Willard thinks I should do it. It makes it two to one. Help me! Help me with this, Wildcat!  She was like a devil on a pinwheel. I was lucky to tear loose before she did any more than nick me about the face. Afterwards, when Willard told her what I was up to, she apologized, but I didn't go near her again all the rest of that night. Well, about five o'clock, the blizzard stopped and at seven, the sun managed to break through. We held a council of war. We can't send out for help. Why not?  Well, you could go alone. I'd never make it. We could all go together. How about that, driver? Well, I'd rather stick with the bus, Caniston.  We got a window open on the far side of the bus and crawled through the girl first. She was still clutching the ax and the file. Come here and look. Another few yards and we'd have escaped the avalanche entirely. We can shovel our way out. I'm sure we can. Well, there were two shovels in the tool compartment at the tail guard of the bus. That only let two men shovel at a time with the third man getting a breather, meanwhile. And it took a lot of shoveling. What's the matter, driver? Did you hurt your hand? Nothing much. Feels good just to take off these stiff leather gloves. Looks to me like you've got some blisters on that right hand. Thumb and first two fingers. Say, Caniston, are you shoveling or talking? We'll never get out of here at this rate. Well, it's your turn anyway. I'm tired. Not as tired as Willard looks. I'll relieve him. No, no, no. It's all right. Can you keep going yet for a while? Okay, then, Caniston. Let me take a turn. I know I won't be much help, but I can at least try.  I'm sure you could do as well as Caniston. Or is Caniston? Why? Caniston was making a mad dash through the snow. Willard dropped his shovel and tore after him. I yelled for Willard to let him go, but I don't think he even heard me. For a while it looked like Caniston was going to make it, but then he floundered and fell in the snow drift. And before he could get underway again, Willard nailed him. He'll stay put for a while. What did you do? Knock him out? What else was there to do? I knew all the time it was Caniston. You think he was running away? Proves it? It's the same as if he confessed. He knew it was his last and only chance. Well, what are we going to do with him now? Tie him up. And we're getting him in the bus out of here. Hey, I wonder if there's a reward? In no time at all, we had the bus clear and headed for civilization. Those snow-covered mountain roads weren't exactly my idea of a speedway, but I gave the motor the gun. Willard and the girl didn't take their eyes off Caniston. I kept watching him, too, out of the mirror over the driver's seat. He looks like he's coming, too. Don't worry, driver, those knots I made in the rope won't give. Besides, I'm keeping the axe handy just in case. He's opening his eyes. Watch him now. Watch him. Yeah. Yeah, watch me. And listen to me, too.  I'll stop this bus and put you out for good. Not before I've had my say. Willard, you too, lady. Why do you think I tried to make a break for it? That's easy.  You fools.  Was it my watch that had its crystal smashed at a quarter of four yesterday afternoon? So it was mine, so what? At a quarter of four yesterday afternoon, Killer Greg waylaid the real driver of this bus and took his place. What? Oh, no. That's how the crystal came to be broken.  You can't talk your way out of this. It could be a coincidence. Sure. That's what I thought, too, a coincidence. Until I noticed the blisters on the thumb and first two fingers of the right hand. A file would make blisters like that, on the right hand of Killer Greg. Look at him. It's true. Greg. Greg! Don't come a step closer, any of you. You make the slightest move. I'll crash the whole lot of us. Don't do it, Greg. Stop the bus. We won't do anything. It was a perfect plan. It had to work. If only that avalanche hadn't come along. Well, I'll still make it.  That turn! Well, I said, when you record in machine, huh, Super?  Yeah, I'm right back where I started from. The asylum. Anyway, I outlived those three. I outlived those three, didn't I, Super? Killer Greg, that's me! So the curtain falls on return trip, which was chosen by guest expert Helen Riley, whose latest thriller is Staircase 4. Next week at this time, Murder by Experts brings you a story of a woman who awakened from a nightmare to find reality even more frightening, as selected for your approval by one of America's leading detective writers. Until then, this is your host, John Dixon Carr, hoping you'll be with us next week at this time. Turn Trip was written by Maurice Zinn. In our cast were William Zuckert and Shepard, Roger DeCoven, Frank Behrens, and Alan Manson. Music in our program is under the direction of Emerson Buckley, composed by Richard DuPage. Murder by Experts is produced and directed by Robert A. Arthur and David Cogan. All characters in this week's story were fictitious. Any resemblance to the names of actual persons living or dead was purely coincidental. This is Phil Tonkin speaking. This is the world's largest network serving more than 500 stations, the mutual broadcasting system.


