Ramsay 'reimagining healthcare with AI'

Australia's largest private hospitals operator has teamed up with Google as it seeks to transform its healthcare model with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning tools.

Ramsay Health Care is collaborating with the online search leader's Google Cloud platform to support its 2030 digital transformation strategy.

It aims to give nurses, hospitals, and clinicians better access to patient data, with the end goal of more effectively diagnosing conditions and improving patient outcomes. 

"Data and AI can have a profound impact on reimagining healthcare and solving some of our most pressing challenges," said Ramsay's Group Chief Digital and Data Officer, Dr Rachna Gandhi.

"With Google Cloud, we're taking an insights-driven approach to transforming how we deliver clinical care – everything from optimising patient care and experiences to identifying trends and supporting better decisions about treatments."

The group is in the first year of its Transformation and Digital Enablement program, with a critical component being the creation of a centralised data hub for its network of 74 Australian facilities.

Previously, data sat in separate on-premise locations, making analysis and insights extraction a time-intensive and cumbersome process.

The Ramsay Data Hub will be built in partnership with Kasna, using Google Cloud's serverless and cost-effective enterprise data warehouse,BigQuery, along with integration and management tools.

"By working with Google Cloud to build our data foundation, we are gaining a deeper understanding of what is happening across the company," Dr Gandhi said.

"Most important to us is data security. With Google Cloud, data is encrypted end-to-end, allowing us to create innovative solutions that strictly comply with regulations and protect privacy.

"All data is encrypted by default at rest and in-flight and we are using our own encryption keys to further protect the sensitive confidential health information. No-one accesses our patient data except us. For healthcare providers, that is non-negotiable."

Ramsay plans to use AI tools to better analyse clinical notes, speed up and improve clinical coding, and improve demand forecasting to reduce waste of medications and optimise theatre and staff utilisation.

"Ramsay is revolutionising the future of healthcare with its approach to data and AI-led insights," said Alister Dias, Google Cloud's Vice President, Australia and New Zealand.

"The creation of a centralised data hub means that Ramsay can improve connectivity, operationalise data, and unlock new insights to truly help its patients and clinicians.

"This is also a great example of how AI in healthcare can not only help drive efficiencies, but also have broad societal impact."

Dr Gandhi said the first year of the transformation program involved laying the groundwork for developing a best-in-class, digitally-enabled healthcare ecosystem.

This has included the launch of Ramsay's first digital pharmacy,Ramsay Pharmacy Online, and several automations to optimise operational performance within its hospitals.

She said the first iteration of the data hub will be trialled across two Ramsay sites this year, including a pre-admission dashboard for patients, digital consent capabilities and payment systems.

"The platform will mature and scale over the next few years but we're proud this first iteration will offer an improved patient admission experience," Dr Gandhi added.

"This transformation is also about evolving Ramsay's culture to be more adaptive and helping our workforce understand and take advantage of the digital world. As part of this transformation, we are developing a digital mindset and literacy program of work."

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