Monash University researchers will lead a $2 million Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre (DHCRC) project to enhance telehealth capabilities that aim to improve patient, clinician and caregiver experiences for mental health and palliative care services.
The enhancements will assist improving experiences across the state, including in Melton and Moorabool.
The new “Enhanced Telehealth Capabilities” project will deliver user-centred and research-based software solutions to enhance telehealth services like real-time transcription, smoother integration of personal diagnostic data from medical devices and better accessibility for the elderly or Australians from culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
The project will be led by Monash University’s Faculty of Information Technology (IT). Affiliates include Monash Health, researchers from the University of Melbourne, industry partners, Healthdirect Australia and the Department of Health (Victoria).
Project Lead, Associate Professor Rashina Hoda, from Monash University’s Faculty of IT, said with more than 16 million Australians accessing health services remotely since March 2020, it is essential that telehealth experiences are robust, especially for those in regional and rural communities.
“We will be working closely with patients, caregivers and doctors to understand their needs and create software solutions like providing language translations, explanations for medical terminologies in real-time during medical appointments, better integration of portable medical devices and generating consultation summaries to support patients and doctors etc,” Associate Professor Hoda said.