In one of the times where she, the Prophet SAW is in Qara'ah and she's going up to give him food and water, the Archangel Gabriel, Jibril says to Sayyidina Muhammad, and this is the famous hadith that we know.  Give her salam from Allah and myself. And tell her that she has been guaranteed a palace in paradise after which she will not have any noise or fatigue. Allahu Akbar. That hadith right there, and if you just look at the little bit noise and fatigue, if you think about the fact that what is she doing to allow her husband to be the Prophet of God, the Prophet of the Ummah, she's holding up all the house chores. She's holding the fort down at home, literally. She's making it all work and there's all these kids, not only not just her own, but also at this point in time, you know, Ali Ibn Abi Talib is living with them, there's other young people living with them, there's Zaid Ibn Hadithah living with them, right? There's a lot of noise happening in her home, right? And she's managing this home by herself, sacrificing to allow her husband to be the Prophet of God. So he says to her, you have a house in paradise with no noise, and no fatigue.  Because soon after there's that embargo, as you know, where they embargo, right? They put an embargo on the Muslim, they won't allow them to trade, and they're starving. And at the very end of Sattinah Khadijah's life, she goes from this wealthy, wealthy, wealthy noble woman to having given away everything to the Muslims, and to early Islam, to the point that she's on her deathbed.  And she's disease-ridden, and she's on her deathbed, and she isn't going to recover. And the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, is tearful. This is very difficult for him to see, and he says to her, if you've had difficulty here, you won't have difficulty there. SubhanAllah. And there she is at the very end of her life, until the very end, in full support and dedication to Islam, to allow us to have this Islam, and full dedication as the wife who's able to allow her husband to do this great and noble work, and dedication to her children, to allow them to become the mothers of the Mu'mineen that we're going to hear about, at least for Sattinah Fatima today. And when she passes away, it's the 27th night of Ramadan. And there she is of her 65 years of life. She spent 25 years of them with the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And in that period of time, like I said, her name is Khadijah, born ahead of her time, not just physically, but ahead of her time, in breaking all kinds of stereotypes and barriers experienced by women. And not for the sake of feminism, but for the sake of doing what's right, for the sake of standing up to her beliefs, for the sake of charting her own path. But that path is a path even though it's charted, it's surrendered to Allah, SubhanAllah.


Hello, everyone. It's a real pleasure to be giving another one of our connecting with Niles Sandbite webinars. And today I'm going to be talking about a study that looks at remote technologies that can be used for fine-tuning hearing aids. So effectively I'm looking at clinics from home. And the main focus of the webinar today is looking at a way to improve access to hearing health care. So this has been identified as one of the top priorities in our field. So we can see this in a number of influential documents that have been published. So in Australia, the Australian Department of Health published the roadmap for hearing health last year in 2019 and highlighted the fact that technological advances will improve hearing outcomes but made the point that it was essential that these technological advances were accessible and equitable for all. An older but still influential report is the Nassim Consensus Report on Hearing Health Care for Adults that was published in 2016 with a hold of the OTC DTC market on the horizon. And it was highlighted here that there needs to be some prioritisation in terms of research to provide an evidence base for innovative delivery models to treat hearing loss. And this was to include telehealth or connected health and mobile health. And the hearing aid manufacturers have been leveraging cloud-based technologies to address these over the last couple of years. So these are technologies such as apps to enable remote communication between patients and providers. So in terms of mobile tech for connected health and self-management, there are a number of different technologies. I've shown this slide before. And really it's giving a flavour of the technologies that we are looking at as part of NAL's Connected Health Research Program. All of these technologies will be covered in our webinar series. And today, as I said, I'm going to be talking about remote device remote hearing aid adjustment. So where does this fit along the patient pathway? Well the hearing aids are obviously given at the intervention part. So this is ensuring that the hearing aids are connected to smartphone applications using Bluetooth. But the real focus and the benefits of this is that remote assistant devices can provide ongoing support when the patient has left the clinic. So smartphone connectivity has really mushroomed and really exploded really over the last couple of years. And there are a number different types of applications that smartphones are being used for. So they can be used to self-fit hearing aids. And Brent Edwards is going to be talking about this in a webinar next week. Last week I spoke about some of the benefits of use being able to adjust the hearing aids and to adjust the sound quality using a smartphone app. And as I said today, I'm going to be talking about remote delivery and fine-tuning of hearing aids. And this is a study that was led by Liz Convery with her collaborators, Geeta Kides, Mark McClendon and Jennifer Grove. Liz is no longer at NAL, so that's the reason why I'm giving this presentation today. So there's been a study to show that unplanned fine-tuned appointments provide the or are the largest proportion of appointment types. So there is a real advantage to be able to minimise trips to the clinic and to be able to remotely fine-tune hearing aids. And this is what the resound smart app does. So just to explain it, we have the patient here who's been given their hearing aids. If they have a problem, for