First week with CSC team in Brisbane, Australia
This is my first blog (ever!) from the beautiful river city of Brisbane, Australia. I just completed the first week and it went by so quickly. I landed in Brisbane on August 4th and will be here for the rest of the month working with Australia’s most reputable charity, the Royal Flying Doctor Service and I could not be more excited.
The work RFDS has done for over 90 years is simply incredible. RFDS provides vital lifesaving medical care across rural or remote Australia. They served over 330,000 people last year which means they helped someone every 2 minutes of every day. One third of Australia’s population lives in rural and remote Australia making the healthcare and emergency service RFDS provides vital for those that live, work and travel in the outback.
I am joined by 13 IBM colleagues from 8 countries — Argentina, Egypt, Germany, India, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, and the United States. Seven of us are working with RFDS to expand their use of telehealth for better patient outcomes and more effectively manage patient data to gain greater insight. My other colleagues are working with the World Wildlife Fund. The breadth and depth of business and technical skills possessed by the IBM team is truly impressive. Each of us is committed to help RFDS and WWF meet and exceed their objectives and long-term goals.
The RFDS team has been wonderful to work with from the very beginning. The passion they have for the lifesaving work they do is palpable. During our team orientation on August 6th, Martin Laverty, RFDS CEO, gave an inspiring speech about the RFDS mission and vision. David Alley, Director of Finance and Corporate Services, is our executive sponsor. We have worked closely with David to finalize the statement of work which defines the scope of the project. The project will review the current RFDS patient-clinician telehealth pathway to assess what technology enhancements could be made to improve patient health outcomes. It will operate in three stages:
1. Assess the RFDS current approach to telehealth;
2. Assess options for enhancement of RFDS telehealth delivery through adoption of new process, technology, or software;
3. Present a report recommending implementation or commissioning of new technologies.
Week 2 will start tomorrow and I can’t wait for it to start. Here are some pictures from our tour of the specially equipped planes at Brisbane airport that RFDS physicians and nurses fly on to deliver medical, dental and mental health clinics as well as emergency services.
#IBMCSC
#CSCAUSTRALIA1
