Guest blog: Introducing the Digital Health Systems Collection – by Simone Marangon

Digital health systems have been a critical topic of exploration and policy development across the globe in recent years. Simone Marangon, Doctoral Candidate at University of South Australia and Editor for the APO Digital Health Systems Collection, looks at what this means as digital technology progressively becomes a bigger part of our everyday lives.

Digital health systems

Digital health systems are gradually becoming embedded into our healthcare systems in the form of electronic health records, artificial intelligence, robotics, and machine learning. The goal of digital health systems is to create efficient and sustainable progress in both the management of health care data and information, as well as ensuring that the benefits of technological medical innovation are accessible to patients.

While there are many advantages to digital technology being integrated into all levels of health, the adoption of electronic health records of patient data and the use of artificial intelligence and robotics in medical innovations continue to bring about policy debates regarding issues of ethics, data protection, and patient safety.

Digital health policy collection

The APO Digital Health Systems Collection was launched in September 2018 as a joint project between Swinburne University of Technology and the University of South Australia. The Collection was developed as a part of the Linkage, Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) project Linked semantic platforms for social and physical infrastructure and wellbeing funded by the Australian Government, through the Australian Research Council.

Digital health systems are ever changing and moving forward due to the speed at which technology continues to advance. As such, the aim of this Collection thus far has been to compile the most up-to-date and relevant resources on topics relevant to digital health (no more than five years old).

The APO Digital Health Systems Collection aims to support researchers, industry, government, and NGOs in their approaches to finding new solutions to critical public policy issues by identifying resources that reflect and explore the current topics and debates in this area.