eHealth NSW has successfully brought together the best that NSW Health has to offer in the fields of technology, digital innovation and improved patient care as part of the 2022 Digital Health Summit, delivered in partnership with the Australasian Institute of Digital Health.
Organised by eHealth NSW, working together with representatives from Local Health Districts (LHDs), Specialty Health Networks (SHNs) and other NSW Health organisations, the Summit provided an opportunity to showcase digital programs and initiatives, through a series of presentations, and an exhibition.
More than 1000 clinicians, technologists and digital health enthusiasts attended the two-day event in Sydney, offering an opportunity to network with peers and reflect on the advances in digital health over the last few years.
Embracing technology to improve patient care
The Summit provided an opportunity to focus on the research and innovation priorities within NSW Health’s Future Health Strategic Framework, and the digital advancement of our services. Under the guidance of an advisory committee, a total of 21 NSW Health organisations were involved in the event.
Industry partnerships too were a highlight, including those eHealth NSW has with the Australian Independent Schools Association, Sydney University and Loreto Normanhurst as well as our many suppliers. In addition, NSW Health hosted 25 dedicated exhibition spaces from across the state, focused on four key themes:
- Utilising technology to facilitate care across settings
- Building a digitally enabled future workforce
- Supporting better patient and staff outcomes and experiences by using technology
- Harnessing innovation, research and technology to inform service delivery
A dedicated NSW Health track room featured 18 presentations as well as two interactive panel discussions with 10 experts from across the sector. Among the highlights for the 477 delegates who attended our sessions were presentations from:
- Clinton Gibbs from MNCLHD presenting on A Partnership Approach to Reduce Virtual Care Barriers for People in a Remote Aboriginal Community
- Cristen Fleming from WNSWLHD speaking to Virtual Clinical Pharmacist Services: An easy pill to swallow for medication safety in the bush
- Nathan Moore from WSLHD taking attendees through Designing Virtual Reality applications for clinical education: One LHDs journey down the VR rabbit hole
- Natasha Beach from eHealth NSW and Dr Elisabeth Murphy from NSLHD discussing the Brighter Beginning programs Digital Baby Book
- Farhoud Salimi from eHealth NSW talking about the NSW Health Cloud Modernisation Journey.
Exhibitions provide insight into future health
The exhibition space included WSLHD showcasing Virtual Reality Applications for Clinical Education, NSW Pathology displaying its Point of Care Testing, eHealth NSW’s new Med Sync application, NSW Health’s new Health Prototyping Centre and Zara’s Journey from the Ministry of Health’s Patient Experience team.
SLHD ran demonstrations with eHealth NSW on the Engage Outpatients initiative, while FWLHD ran a live cross to the ICU, demonstrating the Virtual ICU in action.
Minister and Secretary help showcase digital health
The Hon. Brad Hazzard MP, NSW Minister for Health, opened the event with his reflections on the significance of advancing digital health across NSW Health and then took time to chat to our teams on the exhibition floor.
Secretary of NSW Health, Susan Pearce gave an excellent keynote on day two, centred on the importance of human experience and compassionate care in everything we do in our amazing health system.
"The Digital Health Summit provided a fantastic opportunity for me and my program (MedSync) to promote the things that we are doing in the health system,” Jason Matthews from eHealth NSW said.
“There are a number of different benefits including raising the awareness of what we're doing, the opportunity to promote the programs and the tools that we are deploying, but also getting that real time feedback when we demonstrate the solutions in a casual environment, away from the workplace.”
2022 Digital Health Summit
Congratulations to everyone involved in delivering such a successful system-wide event.
