What’s hindering digital health adoption in Australia?
A single pain point hindering Australian healthcare’s digital transformation progress is cybersecurity.
In recent years, Australia has made serious efforts to develop the digital capabilities of its healthcare system, including making multi-year investments and creating a national strategy, a blueprint and an action plan. It is working towards its vision of “trusted, timely and accessible use of digital and data to support a personalized and connected health and wellbeing experience for all Australians.”
“However, cyber security remains a major growing concern in digital health adoption,” emphasizes Hamish Steel, founder of the Digital Health Festival (DHF) in Australia.
“Over the past eighteen months we have seen significant breaches in key services from across the country, including the most recent case of non-profits. The health of Saint Vincent. It is a major concern that the top experts we are bringing to this event will help address.”
Meeting of the minds
Although relatively new, the DHF has become a sought-after annual event where stakeholders from across the industry, from healthcare executives and suppliers to influencers and decision makers, come together to connect and learn from each other in an effort to find solutions to meet the urgent challenges in healthcare. .
“DHF started as a pandemic side project while I was finishing law school,” says Steel. During that time, he began exploring the health technology space for potential investment projects. He was participating in virtual health events and noticed something that was being overlooked.
“COVID-19 outlined a huge need for innovation. If you look across the ecosystem, you see innovation in fragments. Every healthcare provider is faced with the challenge and opportunity of digital adoption.”
“It’s an exciting time to be working in healthcare; the opportunities for digital transformation are enormous,” he said.
Spotlight on AI, cybersecurity
Each year the DHF discusses current issues and seeks to bring participants together to discuss solutions in five key areas: data and analytics, virtual care, workforce productivity and training, innovation in aged care and primary and allied health care.
“At our core, we connect people with great ideas. We strive to create an unparalleled event experience that prioritizes innovation, connection, serendipity and learning. That’s why we’re focused on two things: encouraging serendipity and connection and creating insight .rich content,” Steel explains.
“This is not an event for academic jargon. We challenge our presenters to be incredibly practical, tackle the biggest topics and be controversial where possible.”
In addition to cybersecurity, which has become a recurring key topic of interest among attendees, the growing popularity of generative AI will also be highlighted at the third edition of the DHF from May 7 to 8 in Melbourne.
“The buzzword on everyone’s mind is generative AI. ChatGPT has democratized health information for patients. We are fortunate to get great advice from esteemed AI experts like Dr. Stefan Harrer from IBM. He raised ethical concerns about ChatGPT before I knew what it was – I’m glad we listened,” Steel said.
In addition, women’s health, and for the first time First Nations health care, will also be included in the discussions.
“As we continue to shine a spotlight on women’s health, we’re excited to welcome Clue’s founder Ida Tin, who coined the term ‘femtech’. I’m also very proud that this year we’re bringing digital health content to First Nations people added. I would like to promote all innovations that can in some way bridge social inequalities.”
DHF 2024 aims to double the previous edition, aiming to gather more than 6,000 senior executives from Australia, New Zealand and beyond.
“DHF has become a very practical, business-oriented format. People don’t just come to attend the conference; they know it’s that one time of year when all their customers, partners and friends come together.”
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Use the code HITNEWS for $150 off your tickets to the Digital Health Festival taking place May 7-8 in Melbourne, Australia. Visit the DHF 2024 website here.