example background noise is too loud, they can make a note of this in their smart phone app where there is series of multiple choice questions that address a number of different listening situations that might cause difficulties. Having answered the multiple choice questions addressing what the particular problem is, the information then goes up through to the cloud and to the audiologist in the clinic. And the audiologist can adjust the program of the hearing aids accordingly depending on what the patient has said. And then they can, having programmed set up the program, they can send a package of information down through the cloud to the patient's smart phone app, which can then program the hearing aids. So you have this remote programming of hearing aids. So the study objective was to evaluate post-fitting use of the resound assist program with experienced hearing aid users. And as they were sort of going about their everyday lives, so looking at real world environments. And there were three different research questions. And the first one was how usable is resound assist. And the importance of looking at this was that usability needs to be assessed to ensure that induced can use whatever the application is. And at the time this study was carried out a couple of years ago, this was a relatively new technology not widely used. The second research question was how does patient provider communication virus resound assist compared to face-to-face consultation. And now this is become an essential question which is being asked clinically, as well as in research as we have moved into the new COVID era and the use of telehealth and connected health really has increased a lot over the last couple of months. And then the final research question was are hearing aid fitting outcomes influenced by the mode of client-clinician communication. So the study was a six-week trial. There were two groups, there was an intervention group and a control group. There were 15 participants in each and the control group was matched for age, gender and the four-frequency pure turn average. The intervention group had the resound assist but they didn't have the face-to-face follow-up week two which is typical and part of the standard Australian hearing health care program. The control group didn't have the resound assist app but did have the standard face-to-face follow-up for week two and of course both groups had the resound links 3D hearing aids. So looking at the results of the intervention group, 11 of the participants, 11 of the patients were successful in using the resound assist app so all of them used it at least once. There were three patients or participants who did not use the app and that was because they didn't feel they had a need to use it in that six-week period and one of the participants wasn't able to access the app at all so they were considered to be unsuccessful users. The usability was assessed using the telehealth usability questionnaire and there were a number of other different types of questionnaires out there which have typically used such as the UMARS which looks at mobile application scores. So in terms of the telehealth usability question, questionnaire high score is a poor usability and a low score is good usability and you can see that for most of the participants they rated the usability as really quite high, really very high and even the participant who rated usability less well still had a high usability score. At the end of the six-week study the hearing aid users were asked a number of different questions about their use of resound assist and the results are shown here. So on this slide here this is looking at ease of use of the assist feature and all of the 11 participants reported that they found the app easy or very easy to use. In terms of satisfaction with the range or type of questions there was a bit more variability here with some most people reporting that they were satisfied but there were a group of people who were only moderately satisfied with the range and type of questions and there were similar results for the range of the multiple choice answers that could be provided. In terms of satisfaction with the news settings that was set up using remote assist everybody except one participant reported that they were very or extremely satisfied. In terms of preferences whether they preferred having their settings adjusted using the app or face-to-face all of all 11 participants reported that they preferred the news settings to be programmed via the app rather than face-to-face. So I think what we're seeing here is very similar to what we've seen with some of the studies from now which shows that once clinicians have used telehealth or connected health systems they're much more likely to use it and that's their preference in future and we're seeing the same kind of results here with patients. But finally all of the participants reported that they would be extremely interested in having a similar feature in their hearing aids and going forward. So there were a series of open-ended questions and focus group and there was a focus group and that was conducted as part of the usability aspects and there were three key themes that emerged. The first was effectiveness so how accurately and completely could users accomplish their goals. The positive comments are here, the less positive comments on this side. So this patient here says I managed to install the news settings without difficulty and this participant says I had to choose other as my answer to many of the questions since my issue was not covered by the questions that were asked. In terms of efficiency so what is the resource burden on users relative to effectiveness, this participant here said it was quick to learn how to use it even for me who is not bad into technology and again time and time again in these kind of studies we see older adults reporting that they're not that efficient at technology but actually once they give me opportunity quite often they can go ahead and use it really quite well and really quite effectively and efficiently. Whereas this participant said I felt I had to spend time typing details of my problem into the text box as well as answering all the questions. So both of these points here were really reflecting some of the questions and that we saw on the previous