Transforming regional aged care: IoMT service model.
Regional in home aged care services face increasing demand, workforce shortages, and fragmented models of care. Digital health technologies enable remote patient monitoring models and are promoted as solutions. However, there is limited evidence on how to implement these models in regional contexts.
This study describes a mixed-methods pilot conducted in regional Victoria. Twenty-two older adults (aged 60+) with chronic conditions participated in a six week in home monitoring program. Vital sign data (oxygen saturation/heart rate) were collected using Bluetooth enabled devices and transmitted via multiple networks, LoRaWAN, NB-IoT, to a cloud platform. A key innovation was the integration of data directly into a hospital database using HL7 messaging and clinical dashboards, bypassing proprietary vendor platforms that constrain interoperability and data access. Interviews and surveys explored participant and clinician experiences.
The model was feasible and reliable across a geographically dispersed region. Over 2,000 data transmissions were integrated into the hospital database, showing consistent home to hospital data flow. Multiple connectivity options addressed regional coverage gaps, including cellular network blackspots. Participants found the technology easy to use. Clinicians reported that access to real-time data could support monitoring, inform decision making, and enhance clinical oversight. Indications suggest the model may reduce the need for in person visits.
IoMT enabled remote monitoring can work in regional aged care settings. What mattered most was not the device but how the model was designed, the ability to integrate data directly into existing hospital systems without relying on proprietary platforms. Moving beyond the pilot will depend on funding models and service design to catch up with what the technology now makes possible. The presentation will share practical insights into scaling, with a focus on connectivity, data integration, and the alignment of digital models with service and funding structures.

Challenge: Smoking and vaping remain leading causes of preventable harm in Australia, yet cessation support has historically been jurisdictional in nature. National digital platforms offer an opportunity to deliver consistent, evidence-based cessation information at scale, helping to ensure equitable access to information and support regardless of where people live.

Evidence: The National Cessation Platform, quit.org.au, publicly launched in March 2026. The platform provides users with access to evidence-based support, information, resources and tools no matter where they are on their quitting journey or where they are in Australia. It serves a complementary role within Australia’s cessation system alongside Quitline services and health professional advice. Grounded in user experience and behavioural research, the platform delivers personalised content journeys supported by enhanced digital functionality and analytics. The analytics generate insights that support continuous improvement of the platform and enable timely learning across Australia's cessation system.

Early platform data is beginning to reveal how Australians engage with cessation content, and progress through referral pathways to support services such as Quitline. The data also demonstrates how promotional activities such as those for state-based NRT programs and campaign referrals shape user cohort behaviour. Critically, the platform's digital infrastructure means that every campaign and referral pathway generates evidence, enabling the national cessation system to learn in real time about what drives engagement and what does not.

Implications for real-world action: These early insights highlight the value of a national digital cessation platform not only as a support and referral tool, but as population-level evidence-generating asset. The platform's ability to demonstrate how different cohorts and communities respond to campaigns and resources has significant implications for cessation policy, cross-jurisdictional coordination, and the design of future digital public health infrastructure.

Background
Digital marketing systems exploit personal data for commercial gain, often without meaningful user consent. Social media platforms enable highly personalised targeting, frequently exposing users to promotions for alcohol, gambling, and unhealthy food products. Despite the disproportionate burden these industries place on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing, the extent of exposure to harmful marketing remains largely unknown.

Objective: To quantify Aboriginal adults’ exposure to digital marketing of unhealthy food and beverages, alcohol, gambling, tobacco and e-cigarettes, and to describe the nature of digital marketing exposure including platform, marketing type and presence of Indigenous-specific content.

Methods: Thirty-one Aboriginal adults were asked to record their screens on one weekday and one weekend day, capturing approximately one-third of their usual daily screen time (maximum 60 minutes). Recordings were analysed using SCANNER, an automated system trained to detect food, beverage, alcohol, gambling, tobacco and e-cigarette marketing. Demographic data and usual online behaviours were collected via an online survey. Descriptive statistics, a Mann-Whitney U and Fisher’s Exact test were used to analyse marketing detections and estimated daily marketing exposure.

