The University of Western Australia's leading role in digital health innovation has been recognised with eight researchers receiving nearly $3 million in funding through the State Government's Innovative Solutions — Digital Health program.

Dr Sara Sukudom and Professor Girish Dwivedi from UWA Medical School and Fiona Stanley Hospital is developing Orva, a pioneering health platform that uses generative artificial intelligence to translate complex medical information into plain language. 

The project, awarded nearly $500,000, aims to empower patients to better understand and engage with their healthcare journey.

“We're seeing a transformation in how patients interact with health information – Orva will help bridge the communication gap between medical professionals and patients, leading to better health outcomes,” Dr Sukudom said.

Associate Professor Matthew Anstey from UWA Medical School and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital was granted $91,300 to advance an AI-driven system capable of predicting sepsis in emergency departments.

The head of endocrinology and diabetes at Perth Children's Hospital, Professor Elizabeth Davis from UWA Medical School, received more than $450,000 to transform diabetes management in WA. 

Her project focuses on developing personalised care plans through data analytics to ensure optimal patient outcomes.

Image: I(from left to right) Professor Elizabeth Davis, Professor Girish Dwivedi, Dr Christofer Bester and Dr Vanessa Fear.

UWA Medical School’s adjunct senior research fellow at the Dr Christofer Bester, from Ear Science Institute Australia, has been allocated $500,000 for his groundbreaking project ‘Reinventing audiology with RealSound.’

Dr Francesco De Toni from Supernova Health, an honorary research fellow at UWA's School of Humanities, secured $99,775 to validate the clinical feasibility of Medivox technology, an innovative digital medical translation system.

A grant of $434,114 was awarded to Dr Vanessa Fear from The Kids Research Institute Australia, an adjunct senior lecturer at UWA Medical School, to develop a novel, high throughput protocol to assess the functional consequence of novel genetic variants in disease.

Dr Jake Kendrick, lecturer in UWA's School of Physics, Maths and Computing, will use funding of $361,146 to evaluate AI applications in identifying and prognosing metastatic prostate cancer.

And UWA Medical School research fellow Dr Louise Winteringham has been awarded $499,723 to develop a clinical tool advancing precision medicine approaches for liver cancer.

The projects are part of the State Government's Innovative Solutions — Digital Health funding program, which has distributed approximately $215 million in grants through the Future Health Research and Innovation (FHRI) Fund since 2020. 

An additional $280 million will be available over the next four years to support further health and medical research initiatives in WA.

Photographs at top of page (from left to right): Dr Jake Kendrick, Dr Louise Winteringham, Dr Francesco De Toni, Associate Professor Matthew Anstey and Dr Sara Sukudom.