Going digital

We are working with organisations across the globe to explore how the use of digital technology can improve healthcare delivery.

In Australia we jointly hosted the first International Digital Health Symposium to hear from international and domestic experts and discuss global advancement of digital health policy, digital health support for clinical quality and safety, as well as challenges in healthcare interoperability and management of global public health priorities. We supported the Indian government in the hosting of second symposium in 2019.

Researchers are looking into technology to help with healthcare delivery, such as through digital health, mobile phones or simple text messaging. A text can remind people to take the right dose of medication at the right time. 

Another example is our SMARThealth program that began in Australia in 2013 with a trial of an electronic decision support tool for improving chronic care in Aboriginal Medical Services and general practices. The program has now grown to multiple locations in India, Indonesia and Thailand to provide screening and care for patients with hypertension, cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, mental health and recently diabetes care in China. 

Using the example of diabetes in pregnancy and focusing on a British South Asian sample, Professor Trish Greenhalgh of University of Oxford illustrates how narrative research can go beyond the dry and under-theorised assumptions of behaviourism and illustrate the complex socio-cultural webs in which ‘lifestyle choices’ are suspended.