Talking HealthTech

In this episode of Talking HealthTech, Peter Birch speaks with Jason Ward, co-founder and CEO of EQL, about the evolution of digital health in musculoskeletal (MSK) care across Australia and the UK. Jason discusses the story behind founding EQL and the factors that shaped its approach to digital MSK care. He also examines the different funding and access challenges faced in Australia and the UK, highlighting how local healthcare structures influence the delivery of care.Key Takeaways💡 EQL uses technology to empower patients and clinicians, enhancing access to MSK care through digital triage and rehabilitation pathways.🌏 Differences between the UK and Australian healthcare systems, including funding models, rural access issues, and workers’ compensation, shape how digital MSK solutions are deployed.📊 Demonstrating return on investment (ROI) is central to EQL’s model, evidenced by recent pilots in Australia that delivered a 14:1 ROI for employers and insurance partners.🤝 EQL works both with in-house clinicians and partner organisations, delivering care via digital, in-person, and hybrid pathways to meet diverse workplace and population needs.🔮 The future of digital MSK care involves careful adoption of AI and scaled technology, with a focus on safety, sustainability, and equitable access, especially in remote or underserved communities.Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.Loving the show? Leave us a review, and share it with someone who might get some value from it. Keen to take your healthtech to the next level? Become a THT+ Member for access to our online community forum, meet-ups, special offers and more exclusive content. For more information visit talkinghealthtech.com/thtplus

In this episode of Talking HealthTech, Peter Birch speaks with Mecaela Couper, specialist solution consultant for healthcare, Colby Rook, senior account executive for healthcare, and Dr Greg McDavitt, physician executive and director for healthcare, all from ServiceNow.The discussion covers the role of artificial intelligence and technology in reducing administrative burden for clinicians, improving patient outcomes, and optimising workflows within the healthcare sector.The episode explores the intersection of digital transformation and the unique human elements that are central to effective healthcare delivery, based on insights from both clinical and technology backgrounds.Key Takeaways💡 The critical importance of freeing clinicians from administrative tasks to allow more time for patient care and improving outcomes.🖥️ Effective digital transformation in healthcare is often "invisible" to the patient, improving systems and processes behind the scenes rather than at the point of care.🤝 Co-designing technology solutions with frontline clinicians and gathering feedback ensures tools are genuinely useful and easy to adopt in practice.🔒 Implementing strong governance and risk management around AI tools is vital, including controlling access and monitoring data privacy.🔄 Transformation efforts should be holistic, considering impacts across the whole healthcare ecosystem, from frontline staff to back-office operations and the broader continuum of care.Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.Loving the show? Leave us a review, and share it with someone who might get some value from it. Keen to take your healthtech to the next level? Become a THT+ Member for access to our online community forum, meet ups, special offers and more exclusive content. For more information visit talkinghealthtech.com/thtplus

In this episode of Talking HealthTech, Peter Birch speaks with Dr Ramya Raman, Rafiah Ansari, Andrew Aho, and Farhoud Salimi about the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities in digital health.Topics covered include clinical governance, digital health ethics, women’s health data, interoperability, AI, connected care, and the importance of partnerships across healthcare and technology.This episode was recorded during HIC 2025, hosted by the Australasian Institute of Digital Health (AIDH) in Melbourne.It features conversations captured in the Digital Health Studio throughout the event, covering panels, keynotes, and interview sessions with innovators and leaders from across the healthcare technology space.Key Takeaways✨ Clinical governance, ethics, and research translation are critical for driving sustainable digital health innovation🌏 Global perspectives (UK, Canada, US) offer lessons for local implementations in Australia🧑‍⚕️ Women’s health data has historical biases; femtech and digital health can help address gaps for diverse populations🔗 Connected care depends on interoperability, collaboration, and data standards to support clinicians and improve patient outcomes🤖 Artificial intelligence and unified data platforms are expanding capabilities but require strong privacy, governance, and clinician involvementCheck out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.Loving the show? Leave us a review, and share it with someone who might get some value from it.Keen to take your healthtech to the next level? Become a THT+ Member for access to our online community forum, meet-ups, special offers and more exclusive content. For more information, visit talkinghealthtech.com/thtplus

