The latest news from the Digital Health CRC
December, 2023
Message from our CEO
Annette Schmiede
Welcome to our final newsletter for 2023! I have no doubt everyone is counting down to a well-deserved break. I am certainly looking forward to some relaxation time with family and friends.
We are proud to say that we have gained significant momentum during the past year in the DHCRC's activities. Last month we released our Annual Report showcasing our projects and increasing industry engagement. In FY2022/23, we signed 13 project agreements and initiated 3 project extensions with a net value of ~$10.5m cash and ~$11.3m in-kind. Beyond the numbers, we have continued to deepen our partnerships with universities, government and industry. We’ve initiated research and development projects that will have significant impact across the health and aged care ecosystems, as well as growing our group of emerging leaders who will be the future leaders in digital health in Australia.
Strengthening relationships with the Australian digital health technology sector has been a very pleasing outcome of this year. At the start of this month, we had the opportunity to host a Roundtable with the Productivity Commission and several of our DHCRC technology and healthcare partners, that included Telstra Health, Alcidion, Five Faces, Harrison ai, Propel AI, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Metluma, and SiSU.
Healthcare costs are expected to account for an increasing share of government expenditure in the decades ahead. A Productivity Commission Report, Advancing Prosperity, was released earlier this year that addressed the need for improving productivity across a number of sectors including healthcare, with a particular focus on digital health transformation. The Productivity Commission are currently updating this Report. The Roundtable enabled our digital health participants to provide feedback on how digital health technology can improve healthcare delivery and better understand its impact on improving health outcomes and driving innovation, ultimately improving productivity. This Roundtable was also an opportunity to discuss the barriers, and challenges to growing Australia’s digital health technology sector. We look forward to seeing the recommendations from this Report when it is released in the New Year.
The emergence of AI and its potential impact on healthcare, and broader society, is one of the biggest changes we have seen this year, particularly around the use of generative AI and ChatGPT. The DHCRC was pleased to participate in The Australian Alliance for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare (AAAiH) which earlier this month launched a Roadmap for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare for Australia. The roadmap offers sixteen (16) recommendations across five priority areas: AI Safety, Quality, Ethics and Security; Workforce; Consumer; Industry; and Research. AI is already having a profound impact on the delivery of healthcare, and we hope this roadmap will provide a framework to help position Australia as a world-leading AI-enabled healthcare system.
While for much of this year it felt like the COVID-19 pandemic was finally behind us, the recent surge in cases is a stark reminder that it will likely remain an endemic for years to come. That is why it is important to ensure we reflect and learn the lessons from this challenging time. Earlier this year, I was pleased to be involved in a report which was released this month by the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences (QAAS) “Voices from the Pandemic. What lessons have we learnt and how should we manage the next pandemic?”. The report brought together insights from across all sectors to ensure the management and preparation for the next pandemic or natural disaster.
Last month, we attended and sponsored the National Innovation Policy Forum, hosted by Cooperative Research Australia in the Grand Hall at Parliament House. It was pleasing to see the Hon Ed Husic, Minister for Industry and Science, officially announce the $392 million Industry Growth Program to help start-ups and small businesses commercialise and grow their business. It is welcomed support for those small to medium businesses looking to grow and scale who, according to a new report from Industry Innovation and Science Australia launched at the same event, face significant barriers to commercialise innovative ideas in Australia – more on this event is included below.
Last month also saw our much-awaited inaugural Curiosity Camp launch in Canberra under the leadership of Dr Mel Haines. I had the opportunity to spend a few days with more than 50 emerging leaders and experts brought together to discuss, debate, ideate, and challenge the prevailing models of how we deliver healthcare. Be sure to be sure to check out all the action from this inaugural Curiosity Camp below. It was inspiring to see the energy, enthusiasm, and talent of the next generation of healthcare leaders. We are hopeful this will become an annual event.
