Talking HealthTech

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:
THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit
Explore the free THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit, a five-day email series to help you clarify where you fit in digital health and take your next step: talkinghealth.tech/toolkit.
THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit
Explore the free THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit, a five-day email series to help you clarify where you fit in digital health and take your next step: talkinghealth.tech/toolkit.
THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit
Explore the free THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit, a five-day email series to help you clarify where you fit in digital health and take your next step: talkinghealth.tech/toolkit.

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:
THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit
Explore the free THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit, a five-day email series to help you clarify where you fit in digital health and take your next step: talkinghealth.tech/toolkit.
THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit
Explore the free THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit, a five-day email series to help you clarify where you fit in digital health and take your next step: talkinghealth.tech/toolkit.
THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit
Explore the free THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit, a five-day email series to help you clarify where you fit in digital health and take your next step: talkinghealth.tech/toolkit.

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:
THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit
Explore the free THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit, a five-day email series to help you clarify where you fit in digital health and take your next step: talkinghealth.tech/toolkit.
THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit
Explore the free THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit, a five-day email series to help you clarify where you fit in digital health and take your next step: talkinghealth.tech/toolkit.
THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit
Explore the free THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit, a five-day email series to help you clarify where you fit in digital health and take your next step: talkinghealth.tech/toolkit.

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:
THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit
Explore the free THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit, a five-day email series to help you clarify where you fit in digital health and take your next step: talkinghealth.tech/toolkit.
THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit
Explore the free THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit, a five-day email series to help you clarify where you fit in digital health and take your next step: talkinghealth.tech/toolkit.
THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit
Explore the free THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit, a five-day email series to help you clarify where you fit in digital health and take your next step: talkinghealth.tech/toolkit.

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:
THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit
Explore the free THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit, a five-day email series to help you clarify where you fit in digital health and take your next step: talkinghealth.tech/toolkit.
THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit
Explore the free THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit, a five-day email series to help you clarify where you fit in digital health and take your next step: talkinghealth.tech/toolkit.
THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit
Explore the free THT+ Digital Health Career Toolkit, a five-day email series to help you clarify where you fit in digital health and take your next step: talkinghealth.tech/toolkit.