St Vincent's: Ageing and Dementia Project

Establishing a framework to achieve healthy ageing is a major priority. The health system by and large has been set up to deal with acute ill-health and is poorly equipped to provide an over-arching 'whole of person' approach directed to prevent and manage chronic health conditions associated with ageing. As a result, the average patient will experience their health issues associated with ageing as a series of disconnected visits to doctors of various specialties. The visits to doctors will often be interspersed with visits to the hospital and the emergency department, as acute issues present themselves. Such acute crises can include anything from falls, through to stroke, coronary issues, psychological issues manifesting from dementia, etc. The reality however is that as we get older, the acute crises are not separate isolated events but are, more generally, manifestations of chronic health issues associated with ageing.

We are privileged to be supporting internationally renowned Professor of Neuroscience, Professor Bryce Vissel, and his team at St Vincent’s Hospital in establishing a program that will create a consumer focused, science and technology led innovation ecosystem can help us understand healthier ageing and design and test new solutions to improve patient outcomes and experience.  Working across the St Vincent’s ecosystem, their goal is to apply analytics, science, predictive modelling and AI, across the system to ensure optimal patient pathways that address patient needs, and intervene earlier to improve outcomes.

Why we funded this project

This is an important 'test and learn' project that will provide critical research for the design of a framework for a healthy ageing journey.  We envisage that the program will ultimately have a much larger footprint, including a range of research efforts linked internationally.

https://www.svhs.org.au/