In this episode of Talking HealthTech, Peter Birch speaks with Steve Lewis, founder of Nabu, about his personal journey into health tech, the creation of Nabu, and the challenges of coordinating complex healthcare for patients with special needs.Steve shares how his own experiences caring for his daughter Bowie inspired him to develop tools that help patients, families, and support workers better manage the demands of the healthcare system.They cover the realities of patient navigation, the role of digital tools in improving outcomes, and the importance of human collaboration alongside technology.Key Takeaways🧩 Lived experience shapes innovation: Steve’s journey as a parent navigating paediatric and intensive care environments drove the creation of Nabu, aiming to bridge gaps he faced first-hand in the healthcare system.📲 Practical patient empowerment: Nabu focuses on helping patients and families easily coordinate appointments, medications, and care plans without overwhelming them or relying solely on electronic health records.🔄 Communication and collaboration matter: The app streamlines sharing critical information with family members, support workers, and professionals, reducing the risks of missed details and improving overall continuity of care.🛡️ Safety in support: Features verifying support worker credentials and making handovers simpler are emphasised to mitigate risks for vulnerable patients.🌏 Piloting for impact: The next steps for Nabu involves coordinated pilot programs with providers in Australia and overseas, to quantify its effect on health outcomes and demonstrate support for patients, families, and clinicians.Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.Loving the show? Leave us a review, and share it with someone who might get some value from it. Keen to take your healthtech to the next level? Become a THT+ Member for access to our online community forum, meet ups, special offers and more exclusive content. For more information visit talkinghealthtech.com/thtplus

In this episode of Talking HealthTech, Peter Birch speaks with Charles Papp (Founder and CEO, KRE8 IT and KRE8 My Health) and Steven Whittington (allied health consultant and co-founder, KRE8 My Health) about interoperability in healthcare.The discussion covers the challenges of connecting fragmented health data, the role of FHIR standards, their journey forming KRE8 My Health, and practical examples of how better data exchange can improve outcomes for clinicians and patients. The episode explores recent developments such as Smart Health Link and Australian Patient Summary standards, as well as how managed services can bridge the gap between legacy systems and modern interoperability requirements.Key Takeaways🩺 Interoperability remains a major challenge in healthcare, with legacy systems and inconsistent data standards making it difficult to exchange information effectively.🖥️ FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) and new standards like Smart Health Link are helping enable secure, standardised sharing of patient summaries and health data between systems and individuals.🔗 Managed interoperability services can allow software vendors and startups to achieve compliance and connectivity without becoming experts in complex health data standards.👩‍⚕️ Improved interoperability empowers both clinicians and patients to access and share medical information, boosting health literacy and supporting safer, more timely care.📱 Tools like Smart Health Exchange allow sharing of health records via encrypted links or QR codes, making data accessible even for those without advanced IT systems.Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.Loving the show? Leave us a review, and share it with someone who might get some value from it. Keen to take your healthtech to the next level? Become a THT+ Member for access to our online community forum, meet ups, special offers and more exclusive content. For more information visit talkinghealthtech.com/thtplus

In this episode of Talking HealthTech, Peter Birch speaks with Dr Simon Kos, Chief Clinical Officer for ANZ at Microsoft; Georgia James, Director for VicKey Statewide CRM at Austin Health; and Alan Pritchard, Director of EMR and ICT Services at Austin Health.The conversation covers the development and rollout of a statewide Microsoft Dynamics-based CRM for health services in Victoria, with a focus on digital referral management, patient communication, automation, and the use of AI in improving health system processes and outcomes.Key Takeaways🏥 The Victorian Statewide CRM project, based on Microsoft Dynamics, began as a solution to surgical audit and patient communication challenges at Austin Health. It has since expanded, now supporting referral management and inter-hospital transfer processes across metropolitan and regional health services in Victoria.📋 Managing healthcare referrals is typically a complex, paper-driven and inefficient process. The new digital referral management system standardises and digitises this workflow, improving efficiency, reducing environmental impact, and ensuring timely patient care.🤝 The importance of co-design and collaboration between health services, IT teams, and clinicians was highlighted. Rollouts involved extensive workshops and change management, with an emphasis on capturing the "80%" common process across services while allowing flexibility for local variation.🤖 AI is being explored to support and augment referral processes, such as classifying incoming documents, summarising referral content, and identifying hidden health issues within referrals. The approach ensures clinical oversight and gradual adoption for trust and safety.🔗 The system is designed to promote federated innovation—allowing a collaborative framework where new features can be rolled out at scale and shared across services, rather than every service building in isolation.📊 Leveraging enterprise data and digitising previously manual or paper-based MVPs (like post-it note reminders or spreadsheets) enables ongoing process improvement and scalable healthcare innovation.⚖️ Equity considerations were also discussed: digital solutions need to be accessible, especially for vulnerable populations, to avoid widening the digital divide in healthcare.Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.Loving the show? Leave us a review, and share it with someone who might get some value from it. Keen to take your healthtech to the next level? Become a THT+ Member for access to our online community forum, meet ups, special offers and more exclusive content. For more information visit talkinghealthtech.com/thtplus

