Industry–university collaboration to tackle heath sector challenges

Nine universities and industry partners have joined forces to form an alliance to tackle the challenges faced by the healthcare sector.

The new National Industry Innovation Network (NIIN) Health Alliance, led by the RMIT-Cisco Health Transformation Lab, will identify, pilot and prototype technology-driven solutions that will reshape the health sector.

“Technology and digitisation have a critical role to play in addressing growing health equity concerns, building resilience against internal and external threats such as pandemics and cyber attacks, workforce management and improving the healthcare sector as a whole,” Executive Chair of the RMIT-Cisco Health Transformation Lab Professor Vishaal Kishore said.

“Our ongoing partnership with Cisco has already brought transformative solutions to the frontline of health, laying the groundwork for reimagining how we can bring together the best of a range of robust technology offerings to create smart healthcare spaces and environments.”

Solutions previously curated through the RMIT–Cisco partnership include advanced prototyping studios equipped with devices and sensors to detect falls in aged care, technology that can monitor hazards and behavioural risks in real time and a robotic dog that can perform manual tasks.

“This alliance will accelerate the collaborative creation of technology-driven approaches to improve how we care for people and how we manage one of the largest workforces and information systems in the Asia–Pacific region.”

The Director of Education and Strategic Industries at Cisco, Reg Johnson, said the NIIN Health Alliance will enable a future powered by digital innovation where applied workforce skills and leading-edge innovation can help to meet key national and regional challenges.

“This alliance deepens our collaboration and creates a unique opportunity for industry–academic partnership to achieve positive impact at scale,” Johnson said.

“We are excited to deepen our ties with RMIT and to co-create solutions for the real-world problems we face today and make a meaningful difference in people’s lives and in our health systems.”

NIIN member universities include Flinders University, La Trobe University, Curtin University, Queensland University of Technology and Canberra University. Solutions will be prototyped and tested at the RMIT-CISCO Sandbox facility at the Health Transformation Lab, other RMIT prototyping labs and also with industry collaborators.

The RMIT-Cisco Health Transformation Lab was established in 2018 to encourage innovation within the health sector. The Lab works closely with industry partners, health services and government to identify challenges and respond with a combination of new thinking and digital technologies.

Image credit: iStock.com/mattjeacock