Health & Ageing
The Australian health sector faces major challenges, such as an ageing population, the rise in chronic disease, uneven access to specialist care, complex and costly diagnostic and therapeutic modalities, the healthcare consumer movement and health workforce shortages. New broadband technologies can contribute to improved healthcare delivery and personal wellbeing by enabling improvements in the quality and safety of care, access to services, and innovations in clinical care and health maintenance. Targeted home-based care and mobile care, linked or integrated health services, real-time and just-in-time monitoring of health and illness, personalisation of care using genomic information are some of the possibilities that are enabled by next generation broadband.
The Institute has a focus on health and biomedical informatics research actively promoted through the Health and Biomedical Research Unit.
Ageing well
Broadband technologies can help older people retain their independence and live in their homes longer, providing opportunities for social engagement and easier access to healthcare.
IBES is driving research focusing on how broadband-enabled technologies can be designed to encourage uptake and use.
Monitoring health
Ubiquitous high-speed broadband delivers new opportunities for clinicians and researchers to monitor and manage patients health data.
Research at IBES is exploring how these new technologies can support the management, monitoring and treatment of patients. Additionally, IBES is supporting the emerging field of personalised medicine.
Telemedicine
Telemedicine makes use of high-speed broadband networks to support video conferencing and data sharing to connect remotely located patients and healthcare professionals.
IBES is researching the various ways that telemedicine can be used to support the delivery of healthcare from specialist consultations, health management and supporting rehabilitation.