In this episode of Talking HealthTech, Peter Birch speaks with Declan Kelly, CEO and co-founder of Eolas Medical, about the challenges and opportunities in healthcare knowledge management. They explore how clinicians can better access both external medical evidence and context-specific internal knowledge, the importance of technology in surfacing reliable information at the point of care, and the emerging role of artificial intelligence in supporting decision making in healthcare environments.Key Takeaways:📚 Knowledge Management in Healthcare: Declan explains that clinicians need access to both external, evidence-based guidelines and internal, site-specific procedures to make informed decisions. Both are often difficult to surface when needed, leading to inefficiency and frustration.💡 Origin of Eolas Medical: The platform was created out of a real need identified within hospitals—difficulty in finding practical information quickly, particularly context-specific pathways and contacts. "Eolas" is derived from the Irish word for knowledge.🤖 Technology and Extraction: Eolas uses computer vision and artificial intelligence to extract and visually ground information from both internal documents (like policies and flowcharts buried on intranets) and external sources, ensuring that clinicians can trace answers to their original sources.🔒 AI's Role and Safety Considerations: Artificial intelligence, especially large language models, can support information retrieval but must be carefully governed, regulated, and validated for safety and trust. The adoption of such solutions varies globally due to differing regulatory environments.⚖️ Balancing Usability and Governance: Declan shares the tension between making technology user-friendly for clinicians and maintaining rigorous governance, security, and privacy—finding the right balance is ongoing and vital for uptake.📈 Adoption and Impact: Eolas has seen significant uptake among clinicians by addressing their need for immediate, trustworthy, actionable information at the point of care. The company emphasises a careful, department-by-department rollout in healthcare organisations to build evidence and trust.🚀 Future Directions: The conversation touches on the broad future of healthcare technology, speculating about the combined power of AI, knowledge management, and system interoperability over the next decades.Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.Loving the show? Leave us a review, and share it with someone who might get some value from it. Keen to take your healthtech to the next level?Become a THT+ Member for access to our online community forum, meet ups, special offers and more exclusive content. For more information visit talkinghealthtech.com/thtplus

In this episode of Talking HealthTech, host Peter Birch speaks with Claire Holt, Technical Health Information Manager at Austin Health, about the role of data management and digital health transformation in tertiary hospitals. The discussion focuses on the integration of new data capture solutions within Austin Health, with a special emphasis on the challenges and opportunities surrounding legacy systems, workflow transformation, stakeholder engagement, and mandatory reporting.This episode was recorded live at HIC 2025 in Melbourne, Australia, at the Data Capture Experts booth on the expo floor.Key Takeaways:🏥 Austin Health's Digital Landscape: With over 200 clinical systems, Austin Health's approach to technology must consider integration, interoperability, and minimising workflow disruption for clinicians.🔗 The Role of Health Information Managers: Health information managers bridge the gap between IT, clinical operations, and data reporting, ensuring legislative compliance and meaningful use of collected data.⚙️ Addressing Legacy System Challenges: Facing an end-of-life legacy software system that processed over 120,000 annual client contacts, Austin Health identified the need for a modern solution that could expand functionality and support broader use cases.🚀 Implementation and Change Management: Accelerated timelines and the addition of new modules – such as community mental health – required robust collaboration, business process engagement, and agile change management strategies.💻 Data Capture Experts Solution: Streamlined administrative functions allowed for improved referral, appointment booking, care management, and reporting – moving away from siloed spreadsheets towards integrated workflows.📊 Workflow Evolution: The new system enabled better visibility across teams, accurate activity reporting, and improved patient care continuity, especially for patients accessing multiple services.🤝 Advice for Vendors: Collaborative approaches with health information managers and strong technical-business translation are essential when building and implementing solutions in health settings.Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.Loving the show? Leave us a review, and share it with someone who might get some value from it. Keen to take your healthtech to the next level? Become a THT+ Member for access to our online community forum, meet ups, special offers and more exclusive content. For more information visit talkinghealthtech.com/thtplus

A referral should be the start of a patient’s care journey, not a roadblock. Yet too often, paper forms, phone tag and admin delays get in the way.In this episode of Talking HealthTech, Peter Birch speaks with Emily Manning, Sales Manager at Global Health, about how smarter referral management is reshaping Australian healthcare. Emily explains how MasterCare+ streamlines workflows for clinics, hospitals and community providers – reducing risk, freeing up staff time and improving the patient experience.Key Takeaways:🔄 Referral management is a critical but often overlooked part of healthcare workflows – getting it right improves both admin efficiency and patient care.🧩 MasterCare+ is a modular SaaS platform that can run standalone or integrate with existing systems, making adoption easier.🏥 The platform was co-designed with Peninsula Health in Victoria to ensure it fits local workflows, with secure messaging, triage tools and automated intake.📊 Moving away from paper reduces errors, increases visibility via dashboards and KPIs, and frees staff for higher-value work.⚠️ The risks of sticking with paper include lost referrals, heavier admin loads, compliance issues and slower patient journeys.📈 Incremental adoption helps organisations modernise without full-scale system overhauls.🤖 Future directions include AI-powered triage, risk stratification and ongoing development guided by user feedback.Check out the episode and full show notes at Talking HealthTech.If you’re enjoying the podcast, leave us a review and share it with someone who’ll find it useful.Want to connect with other digital health leaders? Join THT+ for access to our online community, meetups, exclusive content and more: talkinghealthtech.com/thtplus.

