Our 2019 e-Health Colloquium in Brisbane once again featured leaders in digital health from around the world. Check out this video for some of the day’s highlights.
The digital health innovations we are striving to deliver around the world are not for the sake of moving technology forward – they’re for the advancement of healthcare.
That was one of the key takeaways from the Australian e-Health Research Centre’s 15th annual e-Health Colloquium in Brisbane recently, which gathered together leaders in digital health from around the world.
With a world-class line-up including leaders from NHS England, HL7’s FHIR, the Australian Digital Health Agency and more, the day’s discussions showed that while we have room to grow, we are moving in the right direction in Australian healthcare.
Having the data isn’t enough, we need to use it. Interoperability is key
With the digital revolution we’ve seen a massive increase in data generation and collection across industries, particularly in healthcare. This brings its own challenges around efficient data collection and management, but popping up in discussions throughout the Colloquium was the point that just having the data isn’t enough; we need to be using it properly.
According to Keith McNeil, Assistant Deputy Director and Chief Clinical Information Officer with Queensland Health, consumers are aware their data is being collected – and they expect it to be used a lot more than it currently is.
“The community is saying to us: why aren’t you using my health data to improve my health outcomes?” McNeil said.
“We have to find ways to turn data into useful information so everyone can benefit.”
Will Smart, Chief Information Officer for NHS England, was on the same page.
“Artificial intelligence, genomics and life sciences are the future of digital health – they offer us real opportunities if we can make data intelligence as part of the workflow,” Smart said.
Grahame Grieve, HL7’s FHIR Product Director, discussed the importance of interoperability and said big changes to healthcare systems are needed to address many of our health data challenges. However, he said adoption is starting to happen, particularly with national health records and some clinical data repositories.
The digital health future is bright
The project updates and sneak peeks from our researchers are always one of the highlights at our Colloquiums, and this year was no exception. Attendees heard about:
- How our algorithm has been predicting patients’ hospitalisation risk as part of the Australian Government’s Health Care Homes trial
- An exciting project using neuroimaging to try predict the development of cerebral palsy
- The fantastic outcomes of a trial of our mobile health platform M♡THer to support women with diabetes and their clinicians
- An innovative collaboration with the University of Queensland setting health informatics on FHIR for students
- Progress on smart homes to help older people stay living independently for longer
- A glimpse at the world of digital genome engineering and next-generation tools for health
- A thought-provoking discussion on collecting information about Indigenous status in Australia
- Amazing new techniques being explored for treatments against cancers
- The progress of Activate TKR, a digital platform supporting total knee replacement care.
Watch the video for more highlights from the day, explore the rest of our website for in-depth case studies about our team’s groundbreaking work, and stay tuned for next year’s colloquium – we’re already pulling together our next line-up!