Digital Transformation in Healthcare: Challenges and Opportunities

Join La Trobe University for a sector-leading panel session and book launch discussing the critical issues and opportunities for digital transformation in the healthcare industry.

Hosted by Gavin Fox Smith, Chair, ANDHealth, guests will hear from panellists:

• Professor Nilmini Wickramasinghe, Optus Chair of Digital Health, La Trobe University
• Andrew Wilson, Head of Business Development, Oncoshot
• Professor Peter Gibbs, Laboratory Head, Walter and Elizabeth Hall Institute
• Dr Loren Sher, Director of Victorian Virtual ED, Northern Health

This incredible panel will explore how digital technologies are reshaping healthcare delivery, patient engagement, and data management. From interoperability to privacy concerns, and the role of AI and analytics in improving healthcare outcomes, the session covers the cross-sectional application of digital to medical across research, commercialisation, and healthcare delivery.

La Trobe University will also celebrate the launch of Professor Nilmini Wickramasinghe, Optus Chair of Digital Health, two sector-leading books:

• Digital Health: A Primer
• Dimensions of Intelligent Analytics for Smart Digital Health Solutions

With a fireside chat and Q&A session.

Event details

• 5pm – networking and refreshments
• 5.30pm – Panel session and fireside chat with Professor Nilmini Wickramasinghe
• 6.30pm – Conclusion of panel session, networking and refreshments
• 8pm – Event close

Location: La Trobe University City Campus, Level 3, 360 Collins Street.

Professor Nilmini Wickramasinghe
Professor Nilmini Wickramasinghe, PhD, MBA, is the Professor and Optus chair of Digital Health at La Trobe University within the School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences. She also holds honorary research professor positions at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, MCRI, Epworth HealthCare and Northern Health.
After completing 5 degrees at the University of Melbourne, she completed PhD studies at Case Western Reserve University, and later executive education at Harvard Business School, USA in Value-based HealthCare. For over 25 years, she has been actively, researching and teaching within the health informatics/digital health domain with over 350 scholarly publications, a patent, 25 books, numerous posters and book chapters and a very successful grant funding portfolio.
In 2020, she was awarded the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt award for her outstanding contribution to digital health. Professor Wickramasinghe is the editor in chief of International Journal Networking and Virtual Organisations, published by InderScience.
In addition, she is the editor of two book series in digital health 1) Healthcare Delivery in the Information Age, published by Springer 2) Analytics and AI for healthcare Delivery, published by CRC Routledge.

Professor Peter Gibbs
Professor Peter Gibbs is a laboratory head at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, where the focus is on personalized medicine and registry-based research across many cancer types. His personal interest is in colorectal cancer biomarker studies, including co-leading large studies of ctDNA informed therapy for early stage colorectal and pancreas cancer. Peter also works as a medical oncologist at the Western Hospital.

Dr Loren Sher
Dr Loren Sher is an Emergency Specialist and Program Director of the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department. Loren has led the development of Australia’s first virtual emergency department model, a new model of care that is now funded as a Victorian state-wide service. Prior to this, she was the Director of Northern Hospital’s Paediatric ED.  
Loren’s other career highlights include the development of a Paediatric HIV clinic in South Africa and the development of the Paediatric Emergency Department at Northern Hospital, Epping.
Loren is constantly seeking opportunities to deliver equitable, safe, and gold standard care, particularly for vulnerable and disadvantaged communities. Her more recent medical adventures include exploring and creating efficiencies through the marriage of technology and medicine.
Loren is enrolled in a PhD though La Trobe University researching digital solutions in Health care.

Andrew Wilson  
A visionary healthcare executive with over 25 years of global experience in precision oncology, medical imaging, and health informatics. Andrew harness’ his expertise to provide direction and ideology for technology in the oncology space across the US, Australia, and international markets.
Andrew has built and delivered award-winning oncology software programs, expanded the business value of Oncology Informatics and lead the acquisition and launch of innovative products and solutions for international companies such as GE Healthcare and Elekta.  
He has served as Managing Director for Elekta Australia and then President of the Global Digital Portfolio that enabled business establishment, product development, M&A activity and clinical research commercialization in the precision oncology sector.
Andrew is a certified Six Sigma Greenbelt and a co-author of “Knowledge Representation in Radiation Oncology ’co- author. (Chapter 7), Artificial Intelligence in Radiation Oncology, World Scientific, 2022  
Having spent the past 9 years in California, Andrew has returned to Australia as Head of Business Development for Oncoshot.