The Northern Australian Regional Digital Health Collaborative

Announcing The Northern Australian Regional Digital Health Collaborative (NARDHC) Seed Funding Grant

Click here for information and the application

About

The Northern Australian Regional Digital Health Collaborative (NARDHC) brings together the health sector, digital/technology industry partners, and James Cook University in co-designing and implementing digital health solutions for northern Australia. Whilst accessibility to timely healthcare delivery in RRR in NA remains a challenge, key areas of concern regarding the health of residents are chronic disease, high rate of BP, diabetes, obesity, high injury, and fatality rates among others. The objective of NARDHC project is to advance the application of novel digital health technologies to healthcare in RRR in NA to strengthen the health system to prevent, predict, support early intervention, and delay the onset of chronic and long-term diseases at both a population and individual level in RRR.

What is the issue?

Northern Australia has many challenges in terms of delivering health care to small populations across challenging geographies. Digital health may offer part of the solution but needs to be well integrated to meet health system needs. Uniting industry partners in health and technology with university partners, the Northern Australia Regional Digital Health Collaborative brings together key stakeholders to develop viable digital health solutions that address challenges in the remote management of chronic conditions in regional, rural, and remote northern Australia.

The opportunity

Through the Digital Health Collaborative, we will bring together health care providers, researchers, and technical industry partners, with consumers, government and others to discuss the challenges and potential digital solutions. This will be done through:

Formation and support of a Regional Industry Advisory Board (RIAB)
Regional roundtables to workshop wicked problems and potential technical solutions
Co-location of health and technical expertise including small and medium enterprises
Seed and start-up funding for digital innovations
Commercialisation support
Education and training for health care providers in the use of digital resources
Implementation and evaluation of pilot digital interventions.

How can I get involved?

We are keen to hear from you about digital innovations that might help in providing health care to the populations of our region. These might include remote monitoring, telehealth, advanced data analytics and so on.
Join into roundtable discussions or participate in the RIAB
Contact the project team directly with your ideas.

We look forward to working with you to advance the application of novel digital health solutions for wider adoption and scalability to strengthen health systems in regional, rural, remote communities.

Upcoming Events:

An Industry Roundtable - Delivering Digitally Enabled Health Care to Rural, Regional and Remote Northern Australia

28 June 2022 8am - 10am AEST

The Northern Australian Regional Digital Health Collaboration, led by JCU and its partners TAAHC, CSIRO, Optus and CRCNA will be hosting a series of facilitated participatory industry roundtable discussions focused on strengthening the health system in rural, regional, and remote northern Australia through digital health. The primary focus of this first roundtable is to uncover health systems challenges from the perspectives of healthcare providers and health consumers. With input from technology industry participants, discussion will then begin to identify opportunities, challenges, and enablers through which digital health solutions might be deployed to help improve healthcare delivery and health outcomes for communities across regional, rural, and remote northern Australia. Read more about the event and itinerary here.

Summary of event:

You can download a summary of this event here.

Key Activities in this project

Project Phases

For more information contact the Project Manager Dr. Salifu Yusif E. salifu.yusif@jcu.edu.au
ph. 07 4781 5245

Meet the Team

Project Manager

Dr Salifu Yusif

Project Management Team

Prof Sarah Larkins
Prof Ronald White
Prof Nico Adams
Mr Peter Westwood

Regional Industry Advisory Board Members

Partner Organization	Initial Nominee
Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service	Prof. Eddy Strivens, Director of Research, CHHHS
Mackay Hospital and Health Service	Kylie Oliver, Nurse Director at Mackay Hospital and Health Service
North Queensland Primary Health Network	Jenine Cox, Health System Integration and Innovation Lead at Northern Queensland Primary Health Network
North West Hospital and Health Service	Ms. Julie Sorrell
Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service	Dr Ineke Weaver Senior Medical Officer and Public Health Medical Officer, TCHHS
Townsville Hospital and Health Service	Prof. Sabe Sabesan, Director of Medical Oncology/Clinical Dean THHS/Co-Chair Australian Teletrial Program Prof Andrew Mallett, Director of Clinical Research, THHS
CSIRO	Dr David Hansen, CEO and Research Director, Australian e-Health Research Centre, CSIRO
CRCNA	Sarah Docherty, Senior Project Manager, CRCNA
QAIHC	Mr. Bevan Ahkee, Manager – Sector Development, Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council

Optus	Mr Jason Bamert, Associate Director of Education, Optus Enterprise Ms Rebecca Ardron, Regional Account Manager, Optus (Townsville)
Queensland Health	Dr Ides’ Wong, Manager at Queensland Health
James Cook University	Pro Sarah Larkins, Dean College of Medicine and Dentistry (Co-Chair) Prof Ron White, Dean College of Science and Engineering (Co-Chair) Prof Nico Adams, Optus Chair. Dr. Denise Hodge, Director JCU Connect