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In this episode of Talking HealthTech Peter Birch speaks with Dylan Coyne, co-founder at Updoc, about the origins and growth of the Updoc platform, the challenges and opportunities of providing accessible healthcare across Australia, and the balance between technology, trust, and scalability in digital health.
The conversation traces back to a personal injury that exposed the inefficiencies of the traditional healthcare system, sparking the idea for a platform built around convenience and access.
The episode explores how Updoc is addressing gaps in rural and regional healthcare access, fostering a supportive culture for both patients and clinicians, and participating in the development of national telehealth standards.
Recorded live at the Updoc booth during DHF26, The Digital Health Festival, the conversation highlights the ongoing innovations and real-world community engagement driving the company's mission.
Key Takeaways
🩺 Updoc aims to be a digital "front door" to healthcare, offering on-demand consultations without the need for traditional appointments or waiting rooms.
🌏 Rural and regional Australians represent nearly 40% of Updoc’s consultations, reflecting critical healthcare access barriers outside metropolitan areas.
🔒 Trust and data security are central to Updoc's operations, safeguarding both patient and doctor information while fostering confidence in telehealth solutions.
💡 Bootstrapping the company drove a focus on sustainability, leading to scalable offerings like unlimited telehealth subscriptions.
📜 Updoc played an active role in developing national telehealth standards, advocating for shared quality, credentialing, and feedback systems across the industry.
Timestamps
00:00 - Updoc's origin story
02:07 - Making healthcare accessible and convenient
04:22 - Impact and scale—reaching over a million Australians
05:24 - Building trust with patients and clinicians
08:20 - Serving rural and regional communities
09:09 - Community Access Programme and in-person outreach
12:01 - Attracting and supporting clinicians through flexibility
15:06 - National telehealth standards initiative
16:36 - Updoc's future and role in the healthcare ecosystem
Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.
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Mentioned in this episode:
Use the free Talking HealthTech Glossary for plain-English explanations of digital health terms, acronyms and concepts across the industry: talkinghealthtech.com/glossary.
In this episode of Talking HealthTech, Peter Birch speaks with Dalibor Frtunik, CEO of Sorsix, about how their platform Pinga® is building the backbone for the future of digital healthcare.
The conversation covers Sorsix's origins in North Macedonia, where the company cut its teeth integrating an entire national health system from the ground up, through to the concept of a health operating system and what that means in practice for clinicians, administrators, and patients alike.
Frtunik unpacks how AI-powered digital pathways are being deployed safely within clinical workflows, why the balance between customisation and standardisation matters more than ever, and how Sorsix approaches compliance and governance using frameworks like ISO 42001.
The episode also explores the growing role of data in preventative care, the limitations of old-style integration, and what the next decade of digital health transformation will demand from platforms and health systems alike.
Key Takeaways
💡 Sorsix’s platform Pinga® acts as a health operating system, integrating different healthcare workflows from individual clinics to entire countries
⚙️ Pinga® supports both clinical and administrative workflows, including triage, long-term care management, screening programs, and preventative pathways
🤖 AI is already in practical use within Pinga®, supporting operational efficiency and improved clinical outcomes, but safety and compliance remain priorities
🔒 ISO 42001 certification for AI is a critical part of building trust and governance in healthcare platforms
🌏 Sorsix’s experience shows that future health systems will need interoperable, flexible, AI-enabled technology that adapts to local workflows and supports ongoing digital transformation
Timestamps
00:00 - Introduction to Sorsix and Pinga®
05:22 - Concept of a health operating system
07:04 - Solving healthcare interoperability and scheduling
13:02 - Balancing customisation with compliance
17:04 - Building clinical and administrative digital pathways
31:36 - Certification, ISO 42001, and AI safety
37:11 - Looking to the future of interoperable, patient-centred systems
Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.
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Mentioned in this episode:
Use the free Talking HealthTech Glossary for plain-English explanations of digital health terms, acronyms and concepts across the industry: talkinghealthtech.com/glossary.
