A message from our CEO
Annette Schmiede

Welcome to our first newsletter of 2026. It is an exciting time at DHCRC as we enter the final year of our funding agreement with the Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR) and focus on optimising and leveraging our achievements to date.

It is a fitting time to reflect on what we’ve accomplished with all of our partners over the past eight years: we’ve built strong foundations, delivered meaningful projects, and demonstrated the value of collaboration in advancing our shared goals.

While you would imagine we are winding down, to the contrary, the year ahead paves the way for the evolution and progression of the significant work we have undertaken to date to advance the digital health ecosystem in Australia. We’ll be focused on finalising several key initiatives currently underway - some of which you’ll read about below - while also turning our attention to what comes next. With strong momentum and a committed network of partners and supporters, we’re determined to ensure the work delivered to date continues to create impact well into the future.

Since we were established in 2018, we’ve worked with over 150 organisations across academia, industry, and government. We’ve delivered over 80 collaborative research and development projects across digital health, and supported 200+ PhD and Masters candidates who represent the future leaders in healthcare.

We’re also exploring opportunities to scale and commercialise several of our innovations. Kinnexus is designed to improve how data is collected, stored, and used across the aged care sector, reducing administrative workload and ultimately releasing workforce capacity to improve productivity and deliver higher-quality care. Read the profile below with Ilya Beda, founder of Beda Software, on his journey working with us to build the Kinnexus solution.

Similarly, our ADAPt platform aims to improve system-wide quality and safety outcomes by shifting from manual, retrospective reporting to near-real-time performance and safety dashboards in acute care.

These are two examples of how digital innovation can reduce the burden on clinicians while delivering tangible benefits for patients.

Looking ahead, we recognise there is still a long way to go with Australia’s health and aged care systems facing mounting challenges: rising demand, workforce and fiscal constraints, and accelerating investment in data, digital and AI-enabled care - yet system-wide adoption continues to lag.

This gap is both a risk and an opportunity. Digital, data, and AI have the power to help address many of these challenges, but it will take a whole-of-sector approach, Federal and State government support, and ongoing engagement with policy makers, clinicians and health consumers on what the future system should look like.

We’re actively discussing with our network where the need is greatest and what the next phase could look like. If you have ideas or see opportunities to work together, please get in touch. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy our latest news and activities.

We hope you enjoy this and the other stories in this edition of our newsletter.

Latest News 

DHCRC rural and remote projects take centre stage at Parliament House

The DHCRC Parliamentary Showcase brought Ministers, Senators, industry partners, and researchers together at Parliament House this week to highlight digital health innovation delivering impact in rural, remote, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

The evening featured three DHCRC projects that demonstrate how research and collaboration are improving access to care and strengthening health outcomes across Australia.

The Hon Rebecca White MP, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, Indigenous Health, and Women, opened the event, reinforcing the importance of digital health solutions that respond to the needs of regional and First Nations communities and support a stronger, more connected health system.

Guests heard directly from DHCRC researchers and industry partners, who shared practical examples of real-world impact across the health and care sectors. The Showcase provided a valuable forum to engage policy and decision makers, demonstrate outcomes, and reinforce the national significance of DHCRC’s work.

DHCRC welcomes the SERD Report

DHCRC has welcomed the release of the Ambitious Australia: Strategic Examination of Research and Development (SERD) Final Report, which outlines a bold reform agenda for Australia’s research, development, and innovation system.

The report recognises Health and Medical research as a National Innovation Pillar and highlights the importance of a world-class research system, coordinated investment, and a highly skilled workforce. DHCRC CEO Annette Schmiede described the report as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reset the foundations of Australia’s RD&I system.

With its focus on system embedded research, workforce capability, and industry collaboration, DHCRC is well placed to contribute to this national reform agenda and help translate research into real-world impact across the health system.

Kinnexus trials – a game changer for aged care

Kinnexus, the DHCRC-funded, vendor-agnostic, technology solution for a standardised approach to the functional assessment of older Australians, which also supports mandatory quality indicator reporting.

We recently invited forward-thinking aged care providers and their technology vendors to trial Kinnexus to experience for themselves the value that Kinnexus offers to carers and residents alike. These benefits include real-time visibility of quality indicators; standardisation (and hence reduced duplication) of data collection; and significant workflow efficiencies associated with the mandatory reporting of quality indicator data. 

The DHCRC is currently exploring trials of Kinnexus with three large aged care providers, who will receive technical and clinical support to see first-hand the workflow and productivity gains that come from streamlined, standardised mandatory quality indicator reporting. 

The trials aim to demonstrate to providers and to government alike that Kinnexus offers a feasible solution to support national policy for a consistent approach to functional assessment of older Australians.

Want to chat? Contact Meagan Snewin, Senior Program Manager, Aged Care Strategy Lead, Kinnexus@dhcrc.com 

Over the past decade, Ilya Beda has launched over 30 projects in digital health on top of FHIR. He is now working with the Digital Health CRC on our flagship Kinnexus SMART on FHIR Quality Indicator app for aged care. Here, Ilya shares his journey and passion for digital health innovation in creating a truly connected healthcare ecosystem.

Education Update

Launch of the Digital Health Train the Trainer Toolkit

The Australian Digital Health Agency recently published a new online resource, the Digital Health Train the Trainer Toolkit, which provides tertiary educators with practical resources for integrating digital health into university courses. 

