The Future of Healthcare: AI, Prevention and the Rise of Consumer-Driven Care

FULL TRANSCRIPT

This transcript is based on the episode’s English auto-captions and has been formatted for readability. Please allow for occasional transcription errors in names, acronyms and specialised terms.

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Globally, uh it's fairly well known and acknowledged that, you know, we we have a shortage of clinicians on the ground. Mental health is a massive, you know, um uh challenge in our society um and something that in the past we've probably just, you know, brushed aside, um but there is quite a focus on the on that now as well and there has not been a lot of investment in that sort of technology-enabled experience because the focus is always on spending money on the things that matter um from a clinical delivery perspective. Generally, um what we will find is progress in AI that is making clinical decisions is a lot slower pace than the progress in AI that is doing things which are more administrative in nature.

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In in the Australian um health sector, we've not had our own Australianized standards for data exchange, data you know, formatting specifically um up until um recently. >> But where it is uh clinically appropriate, um care in the home tends to be uh cheaper to deliver. It tends to be safer to deliver in terms of, you know, uh complications, hospital-acquired complications in particular, um and it tends to be a better >> Hello and welcome to the Enterprise Tech Talk podcast. I'm your host, Saumitra Kalikar. Healthcare um is one of those complex and important sectors which is being reshaped by technology today.

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Globally, health health systems are facing many challenges due to aging populations, workforce shortages, affordability pressures, and so on. But at the same time, new technologies are advancing which are creating new opportunities which were not even dreamt of a decade back. New models of care are emerging such as virtual care, remote patient monitoring, which are reshaping how healthcare is delivered and experienced. Today, we are going to unpack these shifts both at global level as well as Australian level. And to join the discussion, I am I have with me today Matt Young. Matt is deeply passionate about improving health system within Australia. He's currently the lead enterprise architect at Medibank. Matt, welcome to the podcast. Great to have you here. >> Thanks Sumitra, and great to be here as well. >> Many listeners would know Matt and I have worked together in the past in in Medibank. It was a great time, Matt.

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How are you doing these days? >> Yeah, I'm doing very well, thank you. We we do miss not having you around, but great to see the podcast doing really well. >> Thank you. Maybe for the benefit of our listeners, Matt, tell us something a little bit about your professional background, how you got into healthcare, and what keeps you motivated being in this domain. >> Yeah, so I I started as a digital engineer back in back in the day, over 20 years ago now. And um that was with a a company called Eclipse Group, who were at the time partially owned and then fully acquired by Deloitte and became Deloitte Digital. Um so I kind of fell into uh the the Deloitte uh world and into the consulting world. Um even though I was an engineer as such and very quickly um sort of uh moved through as a lot of people do, you know, sort of the the engineering um disciplines and and competencies where you you do sort of more of your uh lead engineer and solution architecture, those sorts of things and ended up leading our .NET engineering um there and then was looking for the next challenge, moved into more of a consulting role in technology strategy and architecture.

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I worked across a number of different uh sectors, including uh defense and education and health. And when I did after doing my first uh job in health, I went, "Yeah, this is what I want to do." Finally it had clicked. Um and so I've now been working in health for close to 15 years um in the health sector. So quite a long time now. >> Uh let's start with um a more broader context, Matt. Um when you look globally, um there are some common challenges which I think most of the global health systems are are um struggling with, right? So can we start with that? What what are the key and common challenges health systems are facing today? And and then maybe we'll follow up for how organizations are organizations are actually responding to uh to those challenges. >> Yeah, look, globally uh it's fairly well known and acknowledged that, you know, we we have a shortage of clinicians on the ground.

