A symposium on Making Digital Health Equity a Practical Reality was held on Wednesday 31 August 2022, check out the presentations from the range of industry speakers. Digital health equity has become an important division within the Australia health industry, and our speakers will take you through the design and implementation of solutions.
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Prof Wendy Chapman
Welcome to the Making Digital Health a Practical Reality Symposium - watch the opening remarks with Professor Wendy Chapman here.
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A/Prof Margaret Simmons
Topic: Sociological perspectives in health - watch the presentation here.
Associate Professor Margaret Simmons is the Deputy Director at Monash Rural Health, Churchill campus teaching graduate medical students a social perspective on health. She has nearly 20 years’ experience in qualitative research and medical sociology and have won both the Medicine Faculty Dean’s and Vice Chancellor’s award for Diversity & Inclusion in 2020 of Melbourne.
Hear from Margaret, as she sets the scene on why inequity exists and how digital health can be used to help address inequity.
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Prof Shanton Chang
Topic: Health information equity - watch the presentation here.
Professor Shanton Chang is the Associate Dean at the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Melbourne. He is a mixed-methods researcher and co-lead of the Digital Access and Equity Program at the Melbourne Social Equity Institute. He is interested in digital inclusion strategies, especially in the development of digital interventions.
Hear from Shanton on a Matrix for asking the right questions from end-users when designing a digital health intervention, and how he has used this to address equity in bowel cancer screening in CALD communities.
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Dr Roos Pot-Kolder
Topic: Inequities in younger populations and co-designing of youth mental health solutions - watch the presentation here.
Dr Roos Pot-Kolder is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Melbourne and Orygen in 'Virtual Reality for Youth Mental health'. She is a pioneer in Dutch virtual reality and has been delivering virtual reality therapies and research since 2012. She is an experienced VR therapist for social phobia, psychotic disorders, and agoraphobia.
Hear from Roos on incorporating equity considerations in the co-design of youth mental health solutions.
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Dr Lutza Ireland
Topic: Neurodiversity and equity - watch the presentation here.
Dr Lutza Ireland is a multi-award-winning Social Designer and Psychologist. Her design guidelines have been integrated into national and international organisations looking to build capability for neuroinclusion and mental health literacy. Dr Lutza Ireland uses design thinking and co-design methods to develop innovative resources, services and systems for mental health and wellbeing. She is also the founder of Matrix Design+Health, who have just produced The Stress and Anxiety Field Guide for COVID-19.
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Ms Sameera Suleman
Topic: Multicultural equity - watch the presentation here.
Sameera Suleman is an Occupational Therapist and the Manager at Multicultural Health Connect. Delivered by World Wellness Group in partnership with Healthdirect Australia, this telephone health information and advice line is for people from multicultural backgrounds. The line is culturally responsive to help break down access barriers to services and empower people in gaining increased independence in managing and understanding their health and the health system in Australia. Sameera is also a Co-Director at the SocioHealth Lab at the University of Queensland.
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Dr Jessica Watterson
Topic: Digital Health inequities through an international perspective - watch the presentation here.
Dr Jessica Watterson is a Senior Lecturer in Digital Health at Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Monash University Malaysia. Her research focuses on the design and evaluation of digital health technologies, particularly for underserved populations.
Hear from Jessica on the work she is doing in Asia through the Network for Equity through Digital Health or NEED, one of the sponsors for this event.
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Ms Lorraine Finlay
Topic: How AI algorithms can disadvantage certain populations and how to mitigate these biases - watch the presentation here.
Ms. Lorraine Finlay is the Human Rights Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission. She has the responsibility for protecting and promoting fundamental rights and freedoms and lead the work of the Commission in areas including modern slavery, asylum seekers and refugees, business and human rights, and technology and human rights.
Hear from Lorraine on how technology can be a disadvantage to certain populations, and how to mitigate these biases.
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Prof Rachael McDonald
Topic: Co-design and Digital Health Implementation - watch the presentation here.
Professor Rachael McDonald is a clinical, research and teaching Health Professional with an interest in enabling people with lifelong disabilities to participate in life situations. She has an interest in using technology as an enabler, but also as a tool for collecting objective evidence, which was a feature of her occupational therapy research. She is also the Disability and Chronic Disease Lead at the Iverson Health Innovation Institute, Swinburne University.
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Prof Ray Mahoney
Topic: Indigenous equity and the design, develop and implementation of culturally safe e-health interventions - watch the presentation here.
Professor Ray Mahoney, a descendant of the Bidjara people of Central West Queensland, is a visiting Scientist at the Australian e-Health Research Centre investigating the delivery of culturally safe mHealth care. He is a Professor of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Health and a discipline lead for Population Health in the College of Medicine & Public Health at Flinders University. Additionally, he is passionate about leading research into culturally safe care and addressing racism in health care.
Hear from Ray on the best practices in design, development and implementation of culturally safe e-health interventions.
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Dr Adam Craig, Ronny Samuel & Kaye Borgelt
Topic: Equity in low and middle income countries - watch the presentation here.
Dr. Adam Craig
Dr. Adam Craig is an Epidemiologist and Global Health and Health Systems Researcher at University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney. He leads the work for the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre on eHealth, is UNSW's academic lead to the Asia Pacific Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and is the Assistant Director of the University's Bachelor of International Public Health program. Adam's research seeks solutions to the development, resourcing, and systems challenges that inhibit the collection, exchange, and use of health data for policy and program decision-making in low- and middle-income settings.Ronny Samuel Patunvanu
Ronny Samuel leads the information, communication and technology team at the Tuvalu Department of Health. In this role, he oversees the Government’s digital health development, including the networking of remote health facilities through satellite communication systems. He is dedicated to using his IT skills to support all Tuvaluan’s health.Ms. Kaye Borgelt
Kaye Borgelt has worked as a health information consultant from her home base in rural Victoria for many years. She is passionate about building IT systems that support the accurate, timely and comprehensive collection and transfer of health data and the translation of these data into useful information to improve health outcomes. In 2018 – 19, Kaye spent 12 months as a volunteer Health Information Manager in the Pacific island paradise of Tuvalu, where she supported the implementation of the VSAT system. -
Panel Discussion and Closing Remarks
Dr Adam Craig, Professor Ray Mahoney, Dr Roos Pot-Kolder and Ms. Yupin Robson, speak on the topic: envisioning the future of digital health equity - watch the discussion here.
Dr Adam Craig is an Epidemiologist and Global Health and Health Systems Researcher at UNSW Sydney.
Professor Ray Mahoney, is a descendant of the Bidjara people of Central West Queensland and a Professor of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Health at Flinders University.
Dr Roos Pot-Kolder is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Melbourne and Orygen in 'Virtual Reality for Youth Mental health'.
Ms. Yupin Robson is the Co-Founder and CEO of ‘Edify Medical’. Edify Medical is an Australian Healthtech company breaking down barriers to the access of medical education through a scalable communication and training platform which can accommodate different learning styles, languages, and functionality.