Australia’s Health

Please join us as we explore Australia’s health. What does the future look like and what is the potential for innovators to leave a lasting legacy, one with the potential to both enhance our life expectancy whilst also improving our quality of life?

Health spending absorbs a large and increasing percentage of government budgets every year and is set to steadily increase as both our growing and ageing population expands and we continue to use health services more frequently and engage more closely in self-care.

Chair of Innovation Science Australia Bill Ferris suggested in a recent speech to the National Press Club that innovation could be the key to taking Australia to the pinnacle of healthy nations. The report he was launching, Australia 2030: Prosperity Through Innovation, suggests greater funding for research and development, specifically in the areas of genomics and precision medicine making them an ideal “first National Mission, delivering health and innovation benefits to all”.

The recent WEF Forum in Davos recognised 5 key trends for the future of healthcare as areas of growth and possible game changers. They are immune-oncology, gene therapy, personalised medicine, artificial intelligence, and wearable digital devices. But innovation and better health outcomes is not limited to these areas. We also want improved data sharing, smarter or more open policies, novel payments and new business models, as well as greater cooperation along the healthcare chain, the end result being better patient outcomes and better value across the health system.

The Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association 2017 report proposes using technology better for improved health outcomes. This is all a long way removed from the fundamental game changer in the history of health – the simple but never to be underestimated habit of simply washing ones’ hands!

Please join me as we explore the future of Australia’s health and the legacy innovators can leave that will both enhance our life expectancy whilst also improving our quality of life.

Please contact me on editor@openforum.com.au with your suggestions.

Read more on these Open Forum blogs:

• Would graphic warnings on unhealthy food make you think again? – Andrew Trounson
• Joining the ‘big data’ dots on indigenous health – Andrew Trounson
• Hitting the ‘big six’ for six – Lucy Carroll
• Why you should go on a clinical trial – Grant McArthur
• Hypnosis offers help for chronic back pain suffers – Open Forum
• Outdated surgical choices put women at risk – Open Forum
• Does switching to ‘diet’ soft drinks really improve your health? – Open Forum
• The importance of exercise for mind-body connection – Victoria Lim
• Fast food shown to slow conception – Andrew Spence
• We can change the brain and its ability to cope with disease with simple lifestyle choices – Yen Ying Lim
• Alcohol adverts may breach the advertising code – Lucy Carrol
• Wellbeing and the great outdoors – Vic Health
• Time for a shake up in musculoskeletal pain care – Helen Slater
• Understanding the social consequences of chronic back pain – Elizabeth Cummings
• Is ‘low carb’ beer better for you? – Open Forum
• When the pain is the practitioner – Cheryl Critchley
• Are we mishandling the treatment of chronic disease? – Edd McCracken
• Loneliness is bad for your health – Jed Magen
• Unbottling the drivers of family violence – Vic Health
• Why too much sugar is bad for you – Kieron Rooney
• 1 in 20 deaths are caused by alcohol and illicit drugs – Lynelle Moon
• Australia needs a moratorium on genetic tests for life insurance – Open Forum
• Why do so many Australians get skin cancer? – Terry Slevin
• TB is still a major global scourge – Kathryn Snow
• Salt is one big snag to improving your diet – Vic Health
• Pursue drug harm reduction, not a punitive response – Deborah Rice
• Reducing harm from opiod painkillers – Open Forum
• New drive to reduce Aboriginal smoking – Open Forum
• Five simple tips to help our kids cope and prosper – Don Tustin
• Supermarkets must start to tackle obesity – Open Forum
• Australia needs a colonoscopy wait-time guarantee – Julien Wiggins
• Precision healthcare and genomics: The delicate balance between what to ask and what to tell – Marcel Dinger
• Lock-out laws cut emergency room casualties – Diana Egerton-Warburton
• Australia’s youth report card – Could do better – Open Forum
• Functional Food – Chris Blanchard
• Artificial intelligence & machine learning – what does it mean for healthcare? – Megan Kennedy
• Improving health literacy crucial to health outcomes – Grant Kardachi
• Blueprint maps out how to give Australians a 21st century health system – Alison Verhoeven
• Legal parentage and surrogacy – more inconsistency? – Cressida Limon
• Indigenous health – Dominic O’Sullivan
• Thanks for the cash, now what about health service reform? – Dr David Thorp
• The future of mental health – Dr Peter Baldwin
• What about the survivors? – Kate O’Reilly
• Getting aged care innovation right, and karma’s inevitability – Merlin Kong
• The Obesity Paradox – Myth or reality? – Open Forum