What is Hack for Digital Healthcare #H4DH?
- Telstra Health's first hackathon
- Collaborative event for innovative problem solvers
- Great opportunity to create connections
Tell me more!
This event will bring together people from across the health and aged care sectors with real problems to solve and connect them with teams of passionate innovators and technology and design professionals to create digital solutions. The event will be held entirely online, which will enable a range of people to participate across the country.
The hackathon will take place over the last two weekends of November and be held entirely online, which will enable a wide range of people to participate. The model is based on HealthHack 2020, which Telstra Health sponsored.
- Friday evening, 20 November: Opening night
- Saturday and Sunday, 21 & 22 November: Day one and two
- Saturday, 28 November: Day three - finalise solutions
- Sunday, 29 November: Pitches to judges and winners announced.
Throughout the two weekends, there will be check-ins, presentations by industry experts, opportunities for collaboration across teams and fun activities to break up the Hack.
Click here for a detailed information pack including the agenda.
We are currently gathering and curating issues from health and aged care professionals that will become interesting problems for teams to create innovative solutions and add meaningful value. Click here to preview the problems we have finalised for the hackathon so far, with more to come.
The health and aged care professionals, with a deep understanding of the issue, will be the ‘problem owners’ and guide their team to comprehend the issue and find the best solution. We'll support the problem owners to ensure they have a great team by their side and something meaningful is delivered at the end of the second weekend.
Do you have a real problem to solve within the health and aged care sectors? If so, we’d love to hear from you. Please email h4dh@health.telstra.com.
This event is open to anyone! Diversity of thought is key to hackathons. Whether you’re a technology or design enthusiast, a healthcare specialist, or this is your first hackathon, we hope you’ll join and help us make a meaningful impact on real health and aged care issues.
We’re also enabling the option for someone to register as an ‘Observer’ – this is for anyone who might not have the confidence to be part of a team, nor commit to the two weekends, but would still like to be exposed to ‘virtual’ rooms full of interesting people and problems.
There will be one team per problem and teams will range from 6-10 people. You can only register as an individual, not as a pre-formed team. The teams will form as the hackathon begins according to your personal interest and expertise (and some manual adjustments to create balance may occur as needed).
You only need to bring yourself, some creativity and a willingness to have fun!
On the closing day, teams will present their ‘solution pitches’ to the #H4DH judges, a selection of respected technology and health and aged care experts – read their bios below.
The guiding principles of the hackathon will be used by the judges to determine the winning solution, including:
•Innovation
•Digitalisation of health and aged care
•A focus on the needs of clinicians and patients, and
•The degree of potential impact and value created for the health and aged care sectors.
This is a great opportunity to create connections with key people from across the technology industry and health and aged care sectors, as well as be part of valued projects that could make a meaningful difference outside of the hackathon – whether you’re part of the winning team or not.
As collaboration is key, we will be offering a selection of individuals awards to those who embody the spirit of the hackathon over the two weekends.
All participants will be given the opportunity to join an exclusive Q&A session with Telstra Health’s Managing Director, Professor Mary Foley AM.
For the top three teams, we will provide the chance to:
•Have a ‘virtual’ coffee with one of the judges.
•Be profiled across Telstra Health’s website and social media platforms.
Introducing our Judges

Chief Medical Officer, Telstra Health
Dr Vincent McCauley
As Telstra Health’s Chief Medical Officer since July 2015, Dr Vincent McCauley advises on areas such as eHealth, clinical governance and ED systems and pathology. Dr McCauley has vast clinical experience in respiratory and emergency medicine, having worked extensively in eHealth Standards and is Chair of Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) Australia, as well as a member of the IHE International Board. As former President of the Medical Software Industry Association (MSIA), Dr McCauley was instrumental in connecting eHealth software vendors, government bodies and the private sector. Dr McCauley is driven by his goal to create a secure, highly connected and interoperable eHealth infrastructure underpinned by sustainable business models.

Chief Medical Officer, Microsoft Australia
Dr Nic Woods
Having over 25 years’ experience in clinical medicine and digital health globally, Dr Nic Woods has held diverse roles in health tech incubators, national digital health programs and medical executive leadership roles within the digital health and technology industry. In his role as Microsoft Australia’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr Woods works to positively impact the healthcare of all Australians, through a thriving ecosystem of partners and the innovative use of technologies such as advanced analytics, AI and medical internet of things. Dr Woods believes this is an incredibly dynamic time to be working in this intersection, with health information technology increasingly contributing to the delivery of more efficient and safer healthcare now and into the future.