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Um and so with population growth, um and in particular in Australia, an aging population, so that um cohort, you know, above 60, um you know, our our boomer parents, uh etc. Um so uh they, you know, there is a large population, you know, sort of uh in that age group, which is putting stress on our clinical workforce uh in terms of being able just to deliver the amount of care um that it that is required. Um care is also quite expensive, can be quite expensive to deliver as well when you're talking about acute care, um you know, building hospitals often um you know, there's a lot of medical equipment um that goes on as well. And so the cost um also to serve uh in terms of health care is you know, quite uh substantial. Uh and you'll see that in Australia in terms of the expanding health budgets um and even things like um often we will see the cost of things like private health insurance going up above inflation rate um due to those cost pressures in the system as a whole.

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Um so yeah, they're they're a couple of um you know, big things that we see all over the world um as well as, you know, particularly here in Australia. >> Yeah. And and particularly in Australia, what are the key policy changes government considering or have been considering in recent past to to actually address these pressures? >> Yeah, there's there's a number of things um that uh both state and federal governments have been enacting. So for those who don't know in Australia, we um have our federal government looking after primary care. Um which is your local doctors, your GPs, um those sorts of things. And then you have your state governments looking after hospital-based care. And they kind of do that um in in conjunction. And so there've been a number of recent um things that the government have been doing um to assist in reducing pressure across the system as a whole, which was really actually really great to see.

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Um so some of the some of the things that they've been doing, for example, is that they have been um providing more funding for more acute care in the home. Uh so under the recent support at home um uh which is our aged care in the home um policy, uh they've actually increased funding for the clinical support in the home. So in particular around nursing and allied health care in the home. Um and uh the more of the I guess um non-clinical daily living support services, there's a bit more of a co-payment involved in that. Um so they are putting more funding towards the clinical side of things to keep people uh in the homes for longer. So that you don't have to build as many residential aged care homes and and hospitals. Which is really great to see.

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Um another recent one which I came across was that uh the government is also um investing $140 million into grants around preventative uh health, which is another one that's really great to see. Um and so we all know that prevention is better than cure. But prevention is also really hard to do. Um and you've really got to do it in conjunction with sort of, you know, primary care, which is the GP. That is the hub of, sort of, our our care system. And so, there are a number of initiatives around preventative care that are that are in train and a number that the government's, you know, seeking ideas for, in terms of grants around that, which is really great to see as well. >> Good. I wanted to actually unpack the preventative care a bit more with you anyway, so that's a good detour. >> Good segue.

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>> Good segue. And because, as as you probably mentioned, there is a shift is happening, not necessarily in Australia, but I would say probably across the globe, there's a wider acknowledgement that the healthcare system needs to move or shift from ill treating illness to actually preventing the illness, right, in the first place, and live and focusing on how people can live healthy in the first place for for a long time. So, and you and what you mentioned is definitely encouraging that Australian government is actually funding this particular thing. But how organizations, the hospitals or the healthcare systems itself, is actually getting ready in Australia? What kind of programs, services are emerging to to make that shift, to actually focus disproportionately on on treating wellness and prevention programs as a complement to treating illness?

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>> Yeah, look at it's a really, interesting one. So, there's there's a few different approaches from a, you know, sort of a prevention perspective. One is modifiable risk factors, in particularly in chronic disease. So, managing things like obesity, you know, weight management, etc. Um, that is a you know, massive risk factor. Smoking is a massive risk factor. Drinking is a massive risk factor if it's done excessively. Um, and so you know, um, giving people the option of being able to access services and particular particularly free services in in that space is is really vital. Um, then you've got like early intervention type programs. So, the government has invested quite heavily in the Medicare mental health um, access lines and local Medicare mental health centers. Mental health is a massive, you um, uh, challenge in our society. Um, is something that in the past we've probably just you know, brushed aside, but there is quite a focus on on that hours well and so, you know, there there are there are definitely things happening in that space from a I guess a more sort of systematic government perspective.

