Diagnostics on the edge: Will policy catch up before health plunges over the cliff?

Dean Whiting, CEO of Pathology Technology Australia (PTA), offers a clear-eyed assessment of a year defined by sustained advocacy despite “stalled” government progress on policy. Among PTA members, the prevailing sentiment is “very difficult”.

“Healthcare is rapidly becoming unsustainable. We potentially have 10-12 years to complete systemic changes before we hit a real cliff. We have the technology available to start the transition…it’s a question of quite urgently setting the vision and road map to start us on the journey to make that transition,” Whiting stated in this Health Industry Hub podcast.

With the National Health Genomics Policy Framework and Implementation Plan 2026–2030 on the cusp of release, the conversation turns to what was missing from the draft framework and why closing those gaps matters if genomics is to move from promise to routine clinical practice. Whiting interrogates whether the federal government’s $30 million funding commitment over four years is nothing more than a “rounding error” given the scale of transformation required.

“There’s just a complete lack of ambition in the document as far as we’ve seen. We would urge strongly that the level of ambition and the speed with which we introduce genomics needs to change dramatically,” he emphasised.

Attention then shifts to the upcoming PTA Congress, where the themes of personalised and preventative healthcare are framed against the government’s broader productivity agenda. These conversations are already shaping the sector’s policy priorities as it looks toward the 2026–27 Federal Budget.

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