Risk prediction tool wins for innovation
A research and vendor partnership has picked up an award for its tool that detects a resident’s risk of falls, depression and mortality.
Teamwork between RMIT University and Telstra Health, in collaboration with the Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre, has paid off with the trio winning an award from Cooperative Research Australia for its predictive analysis tool.
The collaboration, which was announced in 2019, developed an Australian-first electronic screening and risk prediction tool for deterioration in frail aged care residents.
The Deteriorating Resident Index has this month won the Digital and Data Health Innovation Award for its positive impact on health and safety.
The clinical decision support software can screen both structured and free-text electronic patient records for 36 evidence-based indicators of deterioration to identify and alert for risks likes falls and provide aged care staff with each resident’s frailty index.
RMIT project lead and data scientist Dr Tabinda Sarwar said each of the aged care homes the project aimed to find solutions for, had individual expectations for streamlining tasks.
Gerontologists and aged care staff worked alongside the team to adapt existing decision support methods from the acute care sector and analyse historical data, developing fresh predictive analytics techniques.
“It was only through this collaboration that we could gain the valuable insights to ensure our solutions were practical, effective, and tailored to real-world needs,” Ms Sarwar said.
“We’re proud of how we overcame these challenges to develop solutions that have the capacity to impact more than 60,000 elderly residents in Australian aged care homes.”
Nursing staff at multiple aged care facilities have validated the tool clinically and assessed its usability.
Speaking with Australian Ageing Agenda, Telstra Health chief health officer Dr Monica Trujillo said that aged care providers were operating within an “overburdened system” making it challenging to “reliably detect health deterioration” among residents who often had complex conditions, chronic illnesses and weakened immune systems, leaving them particularly vulnerable to worsening health.
“Many of the tools traditionally used for detecting deterioration are designed for hospital settings,” Ms Trujillo said.
“These tools may not fully meet the unique needs of aged care environments as they primarily focus on physical symptoms, often overlooking subtle functional, social and cognitive changes that are early indicators of decline in frail elderly individuals.
“Consequently, deterioration is frequently identified too late, typically after events such as falls or injuries that require emergency transfers and hospitalisation, further straining families, providers and an already stretched healthcare system.”
To address these challenges, the tool is powered by artificial intelligence to automatically scan and monitor 36 evidence-based indicators of deterioration in real time, said Telstra Health product executive Dr Jennifer Beer.
“This tool generates alerts to prompt early interventions when significant changes are detected and provides valuable insights into residents’ risks for falls, depression and mortality,” Ms Beer told AAA.
“By continuously analysing resident data, the AI-driven tool enables aged care providers to detect deterioration earlier and intervene proactively, improving health outcomes and reducing hospitalisations.”
Prototype to production
After piloting the Deteriorating Resident Index in 44 different aged care homes in New South Wales and Victoria, the team is now preparing the innovation for market, Ms Beer said.
“The solution is currently transitioning from the prototype phase to a production-ready state, where it will be integrated into our broader product suite,” she told AAA.
The final product will suit aged care providers, as well as residential aged care in-reach and virtual emergency department services. The final report on the project to develop Deteriorating Resident Index will be released at the time of market launch to safeguard the tool’s intellectual property, Ms Beer said.
The expected launch date is not yet available, a spokesperson for Telstra Health told AAA.
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