Professor of Digital Health Systems, Flinders University
Professor Trish Williams
With over 30 years’ experience in healthcare computing, including 15 years in general practice and pharmacy computing, Professor Trish Williams is recognised internationally for her digital health information security expertise and experience in digital health information interoperability. Professor Williams is Cisco Chair and Professor in Digital Health Systems at Flinders University, Co-Director of the Flinders Digital Health Research Centre, Director of the Cisco-Flinders Digital Health Design Lab and International Co-Chair of HL7 Security. Professor Williams has a strong focus on the translation of research into practical application, demonstrating how information security and digital health technologies can be used to improve healthcare communication and interoperability.

Ph.D, Emerging Technology Global Delivery Lead, PwC
Valeria Sadovykh
Based in New York, Valeria Sadovykh is an emerging technology leader, speaker and scholar, with a PhD in Information Systems from the University of Auckland and a penchant for solving societal challenges. Valeria has helped shaped the business decisions of multinational corporations across a range of industries through her expertise on the utilisation of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing and Intelligent Automation. For over 10 years, Valeria has led strategic IT developments to solve humanity’s social impact challenges across IT, government, consulting and financial services sectors. Valeria is passionate about researching and educating on socially responsive AI and decision-making, using it for good and social innovation.

Chief Medical Officer, Telstra Health
Dr Vincent McCauley
As Telstra Health’s Chief Medical Officer since July 2015, Dr Vincent McCauley advises on areas such as eHealth, clinical governance and ED systems and pathology. Dr McCauley has vast clinical experience in respiratory and emergency medicine, having worked extensively in eHealth Standards and is Chair of Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) Australia, as well as a member of the IHE International Board. As former President of the Medical Software Industry Association (MSIA), Dr McCauley was instrumental in connecting eHealth software vendors, government bodies and the private sector. Dr McCauley is driven by his goal to create a secure, highly connected and interoperable eHealth infrastructure underpinned by sustainable business models.

Chief Medical Officer, Microsoft Australia
Dr Nic Woods
Having over 25 years’ experience in clinical medicine and digital health globally, Dr Nic Woods has held diverse roles in health tech incubators, national digital health programs and medical executive leadership roles within the digital health and technology industry. In his role as Microsoft Australia’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr Woods works to positively impact the healthcare of all Australians, through a thriving ecosystem of partners and the innovative use of technologies such as advanced analytics, AI and medical internet of things. Dr Woods believes this is an incredibly dynamic time to be working in this intersection, with health information technology increasingly contributing to the delivery of more efficient and safer healthcare now and into the future.

Professor of Digital Health Systems, Flinders University
Professor Trish Williams
With over 30 years’ experience in healthcare computing, including 15 years in general practice and pharmacy computing, Professor Trish Williams is recognised internationally for her digital health information security expertise and experience in digital health information interoperability. Professor Williams is Cisco Chair and Professor in Digital Health Systems at Flinders University, Co-Director of the Flinders Digital Health Research Centre, Director of the Cisco-Flinders Digital Health Design Lab and International Co-Chair of HL7 Security. Professor Williams has a strong focus on the translation of research into practical application, demonstrating how information security and digital health technologies can be used to improve healthcare communication and interoperability.

Ph.D, Emerging Technology Global Delivery Lead, PwC
Valeria Sadovykh
Based in New York, Valeria Sadovykh is an emerging technology leader, speaker and scholar, with a PhD in Information Systems from the University of Auckland and a penchant for solving societal challenges. Valeria has helped shaped the business decisions of multinational corporations across a range of industries through her expertise on the utilisation of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing and Intelligent Automation. For over 10 years, Valeria has led strategic IT developments to solve humanity’s social impact challenges across IT, government, consulting and financial services sectors. Valeria is passionate about researching and educating on socially responsive AI and decision-making, using it for good and social innovation.
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We will use the information gathered from you for the purposes of managing the Event and in accordance with our Privacy Statement. We may contact you after the Event to discuss your experience further, and to inform you about future Telstra Health hackathons and other events. Your participation in the Event will be subject to participant terms and conditions and the Code of Conduct, which we will send to you before the start of the Event.