ACU partners with startup to build digital nursing education platform
The Australian Catholic University (ACU) in Sydney has partnered with education technology startup Skybox Health to develop software for digital nursing education.
"This partnership is crucial for providing our health professional students with realistic and effective digital health education, developing workforce capacity and capability solutions in national areas of critical need," said ACU vice chancellor, president, and professor Zlatko Skrbis.
They plan to co-design a software that will "prepare nursing, midwifery and allied health students for modern healthcare environments and support the advancement of healthcare practice," according to Stephen Guinea, ACU Faculty of Health Sciences associate professor and associate dean of Learning, Teaching and Professional Experience. It will combine "digital documentation of patient care with realistic simulation of complex, unfolding patient cases."
"Over the past few years, we've seen growing impetus to enhance curricula to not only reflect the evolving clinical landscape but to meet the changing course accreditation requirements surrounding digital capabilities," shared Skybox Health co-founder Philippa Gent, who is also a registered nurse and paramedic.
Recently, the Australian Digital Health Agency has started working with universities across the country to integrate digital health education into degree programs to "better [prepare] the health workforce to respond to the needs of Australians in more settings, both now and in the future."
Tend Health to deliver NZ's new digital mental health, addiction service
The New Zealand government has recently awarded funding to primary healthcare provider Tend Health to set up a new digital primary mental health and addiction service.
In a statement, Minister for Mental Health Matt Doocey said the new service aims to help people, particularly those who are not enrolled in a general practice (GP) or having trouble accessing GP services, get easier access to primary mental health support.
"A multi-disciplinary mental health and addictions team will deliver support virtually and with extended operating hours, giving people more flexible access to help when they need it," he added.
The government expects Tend's digital service, which has received NZ$1.97 million ($1.2 million) in state funding over two years, to deliver more than 15,000 sessions to more than 5,000 people. Tend will also match the funding dollar-for-dollar.
First Aussie uni to deploy NVIDIA supercomputer for healthcare AI research
A newly installed supercomputer will accelerate medical and healthcare AI research at La Trobe University.
The deployment of the NVIDIA supercomputer is reportedly a first for an Australian university. It has been installed at La Trobe's Australian Centre for Artificial Intelligence in Medical Innovation (ACAMI), which is also claimed as the world's first university centre specialising in medical and healthcare AI.
"The potential of AI in medical and biotech research is huge. NVIDIA DGX H200 systems enable faster translation of research into clinical trials and personalised therapies," said La Trobe vice-chancellor and professor Theo Farrell in a statement.
One of the first projects to use the new supercomputer is a collaborative study by ACAMI and The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health on Niemann-Pick disease type C, a type of childhood dementia.
The supercomputer will assist in developing gene therapy for this condition. It will also help provide "insights into other forms of dementia, which affect over 400,000 Australians and are projected to double by 2058," added Dr Ya Hui Hung, project lead from The Florey.
La Trobe has recently taken an "AI-first approach" in transforming research, education, student support and business operations.
The supercomputer deployment was backed by a A$10 million ($6.5 million) state government investment through mRNA Victoria.
