Industry groups formed to drive digital health adoption in Australia
Consortium advocates for safe use of AI and genomics
With financial support from the federal government, a consortium is being established that is committed to the safe use of advanced analyses for better diagnosis of genetic diseases.
The Centre for Population Genomics, a joint initiative between the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, has received an AUD8 million ($5.4 million) grant from the Medical Research Future Fund to establish the Australian Alliance for Secure Genomics and AI in Rare Disease (AASGARD).
In Australia, at least one in 17 people suffer from genetic diseases such as muscular dystrophy. Half of patients currently cannot get a reliable diagnosis and cannot access crucial new precision medicines.
β(The AASGARD consortium) will develop and rigorously test new AI-driven analysis tools, apply them to help tens of thousands of Australian patients, and share the resulting frameworks and knowledge so that others can benefit from them too,β said Daniel MacArthur, Professor and Director of the Centre for Population Genomics.
The consortium consists of international partners, Microsoft Research, Genomics England and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.
National interuniversity network for the promotion of digital data for healthcare
A national network of universities has been established to promote the application of digital technology, computer science and data science in healthcare in the country.
The Australian Council of Senior Academic Leaders in Digital Health, made up of 36 universities, will βhelp accelerate the integration of digital health research into practice,β said Annette Schmiede, CEO of the Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre (DHCRC). The council will be led by Clair Sullivan, professor and director of the Queensland Digital Health Research Centre at the University of Queensland.
According to DHCRC, the council will focus on providing strategic leadership in digital health, strengthening digital health education and scientific research, advocating for investment in digital health education and research, and helping to scale the impact of higher education institutions.
Solutions are also being explored for problems surrounding the introduction and application of digital technology in healthcare and the training of current and future employees.
eHealth NSW expands CDNP to rural Sydney
A platform to improve communications between hospitals and ambulances in Sydney will be expanded to rural and remote areas of the city in the second half of the year.
The Clinical Device Notification Platform (CDNP) aims to improve communications for 70 ambulance stations and 12 hospitals in the state capital, enabling paramedics and clinicians to provide timely diagnoses and expert advice. It is being delivered by eHealth NSW, in partnership with NSW Ambulance, NSW local health districts and the Agency for Clinical Innovation.
In April, new communication capabilities were added to the CDNP, including in-app voice calling, messaging, and image sharing, streamlining handoffs and facilitating information sharing between paramedics, emergency physicians, and cardiologists.