In this episode of Talking HealthTech, Peter Birch sits down with Cameron McBride, Divisional Director of Digital Technology Services at Western Health, Chris Fisher, Head of Solution Engineering for Asia Pacific and Japan at Island, and Jeroen Nguyen, Solutions Architect from Endpoint Focus to explore what it really takes to modernise digital workspaces in healthcare.
The conversation moves through the everyday challenges of implementing secure and efficient technology in hospitals, the flow-on impact on clinician workflows, the cybersecurity considerations that come with managing sensitive patient data, and the complexities of compliance in a global context.
The discussion also looks ahead to the future of AI integration at the point of care and what it will take for emerging technologies to earn the trust of clinicians and patients alike.
Recorded live at DHF26, the Digital Health Festival held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, this episode features a multi-guest panel discussion captured in front of a live audience at one of Australia's premier health innovation gatherings.
Drawing on real-world examples from Western Health and technology partners active in the Australian healthcare sector, the panel offers a grounded look at how digital transformation is unfolding on the ground, not just in theory.
Key Takeaways
🖥️ Legacy applications and insecure browsers create significant risks and challenges, addressing them simplifies IT service delivery and enhances security
🔒 Moving security controls into the browser provides more effective protection and flexibility compared to traditional network-based layers
⚡ Improving clinician access to critical systems, such as electronic medical records, directly impacts patient care by reducing wait times
📊 Enhanced analytics and visibility tools enable IT teams to better monitor user behaviour and application performance
🤖 Integrating AI-driven workflows and secure technology environments is paving the way for future innovations in healthcare delivery
Timestamps
00:00 - Introduction and guest backgrounds
03:04 - Challenges with legacy apps
04:08 - Island's place in security landscape
07:02 - Security at the browser level
09:01 - Clinician workflow improvements
11:36 - IT analytics and reporting benefits
12:57 - Implementing technology changes in healthcare
17:27 - Future plans and AI integration
Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.
If you’re enjoying the show and want access to exclusive healthtech discussions, meetups, and member-only content, you can learn more about becoming a THT+ Solo Member here: talkinghealth.tech/solo_shownotes
And if this episode was useful, leaving a review or sharing it with someone in the industry always helps.
Mentioned in this episode:
Use the free Talking HealthTech Glossary for plain-English explanations of digital health terms, acronyms and concepts across the industry: talkinghealthtech.com/glossary.
In this episode of Talking HealthTech, Peter Birch speaks with Bettina McMahon, CEO of Healthdirect, clinical governance and digital health safety expert Chris Boyd Skinner, and Leon Young, founder of Cogniss and Ripple Scale, about the ongoing challenges and potential solutions in scaling the adoption of digital health tools beyond pilots and siloed deployments.
The conversation explores why so many effective tools in women's health, mental health, children's health, and long-term care struggle to reach the people who need them most.
The group discusses portfolio-based adoption models, the limitations of one-app-at-a-time procurement, and the growing case for a digital health publisher model that can validate, distribute, and maintain tools at scale.
The episode also covers clinical trust and regulatory frameworks, the risks of shadow IT, the barriers facing direct-to-consumer digital health, and how innovations such as Ripple Scale are working to address the gaps in app distribution and uptake.
Together, the guests make a compelling case for why collaboration, shared infrastructure, and smarter funding models are the next step forward for digital health.
Key Takeaways
🌐 Many digital health tools struggle to scale beyond pilots due to barriers in adoption by health providers.
🤝 Clinicians and researchers are often required to become startup founders to drive adoption, even if their expertise is in care, not business.
🏥 Health systems face challenges in assessing, procuring, and managing hundreds of separate digital health apps.
🔒 Clinical safety, regulation, and building trust are essential for the widespread uptake of digital health technology.
🚀 Portfolio-based models and digital publishers like Ripple Scale offer alternatives to fragmented app distribution, making it easier for providers to offer trusted digital solutions across key health areas.
