The latest news from the Digital Health CRC
April 2023
Message from our CEO
Annette Schmiede
Welcome to our April Newsletter. I hope the Easter break provided some welcome time to spend with family and friends after a busy start to the year...
We are delighted to report that the DHCRC had one of its most successful quarters to start the year. We finalised over $5 million in funding to research projects, including the next stage of the Aged Care Data Compare Project, you’ll read more about this project below.
Other projects signed to start the year include: an evaluation of a digital health initiative with Alfred Health and Monash University (see more on this in the project update in the newsletter); The design, development and implementation of a mental health navigation platform – the Local Mental Health Care Operational Navigation Chart (MChart) - involving the University of Canberra, Swinburne University , Capital Health Network, ACT Health and the Bupa Foundation; and an Australian-first research initiative into the emergence and prevalence of Long COVID in primary care with Outcome Health, Macquarie University and four PHNs.
These initiatives are significant as they involve bringing together multiple parties across industry, academia, government and the health sector to work collaboratively. The CRC concept is founded on this basis of working in partnership to unlock the value of research and support the growth of Australia’s digital health technology sector Together, with our Participants, the DHCRC is laying the foundations to show how this can be done in practice to deliver better health outcomes for all Australians. It is challenging and takes time and perseverance but is the way forward to support more rapid research translation and implementation.
Canberra was the location for us to host a two-day workshop with DHCRC Participants from Western Australia, Queensland and Victoria on the increasingly important subject of Synthetic Data. These Participants are each working on a range of synthetic data research projects. Our goal is to build a Community of Practice and program of work to share learnings, and test different approaches to creating and using synthetic data to overcome the challenges of using complete clinical data sets. Because the DHCRC is a national initiative, and we have most of the State and Territory Health Departments as participants we have an important convening role.
A highlight in March was our participation in Science Meets Parliament also in Canberra. It is an important event that brings deep engagement between hundreds of, scientists, researchers and technologists to engage with policy decision makers. We were pleased to support five of our emerging leaders from our Education and Capacity Building Program to attend the event and have the opportunity to meet with a politician one-on-one. You can read more about their experience below.
And finally, it was pleasing to see legislation pass Parliament to establish the new $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund. We have long been supportive of thus Fund as an opportunity to leverage our world leading health and medical research to become a global exporter of digital health technology. We will continue to work closely with Research Australia to advocate for support from this Fund to be directed to the health sector.
This newsletter is also showcasing one of our SME partners SiSU Health. SiSU Health itself is a prime example of the value of having research, development and manufacturing onshore in Australia. We also share the latest updates from our education team, including our newly launched Talent Hub, and profile a number of recent research project announcements.
Warm regards,
Annette Schmiede
CEO, Digital Health CRC
Latest News
ACDC Plus to lift the bar on quality reporting in aged care
This month we unveiled the next phase of our flagship Aged Care Data Compare project. ACDC Plus will see large scale provider Regis Aged Care and software supplier AutumnCare, trial a prototype aged care quality indicator app.
The project will be led out of The University of Queensland (UQ) with the aim to trial and evaluate the app’s effectiveness as a potential quality benchmarking and reporting solution for the residential aged care sector. UQ will use HL7 FHIR to extract data from Regis clinical information system in a safe, reliable and efficient and to support the calculation of evidence-based quality indicators.
In an Australian-first use of data exchange technology with the HL7 FHIR in aged care, CSIRO’s Australian e-Health Research Centre (AEHRC) will develop the software that can be integrated into the existing clinical workflow to support the capture of quality indicators and the reuse of information
New paper introduces ethics framework for use of Generative AI in healthcare
DHCRC Chief Innovation Officer Stefan Harrer last month published a paper in The Lancet’s eBioMedicine journal proposing for the first time a comprehensive ethical framework for the responsible use, design, and governance of Generative AI applications in healthcare and medicine.
The peer-reviewed study details how Large Language Models (LLMs) have the potential to fundamentally transform information management, education, and communication workflows in healthcare and medicine but equally remain one of the most dangerous and misunderstood types of AI.
Dr Harrer said: “LLMs used to be boring and safe. They have become exciting and dangerous… This study is a plea for regulation of generative AI technology in healthcare and medicine and provides technical and governance guidance to all stakeholders of the digital health ecosystem: developers, users, and regulators. Because generative AI should be both exciting and safe.”
DHCRC appoint Berne Gibbons to our Board
We were excited to welcome Berne Gibbons to the DHCRC Board last month. Berne will be known to many of you given her three-decade background in the healthcare industry.
Berne has held many senior roles in that time, including: Product Manager for Anaesthetics at Glaxo Wellcome; Head of Hospitals at Mayne Health Pharmaceutical Wholesale; CEO for Central Hospital Supplies; Managing Director for Vitro Software.
Berne is an advisor on Digital Health Standards to the Australian Digital Health Agency and author of the National Digital Health Standards ‘Guiding Principles. She is Dean of Health's Industry Advisory Board member and Associate Professor at UTS.
We warmly welcome Berne to our Board and look forward to using her 20+ years in the digital health sector to further the efforts of the DHCRC.
In conversation with… Noel Duncan, SiSU Health
In this edition, we profile one of our industry partners, SiSU Health. Founder Dr Noel Duncan shares the story of the company he founded in 2014.
