Consortium to advocate for safe AI, genomics use

A consortium pushing for the safe use of advanced analytics for enhanced genetic disease diagnosis will be established with the assistance of federal government funding. 

The Centre for Population Genomics, a joint initiative between the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, has received an A$8 million ($5.4 million) grant from the Medical Research Future Fund to establish the Australian Alliance for Secure Genomics and AI in Rare Disease (AASGARD).

In Australia, at least one in 17 people is inflicted with genetic diseases such as muscular dystrophy. Half of patients reportedly cannot receive a confident diagnosis and access critical new precision medicines currently.

“[The AASGARD consortium] will develop and rigorously test new AI-driven analysis tools, apply them to help tens of thousands of Australian patients, and share the resulting frameworks and knowledge so that others can benefit,” shared Daniel MacArthur, professor and director of the Centre for Population Genomics. 

The consortium will include international partners, Microsoft Research, Genomics England, and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

National inter-university network to promote digital, data for healthcare

An Australian-first national network of universities has been formed to promote the application of digital technology, informatics, and data science to healthcare in the country.  

Composed of 36 universities, the Australian Council of Senior Academic Leaders in Digital Health will “help fast track the integration of digital health research into practice,” said Annette Schmiede, CEO of the Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre (DHCRC). The council will be headed by Clair Sullivan, professor and director of the Queensland Digital Health Research Centre at the University of Queensland. 

According to DHCRC, the council will focus on providing strategic leadership in digital health scholarship, strengthening digital health education and scholarly research, advocating for investments in digital health education and research, and helping enhance the impact of higher education institutions. 

It will also explore solutions to address issues around adopting and applying digital technology in healthcare and upskilling current and future workforce. 

eHealth NSW to expand CDNP to rural Sydney

A platform for enhancing hospital and ambulance communications across Sydney will be expanded to rural and remote areas of the city in the second half of the year. 

The Clinical Device Notification Platform (CDNP) seeks to improve the communications for 70 ambulance stations and 12 hospitals in the state capital, enabling paramedics and clinicians to provide timely diagnosis and expert advice. It is delivered by eHealth NSW, together with NSW Ambulance, NSW local health districts, and the Agency for Clinical Innovation.

In April, new communication capabilities were added to the CDNP, including in-app audio calling, messaging, and image sharing, streamlining handovers and facilitating information sharing between paramedics, emergency clinicians, and cardiologists.