slide around some a little bit of dissatisfaction in terms of the questions were asked and finally in terms of satisfaction how pleasant and acceptable is the technology to users. So this person says I like the look of the app, it didn't look like a game so it wouldn't be overly enticing for others to look at same meetings so basically other people wouldn't be distracted by it and also we've seen it before you know it then if it doesn't look like a game it makes it more socially acceptable to be able to make adjustments to hearing aids on the go without looking as though people are just simply playing or fiddling with their hearing and fiddling with their smartphones. Whereas this patient here said red on black can be difficult to read so that was really sort of a really putting into the whole usability issue. In terms of the patient provider communication there were a whole bunch of problems that arose because this is what we've seen in typical everyday life in hearing aid clinics and there's a whole different range of issues that were raised and what can be seen is that the range of types of problems are similar regardless of the communication mode whether it was app based or face to face. We saw that some of the participants reported for example that they had difficulties or the game was too soft or loud there was feedback or too much background noise and all of these could be adjusted using the remote assist app but about half the problems that people complained about couldn't directly be addressed or solved by fine tuning using the app. So for example here we've got people reporting that they had itchy ear canals or the hearing aids kept slipping out of their ears and these are the kind of problems that really need to be addressed in clinic with an audiology so requiring face-to-face care whereas here there were some problems around maintaining Bluetooth connection or couldn't stream and I think it's important to bear in mind that there are other alternate means of problems solving using online multimedia methods for example the C2HR online program. So moving to the hearing aid fitting outcomes so there were four key outcome measures that were obtained between the for the intervention and the control groups and there was no significant between these two groups in terms of hearing aid fitting and that was measured sorry hearing aid benefits and that was measured using the AAFAB questionnaire hearing aid satisfaction using the saddle there was no difference in speech discrimination in noise thresholds or hours of daily hearing aid usage using data logging so no significant difference across either the groups although it should be noted that the participant sample is quite small and so it is much more difficult to go and show any significant effects. So in conclusion I'm looking at the three research questions the app and feature was seen to be usable and the participants found the app was highly usable in terms of its effectiveness efficiency and satisfaction and the kind of experiences and feedback that were gained and could then be used to build upon and refine further technology. In terms of the patient provided communication the study showed that there were similar problems regardless of the communication mode used whether it was face-to-face or with the app and it's important to say that not all the problems can be solved at a distance and some require face-to-face care or some other kind of online support to enhance any of the or to address any of the problems that arise. And then finally in terms of hearing aid outcomes there was shown to be no difference between the face-to-face and the remote technology model with no detrimental effect on hearing aid outcomes so an app-based communication method is a viable way to improve hearing healthcare accessibility. So what about COVID-19? So everybody's a bit sick of it now but we are seeing that the pandemic has actually caused disruption to hearing healthcare and shown in this cartoon here that I came across about six weeks ago which is actually really quite true so there's some work that we're doing and another project now that David Allen has spoken about in a previous webinar which looked at the difference that the pandemic has made in terms of one of our studies. So we were looking to increase the use of the telecare app so this is the Signia Telecare app which works very very similar to the journey sound app that I've been talking about today and the red line here is the number of COVID infections in Australia. So we were looking to try and increase the use of telecare app and we had done some work and identified some interventions to do this which we implemented just towards the end of January beginning of February and we started to see see here this is like increasing and taking care and increase of COVID infections and we can see that when we introduced the interventions to improve take it to telecare we actually did see this and it was all looking pretty good until the pandemic hit and we can see that from the beginning of March in Australia there was as we see in other countries a large rapid exponential growth in the number of COVID infections and what was really fascinating was when we were continuing to monitor the use of the telecare app our intervention clearly sort of gone out the window and we saw that the uptake of the telecare app pretty much mirrored that of the COVID infections. So this was a really interesting finding what we're seeing is that social distancing has required as required fewer face-to-face clinic appointments and we see this in the results here. So good quality remote services and I needed more than ever we're actively looking at this at now working with I'm here in Australia so watch this space we've got some really interesting results that we can present over the next over the rest of the year. So finally I'd like to thank the people who conducted the study Elizabeth Convry, Gita Kaisa, Margaret McClellan and Jennifer Growth which was funded by January Sound and just to highlight there's a whole series of sound bites webinars on Connected Health some of them have already taken place so David and David and Jeremy this week have given their webinars taken in Paola and doing it some their webinars in a couple of weeks time and I've got a couple more lined up.