Tell us about SiSU Health?
SiSU Health was founded with a pretty simple, but big, mission; to help people live a healthy life. We do this through the SiSU Health Station – a self-serve, internet-enabled Class IIa medical device that allows individuals to undertake a free, self-service health check and track their health over time.
To read more about SiSU's Health Stations, their insight to Digital Health and what's next for SiSU Health, click here...
Education Update
Parliament Meets Our Big Thinkers
Science Meets Parliament was held last month and featured over 400 scientists descending on Canberra for an opportunity to engage with decision-makers.
DHCRC was proud to support five of our emerging leaders to attend the flagship event and each had the opportunity for a 30-minute discussion with a politician to raise issues that they believe are important to the future of healthcare.
You can read the pitches of what each emerging leader was hoping to raise in these conversations on our newly launched Big Thinkers section of the website.
To read the reflections from two emerging leaders, click here...
Digital Health CRC Emerging Digital Health Championship Scholarship
Grace Fung, a clinical nurse trainer in the South Western Sydney Local Health District, is the latest recipient of the Digital Health CRC Emerging Digital Health Champion Scholarship – the 8th recipient of this DHCRC and RMIT University award worth up to $10,800.
Grace has had extensive experience in nursing working across many critical care areas; Acute Geriatrics, Surgical High Dependency, and Anaesthetics, and was on the front line during the COVID-19 pandemic. Grace has recently transitioned into a Clinical Trainer role, where she assists in implementing and training staff members to use new applications.
The scholarship will assist Grace in studying a Graduate Certificate in Digital Health with RMIT University. The Graduate Certificate is designed to equip learners with the skills to analyse and critically evaluate emerging technologies and trends in digital health.
“I look forward to combining both my practical experiences of change adopters and sponsors in conjunction with digital health projects as I identify the need to deliver effective digital healthcare solutions,” Grace said.
The scholarship aims to help address the growing digital skills gap in the healthcare sector and help build the capability and capacity of emerging health leaders to implement new digital healthcare innovations.
“I see many digital health technologies employed fail in practice due to the lack of representation at the end-user level when adopting and deploying new technologies. By undertaking the Graduate Certificate in Digital Health with RMIT Online, I will be able to represent end-user clinicians and champion the future of digital health.”
Congratulations Grace!
DHCRC Talent Hub Now Live
We are thrilled to announce the launch of the DHCRC Talent Hub and invite you to take a look and tell us what you think.
A key priority of the DHCRC is to build the capacity and capability of the digital health workforce. Today we have over 150 current and graduated emerging leaders who have built their skills through internships, research projects and scholarships. We see the Talent Hub as a way to make that depth of expertise openly available to industry, academia and the health sector more broadly.
Now, when you are next looking for a specific skillset or need certain expertise you can use the Talent Hub to view the profiles of and connect with our students, interns, postdoctoral fellows and alumni. We’ll continue to build this database over time as our talented emerging leader cohort grows.
Project Update
Alfred Health partners with DHCRC and Monash University to understand real impact of novel digital health initiatives
Alfred Health is furthering its commitment to impact evaluation, collaborating with the Digital Health Collaborative Research Centre (DHCRC) and Monash University to review the impact and effectiveness of two innovative digital health initiatives implemented across its network of three hospitals in Victoria.
Alfred Health’s COVID Community Pathway initiative was set up rapidly in 2020 to help regulate the workload of the emergency department and improve the management of patients within their own homes, while enabling supported, rapid escalation of care with early signs of deterioration. The approach featured a custom-built platform called “COVID Monitor” to track and triage patient symptoms remotely.
In collaboration with DHCRC and Monash University, Alfred Health will now evaluate the effectiveness of this pioneering COVID Community Pathway model of care to identify how it can apply learnings to support the care of patients with other conditions.
Upcoming Events
AusMedTech Conference 2023
Date: 24-25 May 2023
Location: Adelaide Convention Centre, Adelaide
Gain the latest insights, trends and lessons learnt from the AusMedtech network of experts, industry leaders and leading companies through keynotes, expert panel discussions and interactive Q&A.
Don't miss the rapid-fire rounds of quick-pitch presentations on early stage technologies and projects and the opportunity to network with new and familiar faces across the MedTech industry.
Digital Health Festival 2023
Date: 6-7 June 2023
Location: Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre
Digital Health Festival is one of Australia’s leading health technology events, features a multi-stream conference across 5 stages, 300 speakers, networking areas and Australia’s biggest HealthTech start-up village, all integrated within a large exhibition floor.
Come and visit the DHCRC team at our stand in the exhibition space to hear about some of our most recent and exciting projects.
MedInfo 2023
Date: 8 -12 July 2023
Location: ICC, Sydney
MedInfo 2023 – the 19th world congress on medical and health – is presented by the Australasian Institute of Digital Health (AIDH) on behalf of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA). This international event brings together thousands of digital health leaders and practitioners at the forefront of healthcare and is considered a landmark event on the global calendar.
The event theme - THE FUTURE IS ACCESSIBLE – aims to inspire us to collectively build a health sector that is accessible, where data is not locked in silos and where both clinicians and consumers can work together in true partnership towards healthier lives, digitally enabled.