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Um, I work for Amity Health which is part of the Medibank Group which is Medibank is a health insurer. Um, and obviously health insurers also want to keep their members healthy as well. Uh, and so there are a range of programs that Medibank run and I know other insurers run as well. Uh, private health insurers run. Uh, which is specifically targeted at their member cohort as well. Um, and that's both around, you know, helping them identify where they might be um, you know, potential uh, risk factors which can be modified um, through, you know, various, uh, easy to access health checks and those sorts of things. Um, and also then, you know, programs to help, um, behavior modification as well. Uh, and I again, there's, you know, mental health behavioral, uh, modification programs which are, you know, quite, um, you know, well advanced, particularly in, um, sort of the uh, mental health space and some of the behavioral change in the mental health Um, there's some really great, um, organizations out there doing, uh, some good work in in in that space in particular.

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Probably one of one of the ones which I would call out state government-wise, um, you know, I I live in New South Wales, um, and the New South Wales government has a program called Get Healthy, um, which is free and available, um, to all people where they can uh, ring up or jump on their website and and access a whole range of information and programs if if you're deemed at risk as well. Um, so yeah, it is definitely starting to happen. Um, you know, we would always, uh, recommend also, you know, regular check-ins with with your GP as well. Um, you know, they they are certainly the, you know, we encourage people to have them at the center of their care. >> Yeah. And and what role does technology play or is playing now in in in this, uh, health and well-being and early prevention phases of of >> Yeah, look, there are there are a lot a lot of digital tools, um, in terms of that. So, um, things like, uh, health checks, digital online health checks, um, a bunch of those are now moving towards more, you know, agentic chat, um, type um, flows. so that it it's not necessarily such a structured you know form that you might fill out but more of a you know sort of a asynchronous chat based uh >> Yeah. >> Um and that is that is a relatively common thread that we're seeing across a lot of the digital tools. Um is the ability to do both asynchronous and synchronous uh web based you know chats.

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>> Mhm. >> Um yeah having nudges coming through to remind people to do um certain you know lifestyle activities or education. You know that's that's not particularly you know world breaking in terms of the pure technology play but um it all adds up in terms of the way that you're you're interacting um on a more regular basis than what a physical physical clinician could do right? >> Yeah. >> Um and that's really the intent here is to give people little nudges along the way and to help people along the way and not to replace the clinician. Um but to basically uh fill in the the white space between when you might be talking to a clinician one one time and then next time you are might be able to access that. Um and help the clinician to operate at what we we term the top of their scope right? So they're not doing a lot of admin tasks.

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Um they're focused on the clinical care as opposed to admin tasks. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> And I I want to unpack definitely the role AI is playing in the health care. >> Oh yes. >> But before before we go there >> Absolutely we can go there. >> Yeah. Uh but just uh before we go there uh so what's the in the in the technology space what's the role the the variables is uh is playing now? Um are those being well embedded integrated in the health health workflow now? >> Yeah look that is probably a couple of different classifications of of wearables. Um so, you've got your more sort of, you know, general um you know, consumer grade, I would call it. Um even though they are a lot of them are now getting towards medical grade. Um devices like your Apple watches, um your Garmin, Fitbits, etc. Um all those sorts of things. Like Garmin watches and Fitbits and all those sorts of things. Um so, they do provide a lot of information. Um I'm Personally, I'm an Apple uh watch user.

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Um and the amount of information you can do like ECGs, single lead ECGs on there, and all sorts of um you know, uh oxygen saturation, pulse, temperature, like there's all sorts of things that you can do um with those devices and have it just running in the background. Um which is which is quite amazing. Um It also obviously gives you you more generic activity-based uh steps, those sorts of things. So, so we we are seeing um more of that. Then there is definitely a lot of advancement in more of your um I guess medical grade wearables as well. So, uh things that might for example, track, you know, um blood pressure, you know, there's uh plenty of wearables around and um blood glucose monitoring, um continuous blood glucose monitoring from a diabetic perspective as well.

