Australia to pilot AI and VR to reform aged care
The Australian Government’s Department of Health and Aged Care has published a five-year strategy to deliver reforms in aged care.
In the Data and Digital Strategy for Elderly Care, the government envisions a system for elderly care that ‘delivers the highest possible quality of person-centred care for older people while stimulating a sustainable and productive care and support economy through data and digital innovation’.
WHAT MATTERS
To achieve its vision, the strategy identified four specific outcomes, two of which relate to sharing and using data securely and having data and digital foundations that support a standards-based eldercare system. Such outcomes emphasize improving security and access control; optimizing data collection and use; building data and digital maturity; and encouraging innovation.
The strategy is accompanied by an action plan that describes specific projects and activities to achieve each identified result.
Among the government’s plans is to implement a framework for aged care data governance and interoperability and reference architecture. It also wants to introduce virtual nursing in aged care, test AI technologies and conduct trials of virtual reality technology.
Meanwhile, work has started on the implementation of LiveUp, the tool for healthy aging, and the digital resource platform KeepAble. In addition, improvements have been made to the free information service My Aged Care. My Aged Care has also been integrated into My Health Record and standards have been developed for the clinical information system for elderly care.
The Aged Care National Minimum Data Set, the National Aged Care Data Asset and electronic prescribing are also part of this plan. These have all been implemented.
THE BIGGER CONTEXT
In the Intergenerational Report, the Australian government sees the number of older people more than doubling over the next four decades. This is driving the aged care workforce to increase its capabilities, particularly through the adoption of data and digital technology, to meet the explosive growth in demand for services.
The Ministry of Health and Elderly Care said its latest strategy to implement reforms in elderly care is in line with the recently published 10-year Digital Health Blueprint and updated five-year National Digital Health Strategy. It also aligns with the National Strategy for the Care and Support Economy in harnessing data and digital to enable quality care and improved workforce productivity. These strategies, the department noted, all share the goal of “strengthening continuity of care” by more closely connecting all data and digital systems through consistent adoption of data standards.