Department of Health hits milestone in digital transformation

Digital & Innovation: The Department of Health and Aged Care has reached the midpoint of its digital transformation journey. While generative AI holds promise in healthcare, immediate gains are evident through digitisation efforts.

A cornerstone of the digital transformation was the establishment of a universal digital health record to allow all healthcare providers access to a centralised repository of patient history, enhancing care coordination and efficiency.

Efforts to implement the MyHealth Record faced delays due to concerns regarding government cybersecurity readiness. Parallel systems are being developed for service providers, enabling seamless integration of personal record-keeping software with government databases.

Nevertheless, enrolment has surged to ~90% of the Australian population. The digitisation initiative commenced in 2021 and is slated to persist until at least 2025.

Fay Flevaras, First Assistant Secretary at the Department of Health and Aged Care, has been entrusted with overseeing this transition. In a Digital Transformation Tech Talk, she remarked that although not all outcomes are immediately apparent, substantial groundwork has been laid to establish the digital infrastructure necessary for the transformation.

Responding to feedback from the sector, Ms Flevaras emphasised the Department’s commitment to collaborating with health and aged care service providers to develop a system that benefits all stakeholders, including the department and the wider population.

She acknowledged that feedback had pinpointed specific areas of concern, notably artificial intelligence, emerging technologies, interoperability, and cybersecurity. While the department is exploring AI within the broader governmental context, immediate attention is directed towards addressing the latter three concerns.

Interoperability lies at the core of digitisation efforts, aiming to establish a seamless healthcare network experience.

“We’re actively exploring the potential for connecting the provider experience across care systems, especially in overlapping areas like aged care, veterans care and disability care. We need to make sure we have agreed standardised data and we’re sharing it across government safely as well,” Ms Flevaras emphasised.

In emerging technologies, the Internet of Things (IoT) is reshaping possibilities through personal sensors and wearable health devices. These innovations enable individuals with serious health conditions to be monitored remotely, liberating them from frequent medical visits. For example, remote foetal monitors are gaining traction, alleviating healthcare worker burdens and offering expectant parents reassurance.

“While our work on digital transformation isn’t about building these devices specifically, we do see how the IT advancements across health and aged care hold a lot of promise to support reform recommendations,” she stated.

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