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Um so, we are seeing a lot more of that. Um I don't think we've quite seen the explosion of wearables embedded into clothing and and those sorts of things yet. Um but it is coming. >> Uh one thing I wanted to unpack with you was around uh the consumerization of health care. Uh and what I mean by that is uh more and more customers uh are are are expecting the same experience as they get from let's say from the banking, retail, travel kind of um sectors. Uh they've they are expecting are looking for similar experience in health care. Right? Um which is much more digital focused, etc. right? Um how organizations health care organizations are um getting ready to deliver those experiences and what kind of particularly when there is so much of complexity when it comes to clinical operations, regulations, etc.

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>> Yeah. Yeah, it is it is a real balance between the privacy and security >> Mhm. >> side of things and what what you're allowed to do in that space, um which obviously also then goes into the IR space as well, right? Um and the customer experience. Um but there is a lot that can be done in the customer experience which hasn't been done from a from a health system perspective. And um you know, we you know, we expect to be able to do things like, you know, book online, see all your data online, etc. And that's starting starting to occur uh in terms of that. So, certainly there've been quite a few um advancements in in the my health record space and in in what people are actually sharing. Obviously, that's opt-in. You don't have to have your data in there, but you can choose to.

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Uh sorry, it's opt-out, but you're you can opt Um so, you can choose to not have your data in there. Um but yeah, certainly the it is it is moving towards a more digital-centric uh uh environment. Particularly, I would say particularly in the primary care >> Mhm. >> It is It is heading more towards there. Um I think historically there has not been a lot of investment in that sort of technology-enabled experience because the focus is always on spending money on the things that matter um from a clinical delivery >> Mhm. >> So, that's been the mindset in the past. I think now people are certainly uh thinking through, you know, how they might uh provide a better consumer experience overall. And there is certainly a a bunch of companies out there who are doing a lot in that space in the primary care area as well.

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>> All right. Um listen more of a focus to AI and automation and intelligent health care system. Um Uh of course, um yeah, I mean, no sector is uh is untouched by AI now, right? But when it comes to health care, where where health uh organizations are seeing as potentially the low-hanging fruits where they can actually get benefited from AI before they jump jump ahead to address more complex workflows. >> Yeah. So, So, in in the health care sector, there um software that is involved in making clinical decisions uh is regulated by a Therapeutic Goods Administra- Administra- the TGA. >> Mhm. >> Um and so, generally, um what we will find is progress in AI that is making clinical decisions is a lot slower pace than the progress in AI that is doing things which are more administrative nature.

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That is quite fast-paced. Um, and so there is a lot of human in the loop in the in the AI in the clinical space because there needs to be that clinical review step. Um, and there is there is there is a lot going on in AI in health. Um, so I can probably give you a few examples. Some So Um, Heidi AI Heidi have been doing a power of work around they started off in doing what we call clinical scribing. So that's essentially listening into a conversation between a patient and a doctor and being able to automatically create a quite an accurate clinical note. Um, your progress note based on the conversation without the doctor needing to be sitting there typing etc.

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Also be used to create things like referral letters and those sorts of things. Um, so they they've they've been doing really well internationally and one of the AI assistants that they have just released is essentially an AI receptionist / admin staff for a a primary care business. Um, and it that has the ability to do things like um, have web and voice channels to be able to then manage all of the bookings back into practice management system. So that's creating bookings and then changing bookings and doing all that side of things. Answer basic non clinical questions that that someone might have, etc. With the intent to really free up the receptionist um, to be able to be in the clinic dealing with the people, um, doing things like um, the billing and those sorts of things that they do.

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Um, and so yeah, there is a a view of well, maybe I used to need like if I'm a really busy practice, I need two or three people on my front desk. Well, maybe now I only need one. Um, and so that's that's certainly that's an example of of somewhere where um, yeah, AI is being used. Um, the ability to do things like create care plans based on a whole bunch of documentation that you might get for an aged care uh, patient. Um, that's another use case that we've seen recently pop up. Uh, where a a a care plan is essentially created off the back of things like uh, the aged care assessment that was done, a bunch of other documentation you might have gathered about the person, uh, assessments you might have done around falls risk assessments and things like that. Um, and all of that all can automatically then be summarized into an overarching care plan.

