The Australian e‐Health Research Centre: enabling the health care information and communication technology revolution

Abstract

The CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) and the Queensland Government have jointly established the Australian e‐Health Research Centre (AEHRC) with the aim of developing innovative information and communication technologies (ICT) for a sustainable health care system. The AEHRC, as part of the CSIRO ICT Centre, has access to new technologies in information processing, wireless and networking technologies, and autonomous systems. The AEHRC's 50 researchers, software engineers and PhD students, in partnership with the CSIRO and clinicians, are developing and applying new technologies for improving patients’ experience, building a more rewarding workplace for the health workforce, and improving the efficiency of delivering health care. The capabilities of the AEHRC fall into four broad areas: ➢smart methods for using medical data; ➢advanced medical imaging technologies; ➢new models for clinical and health care interventions; and ➢tools for medical skills development. Since its founding in 2004, new technology from the AEHRC has been adopted within Queensland (eg, a mobile phone‐based cardiac rehabilitation program), around Australia (eg, medical imaging technologies) and internationally (eg, our clinical terminology tools).

What Causes Companies to Transform Digitally? An Overview of Drivers for Australian Key Industries

“…The healthcare sector employs the same mechanism. The key aim is to improve the patient journey, but the use of Information & Communication Technology (ICT) also enables health services to be more efficient and the clinical environment to be a more rewarding place [18]. Therefore, the use of ICT is expected to lead to improvements in quality and efficiency [19].…”

Health Outcomes and Cost Benefit of Home e-Health in Helping to Manage Heart Failure

“…This survey of papers reporting RCTs shows that it is feasible, at least experimentally, to introduce e-Health into the process of identifying and working with individuals with cardiac diseases to reduce their subsequent risk of stroke, ischaemic heart disease and sudden death. It also confirms that this has not been introduced into everyday clinical practice in countries which take an 'evidence based' approach to healthcare, though the literature has developed [12][13][14]from that available to the guideline development groups producing the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) and the Queensland Government have jointly established the Australian e-Health Research Centre (AEHRC) Guideline 97 (Risk estimation and prevention of cardiovascular disease February 2011). The former guideline says "Routine use of automated ambulatory blood pressure monitoring or home monitoring devices in primary care is not currently recommended because their value has not be adequately established; appropriate use in primary care remains an issue for further research" and the latter does not mention it at all.…”

System tools for system change

“…This initiative has occurred in concert with other online Canadian knowledge asset projects, including health-evidence.ca—a web-based platform for assembling evidence related to the effectiveness of public health interventions 69. Other initiatives, such as the Australian e-Health Research Centre are investing in ‘smart methods’ for using health data including data linkage technologies as well as toolkits such as ‘Snapper’ that overcome inconsistencies in data coding conventions to permit more universal use of secondary data 62. In addition, collaborative data sources have been built from networks, such as The Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems, a competitive, multi-centre research collaboration 63.…”