In its 18th year ITAC 2025 was another great event where aged care providers, academics, and solution providers collected to share ideas, discuss their concerns, and look forward to how they can improve the care and support for older Australians.
Having attended all but one of the conferences over the 18 years, and also a couple of the events preceding ITAC I have watched a huge growth in the use of technology in the aged care sector.
However, this has not been without its challenges, and even today, in many respects, aged care is seen as a laggard in the use of technology.
In the early days of ITAC, digital technology was seen as an example of progress, yet the industry was reticent to adopt in wholeheartedly.
Most people in the industry identified as carers, and there was a belief that technology would separate them from the core job, or providing care, and plummet them into an impersonal world of computer programs and algorithms that dehumanised their endeavours.
Growth driving adoption
Eighteen years later that fear remains, however the rapid growth of the industry, its close ties to government reimbursement, and the need for audit trails of expenditure and revenue have driven adoption, in particular, in the back office of the industry.
Now everyone has computerised accounts, contact management, payroll and most of the administrative tasks. This has required new skills and new roles in the back office to support the growth of the sector, and whilst we still hear complaints about the computers in the back office, I don’t think anyone would remove them and go back to the old days of paper.
A major challenge in the back office has been the inability to digitally transform processes, but rather a digitisation of existing processes. So forms, now online rather than printed are still the mainstay of aged care. Some organisations have looked at digital transformation, but the requirements for government submissions in outdated formats has prevented them taking it on fully.
More recently, thanks to the wholesale upgrading of the government’s own systems we are seeing a glimpse of hope with a shift to a modern API based architecture for government reporting, and a move to digital transformation rather than just digitisation. This is being driven by new innovative thinkers in the department who are supporting the move.
Lack of digital capability
From the care aspect, we have seen many experiments in digital innovation flourish in the industry. Some are starting to stick, but the biggest challenge they face is lack of workforce digital capability.
This is not the fault of the workforce, who are highly dedicated and keen to do whatever they can to improve the outcomes for those they care for. Rather, it is a result of lack of time and training, and the huge
pressures they are under.
The need to upskill the workforce and get them actively engaged in co-designing a technology supported future is obvious. They require not just skills, but opportunities to try them in real world environments, and have them evaluated by trained professionals from academia and the industry.
Organisations like ARIIA and the Digital Health CRC are essential to enable us to scale the education needed by the workforce, from the senior management and board through to the carers on the ground, and all levels in between.
The opportunity to be fast followers, and learn from other industries, in particular the broader healthcare system is an advantage. However, we also need to rethink how the entire system works, and with the recent changes to the Aged care Act, more focus on better integration across an individual’s experience across all sectors, health care, aged care, social services and finance.
In this way we can improve both the outcomes and experiences for older Australians into the future.
