In 2017, the Southgate Institute was successful in winning a Flinders University DVCR Innovation Seed Grant ‘Equity in access to, use of, and benefits from digital health strategies’.

The investigators on the project are Dr. Toby Freeman and Dr. Matt Fisher from the Southgate Institute, Prof. Paul Ward, Professor of Public Health at Flinders University, an expert on trust and the health system, Prof. Richard Osborne, Deakin University, who is an expert in e-health literacy, and Tony Lawler, Deputy Head of Medicine at the University of Tasmania. The partner investigators include Meghan Mann and Maureen Robinson from Healthdirect Australia, and Janice Biggs from the Australian Digital Health Agency.

The Southgate Institute welcomes Kristen Foley, who is the project officer for the research. Kristen has completed a Masters of Public Health at Flinders University, and has extensive qualitative public health experience.

Health information, health services, and other government services and resources are increasingly moving online. Thus, understanding who accesses, uses, and benefits from digital health strategies is critical to achieving equitable provision of health services. This research project will trial methods to investigate the effects of a range of social factors on equity in access to, use of and benefits from digital health services. The research will be conducted in partnership with Healthdirect Australia and the Australian Digital Health Agency.