Introduction 

Hello, it is a pleasure to be here with you today. Our organisation has been working in the aged care sector for over 10 years and feel privileged to do so.  

We all know the theme of the summit is ‘Optimism – Dawning of the Silver Decade’.  

I want to show you how technology can support the seismic changes ahead of us as a nation – and ahead of us as humans.  

To that end, we brought together some of the leading CIOs in the sector to hear the challenges and opportunities they face as they drive their organisation’s through a time of escalating needs and evolving demands. 

We have heard about the Aged Care Taskforce final report today. There was only one recommendation specifically related to shifting the sector forward with technology and innovation; Recommendation 19:  Consider ways to encourage providers to develop and scale innovative care models, invest in technology, and conduct research into best practices.  

When bodies of work, like the ACIITC report, have highlighted the challenges with technology in our sector, it shows we have low maturity scores, a myriad of siloed technologies, no common standards and no common data models.  

The National Digital Health Strategy called out the importance of digital technology adoption and the change enablers to get it done.

We also have the Sparked FHIR accelerator program bringing stakeholders together to write the standards for healthcare data exchange.  

So I ask you, with all of this work, all of these reports and more standards needing to be met, do you have the right technology in place? If not, what are you going to do about it?  

We are going to explore four key topics that are critical enablers for transforming aged care: 

1. Digital innovation. 
2. Role of CIO. 
3. Data. 
4. Organisational change management. 

I would like to thank the six Chief Information Officers for contributing:

• John Sutherland, Chief Information Officer, Hammond Care
• Fiona Calwell, Chief Information Officer, Estia Health
• Mick Young, Chief Information Officer, Anglicare
• Brett Reedman, Chief Information Officer, Catholic Healthcare
• Daniel Pettman, Chief Information Officer, BaptistCare
• Craig Carter, Chief Information Officer, ACH Group

I asked: what are we going to do about it? In my opinion, we need to identify ways of supporting new business models and aged care standards via the adoption of innovative technology to provide more time to care while managing costs, retaining talent and including clinicians by giving them greater insights into an individual’s health data.  

Topic 1: The pivotal role that digital innovation can take to allow more time to care.  

As we navigate the challenges facing aged care in Australia, now is the time to harness the power of innovation and enhance the quality of aged care provided to residents and clients. 

Our CIOs support this: 

John Sutherland: So from my side, one of the key challenges is how we free our staff at the point of care to provide better care and more care and wrapped around our philosophy of care which is that focus on personalised care. No doubt shared by all of us on the call here and different ways of describing that. So I think that’s the great opportunity, is the role that technology has to play in providing better care for those that we care for.  

Mick Young: I start thinking about how do we prepare ourselves to be ready to take advantage of new IoT devices, particularly in the medical space and improving personal safety through the use of devices so that if someone’s in trouble that’s identified straightaway. How do we use machine learning and just more generally our data to drive better predictive models so that we can recognise if someone’s quality of life is deteriorating, if they’re at increased risk of falls. So I think this is probably the little bit more sort of out there part of it, but I think it’s kind of the part that’s coming in. 

Brett Reedman: I think it has to be that balance. You’ve got to find ways to continue to innovate, push the boundaries and look for new ways – whether it be for operational efficiency, whether it be for some new tech around wearables for our clients. We need to try and find ways to innovate to help our organisation. 

However, it isn’t just the CIOs that innovate within our organisations, it is the whole organisation from the Board, CEO, executive team and subject matter experts. We need to adopt an innovation culture. Here is Daniel and Craig’s view: 

