Digital Health Fest (DHF) Melbourne 2024
Some of the HealthNow team were lucky enough to attend the Digital Health Festival in Melbourne in May. This show was touted to be the biggest thing in Health Tech in the wider APAC region and it did not disappoint.
When 6,000 people get in a room to discuss problems, evaluate solutions, and find common ground on where Health tech is going you get an energy that is hard to replicate elsewhere. Most of the people who attended DHF have a genuine interest in patient outcomes or the general access to healthcare wellbeing for everyday people or employees.
We heard stories from founders who have created technology borne from personal tragedy, we saw examples of innovative ideas that solved problems experienced in day to work work environments and everything in between. AI was a hot topic, mental health was featured in many of the vendor promotional materials and solutions and the big incumbent players were showcasing their world-leading products.
The beauty of this event is that it felt like a natural place for everyone, the small founder-led business in the start-up drive zone had more people to talk to than she could handle, and the global corporates selling million-dollar pieces of equipment had their regional clients lining up to see the latest product lines.
It was clear that the health-tech industry is booming, there are probably many reasons for this, with the way people work and the impact on mental health from COVID, the cost of living applies more pressure on people’s mental health. The role of organisaitons and how they are taking more ownership of their people’s personal health outcomes and technology they can use to facilitate the best experience for that, right through to new diseases and treatments requiring specialist monitoring equipment.
We were blown away by the interest in the HealthNow platform, it may have been the giant card we were wandering with.. Or it could have been the fact we are offering a solution that does not currently exist, yet so many people have been wanting.
Either way, we are already looking forward to being back at DHF next year!
Video Transcript:
[Music]
Okay, we’re at the Digital Health Fest here in Melbourne, and our goal today is to get around as many of them and ask them what they’re feeling, what they’re seeing in the room, what the trends are, a little bit about their businesses, but also from a health now perspective, what health care, what well-being, and what the role of the employer really means in their workplace. So come with us, we’ll see what we can get out of this room. It’s awesome here, the buzz, especially in the startup arena, is fantastic. I’ve got great mates next to me. It’s very interesting, the different sorts of companies that are here, and I guess what’s on their mind, right? But it’s good that positive health, positive direction is where we should all be in this crazy world right now. So it’s good, right? Lots of good energy and lots of great people getting about. I’m actually quite glad there’s not a huge focus on AI here. There are a few sessions, but it would have been really easy for them to kind of index on AI, and so I actually think it’s been great seeing a lot of the sessions more focused on the practical and real things that are making a difference for customers now. Really good, actually. Lots of traffic coming through the startup arena, meeting some cool people such as yourself. So yeah, pretty good. And I have to agree, this is a very, very busy part of town.
So we’ve just walked past the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise stand here, which takes up half a block at the Digital Health Fest. NZTE, great supporter of health now, so we are going to come back here a bit later on. They’re putting on a bit of a function for us. But as we’re walking past, I’m just going to grab one of these guys and ask them a couple of questions about how they’re finding it, coming from New Zealand.
Yeah, performing very well. Busy, I say, is probably the operative word at the moment. Lots of conversations going on. We’ve got 12 amazing companies from all different areas of health tech, so really showcasing what New Zealand has on offer. And then, of course, there’s plenty of other companies who have come to visit, such as Health Now and lots of others. So my guesstimation really is there’s about 60 New Zealand companies here in attendance. So it’s not really an Australian show, it’s a trans-Tasman show, and I think that really highlights the opportunity here.
So here from Health Now, we’re talking about employee well-being, the utilization of that well-being, how we can get employers’ contributions and funds more simplistically to those employees, give them some empowerment around where they can spend that. We’re really interested in what well-being means to you and to some of your employees that you work with and your colleagues. Can you give us a little bit of an insight? What is well-being holistically to you?
Yeah, absolutely. I think well-being, at the core of it, is bringing your authentic self to work and being able to present yourself in a way that empowers you to perform the best at your workplace. So it’s about nurturing brilliant minds and making sure those brilliant minds are nurtured in a way that they can contribute to society in a meaningful and realistic way. It is absolutely much more. It’s also interconnected, you know, the physical health, the mental health, the nutrition side of things. We all need each other, to be honest. And anyone who says that I can do it on my own isn’t sort of working. So we absolutely need to find ways to work better together to actually help people to be at their best at any point in time.
How does your organization stack up in that scheme of things? Are you guys looked after in the well-being benefit space? Should we be talking to you guys about facilitating a better way of delivering those?
Look, I think we’ve had a bit of a turnaround in that aspect in the last couple of years as far as our corporate responsibility and sponsorship into healthcare. So we’re now working with Starlight Foundation. We’re giving the team time to volunteer, has paid days off as well, to support that endeavor. Promoting health and well-being sessions within the organization as well. So sponsoring fun runs and encouraging involvement from the team is probably the main focus. Yeah, flexibility in your work-life balance, you know? I think and definitely, you know, being here with HBA, they definitely offer that. So I guess that’s probably one of the best things, I guess, out of the career.
Yeah, look, yeah, we get fairly, we actually do get a healthcare benefit, yeah. We’re fairly well looked after, and we have a private chef on staff too.
So we found a booth winner and a benefits winner. They’re checking all the right boxes. Yeah, they are looking after us.
[Music]