Timestamps
00:00 - Introductions & background
03:21 - Cogniss mission and innovation
04:52 - The need for a digital health publisher
05:28 - Barriers to adoption: system and innovator challenges
12:37 - The perspective of Health Direct and large organisations
17:57 - Consumer vs. provider-facing digital products
19:00 - Clinical safety, trust, and governance
26:30 - "Shadow IT" and its impact
33:52 - Advice for digital health tool creators
36:15 - Next steps for Ripple Scale
Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.
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Mentioned in this episode:
THT+ Company Partnership
Learn more about THT+ Company Partnership options for start-ups, scale-ups and enterprise digital health companies looking for visibility, content, community access and industry connection: talkinghealthtech.com/partners.
Use the free Talking HealthTech Glossary for plain-English explanations of digital health terms, acronyms and concepts across the industry: talkinghealthtech.com/glossary.
Find out how Medcast is building trustworthy medical-grade AI in this episode of Talking HealthTech, recorded live at the Digital Health Festival 2026 in Melbourne, Australia's premier gathering for health innovation, technology, and policy.
Peter Birch sits down with Dr Stephen Barnett, CEO of Medcast, to explore what it genuinely takes to make AI safe, reliable, and fit for purpose in a clinical setting.
With a background spanning general practice, research, and digital health innovation, Barnett brings a grounded and practical perspective to one of the most talked-about topics in healthcare right now.
Together, they unpack the concept of knowledge translation, the persistent gap between cutting-edge AI and trustworthy clinical tools, and why large language models alone are not enough.
The conversation covers retrieval-augmented generation, the risks of AI hallucinations, the importance of curated and validated data sources, and the orchestration layer that sits between a powerful model and a safe medical answer.
They also discuss how clinical workflows are changing, the shift in how doctors use digital tools in front of patients, and the emerging conversation around patient-facing AI.
Key Takeaways
🧑⚕️ Knowledge translation in healthcare relies on getting the right information to the right person at the right time, impacting both clinician learning and patient outcomes.
🤖 Large language models require an orchestration layer and data curation processes to be considered "medical grade" and trustworthy for clinical use.
🔎 Retrieval-augmented generation and other governance measures help address hallucinations and bias in AI-powered healthcare solutions, supporting quality, safety, and auditability.
💡 Medluma, Medcast's AI platform, addresses compliance, standardisation, and onboarding within healthcare organisations, while empowering clinicians with trusted knowledge access.
📱 Patient-clinician trust depends on using validated, professional tools for information sourcing, and future AI integrations may also support patient self-service within set guardrails.
Timestamps
00:00 - Introduction and guest overview
00:44 - Medcast origins and purpose
02:54 - Obsession with AI and knowledge translation
03:49 - Medical safety in language models
06:13 - Techniques for trustworthy AI
10:01 - Adapting to rapid AI changes
13:32 - Knowledge translation across clinical and non-clinical roles
14:49 - Patient trust and professional boundaries
18:22 - Medcast and Medluma future roadmap
Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.
If you’re enjoying the show and want access to exclusive healthtech discussions, meetups, and member-only content, you can learn more about becoming a THT+ Solo Member here: talkinghealth.tech/solo_shownotes
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Mentioned in this episode:
Use the free Talking HealthTech Glossary for plain-English explanations of digital health terms, acronyms and concepts across the industry: talkinghealthtech.com/glossary.
In this episode of Talking HealthTech, Peter Birch speaks with Suma Shivalingaiah, Chief Information Officer at Eastern Health, about the practical use, governance, and impact of AI and digital technologies in a large Victorian public health service.
The conversation covers the AI journey at Eastern Health, from addressing a significant cyber incident that reshaped the organisation's digital strategy to building internal capability, upskilling staff, and deploying AI across both administrative and clinical workflows.
