Telstra Health employees Bryan Macdonald, General Manager – Clinical Outcomes in Hospitals and Connected Health, and Vickie Irving, Clinical Health Specialist, have both been announced as Fellows of the Australasian Institute of Digital Health (AIDH) for their contribution to digital health.

A Fellow is the highest category of professional attainment bestowed by the AIDH. Fellows of the Institute are national and international thought leaders, experts and trusted advisers in the digital health movement.

Bryan Macdonald, FAIDH, said, “It’s a great honour to join the AIDH as a Fellow, and this is a fantastic opportunity to utilise my experience and skills in health, digital health and health informatics to support this country’s healthcare sector. I look forward to assisting and working with health care providers to be successful on their digital journeys and assisting the AIDH in delivering on its vision and mission.”

Vickie Irving, FAIDH, said, “Like Bryan, I am truly thankful and greatly honoured to be awarded Fellowship status by the AIDH. COVID-19 has fast-tracked digitisation in many sectors of the Australian healthcare system and there has been a noticeable shift in uptake of innovative technologies to support virtual care.”

Fellowship of the Institute recognises an individual’s outstanding professional accomplishment in digital health and health informatics and enables them to hold the highest membership level of the Institute, acknowledging their education, experience and the impact they have made on the health sector.

“A fantastic by-product of this digitisation curve is the generation of new datasets that can be used to create novel insights into the impact of different treatments and models of care on clinical outcomes and the overall sustainability of the Australian health system. I am keen to share my own experience surrounding the diffusion of different technologies in the Australian healthcare landscape with the broader AIDH community and forge new connections to drive further improvements in the performance of the health system and, most importantly, patient outcomes,” Vickie added.

Bryan and Vickie’s impressive education and academic experience, professional experience in healthcare, and measurable contribution to digital health and health informatics resulted in them both being awarded Fellowship of the AIDH.

Bryan’s career in healthcare began with a Bachelor of Nursing at the University of South Australia worked following which he worked as a Registered Nurse in varying roles, including as a Clinical Systems Consultant in management roles implementing, and supporting clinical systems across SA Health and subsequently Emerging Systems.

Bryan then built on his clinical qualifications and practical experience by completing a Master of Information Technology (Business Intelligence) at the University of South Australia, and during this time was awarded a High Distinction for his study on digital electronic medical record implementation planning. He is currently studying for his Juris Doctor to further consolidate his education and experience bringing added value to clients and Telstra Health alike.

In his current role as General Manager – Clinical Outcomes in Hospitals at Telstra Health, Bryan’s main responsibilities include developing and maintaining executive clinical leadership to clients, managing clinical risk and safety in digital journeys, and advising and supporting our delivery teams to deliver solutions to complex clinical problems across the organisation.

Vickie’s dedication to the healthcare sector began in various frontline clinical roles for Queensland Health as an occupational therapist, before transitioning into strategic and health service planning where she developed Queensland Health’s first State-wide Health Services Plan. Following this strong track record of performance, Vickie became Director of Clinical Access and Redesign in 2012 where she led an ambitious program of healthcare transformation which produced some of the largest recorded performance improvements in the organisation’s history in access to emergency department, elective surgery and specialist outpatient services.

In recognition of her achievements, Vickie was awarded the Premier’s Award on two occasions, and in 2015 she also received an Australia Day Achievement award from Queensland Health for delivering Australia’s first Elective Surgery Waiting Time guarantee.

Since joining Telstra Health in 2015, Vickie has continued to drive transformational change and support business and clinical innovation and improvement across a variety of eHealth projects involving Remote Patient Monitoring technology, the digitisation of outpatient service provision and the application of telehealth innovations. Through her focus on eService model design, implementation and evaluation she has ensured that these projects have produced positive returns-on-investment in technology, with additional tangible benefits in terms of access, clinical outcomes, patient experience and efficiency.

Bryan and Vickie join Dr Vincent McCauley, Telstra Health’s Chief Medical Officer and Chief Medical Information Officer, in being a Fellow of the AIDH.