Connected care: bridging the gap

With the My Health Record ‘Sharing by Default’ amendment bill having passed both houses of parliament, understanding the benefits of ‘connected care’ and leveraging strategies to achieve interoperability and compliance has never been more relevant.

Connected care — the seamless flow of patient information through different care settings — represents the cornerstone of health care’s future within Australia, where seamless information flow will drive enhanced patient outcomes through more accessible and actionable data. But the journey towards fully connected care presents significant challenges and will require innovative solutions.

Today’s greatest barriers to improved care delivery are the technological and organisational silos operating in isolation, hampering collaboration and operational efficiency. We also stand at the cusp of a transformative era as technologies like cloud computing and generative AI mature, promising unprecedented benefits for both healthcare practitioners and patients. This industry transformation requires time, particularly as we integrate diverse systems across the healthcare ecosystem.

Each step towards connecting these components and fostering intelligent collaboration also strengthens our ability to capture, maintain and leverage high-quality data, ultimately advancing healthcare delivery for all Australians. But there are significant challenges and to overcome these we must navigate legacy systems and complex compliance frameworks, and find a balance between enabling data accessibility while also ensuring robust security measures. Success in the face of these challenges will demand innovative solutions implemented with precision and forethought.

Understanding challenges and how to overcome them

The path to connected care begins with identifying the gaps requiring our attention. Healthcare data currently resides in technological and organisational silos that impede true interoperability — the ability to move information easily between people, organisations and systems. While healthcare providers often allocate resources for system implementations and upgrades, many overlook interoperability and integration requirements during initial planning stages. To drive meaningful improvement, we must prioritise system interoperability and data integration from the outset, rather than treating them as secondary considerations.

Equally crucial is maintaining the delicate balance between robust data security and accessibility. As Australian Government policies and regulations evolve, organisations must ensure compliance while preserving data availability for authorised users. Furthermore, successful digital transformation hinges on stakeholder engagement, particularly from clinicians and patients. While some will embrace digital systems readily, others will require comprehensive support and training to transition effectively from legacy technology and paper-based processes.

Achieving interoperability and compliance in connected care

Essentially, connected care is about ensuring that all available information about a patient can flow seamlessly through different care settings and be accessible to different healthcare providers in real time. To achieve this ambition, a strategic approach to modernising healthcare platforms and enabling greater interoperability through the adoption of a standard like FHIR (or Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) is essential.

By ensuring solutions are aligned to a standard for exchange, data can be seamlessly and securely shared across different healthcare settings and jurisdictions. This FHIR-based interoperability layer allows clinicians to access a patient’s complete health history, regardless of where the data is stored, ultimately improving the quality and continuity of patient care. This approach not only enhances patient outcomes but also supports healthcare providers in delivering more efficient and effective care.

In addition to interoperability, ensuring healthcare solutions remain compliant with the latest industry regulations and standards is a given. Technology leaders working within the healthcare sector must continue to collaborate closely with government agencies — such as the Australian Digital Health Agency — on issues like compliance, to ensure technologies align with evolving compliance and governance requirements.

Enhancing reporting and analytics capabilities will help healthcare providers meet their regulatory obligations more efficiently. For example, advanced analytics can help healthcare IT teams to track key performance indicators, identify areas of risk or non-compliance, and generate the required regulatory reports with greater efficiency. Additionally, the ability to draw insights from comprehensive, integrated datasets allows for greater proactivity in addressing compliance issues, rather than reactively responding to audits or regulatory inquiries. This will help ensure a stronger compliance posture and avoid potential penalties or reputational damage.

What is the connected care future?

The future of connected care holds the promise of a more efficient, effective and patient-centric healthcare system. While this future is within our grasp, achieving it also demands sustained commitment, strategic planning and collaborative innovation. High-quality data and interoperable systems are fundamental to bridging healthcare gaps, driving innovation and fostering technological advancement.

Exploring how AI and IoT devices can collaborate to generate comprehensive population health data that offers deeper insights into community health and wellbeing will enhance our ability to anticipate future healthcare needs, resource requirements and treatment strategies. When integrated into a connected healthcare ecosystem — where patient information flows seamlessly across care settings — this vision will not only improve patient outcomes but also elevate care standards to meet contemporary consumer expectations.

The ongoing development of research initiatives supporting these objectives continues to inspire, and the sector should remain committed to investing in transformative solutions. Initiatives such as the Sparked FHIR Accelerator and Modernising My Health Record in Australia are advancing data and technology standardisation to enable personalised and precision medicine, contributing to the broader health ICT ecosystem.

While achieving truly connected care presents complex challenges, a focused commitment to interoperability through adoption of standards and comprehensive stakeholder support will help create a healthcare system that is more efficient, accessible and genuinely patient-centred.

*Farhoud Salimi is Chief Technology Officer at Telstra Health.

Top image credit: iStock.com/Cecilie_Arcurs