Suma shares how Eastern Health approaches AI governance through a dedicated committee that assesses and manages risk across all tools and platforms, why cybersecurity remains the organisation's top priority, and how clinician buy-in is central to any successful implementation.
The discussion also touches on real-world pilots including GP referral triage systems, help desk and policy management agents, and Emergency Department wait time predictions, as well as the role of university partnerships in accelerating AI adoption.
This episode was recorded live at the Microsoft stand during the Digital Health Festival 2026, held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre in May 2026, as part of a series of conversations captured across the event.
Key Takeaways
🛡️ Governance and cybersecurity are foundational for AI deployment in healthcare, and a dedicated committee is needed to ensure safe use of digital tools
⚙️ Real-world AI success starts with addressing repetitive and administrative tasks for staff and clinicians, using agents like help desk and policy management tools
👨⚕️ Clinician and staff buy-in is critical. Adoption depends on early engagement and solving actual pain points
📊 AI in clinical workflow includes initiatives like triaging GP referrals and predicting ED wait times, always as a support tool, not a replacement for clinicians
🎓 Building AI literacy, continuous training, and partnerships with universities are essential for capability uplift and safe technology integration
Timestamps
00:00 - Introduction & Episode Setting
00:28 - Overview of Eastern Health
01:35 - Practical AI applications
02:51 - AI agents & support tools
03:57 - Importance of clinical buy-in
05:33 - Governance & cybersecurity foundations
06:30 - AI use case—triaging referrals
08:31 - Justifying AI adoption in public health
10:02 - Automating clinical notes & admin
11:16 - Multi-pronged strategy & advice
12:02 - Lessons for healthcare leaders
Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.
If you’re enjoying the show and want access to exclusive healthtech discussions, meetups, and member-only content, you can learn more about becoming a THT+ Solo Member here: talkinghealth.tech/solo_shownotes
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Mentioned in this episode:
Use the free Talking HealthTech Glossary for plain-English explanations of digital health terms, acronyms and concepts across the industry: talkinghealthtech.com/glossary.
In this episode of Talking HealthTech, Peter Birch speaks with Jacqueline Leeds, CEO of Rauland Australia and New Zealand, Vickie Knight, General Manager for Clinical Services at Rauland Australia and New Zealand, and a panel including Robin Mann, Chief Digital Information Officer at Monash Health, Richard Taggart, CEO of eHealth NSW, Jayne Barclay, National Director of Healthcare Platform at St Vincent's, and Emily Mailes, Executive Vice President at Optimum Healthcare IT.
Recorded live during the Healthcare Leaders Breakfast with Rauland Australia and New Zealand in Melbourne, the conversation brings together some of Australia's most experienced digital health leaders for an honest discussion about what it actually takes to deliver technology that works in a real clinical environment.
The panel covers the realities of implementing healthcare technology from strategy through to execution, including the importance of co-designing with clinical teams, navigating legacy infrastructure, managing stakeholder engagement, and dealing with the resource constraints that shape what is achievable.
The conversation also explores how organisations can build a compelling business case, ensure measurable benefits are realised, and scale innovation without losing sight of patient care.
Key Takeaways
🧩 Enterprise thinking is essential for managing complex healthcare tech environments, particularly integrating new solutions into legacy systems
👩⚕️ Clinical workflow mapping, including workarounds, is crucial for successful technology deployment and co-design with clinicians
💸 Investment in digital innovation must balance legacy system costs and future benefits, requiring creative funding solutions and engagement with financial leaders
📞 Standardising processes, such as critical consumer escalation pathways, improves safety and user experience
🔍 Focus on defining and measuring the actual problem solved by technology, ensuring real value and operational impact for healthcare staff and patients
Timestamps
00:00 - Event introduction and context
03:10 - Jacqueline Leeds on Rauland's platform approach
09:59 - Vickie Knight on execution challenges in healthcare
17:31 - Panelist intros and real-world project examples
28:54 - Innovation, investment, and budget barriers
41:43 - Final advice for healthcare leaders
Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.