Hello and welcome back to the craft box. My name is Brent and today we are on episode 77 of the completionist crafters series And today we are taking our first step into the catacombs and crafting the Dragoon gear. Well, not quite yet We are gonna be crafting the death vanguard boots to start with So yeah, everything you'll need is on screen that costs a lot of gold. I should do this more often But yeah, and also the requirements for doing this as well. Let us head home and go and craft these bad boys up So yeah, as some of you may know there This is basically the new best in slot gear since the catacombs have been released Why I haven't done it until now you may be wondering is because I haven't had time to go and get all of the reagents But I am currently making it a mission to try and get as many of the reagents as possible On YouTube streams over the next forever. So, yeah, that's gonna be the next we plan So every so often we'll be having one of these episodes, but yeah today the vanguards death boots, which is the tier 2 Death boots the ones you have to craft in order to get to the tier 3 aka top tier Or tier 1 I guess is what you'll call them tier 1 Dragoon boots But yeah, you need 180 alchemical extract which you can get I from basically any of the monsters down in the catacombs. I generally farm the Whispering spelture or whatever it's called that dungeon just to get all of the reagents that I need mainly because I don't really care about Getting the other gear. I just want to get the reagents to craft it But you need 180 of that 30 alchemical salts which you can transmute from extract and Three crystals which you can transmute from the salt or you can get both of those as drops from most of the Most of the boss battles around there as well Yeah, I'm sure someone else has a best guide on how to get all of that but yeah, let's create these bad boys and We're actually gonna be adding them basically to our to our new set as well right away or our main set as well So as you can see where are they there on page 2? Let's lock them instantly because we're gonna be keeping them for now As you can see over the paradox boots, which were the best and slot item for death They give a negative one Death damage, but you get six percent universal is this 15 crit rating 209 max health and Minus two power pip chance, which is not the best But hey, that's fine, and you get a plus two health incoming So pretty decent plus a sharpen blade treasure card and if you have enough actually know these guys Not have the item set yet. That's for the dragon gear But yeah, so they're pretty decent So we we are gonna be switching them out. We might as well do that right now and show you that my is the only thing that will probably be Significantly lower. My damage is 137 now 58 resist across the board 60 the shadow score, which is fine 25 percent accuracy, which I think is just okay 42% crit 1% block 16 p.s 21 incoming to outgoing 106 power pips so it wasn't really affected. That was the only one that I was slightly worried about 7% shadow pip and 33% crit Thing and seven thousand health finally finally I have seven thousand health. It's fantastic But yeah, that is all for today's episode if you enjoyed smash like as all of the people would say and sub if you want to and if you have already Press the wheel about so you know exactly when I post another video and remember to craft outside the box


Welcome back to Dell Technologies World 2021. The virtual version, my name is Dave Vellante and this is theCUBE. I'm pleased to welcome Bill Wave-Ros, the president and GM Dell Financial Services at Dell Technologies. Bill, great to see you. Thanks for coming on. Yeah, thanks Dave. It's really great to be here with you. So we heard in Allison Dew's keynote, Dell Technologies all in as a service, Apex. She's the executive lead. So really passionate about that. Talk about DFS in that context. You've always had a way to help people, shift CAPEX to OPEX, but what's your specific role regarding Apex? Yeah, well, thanks Dave. Look, we're really excited about Apex and DFS. We think Apex solutions gives customers access to the broadest range of infrastructure solutions in the industry. If you combine that with the Dell Technologies portfolio of ISG technology and solutions, that's a great combination for customers. But you asked about DFS and at DFS, we've been delivering consumption solutions for over 15 years. So taking a look at the Apex portfolio, you could broadly divide it into two categories. Turnkey, Apex turnkey solutions like data storage services, and then Apex custom solutions like data center utility and flex on demand. And those custom solutions are where DFS plays. And as I said, we've been offering those for over 15 years. We have a lot of experience with customers, what customers are looking for. We have tens of thousands of assets out there today with hundreds of customers that are being metered on a regular basis that we're billing monthly. So we're getting a lot of feedback from customers. And I think the Apex solutions announcements that you heard here at Dell Technologies World are a further expansion of that. They're built on the backbone of what DFS has been delivering for a long time. So we've taken, I think the best of those solutions and we've listened to customers. What are they looking for? What do they want? And we've got even new and improved offerings in the current announcement that we made. So, I think when you talk to customers, they want a couple of things. They want simplicity. They wanna be able to understand how they're gonna acquire and how those payment solutions work. And they want choice. And I think the Apex solutions gives customers both of those things. And the good news is, they're available on all sorts of ISG hardware be it servers, storage, hyperconverged, infrastructures, customers can choose what technology they're looking for and they can create their own demand environment. And the last thing I'll do is a little plug for DFS. We've been in the payment solution business for over 25 years. So we not only offer consumption solutions, but we offer traditional leases and financing. And so when you add all that together and you go talk to a customer about technology and how they wanna pay for it, we think we've got the broadest range in the industry. And we're really proud of that. Okay, cool. So you got the two areas that you simplified it, which is great.  