Resources

In today’s rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, technology is both an enabler and a challenge, reshaping how we deliver, manage, and access healthcare services. Liz will discuss the critical role of clinical governance and safety in digital health. As we explore frameworks that underpin sound governance, including some takeaways from the Health Innovation Community (HIC) conference, we’ll consider what it means to 'think differently' about health technology - why the integration of clinical governance isn't just about compliance but about achieving better, safer patient outcomes. 

Investment in digital health is advancing rapidly. In 2020, the total global funding for digital health was the highest recorded at US $26.5 billion. A global appetite for digital health, fuelled by the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated rapid adoption of point-of-care technological solutions, including telehealth, has driven the digital disruption of health care.

The rate of AI (Artificial Intelligence) in healthcare is growing, with immense scope for its application in healthcare – from robotic surgery and virtual nursing assistants, to preliminary diagnosis and automated image diagnosis. Where AI abuts the clinical interface, so must its governance.  Therefore, governance in AI must include clinical governance.

The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety (Royal Commission) recommended that every approved provider of aged care (whether delivering personal or clinical care) adopts a digital care management system, including an electronic medication management system, and that this should be an ‘immediate focus’ (Recommendation 68 of the Final Report).  

How are clinical information systems relevant to clinical governance? The answer is quite straightforward: imagine a world of care delivery in darkness (literally or metaphorically), absent of any information about the person for whom you are providing care.

An important aspect of clinical governance, particularly in primary and community care, is monitoring and early intervention. Particularly important in older people in the early detection of functional decline or clinical deterioration.

It’s almost impossible to think about clinical governance these days without also thinking about digital health. But what does clinical governance mean in this digitised age?

Clinical governance has attracted fresh limelight in recent times in the context of a pandemic, intense public scrutiny of our aged care and disability systems, and concomitant acceleration of digital health.