Where to for digital health? The Australian Council of Senior Academic Leaders in Digital Health action plan

Leanna Woods; Melanie Haines; Salma Arabi; James Boyd; Kerryn Butler-Henderson; Kathleen Gray; Russell L. Gruen; Stephen Guinea; Christine Bennett; Clair Sullivan

doi:10.1071/AH25039

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

Previous Next Contents Vol 49(3)

Where to for digital health? The Australian Council of Senior Academic Leaders in Digital Health action plan

Leanna Woods

^A , Melanie Haines ^B , Salma Arabi ^C , James Boyd ^D , Kerryn Butler-Henderson ^C , Kathleen Gray ^E , Russell L. Gruen ^F , Stephen Guinea

^G , Christine Bennett ^H and Clair Sullivan ^A ^B ^*

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Queensland Digital Health Centre, Centre for Health Services Research, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences, The University of Queensland, Level 5, Health Sciences Building, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital Campus, Herston, Brisbane, Qld 4029, Australia.

^B Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

^C School of Nursing, Paramedicine, and Healthcare Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia.

^D Department of Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Vic, Australia.

^E Centre for Digital Transformation of Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Vic, Australia.

^F School of Medicine and Psychology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.

^G Faculty of Health Sciences, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Vic, Australia.

^H National School of Medicine, The University of Notre Dame Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

^* Correspondence to: c.sullivan1@uq.edu.au

Australian Health Review 49, AH25039 https://doi.org/10.1071/AH25039

Submitted: 19 February 2025 Accepted: 10 April 2025 Published: 6 May 2025

© 2025 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of AHHA. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

Australia’s healthcare system faces major challenges related to sustainability, access and equity. Safe, effective care and growing demands require evidence-based innovation and a future-ready health workforce. Digital health – the use of data and digital technology in health and health care – is yet to fully realise its promise. The Australian Council of Senior Academic Leaders in Digital Health (the ‘Council’) has been established to promote, foster and support academic collaboration that helps address Australia’s key challenges and contribute to national and global health. This perspective provides an action plan in a crowded digital health landscape to improve the highlighted issues of effective innovation and a capable workforce. The Council has two key actions: (1) support research and innovation that advances digital health principles and practices by advocating for digital health research and development funding, strategic partnerships, communication, standard setting and adoption of research-informed digital health; and (2) enable system transformation through evidence-based education and training to produce future-fit healthcare workers by advancing health workforce education that embeds digital health capability standards and ongoing learning. True and transformative progress and continuous improvement in digital health require peer-reviewed evidence, as does any other area of health care. We need to acknowledge that our current workforce capabilities are no longer fit for purpose. Our workforce needs to be progressively ‘retooled’ to face the future of health care in a technological and data science revolution and in a sector that is slow to adapt to change. Implementing these actions will advance digital health research and education to positively impact Australia’s healthcare system.

Keywords: academia, digital health, education, health informatics, health personnel, health workforce, innovation, research, training programs.

References

1 Baxby L, Bennett S, Watson P, et al. Australia’s health reimagined: the journey to a connected and confident consumer. 2022. Available at https://digitalhealthcrc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Australias-health-reimagined_Report_WEB_FINAL.pdf [accessed January 2025].

2 Yao R, Zhang W, Evans R, et al. Inequities in health care services caused by the adoption of digital health technologies: scoping review. J Med Internet Res 2022; 24(3): e34144.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |

3 Thomas J, McCosker A, Parkinson S, et al. Measuring Australia’s Digital Divide. Australian Digital Inclusion Index 2023. Melbourne: ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, RMIT University, Swinburne University of Technology and Telstra; 2023. 10.25916/528s-ny91. Available at https://www.digitalinclusionindex.org.au/dashboard/Total.aspx

4 Australian Digital Health Agency. National Digital Health Strategy 2023-2028. Sydney: Australian Digital Health Agency; 2023. Available at https://www.digitalhealth.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/national-digital-health-strategy-2023-2028.pdf [accessed January 2025].

5 Australian Digital Health Agency. National Digital Health Strategy 2023-2028: Delivery Roadmap. Sydney: Australian Digital Health Agency; 2023. Available at https://www.digitalhealth.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/national-digital-health-strategy-roadmap-2023-2028.pdf [accessed January 2025].

6 Australian Digital Health Agency. National digital health workforce and education roadmap. Australia: Australian Digital Health Agency; 2020. Available at https://www.digitalhealth.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-11/Workforce_and_Education-Roadmap.pdf [accessed January 2025].

7 Australian Digital Health Agency. The National Digital Health Capability Action Plan. Australia: Australian Government; 2022. Available at https://www.digitalhealth.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/national-digital-health-capability-action-plan.pdf [accessed January 2025].

8 Department of Health and Aged Care. Action Plan for the Digital Health Blueprint 2023-2033. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia; 2023. Available at https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-12/the_action_plan_for_the_digital_health_blueprint_2023-2033.pdf [accessed January 2025].

9 Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care. Digital Health Blueprint 2023–2033. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia; 2023. Available at https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/2024-01/the-digital-health-blueprint-and-action-plan-2023-2033_0.pdf [accessed January 2025].

10 Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre. Annual Report FY2022/23. Available at https://digitalhealthcrc.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/DHCRC_Annual-Report_2022-2023.pdf [accessed January 2025].

11 Li C, Parpia C, Sriharan A, et al. Electronic medical record-related burnout in healthcare providers: a scoping review of outcomes and interventions. BMJ Open 2022; 12(8): e060865.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |

12 Australian Digital Health Agency. National digital health survey. Canberra: Australian Digital Health Agency; 2021.

13 Hasman A, Sosa M. Education and training of health informatics in Europe. Technol Health Care 1994; 2(1): 61-70.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |

14 Nundy S, Cooper LA, Mate KS. The quintuple aim for health care improvement: A new imperative to advance health equity. JAMA 2022; 327(6): 521-522.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |

15 Woods L, Eden R, Canfell OJ, et al. Show me the money: how do we justify spending health care dollars on digital health? Med J Aust 2023; 218(2): 53-57.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |

16 Nguyen K-H, Comans T, Nguyen TT, et al. Cashing in: cost-benefit analysis framework for digital hospitals. BMC Health Serv Res 2024; 24(1): 694.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

17 Badr N. Technology for Quintuple Aim: Evidence of Technology Innovations in Reaching the Aim of Health Equity. ITAIS 2022 Proceedings. 2022. Available at https://aisel.aisnet.org/itais2022/22

18 Car J, Ong QC, Fox TE, et al. The digital health competencies in medical education framework: an international consensus statement based on a Delphi study. JAMA Netw Open 2025; 8(1): e2453131.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

19 Rony MKK, Parvin MR, Ferdousi S. Advancing nursing practice with artificial intelligence: Enhancing preparedness for the future. Nurs Open 2024; 11(1): e2070.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |

20 Liu C, Shao S, Liu C, Bennett GG, Prvu Bettger J, Yan LL. Academia–industry digital health collaborations: A cross-cultural analysis of barriers and facilitators. Digit Health 2019; 5: 2055207619878627.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |

21 Burton-Jones A, Akhlaghpour S, Ayre S, Barde P, Staib A, Sullivan C. Changing the conversation on evaluating digital transformation in healthcare: Insights from an institutional analysis. Inf Organ 2020; 30(1): 100255.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |