Reimagining healthcare in Australia: the journey from telehealth to 21st century design

Start Date

1 October 2020

End Date

30 March 2022

Project Participants

Consumer Health Forum, Curtin University, Deloitte

Tags: consumer engagement, digital transformation, future of healthcare, health data, health equity, health literacy, health policy, health service design, health system, interoperability, patient experience, telehealth, virtual care

Opportunity

COVID-19 rapidly transformed healthcare delivery across Australia through widespread adoption of telehealth and virtual care. While these changes were necessary and broadly successful, uncertainties remained about how digital health should evolve to support safe, equitable, consumer-centred care in the future.

This project examined the impact of government and industry-led policy and service delivery changes in response to the outbreak of COVID-19 and explored how Australia could move toward a truly reimagined healthcare system enabled by digital technologies.

Project Objectives

The project sought to understand consumer expectations of future healthcare, evaluate the impact of digital health initiatives introduced during the pandemic, and produce a white paper identifying key themes and direction regarding virtual health care design and delivery in Australia. This work aimed to inform future research, service improvement, and policy development.

Publications

Final Outcomes

The project delivered consumer surveys involving more than 1,800 Australians, with findings informing the development of a landmark white paper Australia’s Health Reimagined: The Journey to a Connected and Confident Consumer. National webinars, stakeholder engagement activities and research outputs also supported policy and service redesign.

The white paper sets the scene for the creation of a consumer-driven healthcare system that is accessible, sustainable, digitally enabled and interoperable, showing that:

Approximately 70% of Australians were ready to engage with virtual health services.

More than 80% were willing to share health data within an integrated digital health ecosystem.

Consumers strongly support coordinated care, improved information sharing and greater personal control over health information.

Telehealth acceptance was high, but risks of digital exclusion require targeted mitigation.

The paper outlines a three-horizon framework that describes the transition from connected consumers to empowered and confident health consumers, identifying a number of factors that are integral to this transformation. This includes ongoing investment into areas such as data interoperability, implementation programs and building workforce capacity.

Read the whitepaper here: Australia’s health reimagined, the journey to a connected and confident consumer

Impact and Benefits

The project provided evidence-based guidance for policymakers, healthcare providers and digital health innovators, helping to shape national discussions around telehealth, virtual care and healthcare interoperability while emphasising the importance of consumer engagement and equitable access.

The outputs continued to provide a strategic foundation for DHCRC digital health programs and Australia’s broader digital health transformation agenda.