In this episode of Talking HealthTech, Peter Birch speaks with Ricardo Herreros-Symons, Chief Strategy Officer at Speechmatics, about the evolving role of speech-to-text technologies and AI-driven ambient scribing in the healthcare sector. Ricardo shares insights from his 11 years at Speechmatics, discussing the challenges and opportunities of adapting speech recognition for medical applications, the move toward innovative AI solutions, and the importance of accuracy, privacy, and regulatory compliance in handling sensitive healthcare data.Key Takeaways:🎤 Speech-to-Text in Healthcare: Speechmatics, while established in media, live captioning, and government, has recently seen growing demand in healthcare, driven by clinicians' needs rather than top-down mandates.🩺 Ambient Scribing and Clinician Workflow: There is a shift from manual transcription—where secretaries or clinicians would type up notes—to AI-powered tools that can automatically transcribe and structure patient conversations, improving efficiency and reducing clinician cognitive load.🎯 Accuracy and Context: In healthcare, accuracy is critical due to the potential for life-or-death consequences. Effective speech recognition requires comprehensive vocabularies, the ability to handle diverse accents, and context awareness to distinguish medical terminology.🤝 Collaborative Role in Solution Delivery: Speechmatics provides foundational transcription technology behind the scenes, enabling ambient scribing platforms and EMR providers to build workflow solutions tailored for their users.🌍 Language and Localisation: Healthcare consultations occur in many languages, requiring multilingual speech recognition models. Ricardo discusses how existing language models often excel in English but may need translation pipelines and continued development for long-tail languages.🔒 Privacy and Regulation: Sensitive healthcare data requires robust privacy controls and compliance with regulations like ISO 27001 and HIPAA. Deployment options include on-premise and on-device solutions to meet varying security needs.🚀 The Future of Voice AI in Healthcare: There is a growing acceptance of AI in patient interactions, particularly among younger demographics who are comfortable with bots. Voice agents and further AI integration are seen as significant opportunities for the future of healthcare technology.Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.Loving the show? Leave us a review, and share it with someone who might get some value from it. Keen to take your healthtech to the next level? Become a THT+ Member for access to our online community forum, meet ups, special offers and more exclusive content. For more information visit talkinghealthtech.com/thtplus

In this episode of Talking HealthTech, Peter Birch speaks with Phil Offer, CEO of BestMed, about the evolving landscape of medication management across aged care, primary care, and pharmacy in Australia.They discuss the challenges around syncing data between these sectors, the clinical and operational impact of medication errors, and how technology platforms like BestMed are shaping safer, more connected workflows. The episode covers the origins of BestMed, the importance of interoperability, regulatory drivers, stakeholder benefits, and the future of intelligence and AI in digital health.Key Takeaways:📊 Medication discrepancies between aged care, GPs, and pharmacies are widespread, with a University of Sydney study showing 72.6 discrepancies per 100 records—many with potential for clinical harm.💻 Digitisation and interoperability between care providers reduce manual transcription errors and potential incidents, with some facilities reporting a 63% drop in medication-related incidents.☁️ BestMed's cloud-based platform is accessed by aged care staff, pharmacists, GPs, and families, with real-time medication records for safer and more efficient management.🏛️ Regulatory standards and government support have been crucial in advancing interoperability and uptake of digital medication management in aged care.🎯 Guiding principles for product design include minimising data retranscription, integrating into user workflows, and actively seeking feedback from stakeholders.🔗 BestMed's recent integration with Best Practice Software aims to further streamline processes for GPs, minimising double-entry and enhancing workflow efficiency.💝 The emotional impact of better systems is notable—staff feel more supported, and families gain visibility, ultimately improving experience and reducing stress.🤖 Artificial intelligence is already in use for pharmacy packing checks, and future projects include AI-driven deprescribing and decision support—keeping solutions focused on practical clinical impact.Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.Loving the show? Leave us a review, and share it with someone who might get some value from it. Keen to take your healthtech to the next level? Become a THT+ Member for access to our online community forum, meet ups, special offers and more exclusive content. For more information visit talkinghealthtech.com/thtplus