Findings: Almost all (n=29/31, 94%) participants were exposed to unhealthy digital marketing. Of the 587 marketing instances detected, unhealthy food brands were most common (47%), followed by gambling (28%), alcohol (15%), sweetened beverages (9%) and tobacco (0.7%). No e-cigarette brands were detected. Approximately 20 instances of unhealthy marketing were detected per hour of screen recording. Estimated median daily exposure was 18.4 instances of unhealthy food marketing, 4.1 gambling, 2.9 alcohol, and 2.5 sweetened beverage marketing each day. Male participants, aged 30 years and under, recorded significantly more marketing detections overall and for gambling specifically (both p<0.001).

Conclusion: The pilot study suggests the pervasiveness of unhealthy food and beverage, gambling and alcohol marketing in the everyday digital lives of Aboriginal participants. Comprehensive regulation of unhealthy digital marketing is urgently required to advance Aboriginal health.

Upholding Indigenous Data Sovereignty
This pilot study was part of a larger Aboriginal-led research project on the commercial determinants of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. The research team includes Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal university researchers, with expertise in Indigenous health research and CDoH, working in partnership with national and state peak bodies representing Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs). Oversight was provided by an Indigenous data governance committee to ensure principles of self-determination and Indigenous data sovereignty were upheld.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being explored within healthcare systems to support clinical decision-making, service delivery, and organisational efficiency. However, the preparedness of Western Australia’s public health system to adopt and implement AI technologies remains underexplored. This study examines organisational readiness for AI adoption across Western Australia’s metropolitan public health services.

The research draws on a qualitative study of 12 senior leaders and executives across WA’s metropolitan public health system. Semi-structured interviews were conducted between October 2024 and February 2025 and analysed using the Non-adoption, Abandonment, Scale-up, Spread, and Sustainability (NASSS) framework, with a particular focus on the organisational domain.

Findings show that AI adoption across health services is uneven and fragmented. While participants identified clear opportunities for AI to improve data analysis, service efficiency, and aspects of patient care, they also described significant barriers to implementation. These included limited workforce capability and AI literacy, uneven digital infrastructure, funding constraints, governance uncertainty, and concerns relating to privacy, accountability, and risk management. Participants also identified challenges associated with attracting and retaining specialised AI capability within the public sector.

Despite these barriers, participants described a growing culture of innovation, leadership interest in AI, and examples of early implementation across some services. However, the findings suggest that the WA health system does not yet have the consistent organisational foundations required to scale AI safely and effectively across the sector.

This research contributes new empirical insight into the organisational and governance challenges associated with AI adoption in public healthcare systems and highlights the importance of coordinated leadership, workforce development, infrastructure investment, and governance reform in supporting responsible AI implementation.

Background:
Adolescent e-cigarette use is a growing public health concern. Leading health organisations have called for interventions to complement legislative action. Previous research shows parents influence adolescents’ attitudes and behaviours toward e-cigarettes. This study evaluated a text-message intervention delivered to parents and adolescents on adolescent susceptibility to e-cigarette use. Secondary aims examined effects on adolescent e-cigarette and tobacco use and assessed intervention acceptability, feasibility, and fidelity.

Methods:
A 2x2 factorial RCT was conducted with parent-adolescent dyads across Australia. Adolescents were eligible if aged 12-15 years, had exclusive use of a mobile phone, and sufficient English. Dyads (n=120) were randomised to one of four arms: (1) adolescent-only, (2) parent-only, (3) parent and adolescent, or (4) control. Intervention participants received one text-message per week for 12-weeks targeting modifiable factors associated with adolescent e-cigarette use (e.g., refusal skills). Parents in the control arm received an e-cigarette factsheet. The primary outcome (assessed 6-months after the first text-message) was adolescent susceptibility to e-cigarette use; secondary outcomes included ever- and current-use of e-cigarettes and tobacco. Process measures (acceptability, feasibility, fidelity) were assessed at 6-months.

