The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), the Australian federal government’s agency for scientific research that works to improve the economic and social performance of industry for the benefit of the community has recently announced a new partnership between its Data61 arm and regional allied health network Health Team Australia (HTA).
The partnership will see a real-time online video platform rolled out via a range of partners across Australia, using tele-health video services from Coviu. An emerging startup developed within and backed by Data61, Coviu offers an innovative digital service delivery platform underpinned by extensive WebRTC research and high-level user experience design.
The company offers rich video collaboration using standard consumer hardware to deliver government, health, and education services over consumer Internet.
With higher quality live video on the rise across platforms (such as Skype) look to increase their capabilities, Coviu took a step back to develop a real-time video platform that could handle the slower internet connections characteristic of Australia’s rural areas.
The partnership also aims to ease the limitations communities in rural areas of Australia face when looking for access to professional medical help. The new video consultation service will allow for the extension of existing health solutions, in addition to services across professional physiologies, psychologists, occupational therapists, and dieticians. Discussing the health services of the tele-health platform in providing regional communities, a HTA spokesperson said,
[Coviu] gives health professionals direct access to the lives of remote patients so they can prescribe a health plan that is meaningful to their lives and relevant to their situation.
This “on-demand” service will allow patients to receive support from health experts in order to help balance out the facility inequities experienced in remote areas of Australia.
Coviu gives people the opportunity to stay in their community for longer as they age and continue to play a meaningful role in the community.
Coviu’s Project Director, Dr. Silvia Pfeiffe, said the platform also allows health experts to live-share medical data and images, in addition to the face-to-camera consultation. Pfeiffe also mentioned the need to expand video consultations towards becoming a standard mechanism of delivering health services in Australia.
Coviu’s video service has been launched in North South Wales, Victoria, and in the Australian Capital Territory through YMCA and is expected to connect up to 20,000 patients with online healthcare professionals.