Finally, a very special thank you to our participants, partners, and supporters, for your continuing support. To our Board and our hard-working and talented Team, thank you for your efforts and contributions over the year. I wish everyone a very safe and joyous festive season and I look forward to reconnecting in 2024.
Warm regards,
Annette Schmiede
Latest News
We recently attended and sponsored the National Innovation Policy Forum, hosted by Cooperative Research Australia at Parliament House. The event featured the Hon Ed Husic, Minister for Industry and Science, who unveiled the $392 million Industry Growth Program to help start-ups and small businesses commercialise and grow their business. This came as a new report from Industry Innovation and Science Australia identified the significant barriers for small to medium businesses to commercialise innovative ideas in Australia. Over 94% of businesses in Australia employed fewer than ten people with significant barriers stopping these businesses from growing nationally and internationally.
Dr Cathy Foley, Australia’s Chief Scientist, suggested we have a scale-up problem in Australia, not a start-up problem. The challenges we face are the barriers to scaling up! To address this challenge, Dr Foley called for stronger investment from the government to provide businesses with the opportunity to scale up innovation and unlock research and development investment.
At the end of October, DHCRC (along with CSIRO and NSW Ministry of Health) sponsored the Australian visit of Professor Andrew Morris, Director of Health Data Research UK, the UK’s national Institute for health data science. He generously shared learnings from his experience on how to gear an entire country to apply data science in health to improve healthcare, research and innovation.
Professor Morris’ visit was a catalyst for numerous conversations about the possibility of emulating this work in Australia to harness large-scale data for research that delivers public benefit. We all know the transformative potential of health data research but also the challenges we face in Australia accessing this data to address some of our most pressing healthcare needs. The potential to unlock this data to drive innovation is also a key benefit that will also drive productivity improvement.
Watch the webinar with Professor Andrew Morris and Nadia Levin from Research Australia by clicking the button below...
Together with WA Country Health Service (WACHS), University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and health technology company Kraken Coding, we’re tackling one of the biggest global health threats according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Antimicrobial resistance is considered one of the top threats to global health by the World Health Organization. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has estimated that an average of 290 people die each year in Australia due to infections from just eight resistant bacteria.
The Aged Care Industry Information Technology Council (ACIITC), in collaboration with the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA), last month released a report on the ‘Residential Aged Care Use of Clinical Care Systems’.
The recent report on clinical software in the residential aged care sector demonstrated the breadth of disparate technology software and highlights the greater need for data standards. The report found that whilst residential aged care providers are using multiple digital devices there was limited integration of these within an organisation, and that only a small majority of providers believed their current clinical software was providing effective functionality.
One of DHCRC’s flagship projects, Aged Care Data Compare Plus, is looking to address many of the challenges identified in the ACIITC report by demonstrating the benefits of a standardised dataset and benchmarking the industry.
In conversation with… John Shanks, Kraken Coding
In this edition we speak with John Shanks - Antimicrobial Stewardship Pharmacist and co-founder of healthtech company Kraken Coding. In a newly announced DHCRC project, UTS is undertaking a research study into the roll out of Kraken Coding’s antimicrobial stewardship decision support tool in Western Australia.
Education Update
DHCRC emerging leaders get curious at Curiosity Camp!
DHCRC held its inaugural Curiosity Camp at Lake Crackenback in NSW from 13-17 November 2023.
Curiosity Camp was an immersive learning experience designed to solve real-world healthcare problems and deliver impact by harnessing the power of evidence, codesign and collaboration.
Five tribes, comprised of DHCRC emerging leaders, consumers, innovators and researchers, formed around industry challenges and spent the week together unpacking opportunities and conceptualising solutions.
The topics tackled at the camp included interdisciplinary blind spots, standardising language, patient flow, metabolic health and women’s health and outputs included research plans, community of practice proposals, op eds and open-source software and programs. The next stage of the Curiosity Camp journey will see DHCRC support further development of these outputs to help drive change and deliver outcomes for the healthcare sector.
