The Department of Health and Aged Care has reorganised its technology delivery to bring its separate IT and digital transformation units under the purview of a single executive.
The federal department is recruiting for a full-time chief digital and information officer (CDIO) to lead a “substantial program of ICT investments and digital reforms”.
Fay Flevaras, the department’s first assistant secretary digital transformation and delivery, will act as CDIO until the role is filled.
According to a job advertisement, the CDIO role will lead “the modernisation of the Health and Aged Care digital ecosystem”.
They will also play a “critical role in ensuring the department’s digital tools and initiatives are aligned with business objectives and achieve policy outcomes”.
“The establishment of the CDIO role reflects the focus on how government services are delivered to the public,” a Health and Aged Care spokesperson told iTnews.
“There is a growing demand for these services to be digitally available to improve reach and accessibility.
“To support this, the department’s executive committee agreed to establish a new digital and data governance arrangement, along with the creation of the CDIO role.”
The department recently appointed David Lang as its new CISO, a role that will also report to the CDIO.
A foundational layer
Health and Aged Care has been a key recipient of federal budget funds for “ICT infrastructure” in consecutive years, with a $312 million allocation in Budget 2022, followed by $214.5 million in Budget 2023 and $174.5 million in Budget 2024.
The funding followed a Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, which, having handed down its findings in March 2021, recommended sweeping changes to IT systems in the sector, as well as a focus on adopting digital technology to improve resident care and wellbeing.
As part of this ongoing program of work, Health and Aged Care is planning to develop a data management framework
A Health spokesperson told iTnews that the framework will serve as a “foundational layer” to ensure compliance consistency for its in-the-works enterprise data and analytics platform and its data matching activities to detect incorrect or fraudulent Medicare claims.
The framework is a “critical deliverable and will ensure effective data management structures are in place and data assets are utilised appropriately and efficiently”, the spokesperson said.
Earlier this year, Health and Aged Care handed contracts to Accenture and Capgemini to support its transformation, with values now totalling $289 million and $83.3 million, respectively.