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Um, then you know, be reviewed by the clinician. So they're not trawling through documents, writing reams of documentation to create this care plan. Uh, they can basically review it and add uh, subtract things as they need, but it that's a significant time saver uh, in in that space. So yeah, there are there are many use cases um, the broader sort of AI from an analytics perspective if you include things like your machine learning algorithms and those things. Um, you know, we're we're looking at things like roster and schedule optimization and those sorts of things using those types of tools, you know, uh best practitioner matching >> Mhm. >> a patient and a practitioner. Um so, yeah, there are there are many broad use cases that are not directly clinical. Um then there are some that are directly clinical. So, Harrison AI is a great example of a a clinical um system that basically can read radiology images um and then create a draft report that can be reviewed by a radiologist. Once again, saving a significant amount of time, potentially picking up things that may have been missed as well. Um and that's gone through extensive validation as part of their TGA approvals.

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Um so, yeah, there there certainly there's a broad uh spectrum of that. The low-hanging fruit is definitely more in sort of that um admin space. >> Yeah. >> The view say you know, keeping keeping that human touch, keeping human in the loop, particularly when it comes to anything uh remotely clinical. >> Yeah. So, and and apart from leveraging the the the AI solutions in the market, uh is there a appetite within health um organizations to build agentic systems um um internally uh which can actually automate their their their uh custom workflows, um clinical workflows or administrative workflows. >> Yeah, look, I think the way that we are So, yes yes and no. I think is the is the answer to that.

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The way The way that we are approaching that is leverage leaning on our vendor partners. A lot of them are building um AI capability into their platforms to allow us to do that. So, we're not having to stand up our own, you know, uh agentic AI, you know, capability ourselves in that space. I think there are, you know, uh we we are, you know, looking at some of our broader, you know, sort of uh enterprise um back office uh type tools as well and and what we can do with those to automate some of those other, you know, admin processes uh in the background as well. Um one of one of the, you know, uh one of the common use cases I've heard also is things like, you know, the ability to troll your clinical knowledge base, right? Um and summarize things out of your clinical knowledge base. Um so, that's another great example of where, you know, AI can save you a lot of time um by actually creating that summary with referenced links. Obviously, that's the important as a a a clinician, you want to, you know, trust where that data's come from um and be able to go directly to the source as well.

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Um and so, that's a another really great example where if we're working with um for example, some a dietitian who might, you know, um be looking for what's the best advice for uh creating a meal plan around this type of condition, uh we might have some some of that in our clinical knowledge base already um and you can kind of curate that information uh in an easy fashion for them. >> Yeah. Um I the other uh in challenge or or complexity I wanted to unpack with you um in healthcare space is around data interoperability. >> Oh, uh you hit my two buzzwords. I was I was I mean, to try. just thinking before this conversation. There There were two things out of the latest digital health festival which I attended not long ago. For anyone who's interested in health and technology, digital health festival in Melbourne in May each year is an absolute must go to.

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But yeah, my my reflections on on you know, sort of my time there this year and my conversations with the two big things were AI and interoperability. So you totally totally hit the nail on the head there. Yeah. And I want to want to unpack that because as you and I know interoperability has been one of those challenging areas within health care for a long time. And it and continues to be the case although there are some standards emerge Do you want to paint a picture as to why this has always been a such a big challenge? And how the what are the standards emerging? How organizations are now started to address this? Yeah. So So I think there's in in the Australian health sector, we've not had our own Australianized standards for data exchange, data you know, formatting specifically up until recently. There There've been pockets of it and so my pockets I mean things like you know, e-prescribing and secure message delivery and and some of um the um also the data going into my health record also was quite well defined in terms of the HL7 V3 specification around that.

