CHF was involved in a national research project called “Reimagining healthcare in Australia: the journey from telehealth to 21st century design" with the Digital Health CRC, Deloitte Australia and Curtin University. The project aimed to better understand consumer expectations of virtual healthcare.
You might be asking what virtual care is, and how it differs from telehealth. Put simply, virtual care is the next revolution in healthcare, where consumers play an active role in managing their care by generating and controlling their data in a fully digital health ecosystem.
Today many of us already do this through tools such as wearables (Apple Watch, Fitbit, etc) or perhaps by integrating our weighing scales to apps on our smartphone. Other consumers might use remote monitoring devices to help record and manage their chronic diseases. But very seldom do all of these tools “talk” to each other or integrate with the systems used by medical professionals. The more these tools continue to expand and develop, the more virtual our opportunities for healthcare will become.
What have we done so far?
One of our first activities was to host a webinar in 2020 that featured the Secretary to the Department of Health, Dr Brendan Murphy, CHF CEO, Leanne Wells, and a number of other thought leaders in the digital health space.
From the webinar and follow-up consumer survey, 
an infographic and accompanying consumer explainer (246.62 KB) was created, showing feedback from participants about barriers to advancing from telehealth to true virtual care, and thoughts on how consumers are best placed to take advantage of virtual care evolution.
This research project included a review of recent academic literature and the accompanying consumer explainer from Curtin University.
This project included several national consumer insights surveys. The surveys focused on consumer preferences and expectations in healthcare. The results in combination with the other project pieces will shape future service development and research.