Technology the vehicle of choice to bring healthcare into the future

FWARDS founder and nurse Athol Hann is not worried about robots walking the wards of our hospitals in the near future.

Athol, a nurse of 11 years recently swapped his scrubs, to be the founder of Athol Tech full-time, where he has developed the Fwards app to curb nurse burnout.

Part of the Fwards app was to create a solution for the dynamic and stress of shift work and how to manage it, a skill Athol believes is never really taught or discussed.

He does believe the healthcare industry is going through a transformation, which COVID-19 has accelerated.

And he is not alone, in fact GW3’s Future Employment Study released last year found there has been an increased demand in studying health qualifications as a result of COVID -19 suggesting a strong future pipeline.

The study continued to reveal that apart from some key standout pockets of innovation, stakeholders noted that the level of maturity and readiness for technological adoption was not necessarily there, although COVID-19 has accelerated adoption of some technologies such as telehealth. 

The Future Employment Study found the impact of augmentation (humans working alongside technology) on the Health Care and Social Assistance workforce is expected to be more significant than the impact of automation, in the next 10 years.

According to the study, of the 51 occupations analysed, 34 are expected to have more than 25 percent of full-time employment capacity as a result of working alongside technology. This may be used to undertake higher order clinical tasks with a shift away from more repetitive and mundane tasks.

“The health industry has not changed in centuries really, but what is going to happen over the next 10 to 20 years, will be really interesting and how we will develop and grow. From telehealth in hospitals and home, virtual wards, VR in education - it is encouraging to see.

“Technology is such a great vehicle for impacting change and is now a real possibility,” Athol said.  

Majority of occupations across Healthcare and Social Assistance are predicted to be in employment growth including but not limited to Aged and Disabled carers, Child Carers, Enrolled nurses, Health and Welfare Service Managers, Registered Nurses, Personal Care Assistants, Out of School Hours Care Workers, Optometrists, Dentists and Registered Medical Officer.

However, as a result of emerging technology to the industry there will be new roles created with in Health Care and Social Assistance such as Software Developers, Process Improvement Analysts, Data Engineers and Data Integrators by 2030.

Other roles include bridging roles between clinical practice and technology, such as ICT related roles that involve clinicians becoming project leads for the implementation of emerging technologies in the workplace, along with more Human Resources occupations to assist the workforce upskilling that is expected from augmentation.

 “I am not too concerned about robots taking our jobs, nursing is not a liner process you can’t just tick a box, it is creative job.

“Sometimes the situation calls for you to think outside the box and consider all options.

“If we want to reduce the burden on patients, medical errors and reduce some of the costs, we have to use technology to our advantage to really leverage the people power, “Athol said.

To find out more about the Fwards app visit :  www.fwards.com/