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But generally across the health system the data data structure and formatting structure was controlled by a text-based message platform uh or protocol called HL7 V2. Um particularly relevant in the hospital sector. Um and fax was extensively used. I've heard that other exchange. Uh which which is slightly transferred now to email being used extensively for data exchange. Uh in some some parts of the health sector. Um and so back um in the mid-2010s a new um health data standard called Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources FHIR or fire um emerged um and that has been adopted to by Australia and the US and fairly well internationally as as the standard for um data formatting and exchange. Um it is based on um REST-based APIs with with JSON or XML payloads.

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Um and uh Australia recently um released its own uh implementation guide around that which includes uh extensions that are localized to Australia. Um now with the advent of that along with um a really good set of data standards around the actual data that goes into that format um which are things like yeah your medication standards uh your disease classification standards your um yeah observation uh classification standards all those sorts of things. So we've got a whole bunch of those standards that are once again, you know, uh specific to Australia and international but been tailored to Australia. Um so, we can now use those standards to ensure that the data within the fire format is also a standardized data set um as well. So, so we are getting a lot closer um to, I guess, that sort of dream state of, you know, ubiquitous uh data interoperability. It will take the sector a while to get there as a whole, uh but the Australian uh federal government through the Australian Digital Health Agency uh is leading the charge around that and also implementing the fire standard for My Health Record as well.

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>> Yeah. And And from consumer perspective or patient perspective, then what would good look like? What is the experience they would they would have? What What are the problems they faced today which will go away? >> Yeah, look at um yeah, a classic um problem that we might have today, for example, although it's just recently been resolved because all pathology results in that going up to My Health Record. Um but, for example, if you go to one GP, they may receive your pathology results. Uh if you then move and go to another GP, uh the results then go to that GP. If it wasn't uploaded to a central repository, you wouldn't have a history of your results unless you specifically went and asked the GP, "Please, can I have those results?" Or can we paper-based or whatever. Um and so, My Health Record certainly does um you know, allow that um continuity of care from a data perspective, should you choose to um have that there.

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Um and so, you can have you know, um all of your pathology results. You can have things like your prescribed medications in there from a medications perspective. You can have your immunization history in there. You can have advanced care directives as well. Particularly important in your sort of as we, you know, move towards an older generation and more palliative care going on, etc. Um, having access to advanced care directives readily available is super important. Um, so, all of those things as a consumer means that, um, my clinicians can, whoever my clinicians are, can also access that and are able to provide me with the most appropriate care, um, which is really what I as a consumer want. >> Yeah. Yeah. The topic I wanted to unpack with you, Matt, was about the emergence of new models of care.

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>> Um, yes. >> And over the last four five years there have been the these new care models which are emerged in the primary care, for example, it's the virtual care model. Or in the hospital care, it is about the hospital in the home, sitting, etc. >> There's a big Yeah, there's a big push around hospital in the home at the >> Yeah. >> Um, yeah. >> From me from to start with from virtual care perspective, um, what is the maybe at a high level if you can paint a picture of for our listeners to what does it mean virtual care? Um, and then what is the uh, the infrastructure or or technology investment that is typically required to build the virtual care experience for for patients? >> Yeah, so, so, virtual care basically means receiving care when I'm not caring person. But um and so through COVID in particular a lot of us would have experienced that. Um even the most uh basic sense of just getting on the phone and and talking to someone. Um so as an example there um uh the health direct uh you know, sort of nurse helpline um that you can ring 24/7 um is a great example of a virtual health service that has been around for a very long time. Um what we've seen with the um through COVID and and the emergence of you know, additional technologies um and acceptance of virtual care is is the expansion of that into different channels. Um so through by different channels I mean you've you we've moved from probably you know, being predominantly um phone-based and there is still quite a bit of phone-based care through to using video conferencing um as you know, uh a fairly good uh mechanism to use um as well as then uh messaging as well. Uh so there are some services that um support um asynchronous based care asynchronous message based care. Um now obviously sort of uh we need to be careful in that space and make sure it's appropriate uh in terms of that but certainly things like um if you're in the mental health space and it's uh um you know, you're in a behavioral change program then that is quite appropriate to receive you know, message based uh asynchronous care uh virtually.