The standard stuff is like console data storage and then cloud services that breaks down even further. And then the custom, I got my notes, Apex Flex on Demand and Apex Data Center Utility. How do Apex custom solutions differ from those turnkey offerings? Yeah. Well, the beautiful thing about Apex is it gives customers choice. So as you mentioned, you have turnkey. So if you think data storage services, that's one of our new turnkey type offerings. And those turnkey offerings are outcome based. So think about it as an outcome. What is a customer looking for? Do they want file versus block storage? What sort of capacity do they need? What performance level are they looking for? But it's thinking of those outcomes and Dell technology is gonna take care of the rest. A customer can go to the Apex console, they can review those choices, they can make their selections and then they can turn it over to Dell and we'll deploy that technology, we'll manage it, we'll upgrade it and we'll service it over the life of the term. So the customer can focus on outcomes versus on acquiring and managing technology. So that's the turnkey solution and that's probably the biggest and newest part of our announcement of Apex solutions. And then we have the custom. The custom, as you mentioned, Data Center Utility Flex on Demand, that's what DFS has been delivering for many years now and that's for a customer who wants to select the product. So think of it as a product-based solution where a customer wants to select the technology, they may want to manage it themselves, they may want to have a partner manage it, they may want to include different services. So they're able to put that together in a custom way and satisfy whatever problem they're trying to solve. So we found that many customers are going to want to select that custom solution because they're in a part of their data transformation journey where they still want to control some of the technology and others will want to go the turnkey route. So again, it kind of goes back to the customer choice and allowing them to acquire it the way that they want to acquire it. Okay, so like an example might be, I'm just making this up, I'm a financial institution, I'm a big VMAX customer, I got some kind of special process that I use that I wrote that gives me competitive differentiation because I can get a millisecond faster than my competitor, speed or whatever. And I want that, I'm not going to take, that's not part of your turnkey solution, but that's part of my value add. I want that, but I want your help in sort of customizing that and making it as a service. Is that like a reasonable example? That's a great example. And so, let me talk about that a little bit. So let me give you a couple of examples of the use cases and what the products provide. So think about, let's talk about data center utility first because when you think of data center utility, think data center, right? These are large deployments, they're big customers, they're most likely a global customer and they want to get out of the data center business, right? They want to get out of the day-to-day management of that and be able to focus on, hey, how do we as a CIO deliver value to my business? I want to make a difference in that business strategy. CIO is more and more being asked to help the business and enable that business strategy. And so many of them want to get out of the data center management business. And this is where the data center utility product can come in. It allows us to go in as Dell and help that customer manage that data center. So it has the most flexibility in terms of custom billing, custom reporting, very low, if any, minimum commitments. And one of the best features is we have a delivery manager who's assigned to every account, who can help that customer procure assets, manage assets, deal with capacity management. So we really can take over the management of that data center and allow the customer's IT group to focus on delivering value to the business. So we think that's a really important aspect of it. And it allows us to manage even existing assets that are sitting out at the customer as well as new purchases. And then back to the kind of example that you gave, where a customer really wants that high performance, they have specific hardware in mind, they can also use a flex on demand type product. So the customer is able to pick the hardware, whether it be server, storage, converged infrastructure, hyperconverged, and they can select the technology that they want to use. They can sign up for a very flexible period of time so they can go from one year to five years. They may only need this hardware for a limited period of time. Maybe they're working on a project where they're going to need additional storage capacity for the next couple of years. So they can sign up for a two year contract if they want. They can sign up for the commitment level that they want to use. So one of the great things that customers are looking for is they want that cloud-like operating model, they want to pay for that technology as they utilize it. And they don't want to be locked in to having to purchase a large amount of data if potentially they're not going to use it. So flex on demand gives them that flexibility. They can sign up for 50% of a storage-erased capacity and only pay for usage above and beyond that 50%. So it offers customers a lot of choice and a lot of ability to get the technology they want and be a very flexible utilization method as they go forward. So I don't think a lot of people realize that. You said very low or no minimum commitments. So maybe you could explain that a little bit. And who owns the asset? Well, when we talk about flex on demand, it is still owned by Dell. So Dell owns that