The Australian Department of Health and Aged Care has released a five-year strategy to deliver aged care reforms.
In the Aged Care Data and Digital Strategy, the government envisions an aged care system that delivers “the highest quality person-centred care for older people while driving a sustainable and productive care and support economy through data and digital innovation.”
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
To realise its vision, the strategy identified four specific outcomes, two of which relate to the secure sharing and use of data and having data and digital foundations that underpin a standards-based aged care system. Such outcomes emphasise improving security and access control, optimising data collection and utilisation; building data and digital maturity; and encouraging innovation.
An action plan accompanies the strategy, outlining specific projects and activities to meet each identified outcome.
Among the government’s plans is to implement an aged care data governance framework and interoperability and reference architecture. It also looks to introduce virtual nursing in aged care, pilot AI technologies, and conduct trials of virtual reality technology.
Meanwhile, work has commenced to implement the healthy ageing support tool LiveUp and digital resource platform KeepAble; deliver enhancements to the free information service My Aged Care; integrate My Aged Care to My Health Record; and develop the Aged Care Clinical Information System Standards.
Also part of this plan are the Aged Care National Minimum Data Set, the National Aged Care Data Asset, and electronic prescribing, which have all been implemented.
THE LARGER CONTEXT
In its Intergenerational Report, the Australian government sees the number of its senior population more than doubling over the next four decades. This prompts its workforce in aged care to raise its capabilities, particularly through the adoption of data and digital technology, to meet the ballooning demand for service.
The Health and Aged Care Department said its latest strategy to meet aged care reforms aligns with the recently published ten-year Digital Health Blueprint and updated five-year National Digital Health Strategy. It also lines up with the National Strategy for the Care and Support Economy in leveraging data and digital to enable quality care and improved workforce productivity. These strategies, the department noted, all share in the goal of “strengthening continuity of care” by tying in all data and digital systems closer through consistent data standards adoption.