Public health decisions, such as how to respond to emerging health issues, rely on data. But when information is fragmented across systems and organisations, it becomes harder to respond quickly, identify emerging issues, and understand how best to support communities.
The SMART-PH (Digitising Information for Practice in Public Health) Project is an MRFF project led by Discipline of Trauma and Injury Principal Investigator Associate Professor Courtney Ryder, alongside Research Fellow Dr Lavender Otieno and Research Officer Pip Henderson, in collaboration with the Department of Health and CSIRO.
The SMART-PH project is developing a first-of-its-kind statewide public health data analytics platform for South Australia. Currently, much of the data used to inform public health action is siloed across agencies and organisations, making it difficult to access, connect and use effectively. By integrating data across local councils, government departments, health services and non-government organisations, SMART-PH aims to support more connected and evidence-informed public health decision making through AI-supported analytics, data visualisation, automated reporting, and evaluation tools.
Importantly, SMART-PH is being co-designed, co-developed and co-evaluated alongside a broad range of stakeholders and communities. Indigenous and consumer governance groups are integral to the project, helping ensure the platform is culturally safe, relevant and accountable to the organisations and communities who will use it. also guiding conversations around data sovereignty, governance, ethics, privacy, transparency and community accountability from the outset.
To support the co-design process, SMART-PH recently held two stakeholder workshop days bringing together representatives from government, research, industry, local councils, non-government organisations, and Indigenous and consumer governance groups from across South Australia.
Across the workshops, participants discussed the realities of working with public health data – including reporting pressures, interoperability, workforce capability, governance, accessibility and data integration – while also exploring what organisations would want from a future public health data platform. A key theme emerged consistently throughout the workshops: organisations and communities need timely, accessible public health data to make informed decisions and better support communities.
The workshops brought together representatives from organisations including the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), Preventive Health SA, SA Health, CSIRO, SA Pathology, the Local Government Association, local councils, Multicultural Communities Council of South Australia (MCCSA), Aboriginal Health Council of South Australia (AHCSA), Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO), BoraCare, Black Ochre Data Labs, and the Indigenous and Consumer Governance Groups.
It was also a privilege to have South Australia’s Chief Public Health Officer, Professor Nicola Spurrier – who is a Chief Investigator on the project – attend and contribute to the workshops.
Through ongoing collaboration and co-design, SMART-PH aims to strengthen South Australia’s public health data infrastructure and support more equitable, responsive and evidence-informed public health action into the future.
Publications and articles
Co-designing a public health data analytics platform, journal publication, Nature Medicine, 2025
SMART-PH Revolutionising Public Health and Clinical Data Integration, web article, GP Support, 2024
Australia’s first public health ‘data lake’ project launched, web article, Healthcare IT News, 2024
AI driving a SMART future for public health, web article, Flinders University News, 2024