Grampians Health staff participate in Learning Health System Academy to boost digital health skills
Two staff members of Grampians Health have been selected to participate in the Learning Health System Academy, a professional development program run by the Centre for Digital Transformation of Health at The University of Melbourne.
The program equips healthcare professionals with the skills to identify best digital health practice and improve patient outcomes.
Daniela Bowen, Clinical Pharmacist, and Heath Miller, Manager of Allied Health Informatics, will participate in the program to gain knowledge on data-driven and digital health-enabled clinical practice improvement, which they can utilise on the projects they are working at in Grampians Health.
Ms Bowen aims to understand the discharge prescription coordination and communication processes and their impact on timely discharge in a regional acute care setting. This work will inform the development of a prototype dashboard to track the progress of the discharge prescription forms.
Mr Miller’s project will analyse attendance to outpatient clinics at Grampians Health Ballarat campus, with the aim to help the health service understand the impact of location and travel distance on how people access care. This work will inform future improvements, such as expanding virtual care, to help patients access care quicker.
“Grampians Health is committed to providing its staff with opportunities to learn and develop new skills to deliver the best care possible to patients,” said Matthew Hadfield, Chief Medical Officer of Grampians Health.
“As an organisation with a large rural footprint, the use of digital health is integral in providing timely and effective care. We expect the training imparted by the Learning Health System Academy will help us to drive positive patient outcomes.”
The Learning Health System Academy program aims to build the healthcare workforce’s capacity for data-driven and digital health-enabled clinical practice improvement, transform healthcare through data-informed and technology-enhanced models of care, and enhance patient and end-user engagement in the digital transformation of health.
“Daniela Bowen and Heath Miller are the inaugural rural/regional Victoria fellows,” said Prof Wendy Chapman, Director, Centre for Digital Transformation of Health.
“Our Centre’s vision is connected health, and their projects are critical for developing functioning learning health systems that support patients across their journey in the fragmented healthcare system. Participation in the Learning Health Systems Academy will equip them with the learnings to successfully integrate digital technologies and lead the transformation of healthcare.”
Through this program, healthcare professionals can learn from each other, improve their ability to lead change and practice improvement within their organisation, and gain skills in using routinely collected clinical data to generate new knowledge and design and implement digital solutions to real clinical problems.
