A landmark National Policy Roadmap for AI in Healthcare released today warns Australia risks “falling behind” in the safe and effective use of AI unless governments, industry and health services “act now.”
The authors warn the pace of technological development is outstripping the systems designed to ensure safety, quality and effectiveness.
Professor Enrico Coiera, lead author, AAAiH Founder and AIHI Director, said Australia has reached a critical point in determining how AI will shape the future of healthcare.
“Healthcare is well known for its inertia to change and so we must find new agile ways to meet these historic challenges. Our mantra must be: Don’t walk. Run,” Prof Coiera said.
“AI has enormous potential to improve the quality, accessibility and efficiency of healthcare, but achieving those benefits will require coordinated national action.”
The Roadmap calls for stronger national leadership and collaboration between governments, healthcare providers, researchers, industry, and consumers.
It also highlights the growing importance of building Australian capability in healthcare AI, rather than relying solely on technologies and policy approaches developed overseas.
DHCRC CEO Adjunct Professor Annette Schmiede said the Roadmap provided an important opportunity to align Australia’s efforts and ensure the responsible use of AI across healthcare.
“We have witnessed first-hand across our research projects and initiatives the increasing use of AI across health settings. The challenge now is to ensure adoption is guided by clear evidence, strong governance and collaboration across the sector,” Adjunct Professor Schmiede said.
“This Roadmap helps set a practical direction for Australia, supporting the safe and effective use of AI while providing a framework to deliver meaningful benefits for patients, clinicians and the broader health system.”
The Roadmap calls for healthcare systems to become better at responding to rapid technological change.
“The question is no longer whether AI will transform healthcare, but whether Australia is ready to guide that transformation in a way that delivers the greatest benefit to patients and clinicians,” Professor Coiera said.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The Roadmap’s top recommendation is for the Federal Government to develop and regularly refresh a well-resourced National AI in Healthcare Strategy, supported by a National Health AI Expert Group to advise on policy and regulation. It suggests Australia’s response to AI has become fragmented across governments, agencies and the non-government sector, resulting in duplication, poor coordination and gaps that require a nationally coordinated approach.
The report also calls for stronger governance of AI that is already being used in clinical settings. It recommends healthcare organisations using AI should establish robust clinical governance processes, supported by national guidance and independently reviewed through existing accreditation processes. The Roadmap notes governance should extend from procurement, through implementation to ongoing monitoring of clinical performance, rather than relying on a traditional “certify once” regulatory approach.
Among its governance recommendations, the Roadmap suggests Australia should prioritise national post-market surveillance of AI systems, so emerging risks can be rapidly identified and communicated. It also recommends harmonising AI-related patient safety reporting across jurisdictions, noting current reporting mechanisms are fragmented, with generative AI products such as AI scribes requiring additional scrutiny due to their safety relying heavily on post-market monitoring.
The Roadmap also underlines the importance of sovereign capability, noting Australia should reduce its strategic reliance on overseas technology providers by developing local expertise, infrastructure and governance. It recommends government support for nationally governed generative AI capabilities, tailored to Australian healthcare – as well as investment in privacy-preserving data ecosystems and AI localisation capabilities that can be adapted to local populations, health services and clinical needs.
In regard to workforce development, the report recommends AI should become a standard component of clinical and digital health education and recommends a national Chief AI Officer training program to prepare executives to oversee AI procurement, governance and implementation across healthcare organisations.
The Roadmap also recommends an “AI front door” strategy for consumer-facing health services, using AI to improve access to and navigation of services including My Aged Care and 1800 Medicare. It says consumer education should also be expanded through a national campaign to build trust in healthcare AI, while also helping counter health misinformation and disinformation generated through publicly available AI tools.
It says Australia should invest more heavily in research and commercialisation, including dedicated AI review panels within the NHMRC and MRFF, funding for one or more Centres of Research Excellence in Healthcare AI and increased support for industry-academia collaborations to accelerate safe adoption of AI technologies.
COLLABORATION
The Roadmap was developed by a nationwide alliance of health and technology leaders and incorporates input from consumers, more than 96 organisations, 20 peak bodies and government agencies and provides recommendations across governance, sovereign capability, workforce development, consumer engagement, education and research and development.
The project was led by the Australian Alliance for AI in Healthcare (AAAiH) and supported by the Australian Institute of Health Innovation (AIHI) at Macquarie University, the Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre (DHCRC), CSIRO’s eHealth Research Centre and RMIT University.
The AAAiH includes more than 150 national and international organisations and stakeholders from academia, government, healthcare, consumer groups and industry and aims to support the responsible adoption of AI-enabled healthcare across Australia.
In a statement, Macquarie University’s AIHI said the Roadmap “reflected the rapid emergence of generative AI and increasing use of AI across healthcare. It outlines the actions needed to support the safe, effective and widespread adoption of AI technologies across the health system, while ensuring Australia remains globally competitive and patients are not harmed.”
Add Comment