Message from the CEO: As the Department of Health and Aged Care continues its consultation process this month around the establishment of the first Australian Centre for Disease Control (CDC), the vital importance of data and digital information has been highlighted. I was pleased to join a stakeholder consultation session in Melbourne last week where it was clear there needs to be a coordinated and sophisticated national approach to data strategies. Whatever form the new CDC takes (and the government hasn’t made a firm decision yet on the model), there are inevitably strong links to digital health through interoperability, data and genomics.
The focus of the CDC will be on ensuring Australia is prepared for future pandemics. As we have seen over the last couple of years, we need accurate, timely, accessible data, effectively shared, if we are to ensure the health and social care system can respond effectively to public health crises and build the trust of consumers for our public health responses and the privacy of their data. The Department says Australian health data systems would be enhanced through standardised definitions, the safe and seamless flow of data, and enabling data to be linked to other rich data sources. The Institute agrees, this is critical to a digital public health response and ultimately lifesaving. We will endeavour to keep members informed as to how this proposal proceeds.
#MedInfo23 update: The international digital health community has shown overwhelming support for the global congress coming to Sydney next July. We have received more than 900 submissions from 47 countries! MedInfo 2023 incorporates the AIDH annual conference and will be the most prestigious digital health event on the global calendar next year. Early bird rates end on 14 April 2023.
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