It’s been one year since eHealth NSW, HealthShare NSW, Health Infrastructure and NSW Health Pathology partnered to create a facility to test ideas before they can be turned into real-world healthcare solutions.
Celebrating its first anniversary in August 2023, the Health Prototyping Centre (HPC), is a warehouse style facility in Macquarie Park where clinicians, health system experts and consumers can collaborate to trial new innovations. The HPC allows these innovations to be prototyped in simulated hospital settings to learn if the concept works or not. Health prototypes can be something as simple as a data sheet to capture information, or an elaborate new hospital laboratory.
"In our first 12 months of activity at the HPC, we have completed 25 projects including rapid prototyping, evaluations and workshops across our 4 NSW Health Partners," Centre Manager Frankie Lam from eHealth NSW said.
Bringing ideas to life
The 25 projects have been evaluated at the HPC to test new ideas that support the improvement of healthcare across NSW Health. This includes the trialing of a new chatbot for drug and alcohol services, the testing of new workflows for the delivery of meals to COVID-19 wards, and the redesign of a pathology laboratory using cardboard prototyping.
"We have already seen the benefits that rapid prototyping and detailed product evaluations can have in the health system with the early development of ideas and reduction of effort spent on ideas that, when tested, do not provide the benefits to users that were expected," HPC Design Lead Gordon Burnett said.
All ideas that come through the HPC are supported by one of the partners; eHealth NSW, HealthShare NSW, Health Infrastructure or NSW Health Pathology.
NSW Health Pathology Service Designer Dr Alex Garrett said the HPC provided the perfect space to test emerging technologies, like an augmented reality headset, to examine current challenges for service delivery and pain points for staff working in Anatomical Pathology.
“The HPC and new technology also allowed us to consider the new possibilities that could be created for future service designs.”
What is Anatomical Pathology?
Anatomical Pathology (AP) examines tissue and cells from people to diagnose a variety of diseases, including cancer. It is a highly specialised field and often regional areas don’t have enough skilled anatomical pathologists to serve the local population needs.
NSW Health Pathology wanted to explore virtual or augmented reality (AR) technology to fill this gap by enabling telepathology, i.e., practicing pathology from a distance. This new technique would enable anatomical pathologists to dial into a lab regardless of their geographical location to provide expert guidance to lab staff for diagnosis and testing.
The HPC was used to evaluate one such AR tool to support the delivery of AP diagnostic services. The objective was to allow clinical and lab staff to experience the technology first-hand, across a range of use cases. The space allowed clinicians and lab staff hands-on experience with emerging virtual and AR technology. It also allowed them to test technology and network limitations, such as low internet bandwidth, which may be a real constraint in a regional lab location.
For more information on the Health Prototyping Centre, please contact the HPC team.
