Smart devices and innovations make it easier for children and adults to enjoy a better quality of life. We’ve already seen significant improvement to patients’ lives through the use of sensor technologies, smart homes, integrated health records and digital systems. This includes point-of-care devices, extended reality (XR) for rehabilitation, robots and exoskeletons.
And this is just the start.
However, there are various barriers to ensuring new technologies are embraced and used in the health system. Low investment and user involvement, complex regulations, operational silos, lack of the right expertise, and limited clinical engagement are just a few issues.
Through the work of this CAG, we will make smart technology available to those who need it most when they need it.
We will ensure there is greater understanding of and engagement with new technologies, increased funding to support innovative design, and affordable access to new devices. Access will prioritise marginalised and vulnerable populations, as well as those with chronic and mental health conditions.
Activity
Our CAG will focus on the following themes:
- Identify barriers to technology translation. We will work with stakeholders to understand where technology translation is hindered in clinical settings.
- Develop convergent therapies for personalised medicine. We will design technologies that complement existing therapies and bring personalised medicine to those with chronic and mental health conditions, as well as the ageing population. This may involve combining AI and medical devices and combine medical imaging with robotics to automate surgical procedures. We will look at how biologics can harness natural healing and develop smart environments, telerehabilitation, and smart drug delivery. Each of these therapies is designed to support an efficient, innovative world-class health system.
- Promoting care in the home and community. We will make it possible for people with mental health conditions, heart disease, diabetes, obesity and those recovering from strokes, to receive the same level of care at home as they’d receive in a clinical setting. We will promote the use of wearables, apps, telehealth, virtual reality, augmented reality, decision support, tailored data analytics and robotics to support this.
- Improving health literacy and communications. We will use technology to educate, guide and communicate health issues to clinicians, healthcare workers, patients, and families. We expect communication and understanding between these groups to be seamless.
- Workforce training and support. We will train and develop the next generation of tech innovators, to ensure new technology is translated into practice quickly and appropriately.
Team
Our growing team includes members from our 3 partner universities, the Lions Club, South Western Sydney Local Health District, the South West Institute for Robotics and Automation, and the Liverpool, St. George, Prince of Wales, and The Children's Hospital at Westmead.
We have a diverse team with backgrounds in biomedical, mechanical and manufacturing engineering, brain injury, rehabilitation, behaviour and disorders, psychiatry, emergency, surgical and clinical services, software development and tech.
We will partner with primary health networks, other advanced health research translation centres, tech startups and scaleup accelerators. Together, we will design innovative solutions that address Australia’s most challenging clinical issues.
*(Balas & Boren, 2000).