Daniel Pettman: I think the CIO has that really future oriented, but they’re out there in the technology world which moves faster than any other sector and they’re looking at artificial intelligence, they’re looking at, you know, sensors, they’re looking at wearables, they’re looking at these virtual and augmented reality, automated cars, whatever it is. And I think CIOs have to bring that into the organisation and show what’s possible because if you’re doing what you do every day and you’re not seeing what’s possible or what could be changing, then you might be a little bit left behind. I think the solution to any kind of problem, you need multidisciplinary teams and groups of people to come up with a good solution. You know, if you turn to the IT person, they’re going to come out with a very technological lens. You need the people and culture, people in their image operations, people in your in your finance people, your legal people, and that multidisciplinary approach to solving problems is the best way to come up with a really good solution. But I think where the CIO and the technologists can really bring in, it’s that thinking. You know, what’s best practice in data, what’s best practice in AI, what’s best practice in cyber, what’s the best process practice in business efficiency and all the tools and opportunities that live around the space of what other sectors have already gone down that path and implemented some of these things. 

Craig Carter: So I think if the business has a problem and you’ve got the right people in the room, you’ve got the brains trust, you’ve got all of the disciplines and you have that good robust conversations, I think when you get to the point of understanding so what and what do we do about that? I find that it’s often the CIO who is left to come up with a solution. We’ve worked out what our problem is, we’ve got an idea of what we want to do, but how do we solve it? And that tends to be, you know, and again, I think traditionally it used to be a piece of software. There’s always a piece of software you could reach to solve a particular problem and so the CIO was always seen as the person who was able to pick the right piece of software. But now it’s about crafting a number of disciplines within the organisation and coming up with much more complex solutions because we’re operating in a much more complex environment. 

The concept of the digital room was borne from the minds of my team at Rohling. They have seen firsthand the impact of technology in aged care and have assisted some of you with those challenges.

Aligned to the initiatives of the National Digital Health Strategy, the digital room is an example of an ecosystem of innovative global technologies and data that are designed to connect an individual’s care journey as they transition between different settings.  

By implementing a concept like this, it will give greater insights to care teams internal to the organisation and externally, to inform decision making and support them in delivering more personalised care outcomes for individuals.    

The digital room supports current and emerging care models, whether that be residential, home care or assisted living. These innovations support the dignity, respect and privacy of our residents and clients.  

Mick Young: we obviously today deliver a lot of clinical care in the context of an aged care home, but generally speaking that is done to a lesser degree in a village or community context or in someone’s own home in a home care context. So I guess given that people generally speaking like where they live and don’t want to move, how do we use technology to facilitate different business models, different operating models that support allowing, for example, someone to stay in their own home. 

It is all well and good to talk about innovation, but how do we overcome the financial barriers to innovation? Minister for Aged Care Anika Wells says, “The Baby Boomers are coming,” and along with that will come higher expectations for services.  

The opportunity exists for digital innovation to support new business models. It really comes down to the leadership of providers and the sector to prioritise funding from different sources. 

There is a vital role for government to continue driving digital innovation. However, we need aged care providers, universities and technology companies to keep collaborating and co-designing to bring this technology to market.  

Small and medium sized providers will also need to take advantage of digital innovation and in most cases do not have the funds to support this on their own. However, there are solutions available for small and medium organisations to utilise, without the complexity of a larger ecosystem to support. 

John Sutherland: I say that there is a collective responsibility here around leaning into this future, which is, as we all know, will have a far greater reliance on technology. And that could range from body-worn sensors to smart sensors in homes and buildings through to sophisticated AI algorithms and I guess all of the possibility that Fiona is referring to that the big tech companies are really looking at. I would say to all the leaders at the summit that there is a collective responsibility here your technology executives don’t have all the answers and it’s really a team effort right across our organisations and the sector from boards down to CEO’s and operational executives and technology executives to really explore these matters. It is an exciting time on the tech front cause I think most of us would view this as the latest way of technological innovation, powered by AI as being the most exciting kind of period that we are in. We do not know what it is going to look like in 5 to 10 years’ time and like most technological innovations there will be mis steps along the way. We are in healthcare and aged care, so it is important that we have appropriate guard rails and those protocols that are in place need to be respected when trailing new technologies and new models of care. We see a terrific opportunity and I’m very pleased that our CEO and the board have committed this year a record level of investment in technology and that plays out in a number of different features for our organisation. The future is bright, it is not completely certain unless you kind of lean into it and be bold and be brave, then you run the risk of missing out on some of those opportunities.