In this episode of Talking HealthTech, Peter Birch speaks with Dr Jaspreet Saini (GP, practice owner and Chief Medical Officer at HotDoc), Nicole Gartrell (Programme Director of Health Connect Australia at the Australian Digital Health Agency), Craig Hodges (Group Chief Executive at Best Practice Software), Jessica White (Executive Director of Partners & Strategies at Best Practice Software), Frank Pyefinch, and Lorraine Pyefinch about innovations, challenges, and collaboration shaping the future of primary care. They discuss technology’s evolving role in general practice - from AI-powered efficiencies and foundational IT, to national health information exchange and ongoing engagement with clinicians. This episode was recorded during the Best Practice Summit 2025 in Brisbane and features a selection of conversations with GPs, practice managers, and technology leaders captured by Talking HealthTech during the event.Key Takeaways:🖨️ Foundations Before Innovation: Dr Jaspreet Saini shares the importance of ensuring basic technology—like printers and seamless workflows—works reliably before implementing more advanced tools such as AI scribes in general practice.👨‍⚕️ Addressing Clinician Burnout: Nearly half of GPs are experiencing burnout; technology should be implemented to reduce everyday frustrations and increase efficiencies, rather than adding complexity.🎯 Real-World Problem Solving: Understanding daily tasks and pain points from frontline staff enables meaningful tech adoption. Stakeholder consultation—listening to GPs, nurses, and practice managers—remains central.🔗 Health Information Exchange: Nicole Gartrell outlines Health Connect Australia's approach to connecting healthcare information systems nationally, focusing on enabling easy, behind-the-scenes data sharing across different clinical platforms.☁️ Practice Management Software Evolution: Craig Hodges and Jessica White discuss the direction for Best Practice, including cloud migration, interoperability, and AI, while reaffirming commitment to customer feedback and practical functionality.🤝 Industry Collaboration: Continued engagement with vendors, clinicians, government, and software partners is essential for sustainable change and responding to evolving needs in primary care.🤖 Responsible AI Adoption: AI can facilitate easier access to patient data and streamline administrative tasks, but clinician involvement is necessary to guide responsible implementation and maintain patient safety.🎓 Community and Education: Events like the Best Practice Summit foster connection, networking, and collective learning, while ongoing education around technology and new tools is pivotal for clinicians and practice staff.Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.Loving the show? Leave us a review, and share it with someone who might get some value from it. Keen to take your healthtech to the next level? Become a THT+ Member for access to our online community forum, meet ups, special offers and more exclusive content. For more information visit talkinghealthtech.com/thtplus

In this episode of Talking HealthTech, Peter Birch speaks with Dan Stinton, CEO of Healthengine, about the changing landscape of digital health platforms in Australia. They discuss Dan’s transition from digital media into the health tech sector, Healthengine’s evolution from a healthcare marketplace to a comprehensive patient engagement platform, and the introduction of new technologies like AI-powered receptionists. The conversation also covers trends in patient engagement, the impact of cost-of-living pressures on healthcare access, and the future of technology-driven healthcare delivery. Key Takeaways🔄 Over the years, Healthengine has shifted from being purely a healthcare marketplace to emphasising patient engagement tools and SaaS products, such as online bookings, recalls, reminders, and custom forms.🌐 The platform is expanding beyond GPs to include dental, allied health, specialists, and pharmacy - aiming to enable patients to manage their entire care team from one place.🤖 Healthengine has launched "Helen," an AI receptionist designed to handle administrative phone calls for GP clinics, allowing reception staff to focus on more complex tasks. Helen is already being piloted and operates strictly on non-clinical tasks for privacy and accuracy.📊 Research by Healthengine indicates around 80% of people are comfortable interacting with bots for administrative healthcare tasks, especially given the benefit of never waiting on hold.💰 Cost-of-living pressures are causing more Australians to delay essential medical care, as reflected in the upcoming Australian Healthcare Index—a survey run in partnership with Patients Australia.💻 Virtual care is on the rise, but still makes up a small proportion of Healthengine's bookings, with most telehealth appointments occurring outside regular business hours for transactional needs like repeat prescriptions.🎯 Healthengine's current strategy is to continue investment in patient engagement technology, leveraging AI for administrative efficiency without entering the space of clinical care itself.Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.Loving the show? Leave us a review, and share it with someone who might get some value from it. Keen to take your healthtech to the next level? Become a THT+ Member for access to our online community forum, meet ups, special offers and more exclusive content. For more information visit talkinghealthtech.com/thtplus