asset and the customer can commit. We think we have the broadest range of commitment levels in the industry. So if you think about a flex on demand type offering and let's say you want to purchase a storage array, you can sign up for a 50% minimum commitment. So again, you've got flexibility on the term, so you can go one to five years. You can sign up for 50% commitment. So you're gonna get a bill for 50% of that storage usage every month, but you're not gonna get a bill for anything more unless you utilize it. Now let's say one month you go to 60%, right? So you're gonna pay that extra 10% only when you use it. If you go back down to 50% the following month, you don't pay. And let me point something out on this because I think this is where we differ from a lot of our competition. The rate you pay is the same. So it's the same for the minimum commitment level of 50%, as it is for the incremental 10% or 20% that you use above that. Some of our competitors have surge pricing.  We don't do that. We've heard from customers, they don't like that. They want it simple. They want to pay one rate per gigabyte throughout the life of that contract. And so we do that. Another unique feature, which we kind of just implemented recently, is that the max that you can pay is 85% on that storage usage. So if you sign up for a 50% minimum commitment, and let's say you use 90% of it. So you've got a pretty significant increase off your minimum. We will only charge you up to 85%. And that's a new feature that we added to all our flex on demand products recently for future customers, as well as previous customers.  And the reason we did that is because while customers love pay for things as they use them, they're a little uncomfortable on uncertainty of maybe paying too much, right? So we put this in to help protect customers that they wouldn't have to worry about paying more than they expected to. So we think that's a pretty cool feature of what we offer. Yeah, so to summarize the features, I got the portfolio, I got the whole portfolio I have access to, I got the flexibility that you just described in great detail and pricing transparency or certainty. And then the other piece is the value, the 85% cap. So that's pretty cool. Yeah. Okay, so you've been doing this for a while. You have data and experience with real customers with different types of customer solutions. Maybe you could share some of the business impacts and benefits that customers have seen. Yeah, well, let me give you an example. So data center utility, we had a large multinational manufacturer who again, as I mentioned earlier, they wanted to get out of the data center environment. They had a, they don't want to manage that anymore. They had a complex data center. It was managed with about 50% of their own internal IT department and 50% with a third party service provider. They had multiple hardware vendors, multiple third parties providing services. It was very, very complex. So they came to Dell Technologies. We took that data center, put it into a data center and utility contract and we took over management of the data center. So it freed up that 50% of their own IT staff to work on other things that provided value to the business. And then we were able to take that consolidate vendors, make it a lot simpler and improve the efficiency of the data center. And that's an important thing. So it's not just about how you pay for it, that you pay for it in a variable manner. It's how efficient can you make that data center? And no one knows Dell Technologies assets and hardware better than us, right? So we were able to create tremendous value by utilizing those assets more efficiently. So they were getting more productivity out of the underlying IT assets. We simplified it for them. And we were able to take their team out of that day-to-day management which is what they were looking for. So there's a great example of a win-win on both sides. And what we've found with these customers is once they go to this kind of model, they stay with it, they like it. And we actually end up expanding our relationship with these customers. So it's good for us in a lot of ways. And one of the things we didn't talk about earlier is another benefit that maybe isn't so obvious. Particularly when you look at a flex on demand type product. So let's think about flex on demand. One of the things customers are struggling with is how to predict how much data storage they're going to need in the future. There's this huge data explosion going on in the world. We've talked about that many times. And CIOs often have trouble trying to predict how much capacity they're going to need in the future. They don't know exactly where it's going to go. And so one of the struggles that they have is when they have a need for that data, it takes time to get it available. So if you think about a CIO that all of a sudden has additional capacity they need to add to their infrastructure, it could take 90 days to get that out on the floor. They've got to go through their internal requisition process, they've got to select a vendor, they've got to acquire the hardware, get it all set up. This all takes time. 90 days later is too late. One of the things that flex on demand offers is that you're able to get that capacity on the floor. And at the push of the button, you can have it up and running. So you're not paying for it until you use it. But once you do need it, you can have it available really quickly. And that's one of the benefits that maybe people don't expect when they use this flex on demand product but provides tremendous value for customers. So we've seen that kind of time and time again with flex on demand. We had a large pharmaceutical customer who went to one of these, had a mandate that they wanted to go to a cloud operating model for all their IT purchases. So they wanted to free up cash flow. That was kind of a directive from the top, free up cash flow, let's get out of the CapEx business. And flex on demand was a perfect answer to that because it freed up the cash flow. They paid for the technology over time and they were able