overview

The National Telehealth Summit will take place as a face-to-face event on the 20-21 of April 2021 at the Swissôtel Sydney. It will also be available virtually.

Telemedicine in Australia is not new, but there is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has catalysed an unprecedented shift toward virtual care across the country. Moreover, the Australian Government’s announcement to inject $669 million to expand Medicare-subsidised Telehealth services for all Australians, whilst also providing extra incentives to general practitioners and other health practitioners was a game changer. The funding for telehealth has made it more accessible, affordable and appealing to health services and consumers alike.

As we begin to look beyond the pandemic and into the future, now is an important time to discuss what place telehealth will have in Australia’s healthcare system now and into the future?

This event will be about exploring the key areas of opportunity for telehealth beyond COVID, recognising and debating the challenges and realities of widespread sustained adoption of telehealth and showcasing latest and greatest innovations. Some key topics to be covered include:

• The drivers, uncertainty, and the appetite in the market for telehealth
• What role and place will telehealth have post-pandemic? Addressing concerns and finding the hard evidence to weight the benefits and risks
• Funding realities of telehealth and debating the most effective measures, models and reforms needed
• Greatest opportunity areas for telehealth applications e.g. mental health & wellbeing
• Infrastructure requirements – ensuring right technology, network connection, and ensuring human resources/trained staff
• Lessons learnt, experiences and insights from best practice case studies across the country
• Identifying and adopting successful telehealth models
• Embedding telehealth into current hospital practices
• Addressing knowledge and capacity gaps within the current health workforce
• Consumer perspectives- understanding and harnessing expectations and building partnerships
• Medico-Legal protections for GPs and healthcare professionals providing on-demand telehealth services
• Data security and privacy with telehealth and medical records
• Trusting providers- what they do with your data and addressing misconceptions about data breaches
• Development of AI in telehealth. Where are we now?
• Redesigning healthcare in Australia as expectations on how care can be provided change