In this episode of Talking HealthTech, Peter Birch speaks with Rob Milsom from NZTE, along with Matt Russell and Matt Boyles from Aranz Medical, Will Hewitt from HeartLab, Greg O’Grady from Alimetry, and Abby Moore from Chiptech.Together, they explore the latest developments in New Zealand’s healthtech ecosystem, focusing on the future of medical technology and diagnostics, specifically AI, wearable diagnostics, medtech, and the need to keep patients, clinicians, and the wider system at the centre of innovation. The episode showcases how Kiwi companies are driving global impact in wound care, cardiac diagnostics, gut health, and personal emergency response systems.This episode is part 3 of a 3-part series created by Talking HealthTech in partnership with New Zealand Trade & Enterprise (NZTE), exploring how New Zealand’s healthtech innovators are taking their ideas from home to the world. Key Takeaways⚙️ Silhouette, developed by Aranz Medical, is transforming wound care through 3D imaging and data-driven insights, making wound management more efficient and scalable in both hospital and community settings.🤖 HeartLab is advancing cardiac diagnostics using AI, with a focus on enabling clinicians to easily and quickly access and interpret cardiac scans remotely, emphasising speed, workflow, and responsiveness across global markets.📏 Alimetry provides a wearable diagnostic solution for gut disorders, allowing for non-invasive measurement and better clinical insight into gastrointestinal symptoms, while also showcasing the process of commercialising research-driven technology in global health markets.👵 Chiptech is delivering technology-enabled care systems for ageing populations, offering scalable and adaptable personal emergency response solutions that support independence at home and address broader sector challenges.🔬 The export journeys of these companies highlight the value of deep research, user insight, collaboration, and tailored solutions in creating medtech products that resonate globally while addressing local needs.Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.Loving the show? Leave us a review, and share it with someone who might get some value from it.Keen to take your healthtech to the next level? Become a THT+ Member for access to our online community forum, meet ups, special offers and more exclusive content. For more information visit talkinghealthtech.com/thtplus

In this episode of Talking HealthTech, Peter Birch speaks with Rafic Habib, Managing Director for APAC and the Middle East at Clinovera, the healthcare division of First Line Software. The conversation explores Rafic's extensive healthcare IT experience and delves into how Clinovera and First Line Software work with organisations ranging from start-ups to government bodies to address the challenges of healthcare data management. The discussion covers the rise of generative AI and its applications, how to harness unstructured health data, the ongoing impact of interoperability standards like HL7 and FHIR, and the practical considerations for implementing new health IT tools within complex healthcare systems.Key Takeaways:🤖 Generative AI (Gen AI) is increasingly sought after by healthcare organisations. While the technology presents new opportunities, there is industry-wide uncertainty about potential applications and best practices, especially with sensitive health data.👨‍💻 Clinovera provides a wide range of services, including Gen AI consulting, software engineering, interoperability support (with a deep focus on HL7 and FHIR), application architecture, and cloud integration across Microsoft Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud.📄 Unstructured data, such as handwritten notes, scanned records, faxes, and PDFs, continues to be a barrier for efficient healthcare delivery. This type of data is pervasive in everyday practice and remains difficult to extract and integrate into electronic health records (EHRs) and health information systems.⚙️ The team at Clinovera has developed AI-driven tools that can ingest, analyse, and structure unstructured data from multiple sources (including different languages and poor handwriting), turning it into interoperable formats like FHIR. These capabilities allow clinicians and healthcare administrators to more easily find, analyse, and leverage crucial patient data that would otherwise remain buried.🔬 As organisations look to better integrate AI and automation, considerations like compliance, security, information governance, and the ability to deploy solutions on-site or in the cloud come to the fore. Customisation is key to meeting diverse and region-specific data requirements and regulatory standards.⏳ The best time to engage engineering support and consulting, according to Rafic, is as early as possible — whether organisations are just shaping their digital health strategy or already knee-deep in a digital transformation project. Early, collaborative engagement with engineering partners ensures that real-world problems are addressed, and organisations benefit from broader expertise during planning, pilots, and scale-up.Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.Loving the show? Leave us a review, and share it with someone who might get some value from it. Keen to take your healthtech to the next level? Become a THT+ Member for access to our online community forum, meet ups, special offers and more exclusive content. For more information visit talkinghealthtech.com/thtplus