Developed collaboratively by the Australian Digital Health Agency (the Agency) and the Australian Council of Senior Academic Leaders in Digital Health (the Council), the toolkit delivers on an announcement in March 2025 to embed digital health education into degrees across Australia, including nursing, medicine, pharmacy and allied health degrees.

The resource features 8 learning plans with 34 core topics covering technical concepts, professionalism and ethics, sector influences and person-centred health outcomes.

View the Digital Health Train the Trainer Toolkit via the Agency’s Online Learning Portal. 

How can Australia accelerate data-driven health innovation while maintaining privacy, trust, and social licence?

This two-day Trusted Synthetic Health Data & Federated Analytics Masterclass brings together national and international experts from Swansea University (UK), to explore practical, ethical, and scalable approaches to using synthetic health data and federated analytics across research, policy, digital health, and health system innovation.

The Masterclass is designed for researchers, clinicians, policymakers, data custodians and data scientists, digital health innovators, health consumers, and HDR students, with the program combining hands-on technical learning with deep discussion of governance, ethics, and public trust. 

Participants will build a shared understanding of what synthetic data is (and isn’t), how to assess fitness-for-purpose, privacy-preserving computation, and cross-jurisdictional collaboration.

The series supports Australia’s growing demand for timely, efficient, interoperable, and privacy-preserving data capabilities supported by appropriate governance that meets legal, ethical, and social licence expectations. These foundations are essential to unlock health data for research, health system planning, digital health innovation, education, and cross-sector collaboration.

Synthetic Health Data Governance Framework (SHDGF) – Phase 2 Update

The Synthetic Data Community of Practice (SynD), continues to progress the Synthetic Health Data Governance Framework (SHDGF) - a national initiative involving stakeholders from every state and territory health service.
 
First introduced in December 2025, the SHDGF has now completed Phase 2 development (January–March 2026). Phase 2 incorporated findings from an external privacy expert review and the development of draft Data Sharing and Data Use Agreement (DSA/DUA) templates by legal partner Hamilton Locke, supported by Helios Salinger.  
 
Key updates strengthen the framework’s risk based approach to privacy, expand guidance on de identification, privacy assurance, and evaluation of fidelity and utility, and introduce practical tools to support safe and lawful synthetic data use.
 
An online version of the framework, featuring an AI assistant, helps users quickly navigate guidance, assessments, and supporting materials. Next steps include stakeholder testing using real synthetic data use cases and broader engagement, including with health consumers, to further refine and strengthen this national resource

Why do digital projects continue to fall short? Transformation friction, chardonnay terrorists – and the critical role of executive leadership

In a short article, published in the Information Systems Journal, Natalie asks 'why do so many digital transformations still fall short - even with significant investment and executive backing? Her research conducted in collaboration with Professor Andrew Burton-Jones at the UQ Business School offers some answers. Based on conversations with over 100 organisational leaders, the study identifies a concept called transformation friction and four practical ways Boards and executive teams can reduce it. These findings challenge the traditional "noses in, fingers out" governance mindset and offer fresh guidance for leaders navigating complex change. 

The research insights are currently being translated in practice, including within industry-research collaborations at the newly-established Digital Transformation and Governance Leadership Consortium (UQ); in guidance supporting the leadership and governance of UnitingCare Queensland's award-winning digitally-enabled transformation of community care; and capability development programs for The University of Sydney, and University of Queensland.

Project Spotlight

For Australia to excel in data-driven health research and innovation, we need strong public trust and coordinated, responsible governance of health and medical data. Last week’s GP Data for Research stakeholder design roundtable, marking the culmination of the five-year GP Data Project, advanced this national conversation on how GP data can be ethically, legally, and securely used for research and system improvement.

A diverse group of community members, GPs, health consumers, researchers, policymakers, data linkage experts, and sector partners met in Sydney to address a critical gap in Australia’s health information landscape: access to general practice (GP) data for research. With more than 80% of Australians visiting their GP each year, general practice holds the most comprehensive picture of the nation’s health - yet this information remains underused outside clinical care.

Discussions focused on consent, public engagement, governance and oversight, and how to balance two essential public interests: maintaining trust in general practice while enabling research that benefits the community.

Thank you to all participants for your thoughtful contributions, and to our project partners - the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, Digital Health CRC, the University of Wollongong, Macquarie University, the Population Health Research Network, and Health Consumers NSW - for their leadership and commitment.

Upcoming Events

The conference theme ‘Meeting the moment. Shaping the future.’ A moment denotes a point in time, and we are meeting the moment. A moment defined by once-in-a-generation reform, growing expectations, and a renewed commitment to supporting older Australians through every stage of ageing.

Collaborate Innovate is Cooperative Research Australia’s annual conference, held at a different theme and location each year. The purpose of the conference is to connect members of the wider community engaged in industry-research collaborative entities and all other stakeholders.

Excellence in Innovation Awards nominations close Monday, 20 April, 2026 at 6pm AEST. 

DHF creates space for connection to thrive - bringing together 8,000+ decision-makers for two frenetic days of networking, doing business, learning, and fun.

You’ll rub shoulders with C-suite leaders, senior clinicians, and tech experts from hospitals, primary & allied health, pharma, biotech & medtech, government, aged care, and the beating heart of the region's thriving startup and innovation ecosystem.