A collaborative approach to prioritising and implementing digital health research
Discover the ground breaking research aiming to revolutionise healthcare through clinician-friendly digital solutions. In a collaborative effort between academia, healthcare services, and industry partners, this translational research project explores the implementation of Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS): hindered by poor uptake and integration, only 34% of CDSS systems are utilised by clinicians, the project prioritises use cases to optimise healthcare delivery, uncover the criteria shaping digital health research prioritisation, and delve into three selected CDSS use cases. Adeola's comprehensive research paper offers insights into overcoming barriers and leveraging enablers.
Visit the Digital Health CRC "Big Thinkers Forum" to find out more and explore the full paper.
Creating synthetic data sets for students
The DHCRC has partnered with The University of Sydney to evaluate the use of synthetic data sets for training, education and research.
As well as mapping the current applications of synthetic data in digital health, the project will also look to demonstrate the privacy, fidelity, and usability of synthetic data in education and research.
It’s a first step towards an Australian version of MIMIC, a dataset from a single US hospital that has facilitated more than 4,000 studies.
A key priority for this project is helping to build a qualified and experienced health data science workforce which is necessary to realise the promise of digital health.
“Training and innovation in digital health and data science require access to realistic data. This is difficult while maintaining appropriate privacy and confidentiality controls,” said project lead and Beamtree Associate Professor of Clinical Informatics & Data Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney, Ben Hachey.
“If we can give students access to realistic data sets, that replicate the underlying data, then we would be able to give graduates practical, real-world experience that employers are seeking.”
“Ultimately, we want to be able to help industry generate synthetic data sets so clinicians, researchers and industry can responsibly, and ethically, use synthetic data in practice.”
Academic Leaders join forces to advance health workforce educational needs
The DHCRC recently established the Digital Health Senior Academic Leaders Forum to harness the collective power of academia in the fields of digital technology and data science. Over the past six months, senior academic leaders from universities across Australia have come together to identify collaborative opportunities, drive meaningful action and have been instrumental in shaping university perspectives on digital health.
Based on the outcomes of the Digital Health Senior Academic Leaders Forum, we’re thrilled to announce the establishment of an Australian Council of Senior Academic Leaders in Digital Health.
The Council will take an inclusive approach and all Australian universities will be invited to participate. It is envisaged that implementation of the ACSALDH will be in early 2024.
Breaking ground in paediatric rehab
Explore the future of paediatric rehabilitation with DHCRC Emerging Leader, Leila Mouzehkesh Pirborj. Her paper, "A Set of Serious Games Scenarios Based on Pepper Robots as Rehab Standing Frames for Children with Cerebral Palsy," featured at the Big Thinkers Forum, unveils innovative strategies in technology and serious games to engage children in rehab.
Project Update
The COVID Community Pathway proves hospital avoidance
We have recently closed off yet another insightful project with Alfred Health and Monash University. The studies show that the impact of the Alfred Health COVID Community Pathway (AH-CCP) has been effective in providing patient care in the community which evidently means, easing the pressure on the over-stretched workforce and hospital systems.
The AH-CCP received over 175,000 referrals over the two years it was in operation, monitoring over 100,000 people, with detailed telehealth assessments and in-home virtual care for 40,000 people. The model has shown that over 91% of patients could manage COVID safely in their homes, resulting in substantial hospital avoidance.
Dr Richard Coates, lead of the Alfred Health COVID Pathway said: “AH-CCP provides a clear template that could be rapidly deployed to support the community and protect the health service in the event of future pandemics, or to support people with other health conditions who are at risk of hospital admission.”
Upcoming Events
A well-deserved break to rejuvenate for 2024...
The DHCRC team will be taking an extended break with all DHCRC offices closing on the 15th of December and will be reopening on the 8th of January 2024.
We would like to wish everyone a very happy, safe, and festive season, and a joyous New Year.