Topic 2: The critical role of the CIO in developing and executing organisational strategy and transformations 

in progressive organisations, it has been interesting to watch the evolving role of CIOs as they undertake a more strategic cross-organisational view. If they don’t do it, this contributes to an organisation being sub-optimal. 

Now more than ever, the leadership of the CIO is imperative. I challenge you, are CIOs more Chief Innovation Officers?

Let’s hear from them: 

Fiona Caldwell: I think everything that John talks about is relevant. I think for us we’re thinking a lot about efficiency and how we can do things more efficiently. So it’s have we got the right systems? Are our processes streamlined or could they be done in a different way to make them more streamlined? Have we integrated our systems effectively? What are the opportunities for better integration? Where can we use more automation? All those sorts of things that play into how can we use technology to help our business be more efficient and optimal in the way that it operates. 

Daniel Pettman: I think CIO roles today as opposed to five years ago are largely not about managing the tech. You might have managing the technical team as one aspect of a CIO, but you’re looking at: how do you drive better decision making in the organisation through the use of analytics? How you’re delivering a portfolio of projects that might cover risk, innovation, system upgrades, business process for engineering? You’re looking at cyber, which is one of the top board governance risks out there. And these all have business consequences. If you have a cyber incident that’s reputational, financial, operational impact to your business is potentially very severe. So I think the CIO has to juggle a number of these areas and most of them are partnerships with business. Cyber – everyone thinks it’s about technical controls; it’s about every single person in your business being aware of what a phishing scam is, or having undergone training so they’re not tricked or falling for a cyber scam. So people, process, technology, it hasn’t really changed. CIO has got to be across all of those. 

Brett Reedman: A lot of the CIO members, particularly in aged care, are now starting to report through to the CEO. They’re part of the executive leadership team and I think that is just so critical today because we’re not just the techies – although whenever you’re in meetings, you’re always asked to fix the PowerPoint slides or fix the printer or something like that. But it’s about how you have to understand the business and by being part of that leadership team, you are immersed, you’re part of that team, you understand the legislative changes, you understand the impact on the frontline, and I don’t think you can get that fully if you’re not part of that leadership team. If you’re getting second-hand information passed down to you, you’re behind the eightball as a CIO if that’s the sort of reporting lines. And that’s not to diminish anyone who is the CIO who does have a reporting line through to a CFO, which is the traditional sort of reporting line. But I just think nowadays with the CIO, as Daniel mentioned, with cyber, AI and data analytics, it’s so critical that they have a seat at the table. 

Cyber security is here to stay. Continued investment in Cyber Security will be a permanent category in the IT budget. Small and Medium providers will need to ensure protection against cyber actors and not just rely on software vendors. Cybersecurity is the responsibility of the board and executive team. A cyber awareness ulture is a must for any organisation. 

Fiona Caldwell: And cyber is always one that’s always front of mind. And I think no matter how many years you’ve invested in really good cyber programs, there’s more and more investment needed because the risks are continuing to grow and evolve as we move forward. 

Topic 3: Data is the “uranium” that will supercharge organisational effectiveness. 

Really, the CIOs are all over it, including the challenges: 

Daniel Pettman: We talk about data internally as uranium. It’s very valuable. It has a half-life and it’s very dangerous if misused. So it’s about balancing both sides of the ledger here. You don’t want to keep data longer than you have to or you’re legislated to because it becomes a liability potentially. On the other hand, capturing lots of lots of data can give you insights into trends, decisions. [It’s] really, really valuable for helping your business make the right decisions. So there’s a real tension there. In the past it was all about getting as much data as you could in making the decisions. And in the last few years with the Medibanks and the Optus, we’ve become very, very aware of the liability side of that data. And the cost to store data for longer as well. So I think it’s about you’ve got to have good practices in both those areas. You’ve got to know your data, you’ve got to know the risk around that data, but you’ve also got to treat it as a strategic asset. Every bit of information about your organisation is in that data warehouse and you can ask it any question you want if you’ve got it right and that can be really, really powerful for your business to discover insights, trends, inform your strategy. 