If you’re enjoying the show and want access to exclusive healthtech discussions, meetups, and member-only content, you can learn more about becoming a THT+ Solo Member here: talkinghealth.tech/solo_shownotes
And if this episode was useful, leaving a review or sharing it with someone in the industry always helps.
Mentioned in this episode:
Use the free Talking HealthTech Glossary for plain-English explanations of digital health terms, acronyms and concepts across the industry: talkinghealthtech.com/glossary.
In this episode of Talking HealthTech, Peter Birch sits down with Martin Moszczynski, CEO of Olinqua, to explore the evolution of hospital communications technology in Australia.
They dig into the real-world challenges of moving away from pagers to smartphones, the infrastructure decisions that come with that shift, and what it takes to modernise communications across an entire hospital workforce.
Martin shares insights from Olinqua's large-scale projects in Victoria, discussing the practicalities of tech adoption, the importance of system integration, and why the focus needs to be on frontline staff rather than patient-facing solutions.
The conversation also touches on the tension between legacy systems and modern platforms, the role of AI in software development, and how real-time location technology is opening up new possibilities for workflow improvement and patient transfer logistics.
This episode was recorded live during the Digital Health Festival 2026 in Melbourne, Australia and shares a deep-dive conversation captured at the event.
Key Takeaways
📱 Hospitals are transitioning from aging pagers to smartphones for greater capability, integration, and reliability
🔄 Tech upgrades are often driven by infrastructure maturity and end-of-life legacy systems, not just a desire for new tech
✨ Modern solutions centralise multiple workflows: emergency alerts, task management, and mobile duress onto a single platform
👩⚕️ The main focus is improving staff experience, convenience, and freeing up time for direct patient care
📍 Real-time location technology is a major area of investment, enabling efficient asset and patient tracking for workflow innovation
Timestamps
00:00 — Introduction and setting
00:29 — Olinqua’s current projects
01:17 — Pagers vs smartphones in hospitals
03:13 — Reasons for upgrading communications tech
05:55 — Recent deployment examples
08:51 — Staff centricity vs patient centricity
12:34 — Impact of AI and easy-to-create software
15:55 — Olinqua’s priorities: location tech and innovation
Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.
If you’re enjoying the show and want access to exclusive healthtech discussions, meetups, and member-only content, you can learn more about becoming a THT+ Solo Member here: talkinghealth.tech/solo_shownotes
And if this episode was useful, leaving a review or sharing it with someone in the industry always helps.
Mentioned in this episode:
Use the free Talking HealthTech Glossary for plain-English explanations of digital health terms, acronyms and concepts across the industry: talkinghealthtech.com/glossary.
In this episode of Talking HealthTech, recorded live at the Digital Health Festival 2026 (DHF26), Peter Birch speaks with Kai Van Lieshout, CEO and founder of Lyrebird Health, and Dr Ray Boyapati, Chief Clinical Officer at Lyrebird Health and a practising gastroenterologist at Monash Health.
The discussion explores the evolution of Lyrebird Health's AI-driven tools for clinicians, the importance of clinical involvement in product design, and the rapid adoption of AI across Australian general practice.
Kai and Ray also unpack what's driving this shift in attitude among clinicians, many of whom were previously wary of new digital health tools, and why this generation of AI is proving different.
The conversation covers approaches to maintaining safety and clinical rigour while meeting increasing demand from clinicians.
It also looks ahead to where clinical AI may be heading next, from ambient documentation to decision support, and what that means for the future of patient care, clinical workflows, and the relationship between doctors and patients.
Key Takeaways
🤖 Lyrebird Health’s AI tools have been made freely available to most Australian GPs, significantly increasing adoption among clinicians.
🩺 Embedding practising clinicians like Dr Ray Boyapati within the Lyrebird team ensures clinical rigour and relevance in product development.
