What you will read about in this whitepaper:
• The bigger picture: Macro trends within the Australian healthcare sector
• The role of technology in mitigating these challenges
• Three technology opportunites for Australia's healthcare sector
◦ Tech Opportunity #1: Artificial Intelligance (AI) Augmented Diagnostics
◦ Tech Opportunity #2: Enterprise Imaging (EI) and Data Storage Strategies
◦ Tech Opportunity #3: Advanced Compute and Compute Paradigms
On the ground, radiologists are being pulled in all directions, facing everything from growing demand for virtual consultations to delays in pulling relevant medical histories and prior imaging exams from outside facilities. Growing pressure to move to a patient-centric collaborative care model that’s digitally-led, efficient, and seamless for patients—on top of increased demand to provide physician consults and patient education—disrupts radiologists’ daily workflows and adds to their already-historic rates of burnout. While collaborative care may improve patient outcomes, it can also produce ambiguity regarding who should make final decisions on patient care, potentially creating conflict between surgeons and radiologists.
The acceleration of scientific and technological discovery further complicates operations. Precision or personalised medicine, for example, requires providers to leverage near real-time genetic and genomic analysis in order to deliver healthcare on an individual level. To stay competitive amidst these fast-moving trends and new discoveries, healthcare organisations must thoughtfully evaluate the role new technology can play in meeting the diverse needs of different patient and stakeholder groups.
Download Whitepaper
Get the full 19 page research paper to continue reading.
The bigger picture: Macro trends within the Australian Healthcare sector
Understanding how we’ve arrived at this point—as well as the potential technology holds for improving conditions—requires taking a broader look at the macro trends that are currently impacting the Australian healthcare sector.
Data Sprawl Driven By Population and Technology Growth
Australia’s population is skewing undoubtedly older, and this trend shows no sign of abating. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) reports that, although adults aged 65 and older made up 16% of the country’s population in 2020, this number could increase to 21-23% by 2066.
The number of Australians managing chronic conditions is increasing as well. Per the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 47% of Australians reported having one or more chronic conditions during the 2017-2018 financial year—the most recent year for which data is available—compared to 42% during the 2007-2008 year. The complex needs of this population may place an increased demand on radiologists and other providers, compared to the requirements of routine patients.
The combination of longer lifespans, an aging population, an increase in chronic conditions, and a boom in healthcare technology exacerbates technical challenges and contributes to data sprawl through the accumulation and retention of patients’ lifetime medical data. For example, consider the growing use of digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) imaging, which creates significantly more data than the standard 2D mammography exams it is replacing.
Although 2D mammography produces just a few images per exam, DBT can create more than one hundred images per exam, per patient, in the same way that CT scans create hundreds—or even thousands—of image slices for more in-depth analysis. The increased use of contrasted studies has had a similar effect, as contrasted exams are routinely completed alongside acquisitions without contrast for comparative purposes. The end result of these and other changes is a substantial volume of data that must be retained and stored to be readily accessible for long-term patient care, as well as maintained in a secure, compliant way.
These requirements present specific challenges for traditional picture archiving and communication systems (PACS), as image data can’t be compressed or reduced to such a degree that image quality is compromised. Compliance requirements regarding the length of time images must be stored add to this complexity—especially for multinational healthcare firms facing multi-jurisdictional compliance frameworks—as do PACS standards requirements.
Access to Talent and Rising Staff Costs
Difficulty procuring medical imaging staff is not a new challenge. The Australasian Society for Ultrasound in Medicine (ASUM), for example, highlighted in a 2018 submission to the Senate Community Affairs References Committee’s inquiry on the availability and accessibility of diagnostic imaging equipment around Australia that shortages of trained sonographers had been ongoing for at least 10 years at that point.
Yet these ongoing shortages continue to be exacerbated by a number of factors.
- The rise of the private healthcare sector. Though private health revenue is on the decline, an estimated 13.6M Australians still hold private health cover following years of growth in the sector. That many physicians hold positions in both public and private practices contributes to staff shortages and patient wait times in public healthcare.
- Staff and leadership politics, including tensions between on-the-ground doctors and leadership (as in the case of a Canberra Hospital dispute that negatively impacted patient care by resulting in the offsite review of scans without reference to patients’ prior data).
- The COVID pandemic, which initially disrupted patient service, but continues to play a role due to the longer-term effects of COVID-related restrictions on immigration.
- The costs associated with the provision of clinical training placements, which have resulted in fewer professionals entering medical imaging fields.
- Burnout as existing staff absorb a greater workload and larger patient volumes, as well as the demands associated with new technology.
