NBN's health trials

Canberra provided $4 million in funding to the CSIRO for two telehealth trials under the NBN-enabled telehealth pilots program.

The CSIRO will run two 12-month NBN-enabled telehealth trials: one to monitor chronic diseases in aged patients and the Indigenous Tele‑Eye Care project.

Each of the CSIRO telehealth pilots is scheduled to run for 12 months.

The trials will involve 150 patients for the chronic disease monitoring in aged patients and 900 patients for the Indigenous Tele‑Eye Care project.

The telehealth pilots will take place in rural and local health clinics, in nursing homes and in patients' own homes.

The primary target groups are elderly patients with chronic diseases (for monitoring) and Indigenous communities (for the Tele‑Eye Care project).

In this announcement, the NBN-enabled telehealth pilots program refers to government-supported trials that use NBN-enabled connectivity to deliver telehealth services, under which the CSIRO received the $4 million grant.

Everyday investors may note that the $4 million government funding shows public-sector support for telehealth innovation, particularly projects focused on aged care and Indigenous health, which could be a signal of growing attention to digital health services.