Fiona Caldwell: I think with every technology it improves stuff and it creates new headaches. I think, look, I think that getting the data quality right is the critical piece. The problem is, with any system, if the data in is not useful, then the output’s not going to be useful. We’re using a lot of third-party systems where we don’t have validation on data entry. And so, there are data quality issues with some of the data that flows through and ways to sort of proactively identify and fix that data is really important. And until you know that the inputs are good, then you can’t guarantee the outputs are going to be good. 

Mick Young: I start thinking about how do we prepare ourselves to be ready to take advantage of new IoT devices, particularly in the medical space and improving personal safety through the use of devices so that if someone’s in trouble that’s identified straightaway. How do we use machine learning and just more generally our data to drive better predictive models so that we can recognise if someone’s quality of life is deteriorating, if they’re at increased risk of falls. So I think this is probably the little bit more sort of out there part of it, but I think it’s kind of the part that’s coming in. For me, when I think about the roadblocks and the challenges we’ve got, it’s actually around what are the foundations we need to put in place so that we’re able to take advantage of those things. And so let me, so I think for me quickly, it’s definitely data, it’s definitely what Fiona was talking about, just having good quality data so that we can use it effectively for those use cases. 

Aged care providers need to be focussing on data now, balancing the data volume and selection against the real need of the organisation. The linkage to cybersecurity and the future use of artificial intelligence and devices emphasises preparation of the foundation as key. Building digital twins of clients is a multi-year program requiring the right strategy and roadmap. 

Topic 4: The importance of change management in digital health implementations and the price of failure. 

I am going to make a bold statement here: organisational change management is the first thing to be cut from a digital project budget when there are cost constraints. 

Examples are legion across aged care, everywhere! 

People-based requirements need to be considered from Day 1 in any project.  

We see and hear these little voice grabs all the time when doing IT Health Check engagements …

All of these frustrations are symptomatic of a lack of effective organisational change management. As a consequence, IT systems often become a blocker rather than an enabler of great service and enthusiastic employees. 

Let’s hear what our CIOs think: 

Daniel Pettman: My view on change management, I often say in the organisation there’s no such thing as an IT project. Everything is a business project, and it really is a partnership between technology departments and business teams to really achieve the outcomes of the projects. Most large technology projects have impacts on people, on process, on culture, on data hygiene and it’s really a combined effort to realise the benefits of those projects throughout the project. And you need to have change at the start, in the planning phase. You need to have it at the end when you freeze that change. And you need to have it after that change is frozen, to make sure you’re not slipping backwards. So, it is something that has to be embedded in the whole life cycle of any kind of business or IT initiative.  

Craig Carter: So it’s not just about the implementation and the adoption of the change, whatever it is, it’s actually about from day one I suppose capturing the hearts and minds of people as to why you’re doing it. So change management actually starts at the very, very start of the project. It isn’t something that comes in at the end. And again, I think even a number of organisations, and we’ve been guilty of this ourselves in our earlier transformation activity, we considered it kind of a last stage activity as opposed to something that needs to happen throughout the life cycle to make sure that it delivers the benefits which we expect.   

In conclusion, I hope you have found this an interesting session with some useful insights.  

Digital innovation, understanding the importance of data and utilising organisational change management are key enablers to ensure our organisations are more effective in this increasingly complex and demanding environment.  

And most importantly, the strategic role of the Chief Innovation Officer must be recognised. 

Again, I thank our CIO team for being so generous with their thoughts and experience in building better organisations by leveraging IT. 

I ask you to reflect for a few minutes on how, with what you have heard today, you could drive improvement in your own organisation. 

Thank you