🏥 Clinicians are more willing to adopt technology that demonstrably improves their workflow, as seen with AI-powered medical scribe tools.
🚦 Rapid AI adoption in healthcare brings risks, making deliberate, safety-focused implementation essential.
🌏 The timing of AI integration in healthcare is critical, shaping future clinical practice and patient care.
Timestamps
00:00 - Episode and guests' introduction
00:40 - Lyrebird Health’s mission and product updates
01:39 - Team growth and bringing on Dr Ray Boyapati
03:12 - Dr Ray Boyapati’s background and experiences
04:38 - Chief Clinical Officer responsibilities
07:08 - Clinician technology adoption and impact
Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.
If you’re enjoying the show and want access to exclusive healthtech discussions, meetups, and member-only content, you can learn more about becoming a THT+ Solo Member here: talkinghealth.tech/solo_shownotes
And if this episode was useful, leaving a review or sharing it with someone in the industry always helps.
Mentioned in this episode:
Use the free Talking HealthTech Glossary for plain-English explanations of digital health terms, acronyms and concepts across the industry: talkinghealthtech.com/glossary.
In this episode of Talking HealthTech, Peter Birch joins Dr Seref Arikan, Technical Lead at Ocean Health Systems, for a conversation that spans continents, with Peter joining from Australia and Dr Arikan speaking from London, to explore one of the most ambitious digital health initiatives the world has seen.
Together, they unpack what it really means to unify health data across 26 nations and half a billion patients, and why the European Health Data Space is about far more than just technology.
Dr Arikan walks through the landscape of health data standards, from HL7 FHIR to openEHR, and explains why having no shortage of standards does not automatically translate to interoperability at scale.
The conversation also explores the EHDS's ambition to put patients firmly in control of their own health data and what that looks like in practice across dozens of different legislative and cultural environments.
There is also a thoughtful discussion on the role of artificial intelligence in digital health, why this generation of AI is better understood as a skill than a tool, and what it means to be an AI-native clinician in a world where large language models can be as misleading as they are useful.
The discussion also looks at Australia's SPARKED initiative and the lessons it offers for Europe, how feedback loops can prevent costly mistakes in large-scale health IT projects, and why stakeholder collaboration remains the hardest and most important part of getting any of this right.
Key Takeaways
🗂️ EHDS is a major European Union initiative aimed at creating a unified framework for health data use and exchange across member states.
🌍 The project’s biggest challenge is coordinating communication and collaboration between a vast range of diverse stakeholders, including patients, clinicians, health systems, payers, and regulators.
🔗 Standards such as HL7 FHIR, OpenEHR, SNOMED CT, and others play a central role, but aligning on which to use across the EU remains a complex, ongoing process.
🤝 Fast and efficient stakeholder feedback loops, as demonstrated by the OpenEHR Clinical Knowledge Manager and Australia's SPARKED project, are critical to prevent costly missteps in developing compliant solutions.
🤖 Artificial intelligence is viewed as a skill to amplify human capability rather than a replacement for stakeholders; good data is essential for effective AI use in healthcare.
Timestamps
00:00 - Introductions & speaker roles
00:30 - Dr Seref Arikan career journey
02:54 - What is the European Health Data Space?
04:40 - EHDS and health data standards
07:27 - EHDS objectives & patient focus
10:44 - Challenges of implementation
15:12 - The role of feedback & communication
19:21: AI’s role in health data projects
26:22: Reflections on Australia’s SPARKED project
32:46: Ocean Health Systems updates
Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.
If you’re enjoying the show and want access to exclusive healthtech discussions, meetups, and member-only content, you can learn more about becoming a THT+ Solo Member here: talkinghealth.tech/solo_shownotes
And if this episode was useful, leaving a review or sharing it with someone in the industry always helps.
Mentioned in this episode:
Use the free Talking HealthTech Glossary for plain-English explanations of digital health terms, acronyms and concepts across the industry: talkinghealthtech.com/glossary.
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