This month the DHCRC has released two significant reports on the aged care sector. Aged care has been a focus since our foundation, and it is certain to be one of our lasting legacies.
We know that around 65,000 aged care workers leave this sector every year. This is not sustainable. And it is not because of the caring responsibilities or patients that they give as their main reason for leaving, but predominantly because of the increased administrative burden they are facing. Better collection, and use, of data is critical to helping solve this pain point for aged care.
We have a number of projects focused on digital, data and aged care and are tackling these challenges head-on. It is an area we are passionate about and we will continue to advocate for both across the sector and with government.
To this end, at the ITAC conference this month, I used my keynote presentation to release a joint report with Semantic Consulting calling for a standardised, nationwide approach to assessing older Australians’ health and wellbeing.
At the DHCRC we have experienced first-hand the challenges posed by a lack of data standardisation across the sector through our flagship Aged Care Data Compare (ACDC) research project. We firmly believe a uniform approach is critical to inform care needs and reduce pressures across the aged care sector.
The report makes a series of recommendations around the implementation of a standardised functional assessment framework and we at the DHCRC are calling on the industry to work together to make this change a reality. We welcome input from aged care providers and vendors on the recommendations of this report and we will host a series of events and consultations to drive this collaboration, so stay tuned.
The second report was published in partnership with the CSIRO. The Australian Aged Care Data Landscape Report looks at how data is collected, shared, and used across aged care. The report shows that data is being collected in a breadth of ways and formats to provide care for older adults living at home or in residential aged care facilities. Data exchange across the sector and with the broader healthcare sector is limited by a lack of system interoperability. The report identifies a number of key priorities for the sector. Take a read here.
Our education and capacity building team continues to achieve success and broaden its reach. Our Australian Council of Senior Academic Leaders in Digital Health, established by the DHCRC last year, has been selected by the Australian Digital Health Agency to help coordinate a national approach to embed digital health education into university degrees.
It is critical all graduates enter the workforce with an understanding of digital health systems and how they can be used to support clinical decisions and provide better care. This is a critical initiative that supports the goal of the National Digital Health Capability Action Plan (CAP) to support digital health capability for new and existing workers. You can read more on this initiative below.
As you can see throughout this newsletter, there is a lot of momentum building in the digital health sector. With a federal election approaching it is important we continue to place healthcare as a national priority. We have seen so much change over recent years, yet we are still playing catchup on the systems and processes that are critical to embed digital health into practice.
Warm regards,
Annette Schmiede
CEO, Digital Health CRC
Stay Informed.
Sign up to our newsletter for all digital health news.
