Projects & Publications
Research & development to support the growth of a strong digital health industry.
Opportunity: Smartphone usage within cardiac rehabilitation is high, with approximately 70% of patients reporting they have a smartphone. We have found that almost half (n=43/94) of these patients use wearable activity trackers (wearables) and/or fitness smartphone applications (apps) at the beginning of their cardiac rehabilitation program (unpublished).
Opportunity: Lyf Support is a text-based app that aims to improve users’ mental health by providing easily accessible mental health support in the form of text therapy. The Australian outpost of Lyf Support has approached the DHCRC for help with understanding Australia’s current regulatory environment to support its intention to gain legitimacy and credibility with Australian mental health consumers and lead the market with an evidence-based app that supports consumers to access on-demand, low cost, and effective mental health therapy.
Opportunity: Globally, there is a rapidly growing market for socially assisted robots (SARs) – robots that possess social and human characteristics and aid in consumer interactions. In 2020, the market for SARs rose 12% to reach a turnover of $US6.7 billion, and growth in new consumer service robots rose by 16% to $US4.4 billion.