The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology or RMIT University has opened a hub to drive digital health innovation in Australia and beyond.

The RMIT Digital Health Hub seeks to bring advanced digital health research and expertise from RMIT to the health sector with the view of transforming healthcare delivery and improving health outcomes.

It was launched in partnership with ANDHealth, a digital health commercialisation organisation, and the federal government-backed Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre.

WHY IT MATTERS

The digital health hub was launched to help bring the stakeholders of the health ecosystem together to solve unmet needs "from virtual care and artificial intelligence to diagnostic and monitoring wearables and sensors".

It is envisioned to be an "epicentre for transdisciplinary research" with capabilities across engineering, data science, information technology, health and biomedical sciences, design and social sciences and business and law. 

Aside from research, the hub is also focused on promoting the digital capabilities of the healthcare workforce by offering training via RMIT Online, including short courses and postgraduate training.

THE LARGER TREND

The RMIT Digital Health Hub has been involved in an international programme for people with lower limb amputation, physical disability, and associated mental health concerns in developing countries within the Asia-Pacific region. The project, which is being delivered through RMIT's digital learning platforms and face-to-face training, was launched in Indonesia last month, and is set to be conducted in Cambodia and Timor-Leste soon.

The hub, through RMIT Europe, is also supporting a research project in the European Union that is creating a digital health literacy strategy to promote the adoption of digital technologies among European consumers.

ON THE RECORD

"The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a rapid acceleration of innovations in the health sector, but it is just the beginning. It takes a multi-sectoral approach to co-designing solutions to today’s health and care problems and the Digital Health Hub will play a key role in the development, testing, and implementation of new innovations to support citizen health and wellness goals in the home and the community," said RMIT Digital Health Hub Director Kerryn Butler-Henderson.