Capitalising on the rapid digitalisation of health

Widespread digital disruption in health continues to shift the fundamental expectations and behaviours of the industry and is driven by a range of factors, including:

• Consumers embracing new technology for low-risk decision making relating to their health, with 78% of adults using the internet to find health-related information
• Digital technologies such as smart phones and telehealth providing consumers with greater autonomy in their health and wellbeing
• Breakthroughs in digital health technologies with potential to revolutionise disease diagnosis, prevention, and treatment
• Remote monitoring of patients at home creating unprecedented potential to reduce demand on hospital services and increase patient health outcomes
• An explosion of data, harvested in real time from sources within and outside of traditional health settings, representing significant potential to generate knowledge through sophisticated analytics
• Creating co-benefits for the environment through reducing the ecological footprint of health services provision

Our research contributes to the national response to these challenges by:

• Evaluating telehealth solutions
• Designing new technologies to support carers of cancer patients
• Designing new technologies to better manage dementia in acute hospital settings
• Designing digital technologies to support improved patient experience (MyStay)
• Designing new technologies to remotely monitor patient physiology
• Evaluating health technologies and providing advice to government on cost effectiveness
• Developing an evaluation framework for assessing the proliferation of health related apps
• Exploring opportunities to reach indigenous populations and people with disabilities
• Harnessing big data to improve the quality of information on obesity and risk factors
• Harnessing big data to understand reasons for hospital readmission in patients with complex health care needs
• Understanding the potential of the Electronic Medical Record for improving care
• Understanding digital health literacy, particularly in the elderly