As the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic began, the embrace of virtual healthcare provision continued to define this era in the eHealth sector. Telehealth, remote monitoring and electronic prescriptions saw notable developments, and yet it was the more prosaic field of online appointment booking systems and immunisation registers that defined the year in digital health.
The ramifications of the sweeping changes recommended by the Simpson Health and Disability System Review (HDSR) are still being debated but technology as an enabler of system reform will be front and centre, backed up by a pretty decent investment from the government in data and digital infrastructure of $400 million over four years.