Australia’s health system is rightly celebrated for its world-class outcomes, but beneath the surface, it is straining under the weight of rising costs, workforce burnout and shortages, and growing demand.
At the same time, the health system is being asked to deliver better and more equitable health outcomes and experiences for everyone involved; patients, clinicians, carers, the broader community and administrators.
As the demands on our system mount, it is increasingly clear that we cannot hope to achieve these objectives with the tools and approaches of the past. Technology is not a luxury or an optional extra, but rather, as Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organisation said, “the future of health is digital”.
The evolution of healthcare goals over recent years reflects a deeper understanding of what it will take to create a system that is not just efficient, but also equitable and sustainable. Where once the focus was on balancing health outcomes, patient satisfaction, and cost, it is now widely recognised that a thriving workforce and fair access for all are equally essential. These aspirations have become the benchmark for health system reform, and achieving them demands digital transformation at its core.
Slow to digitise
For all the sophistication of our clinical care, healthcare in Australia has been notoriously slow to digitise its operations. Paper-based records, faxed referrals, and manual phone calls remain commonplace. The opt-out approach for My Health Record has been a success with 24 million records covering 99% of the population, but only in 2023 was legislation passed mandating health data to be uploaded, starting with pathology and diagnostic imaging. which will improve the accessibility and utility of the platform.
This hesitancy is not for lack of innovation, but rather a legacy of risk-averse processes designed to protect patient safety and a lack of agreed reimbursement models. However, the events of recent years have shown that this inertia is no longer tenable.
As Chris Blake, CEO of St Vincent’s Health Australia, has observed, “At some point we have to stare into that together as an industry and say, ‘you know what, there’s no new money coming in’. We have to change the system to use the money differently.” Technology is the lever that allows us to do just that, delivering more, and better, with the resources we have.
A watershed moment
The COVID-19 pandemic was a watershed moment for digital health in Australia. Almost overnight, telehealth and remote monitoring became not just convenient, but essential. This rapid shift proved that technology could simultaneously enhance patient access, reduce overheads, and safeguard public health, delivering on multiple priorities at once. But realistically, this change wasn’t so much about embedding cutting-edge technology, rather this was a change in policy and payment settings (and a global pandemic) driving a shift to a well-established technology modality.
Thus, today there remains a disconnect between the capability of the available technologies, patient and clinician enthusiasm and the appetite of policy makers and governing entities to fully embrace a software enabled and empowered health system.
While digital solutions are playing a role in everything from appointment scheduling and e-prescriptions to clinical decision support and AI-assisted note-taking, there remains an all-pervading fear of the unknown and a focus on investigating all the possible risks in deploying a new technology, with less focus on the risks in NOT deploying evidence-based technology into healthcare settings.
As recently as this March the South Australian Government implemented a ban on the use of AI scribes in public healthcare settings due to concerns around governance and privacy . At the same time the Australian Medical Association says that one in every four or five Australian doctors use AI scribes, particularly to remove administration burden.
Safe and responsible use
Professor Shelley Dolan, Chief Executive Officer of the Royal Melbourne Hospital, recently commented, “What I know about our clinicians is that they are incredibly bright and incredibly driven. They always find innovative ways to deliver the care and productivity that is required.”
That is not to say use of unregulated or unapproved technologies should be carte blanche, but rather reinforces the need for modernised policy and governance to encourage safe and responsible use.
These tools are not merely about efficiency; they are about enabling clinicians to focus on care, empowering patients to take charge of their health, and generating the data needed to address inequities and improve outcomes.
As Catherine de Fontenay noted in the Productivity Commission’s report Leveraging Digital Technology in Healthcare, “Australia’s health system delivers some of the best outcomes of any in the world – but the cost of this care and wait times to access it are growing. Making better use of digital technology in healthcare could help address these problems while maintaining or even improving outcomes.”
The pleasing news is that Australia is poised to lead its own transformation. According to ANDHealth’s recent report, “The Rising Giant: Creating a New Economic and Health Future for Australia,” our digital and connected health sector has experienced extraordinary growth, with more than 1,000 companies now active and a compound annual growth rate of 52 per cent since 2019.
This is not simply a story of more companies, but of a sector maturing rapidly: the proportion of mid-to-late stage companies (those at proof of concept or later) has risen from 27 per cent in 2020 to 45 per cent today, signalling a vibrant ecosystem ready for investment and impact.
Momentum continues
This growth is no accident. It reflects the convergence of world-class research, entrepreneurial talent, and a health system that has demonstrated an ability to adapt when the stakes are high. The pandemic accelerated adoption, but the momentum has continued, fuelled by both necessity and opportunity. As a result, Australia is not just keeping pace with global trends; it is poised to set them.
But just as there is often a risk averse approach to adopting technology, the same cautious policy framework results in a difficult environment for smaller Australian companies seeking to place technologies, products and services into local health systems.
Procurement policies which are designed to prioritise locally owned and developed technology or innovations ahead of international competitors would be game changing for Australia’s digital and connected health sector.
The challenge
The challenge before us is not whether to embrace technology in heath and care, but how to do so in a way that embeds it into the frontlines of care, rather than running technology as a parallel project analogous to the in-house server racks and CD-ROM based software of old.
The second challenge is to make a conscious choice to consume our own world class innovation, putting aside the “nobody gets fired for hiring IBM” mentality and backing our home-grown, world class innovators.
Both of these require investment, policy support, defined reimbursement pathways and a willingness to reimagine how care is sourced, delivered and measured.
As “The Rising Giant” report makes clear, the sector is ready. What is needed now is a coordinated effort to procure our innovative, evidence-based technologies at scale, integrate them into mainstream care, and ensure that future generations of Australians benefit from the best health and care possible.