Results:
One hundred and twenty dyads completed baseline data collection and were randomised. At 6-month follow-up, susceptibility scores did not differ significantly between adolescents who received the intervention and those who did not (mean difference [MD] 0.15, 95% CI −0.57 to 0.86; p=0.69). Adolescents whose parents received the intervention showed lower susceptibility scores, although not statistically significant (MD −0.56, 95% CI −1.28 to 0.16; p=0.12). The intervention demonstrated high acceptability among both adolescents and parents, was delivered with high fidelity.

Conclusion:
This trial is one of the first to evaluate a parent- and adolescent-focused text-message intervention targeting the prevention of adolescent e-cigarette use. The intervention has potential as a scalable, low-resource strategy to reduce adolescent e-cigarette related risk.

Background:
Healthy food retail (HFR) interventions show good evidence of effectiveness in improving food environments. Digital tools (e.g., mobile applications, web-based platforms, software systems) can support the real-world implementation of HFR interventions by enabling rigorous and time-efficient assessment, monitoring, and guidance. This study aimed to map evidence on the development process, implementation outcomes and user acceptability of digital tools in HFR settings.
Methods:
This scoping review followed Joanna Briggs Institute methodology and PRISMA-ScR reporting guidelines. EBSCOhost, Web of Science, Scopus, and ACM Digital Library databases were searched between 2000 and 2025. Grey literature was searched using Google Advanced Search. Eligible studies reported on digital tools used by food retailers, food service providers, or those supporting implementation of healthy food environment changes in real-world food retail settings. Data were extracted using implementation science frameworks including RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance), UTAUT2 (Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology - Extension), and the Double Diamond Model.
Results:
Searches identified 4439 records, with 17 studies included in the review. Studies reported on mobile applications (n=5), web-based platforms (n=5), decision-support systems (n=3), interactive kiosks (n=2), and other digital monitoring or feedback tools (n=2) used by retailers. Eight studies reported the developmental stages of the tools (reported through Discover, Define, Develop, and Deliver stages of the Double Diamond Model). Seven studies reported fully implemented or scaled digital interventions in retail environments. Six tools incorporated co-design approaches to inform the development process, including input from tool users to improve functionality, engagement, and usability.
Conclusion:
Digital tools in HFR settings are at the early formative stages, with limited evidence beyond human-centered design, development, and feasibility testing. Further evaluation of their real-world adoption and implementation will be essential to understand how these tools can effectively support healthy food retail environments at scale.

Background: Understanding how people interact with their local food environment requires methods that capture the complexity of food access. In-person community engagement approaches can restrict participation for people living in rural areas, those with limited transport access, or constrained time availability. Digitally enabled participatory systems approaches may help overcome these barriers by enabling flexible engagement while capturing factors influencing food purchasing behaviours, travel patterns and decision-making. This study describes the human-centred co-design of Map My Food (MMF), a digital participatory mapping tool designed to capture lived experiences of food access and purchasing behaviours across Australian communities.
Methods: MMF was developed through an iterative human-centred co-design process involving researchers, local government stakeholders, community members, and digital developers working collaboratively to refine the functionality, usability, accessibility, and systems relevance of MMF.
Results: Throughout the co-design process, more than 100 community members and stakeholders were engaged to design, develop, and test MMF. Participants helped shape the questions asked and how they were presented. Geographic location was identified as important, resulting in MMF using online mapping platforms for participants to map food purchasing journeys. The need for MMF to be easy to use and engaging led to the incorporation of colourful click buttons to identify rurally relevant food outlet types and images indicating foods purchased. The need for a low-effort way to capture participant stories led to the development of an AI-prompted sentence builder. Participants could also suggest solutions to increasing access to healthier food closer to home.
Conclusions: The human-centred co-design of MMF provides a digitally enabled participatory systems method for generating place-based understandings of food access while improving opportunities for inclusive community participation. The approach offers a scalable method for supporting local governments, researchers, and communities to identify leverage points for healthier and more equitable food environments.