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Um and so yeah, it it's about horses for courses obviously. Um In turn in terms of the tech stack that that supports that, um, typically you do have a, you know, typical, uh, practice management system sitting in the background still where that clinician's able to, um, manage that and then that, uh, links through to appointment booking, digital experiences often, um, depends on the model whether it's, uh, you know, um, you need to book an appointment or whether it's, uh, first in first out type, um, you know, jump online, get the next doctor, get the next, uh, mental health practitioner. Um, and so, uh, you will then often, uh, have there are there are various, uh, channel management, um, capabilities out there. If you're building your own, you might use something like, uh, uh, a Twilio or, uh, you know, Amazon, uh, Connect, AWS Connect, or, uh, Genesis Cloud or something like that from a channel management perspective to give you omni-channel management across phone, video, uh, live messaging, asynchronous messaging, etc.

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Um, and so, that's a obviously a key component, the digital experience component of that. So, >> Yeah. >> they will all Every service has a a web experience and whether that's, um, a mobile app experience or, uh, web app that is packaged up as a mobile app as well. Um, so, yeah, they're they're the key components and often in those services you'll also have some level of, um, you know, marketing type capability, yeah. Um, to do, you know, follow-ups and and, you know, nudges and and those sorts of things. Um, depending on the service, obviously, you you might have subscriptions and payment gateways and and those sorts of things in there as well. So that's the that's that's typically what you would see in that type of um stack and obviously those um you know, more of the contact center omni channel management side of things that has a bunch of you know, AI assistants um built into it as well. Um to a to a uh some of that and then you can also get specialist, you know, health uh related AI assistants like Heidi I that I'd mentioned previously as well.

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>> Yes. And in the secondary and tertiary uh care systems where what what kind of new models emerging? I briefly mentioned about hospital in the home but >> Care care in the home, yeah. Care in the home is is is a is a big one. Um so for those who follow the the health um sort of large health players, St. Vincent's um who's a large national health provider here in Australia um is is making a massive push into the uh delivering care in the home as part of their uh 2030 strategy that they've announced. Um similar with with Ampla Health and and Medibank, we we do a lot of care in the home because typically uh where where it's clinically appropriate. So we're not about to do surgery in the home or anything like that. Um but where it is uh clinically appropriate, um care in the home tends to be uh cheaper to deliver. It tends to be safer to deliver for in terms of, you know, uh complications, hospital acquired complications in particular.

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Um and it tends to be a better experience from the customer's perspective as perspective as well. >> And and it this it this pressure on the health system as well by not allocating beds unnecessarily. >> 100% though the beds that someone might have taken up can actually be used for those who are truly acute and need to be in a hospital setting. Yeah. >> Yeah. Okay. Um we at the start we discuss about the various policies Australian government is is undertaking to improve the health system. I wanted to supporting that conversation I wanted to understand uh what specific technology initiatives maybe at the state level at or at the federal level which are which have been initiated which are actually helping bring the health health care system more >> Yeah, look there there's there's a number of different things there.

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Um So I mentioned previously the work that's been done by the Australian Digital Health Agency. Um they are doing a lot. So they are they are really making strides. So they they were involved obviously in defining um those national fire implementation guides that I mentioned to um they have a community called Sparked um that uh get together and and they work with the sector as a whole in that Sparked community to help um actually shape what what that needs to look like. Um so that's really great. They're doing a bunch of work with the My Health Record obviously as well that I mentioned um to um So essentially they're tackling the interoperability side of things and they're tackling the how do we draw it together um side of things with the My Health Record. So um I think you know from a a federal perspective um that's really great to see. Um, once again, my local jurisdiction here in New South Wales, um, they've they've embarked on a very large uh journey to uh create a single digital patient record across the state of New South Wales.