In this episode of Talking HealthTech, Peter Birch speaks with Dr Kieran Holland from Streamliners, Ron Tenenbaum from The Clinician, Dr Stephen Pool from Core Schedule, and Niru Rajakumar from McCrae Tech about the role of people-centred innovation in healthcare.The discussion explores how New Zealand companies are redesigning clinical workflows, supporting patient engagement, and implementing technology solutions that bridge policy and practice, empower both clinicians and patients, and support sustainable system transformation.This episode is part 2 of a miniseries produced in collaboration with New Zealand Trade & Enterprise (NZTE), focusing on exporting New Zealand’s health technology to global markets.Key Takeaways🧑‍🤝‍👩 People are Central to Health Innovation: Across each conversation, a core theme is putting people—clinicians, patients, and users—at the centre of digital health solutions. Listening to real-world needs and collaborating with frontline staff is critical to building trust in new technologies.🔬 HealthPathways Bridges Policy and Practice: HealthPathways, supported by Streamliners, offers evidence-based clinical guidance blended with local system navigation, reducing variation in care and enhancing collaboration. Its model showcases the benefits of cross-jurisdictional learning and the opportunities for more national collaboration, including in places like Australia.🩺 PROMs and PREMs Shape Value-Based Care: Ron Tenenbaum explains how Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) and Patient Reported Experience Measures (PREMs) are increasingly fundamental in value-based healthcare. The challenge is not only technological, but also cultural—integrating the patient voice requires clinician buy-in and workflow adaptation.💼 Workforce Management and Fatigue Risk: Dr Stephen Pool outlines the real-world consequences of manual, disconnected rostering—such as clinician fatigue and increased risk to patient safety. Core Schedule demonstrates how digitised, clinician-driven rostering can reduce administrative burden and improve wellbeing and compliance.🏥 Hospital Modernisation Relies on Flexible, Modular Tech: Niru Rajakumar highlights the growing complexity and workforce shortages in hospitals, pointing to the need for modular, flexible hospital information systems. Starting with small changes and scaling smartly, rather than implementing one-size-fits-all solutions, can deliver value efficiently.🤖 AI’s Role is Foundational, Not a Quick Fix: Each guest emphasises that emerging tools like AI should be built on solid foundations of system integration and must address frontline realities, rather than being seen as a “silver bullet.”Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.Loving the show? Leave us a review, and share it with someone who might get some value from it.Keen to take your healthtech to the next level? Become a THT+ Member for access to our online community forum, meet ups, special offers and more exclusive content. For more information visit talkinghealthtech.com/thtplus

In this episode of Talking HealthTech, Peter Birch speaks with Mark Nevin, an executive leader and policy strategist in healthcare, and Dr. Sandra LJ Johnson, a paediatrician and expert in medical law, about the duties and responsibilities of the medical workforce in overseeing artificial intelligence (AI) in health services. The discussion explores the evolving regulatory landscape, medical duty of care, risk management, and the need for collaboration between clinicians, technologists, and regulators as AI becomes increasingly integrated into healthcare delivery.Key Takeaways🤖 Regulation of AI in healthcare should be risk-based, leveraging existing frameworks while addressing the unique challenges posed by dynamic and learning systems.⚙️ The duty of care for clinicians extends to understanding the tools and technologies they use, including the basics of how AI systems are trained and their limitations.🏥 Adoption of AI in clinical settings requires a holistic approach with multiple levels of guardrails—regulatory, specialist, clinician-patient, and consumer feedback—to ensure safety and accountability.👩‍🏫 Ongoing education and competency development are essential for clinicians, as medical colleges and educational bodies are now incorporating AI and digital health into their curricula.🤝 Collaboration across disciplines—between clinicians, engineers, software developers, regulators, and consumers—is key to safe and effective AI adoption in healthcare.✒️ The complexity of liability in AI-driven care highlights the importance of clear governance and delineation of responsibilities among stakeholders before issues arise.🌏 Australia is keeping pace with global advancements in AI regulation and implementation, drawing on strong collaboration between its scientific, medical, and regulatory communities.Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.Loving the show? Leave us a review, and share it with someone who might get some value from it. Keen to take your healthtech to the next level? Become a THT+ Member for access to our online community forum, meet ups, special offers and more exclusive content. For more information visit talkinghealthtech.com/thtplus

We’re excited to collaborate with New Zealand Trade & Enterprise (NZTE) to bring you a mini-series of episodes titled: “Exporting Innovation: NZ HealthTech”, exploring how New Zealand’s healthtech innovators are taking their ideas from home to the world. This episode is part 1 of 3, so stay tuned for more episodes in the series coming soon!In this episode of Talking HealthTech, Peter Birch and Rob Milsom from New Zealand Trade & Enterprise (NZTE) introduce Rei Ishikawa (Karo Data Management), Paris Majot (Orion Health), Phil Xue (Odin Health), and Nick Burns (2iQ Health). The episode focuses on how New Zealand healthtech companies are powering smart healthcare through digital infrastructure, interoperability, and data-driven solutions, both at home and globally. They cover themes like hospital capacity management, primary/community care innovation, digital integration at massive scale, and the role of credible AI in healthcare transformation.Key Takeaways👨‍💻 NZTE highlights New Zealand’s approach to healthtech: innovative, necessity-driven, and values-led, with global ambition to solve hard problems in healthcare delivery.🏢 Odin Health’s journey from a small NZ operation to supporting over 450 million outpatient visits globally is driven by addressing real pain points in system integration, stability, and scalability.🌍 Real-world examples show how Norwegian digital infrastructure has been deployed not just in NZ but also at scale in large Chinese hospital settings, demonstrating the power and flexibility of Kiwi technology.🤝 Karo Data Management’s work underscores the importance of trust, indigenous values, and capturing holistic wellbeing data in primary and community care, making outcomes more relevant and reporting more meaningful.📶 Orion Health’s focus is on seamless data connectivity, patient engagement, and operational analytics, supporting clinicians with unified clinical records and enabling large-scale AI-driven workflows for preventative care.🏥 2iQ Health explores proactive public hospital capacity management, making hospital operations more efficient by anticipating demand patterns, maximising limited resources, and streamlining planning for leaders and clinicians.🔗 Across all companies, the importance of interoperability, real-time data access, cloud infrastructure, and patient-centred design is emphasised as vital for improving both patient outcomes and cost efficiency in healthcare systems.🤖 AI’s role is becoming increasingly important, but its effectiveness relies on access to quality, well-structured clinical data and meaningful integration into existing workflows.💡 A global healthtech export mindset, rooted in strong local values, positions New Zealand companies to partner with Australian organisations and those beyond for scalable healthcare innovation.Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.Loving the show? Leave us a review, and share it with someone who might get some value from it. Keen to take your healthtech to the next level? Become a THT+ Member for access to our online community forum, meet ups, special offers and more exclusive content. For more information visit talkinghealthtech.com/thtplus

