Hospital decision-makers use predictive models to proactively manage risk of readmission for discharged patients. While predictions from classification models are easily integrated into decision-making processes, it is unclear how to best integrate predictions of the evolution of risk from time-to-event models. We propose a method for summarising predictions of risk over time that produces interpretable components for use in a variety of decision-making processes. The proposed method summarises predictions of risk over time (hazard functions) by approximating them with a parametric smoother. The components of the smoothed approximation can then serve as the basis for decision-making. To demonstrate the proposed summarisation method, we apply it in the specific case of a previously published model for patients discharged from a large teaching hospital on the Gold Coast, Australia. In this context, we describe how the summaries produced by the method could be used to estimate time until a patient reaches a stable, persistent risk level or to stratify patients according to risks of readmission in excess of patient-specific baselines. Our method is anticipated to be valuable in and outside of healthcare for settings where the evolution of risk is important, with specific examples including post-transplantation risk and reinjury risks.

Broadband communication technologies offer households many opportunities, including greater access to education, health and government services, entertainment and social connectivity. Australia appears, however, to be lagging behind other nations in adopting broadband.This paper reports on a study of the relative importance of factors affecting broadband uptake and usage by Australian households. A large data set with 23,093 records was analysed using an innovative statistical technique known as classification tree analysis.Important adoption factors, in approximate order of importance, were: Frequency of Internet usage (indicating needs and benefits of use); Location, a factor likely to indicate, in part, the availability of services; Technophilia, a tendency to acquire technologies in general in the household; and Subscription to Pay TV. User needs and benefits, rather than cost, were found to be primary drivers.