23 January 2026 - Top Stories

Australia sits at the cusp of an AI-driven shift in health data. Trials of consumer tools such as ChatGPT Health are under way, with Claude Health expected soon. For years, data sat in silos and were tightly regulated, slowing care improvement. The government is rebuilding the health data backbone through the Department of Health Disability and Ageing, the Australian Digital Health Agency and Healthdirect. The change aims to speed patient-centric sharing and redefine the competitive space for EMR vendors, insurers and digital health platforms.

In New South Wales, researchers mapped polypharmacy in colorectal cancer across 19,056 adults over five years, linking electronic health records with dispensing data from the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and with hospital, cancer registry and death records. The Medicines Intelligence Data Platform enabled the data linkages. Disease was localised in 35% of cases, regional in 45%, with the remainder metastatic. The study shows the burden of multiple medicines persists into survivorship, underscoring the need for medication management and deprescribing within cancer care pathways.

A Productivity Commission inquiry into delivering quality care more efficiently argues that investing in prevention and early intervention can cut long-term health and social care costs. The SunSmart skin cancer campaign is cited as a success, preventing more than 43,000 cancers between 1988 and 2010. The Commission estimates that about A$1.5 billion across all prevention programs over five years could unlock meaningful savings, highlighting opportunities for health‑tech tools in risk tracking and cross‑agency coordination.

Cp Thrive, a mobile app to guide cerebral palsy care, is being built for Australia by Cerebral Palsy Alliance, the University of Sydney and CSIRO under the TRANSMIT program. The platform translates decades of CP research into practical guidance for families and clinicians, funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council and supported by the National Disability Insurance Agency. If scaled, it could influence care pathways and access to proven therapies.

Global testing of pulse oximeters has shown a skin tone bias, with readings skewed higher for darker-skinned patients in several devices. While the NHS study focused on home monitoring, the implications extend to Australia as regulators and manufacturers review validation and guidance to ensure equitable performance in remote care and triage.

Together, these developments point to a near-term shift: AI-enabled health data, linked longitudinal datasets and scalable digital tools will reshape care delivery in Australia. Executives should watch for interoperability milestones, new consumer-facing health apps, and the regulatory framework guiding data use and device validation.

• Accelerate AI-enabled health data interoperability and patient-centric data sharing.
• Scale and govern consumer AI health tools in Australia.
• Link longitudinal datasets to improve cancer care and med management.
• Invest in prevention and early intervention with health-tech support and cross-agency data tracking.
• Support cpThrive and similar tools to translate CP research into practice.
• Ensure device validation and regulatory guidance for equitable remote monitoring.
• Leverage progress on the digital health backbone to foster new EMR and digital health business models.