In this episode of Talking HealthTech, Peter Birch speaks with Patrick Hart, a medical doctor and product lead at Concentric Health, about the vital topic of consent in healthcare. The discussion explores digital consent solutions, the current challenges with paper-based consent processes, how shared decision making can be improved, and what modernising the consent process means for patient experience and clinical outcomes. Patrick shares insights from Concentric's experience in the UK and their upcoming expansion into the Australian and New Zealand healthcare systems.Key Takeaways✅ Consent in healthcare is often treated as a tick-box paper exercise, conducted at the last minute with minimal patient engagement.🗨️ Shared decision making involves clinicians and patients collaborating, leading to better treatment choices and improved patient outcomes.🖥️ Concentric Health provides a digital, template-based consent platform that standardises information while allowing personalisation for each patient.📈 Standardised digital consent can increase shared-decision making from 28% (with paper) to 72%, significantly improving patient involvement.📊 Digitising consent reduces administrative burden, decreases on-the-day treatment delays and cancellations, and minimises errors and medico-legal risks.🌍 In the UK, Concentric is used in over 30 NHS organisations and across private health groups, entirely replacing paper consent in many settings.👩‍💻 The current Australian consent process mirrors where the UK was several years ago; there is opportunity for improvement through digital adoption.⚙️ Digital consent tools enhance efficiency, reduce environmental impact, and improve patient and clinician satisfaction.🔍 Concentric is seeking pilot partners in Australia and New Zealand to adapt and deploy their digital consent system.Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.Loving the show? Leave us a review, and share it with someone who might get some value from it. Keen to take your healthtech to the next level? Become a THT+ Member for access to our online community forum, meet ups, special offers and more exclusive content. For more information visit talkinghealthtech.com/thtplus

In this episode of Talking HealthTech, Peter Birch speaks with Leon Young, Founder of Cogniss, Dr Sarah Hanieh, paediatrician and public health researcher, Professor Caroline Donovan, clinical psychologist at Griffith University, and Adjunct Professor Annette Schmiede. The episode covers the 2025 Priority Digital Health Challenge, delivered by Cogniss AWS and the Validatron, supported by the AIDH, the Digital Health CRC, NextGen, and Talking HealthTech. You’ll hear from members of the expert judging panel and the two winners from the challenge.We explore how digital health solutions are being co-designed and developed for underserved, priority populations, with a focus on bridging the gap between research, evidence-based innovation, and real-world impact. Key Takeaways🏢 The Priority Digital Health Challenge supports the creation of digital health solutions for underserved and priority populations, focusing on real-world needs that often do not fit traditional commercial models.🤝 Initiatives like the Challenge help surface solutions arising from lived experience and subject matter expertise, particularly for communities and conditions often overlooked by mainstream systems.👩‍⚕️ A strong emphasis is placed on making the process less daunting for health professionals and researchers, who may not be traditional entrepreneurs, by avoiding typical startup competition formats.⚙️ Winning projects included Project Shine, a culturally tailored nutrition literacy tool for refugee and migrant communities, and Lights Out, an evidence-based child sleep intervention programme being transformed into an app.💰 There is a significant challenge in translating research-led solutions into accessible, procured offerings within health systems due to limitations in procurement pathways and funding.🗣️ Democratizing innovation opportunities and using co-design principles ensures voices from diverse communities are heard, leading to more impactful and culturally relevant solutions.🌏 Upcoming initiatives, like the Ripple programme, aim to scale the Challenge internationally, provide more sustained support to cohorts of solutions, and address systemic gaps in distribution and uptake.Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.Loving the show? Leave us a review, and share it with someone who might get some value from it. Keen to take your healthtech to the next level? Become a THT+ Member for access to our online community forum, meet ups, special offers and more exclusive content. For more information visit talkinghealthtech.com/thtplus