Australia’s leading digital health and medical leadership organisations have issued a joint statement advocating for a collaborative approach between clinical governance and digital health to ensure continuous improvement in healthcare.

In a joint statement, the Australasian Institute of Digital Health (AIDH) and the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators (RACMA) have called for a shared responsibility across clinical, technical, and executive leadership to embed clinical governance in all stages of digital health design and deployment.

It is critically important for healthcare systems to embrace both clinical governance in digital health – ensuring technologies are safe, ethical, and centred on quality – and digital health in clinical governance -using data and technology to improve how care is measured, monitored, and delivered.

“High-quality, safe, and person-centred care cannot exist without robust clinical governance. Likewise, in a rapidly transforming health system, clinical governance must itself become digitally enabled to harness the benefits of technology advancements,” said AIDH CEO, Anja Nikolic.

“This is about more than compliance; it’s about building trust, transparency, and continuous improvement into everything we do with technology.”

RACMA Chief Executive, Cris Massis said the joint paper emphasis that digital tools like real-time dashboards, AI analytics, and incident monitoring systems are already improving oversight and outcomes.

“This is about building trust, transparency and continuous improvement into everything we do with technology,” said RACMA CE, Cris Massis.

The collaboration recommends:

• Adopting five key safety principles for digital health implementation.
• Establishing shared standards for AI governance in healthcare settings.
• Providing guidance to health executives on managing technology risks.
• Creating frameworks for accountability in digital transformation projects.

“Technology gives us unprecedented benefits and clinical governance ensures we employ these technologies ethically and effectively in healthcare,” said RACMA Chief Executive Cris Massis.

“RACMA-trained Medical Administrators are uniquely equipped to lead integrated governance systems, ensuring both innovation and safety go hand-in-hand,” Mr Massis said.

The five core principles require healthcare organisations to:

• Ensure technologies support secure, evidence-based care.
• Establish clear accountability for digital health outcomes.
• Use real-time data to continuously improve services.
• Respect patient privacy and promote informed decision-making.
• Build workforce capability through partnerships in digital implementation.

Media contact:
RACMA
Kym Westbury kwestbury@racma.edu.au