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Um, which they are rolling out through to um all of the what we call local health districts uh here in New South Wales. Um, and so that is um covering off uh things like pathology, um, and all of the hospitals, um, and really pulling all that together at state level so that if I as a um a person residing New South Wales go to any public hospital in New South Wales, my records will be on file there. Um, so that's a really great initiative that um they're doing there as well. >> All right. Look, Matt, as we start wrapping up, um, I wanted to get your perspectives on how the the technology within health is going to look like, uh what trends key trends are emerging over the next 5 years or so. Um, right? Um, yes, we are uh technology has evolved fast in the last 2 3 years, but the the trends are definitely there. Many other things which which can which can be done. So, how do you see uh both from a global level as well as within Australia, key technology trends which would sha- which which will shape the the health care system?

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>> Yeah, look, I think um one one in the AI space in particular, which I didn't um mention previously that I think it's worth a mention now, is this the rise of um health specific um AI capability within the public um AI domain. Um so there are, you know, specific uh capabilities that I believe will only get better within, you know, chat GPT, within Claude, etc. Um and I think what we will see in there is the um the old Dr. Google that people used to go to to go, you know, tell I've got this, tell me tell me what it might be is going to get a lot more advanced, particularly if we can feed, for example, our my health record into something like that. Um I think we're going to get um a lot more informed consumers who might have more of an idea around what's actually going on with their health.

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Um and I think that's that's a really great thing. It's it's It can be dangerous if people start, you know, not referring to the trained clinicians and and just take that as gospel and do their own treatment based on that. Um I would not recommend that, but in terms of being more informed around, you know, what might be going on with your health, I think that's a really great um you know, sort of area that will probably continue to expand in the next 5 years in particular. Um the wearable technology side of things, once again, I expect that will continue to emerge and grow. Um not directly related to wearables, but one of the things we've been um looking at is also around the utilization of things like um your uh camera phone to be able to take images of, you know, video of your of your face and then be able to do all your biometrics based on that. Um and the the types of things it can um you know, actually infer from just you know, uh 30 seconds of video is quite amazing. Um >> Mhm. >> So, I think what we'll get to is we'll start to get more and more data. People will be more interested in you know, what's going on in my health. I think that will probably collide with um an arm of medicine called precision medicine, where we all have So, precision medicine is around the genomic side of things.

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Um so, we are seeing more people doing genomic testing. Um and I think what you'll find is we will get more and more information around what's actually going on um from a you know, very personal perspective with my health based on my genomic sequencing and things that I might be um maybe can feed into that more preventative health space uh based on genomic sequencing and and my risk factors and all those sorts of things. So, I think they're they're some of the key things that I think in the next 5 years we'll certainly see more happening in space. >> More. >> And what's what's the role what's the role AR and VR is going to play if at all? Might or is it still going to be science fiction? >> Yeah, look, I think I think um AR and VR is probably uh found a probably more of a happy space in things like clinical training.

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Um uh you know, I think we will see things you know, I haven't really gone into things like hospital technologies, but we will see a lot more things like robotic surgery um happening. Um and controls of robots from you know, sort of that augmented reality um side of things I think is certainly an area from a surgical perspective that we'll we'll see more of. Um so that there is new real precise minimal invasion surgery. >> Mhm. Mhm. Okay. Uh that's good. Um the future of healthcare definitely is looking bright, Matt. Uh >> I certainly hope so, Matt, for sure. >> It is It is very interesting, definitely. Uh and uh the way I I I would say is it's at the end of the day it's going to be all about The future is going to be all about more access, more choices, and uh affordability, and uh uh prevention, right? And and how technology is going to enable all of these things, uh right?

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>> Yeah. And so and definitely putting the consumer more in control of their their healthcare dollars as well. >> Absolutely. So on that note, thanks, Matt. Thanks for your time. Uh it was definitely a very informative, insightful conversation. I'm pretty sure listeners are going to have um going to take away many many insights from this. So thanks for your time again. If you found this discussion valuable, please follow and subscribe to Enterprise Tech Talk. And thanks for listening. I look forward to seeing you in the next episode.