It may be a brave government or a foolhardy one that commits to investing billions of scarce healthcare funds into digital technologies only a decade after having been seen to have squandered a similar amount, but that is exactly what the UK government did only a few weeks ago when it announced it would spend £4.2 billion ($A8 billion) to realise an ambitious vision of personalised healthcare in the National Health Service.

That vision, called Personalised Health and Care 2020, was heavily guided by Tim Kelsey, the new kid on the block at Telstra Health who has been lured to Australia from his role at the NHS just as the framework is embraced by the UK government.