Epworth Healthcare to collaborate with Swinburne Uni on digital health

Victoria’s largest not-for-profit private healthcare group, Epworth, has this week signed on to a three-year partnership with Swinburne University of Technology to leverage each institution’s expertise in digital health.

The relationship largely centres on health informatics management, with a particular emphasis on digital health research that will benefit the Epworth’s practise and Swinburne’s academics.

Although numerous health students from the university have completed practical placements at the healthcare provider, this is will be the first formal research collaboration between the two.

The basis if the research will be analysing health data to evaluate tech solutions that will improve the value of patient-focused healthcare and clinical outcomes.

Particular attention will be paid to:

• How unplanned hospital readmissions can be reduced and effectively managed through the use of analytics and AI
• Evaluating and assessing current health technology systems in place in hospitals and other health contexts
• Investigating critical aspects of robotic surgery at Epworth and how these assets can be used in other forms of surgery

Epworth is no stranger to robotic surgery, having pioneered several surgeries in Australia with the DaVinci medical robot.

All up, more than 4000 robotic operations have been performed across Epworth’s network, which currently has around 40 surgeons accredited to work with machines.

Swinburne researcher and professor of digital health, Nilmini Wickramasinghe, will lead the operations as Epworth Chair of Health Informatics Management.

“This collaboration enables us to move digital health forward so that we can look at research to develop superior patient-centred solutions that support high-quality care,” Wickramasinghe said.

Epworth Eastern executive director, Louise O’Connor, added that research and technological innovation “will improve the way we can deliver modern health care so that we can achieve a more positive, meaningful and sustainable impact on the health and wellbeing of our community.”