to have this capacity available whenever they needed it. So we've seen that as a tremendous benefit of the custom flex on demand model. I've done a lot of TCO studies, Bill. And I'll tell you the upfront planning, the capacity planning, the asset management, the procurement, these are a big chunk of the labor costs associated with total costs. Okay, so we got the turnkey with the three components. We got the custom with the two components. There was a fifth bucket in my notes here, which is the partners and the channel. And I'm really interested in how the channel is transforming no longer, can you just be a box seller in the channel? Those days are gone, made a lot of money doing that. Good deal, but now you got to add value. The cloud has really changed everything there. So it's all, and of course, as you know, it's all about the margin and profitability. So talk about the channel, you've always had relationships and how Apex fits with channel partners. Yeah, well, Dave, we've had great experience working with our partners. I mean, partners are here in the same thing from customers that we're here. They want a cloud-based type operating model. They want to pay for their technology as they use it. So partners are looking to provide the same value to customers. And we found that working with partners expands our reach tremendously and they have a lot of expertise. So the Apex Customs solutions are designed to work with partners. Partners can either sell those of themselves so they can sort of resell our solution to them or they can just refer the business to us. And they're going to get a 20% uplift on the committed contract value for those contracts. So this is really financially attractive to our channel partners and it allows us to work with those partners to get to more customers. And as I mentioned earlier, these custom solutions can include services from the partners. So we can provide the hardware piece to them. They can add on their services on top of that and they can be the primary relationship with a customer or again, they can refer it over to us. So we found that to be a really good value proposition for partners and we think they're pretty happy about it. I mean, we have an example of Relate Care as a company that supports healthcare organizations around the world. So helping with patient communication, appointment scheduling, telehealth, which is a really big area right now as you know with the pandemic still going across the world. This is an area of tremendous growth. So Relate Care was working with one of our partners, ArcFire. And they needed more flexibility in the data center. And so these Apex FlexOn Demand was a perfect solution for that. It allowed them to deliver a secure flexible data center and work with their partner to really improve the service level that was occurring in that relationship. And if you think about it, one of the things we didn't mention is particularly for a lot of healthcare companies and companies and customers who have a high sensitivity around data security and where that data resides. One of the advantages of on-prem solutions like Apex FlexOn Demand or Data Center Utility is you know where your data is. The public cloud can move the data around often without you knowing about it. And so that security, that assurance that you know exactly where your data is is really important to a lot of our customers. So it's kind of another feature that has been official for customers. And again, we're seeing partners adopt this more and more. And I think over time that is going to continue to grow. Yeah, so 20 points on the uplift plus additional services that I can bring in because they've got a tighter relationship. You know, in this model, right? The renewal starts when you sign the contract. So it's a much, much deeper relationship. Can the partners, can they white label the service? Is it co-branded? Is it all Dell branded? Yeah, well they have the choice. I mean, the partner can actually take on the billing and relationship primarily if that's what they would like to do. And again, so that's one of the offerings or they can refer it to us. You know, many partners don't make, they don't have the back end of the infrastructure they do all that billing and collecting themselves. So they prefer just to refer it to us. Other partners are large, they do have those capabilities and they want to take on the primary relationship. So we can work with them both ways and we have worked with them both ways. Nice, we're out of time, Bill, but give us the bottom line. You touched on some of this, but why Apex over the competition? Yeah, well, look, I think it goes back. The first thing is Dell Technologies, right? Dell Technologies has the broadest selection of products and services being in the industry. So you combine that with Apex Solutions, you've got to win-win, it's unbeatable in my opinion. We also, I think, have the best range of flexibility in those payment solutions.  The rate is the rate, the rate goes from the minimum all the way to the maximum. We have the storage cap that I talked about, HCI cap at 85%, so you're gonna be capped so you don't have unexpected costs that you didn't forecast. And you can flex up and down, right? So you flex up, you flex down. Some of our competition, once you flex up, you can't flex back down. And that's a real negative in my opinion. And we've got 15 years of experience of doing this. So that's really important, you know, we've worked with a lot of customers, we've learned a lot during those journeys, and we think we're the best equipped to provide you with consumption solutions and as a service solutions that really work for customers. Financial flexibility, asset management, the really key part of IT that we don't spend enough time talking about. Bill, thanks so much for coming on theCUBE and sharing your insights. Hey, thanks Dave, really glad to be here, thank you. All right, and thank you for watching everybody. This is Dave Vellante for theCUBE's continuous coverage of Dell Tech World 2021, the virtual edition. We'll be right back right after this short break.