MoTHer and the COVID Barometer – finalists in the Qld iAwards

The Australian e-Health Research Centre, CSIRO’s digital health research program, was shortlisted as  finalists of the Public Sector category at the Queensland Australian Information Industry Association iAwards, which unearths, recognises and rewards excellence in Australian innovation.

Delivered by Australia’s peak industry representative body for innovation technology, the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA), the iAwards is Australia’s longest running and most broadly scoped innovation recognition program, promoting excellence in the Australian digital ecosystem.

This year the AIIA transformed the competition to create “THE BIGGEST PITCH” where entrants were asked to submit a three-minute pitch about their innovation solution. In their 27th year, the 2020 iAwards saw a clear focus on innovations that seek to help address the world during and post COVID-19.

The AEHRC Mobile Health Systems team entered the iAwards with the MoTHer mobile health technology. MoTHer was developed with Metro South Hospital and Health Service in Brisbane to provide a smartphone based program to support the management of women diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes during pregnancy. A large implementation trial is currently underway with Mater Mother’s Hospital and Metro South HHS with over 400 women recruited into the study since June 2020.

“Patients and health services around Australia are embracing telehealth and mobile health solutions like M♡THer to deliver preventative health care remotely. Our pilot trial in 2018 showed that this way of supporting women with GDM can make a real difference to health outcomes. “, says Dr Marlien Varnfield, team leader at AEHRC.

The AEHRC health intelligence team entered the iAwards along with our collaborators at Queensland Health and Queensland transport for the COVID Barometer. The COVID Barometer was developed out of work done by the teams during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic and provides Queensland Government with a holistic view of the information required to navigate the state through the pandemic. “Managing the next stage of the COVID-19 pandemic will be much easier because we now have visibility of health, mobility, economy and other information in one technology platform. The Barometer easily and seamlessly pulls data from a variety of sources to give us a clear snapshot of how we are doing in this COVID-19 situation”, says Dr Sankalp Khanna, team leader at AEHRC.

“These two projects demonstrate the way that CSIRO’s science and technology can partner with government to tackle key challenges”, says Dr David Hansen, CEO of the Australian e-Health Research Centre. “We have many other projects with Queensland Health and look forward to continuing to work with them”.