Transforming the palliative care patient journey using emerging technologies

The COVID-19 crisis provided stark evidence that the ability to maintain health in sustainable yet autonomous ways is crucial for those who are unwell. The crisis highlighted how the needs of people with chronic conditions or those in palliative care were ‘invisible’. These factors reinforce the 2018 National Palliative Care Strategy that stressed the need to harness personalised, technology- enhanced, interactive experiences to improve palliative care outcomes.

Amidst this wider context and drawing on the immersive virtual reality platform, the work in this project brings a lens of human-centred design to medical treatment. One of the effects of this is to provide agency to patients in order to better manage physical symptoms and access a wider range of programs involving mindfulness, wellbeing and connectedness. Similarly, solutions for the treatment of chronic diseases such as cancer and neurological disorders will be informed by the work.

University of Sydney

• Naseem Ahmadpour - Senior Lecturer in Design, Director of the Design Major
• Phillip Gough - Lecturer in Biological Design, Director of Bio Design Major
• Philip Poronnik - Professor of Biomedical Sciences, School of Medical Sciences
• Martin Brown - Project Manager Innovative Technologies
• Judy Kay - Professor of Computer Science
• Bob Kummerfeld - Associate Professor, School of Computer Science
• Melanie Lovell - HammondCare, Palliative Medicine Physician and Senior

Hammondcare

• Melanie Lovell, Palliative Medicine Physician and Senior Specialist, Director of Clinical Trials at Greenwich Hospital

University of Technology Sydney

• Tim Luckett - Palliative Medicine, IMPACCT Centre
• Professor Meera Agar - Palliative Medicine, IMPACCT Centre

Queensland University of Technology

• Jane Philips - Head of School of Nursing, Faculty of Health

Phil Austin, Research Fellow and Osteopath