One of the world’s most innovative medical minds will this week meet with Perth industry leaders to advise how they can reach their smart city goals by encompassing an advanced, forward-thinking approach to global health.
Dr. Este Geraghty, Chief Medical Officer and Health Solutions Director for Esri, has been invited to Australia to meet with business pioneers of smart city thinking – across local government, health and private – to share how they can use the latest world-class technology to revolutionise the future of health and crisis response.
Esri’s world-leading mapping and analytics software unlocks the full potential of spatial insights for many of the world’s leading organisations.
Dr. Geraghty’s visit comes at an ideal time for the city, amongst the news that Perth is the front runner in the nation’s race to developing smart cities. Supported by the Federal Government’s $50 million Smart Cities and Suburbs Program, Perth’s smart city ambitions look to deliver cutting-edge technology, focusing on community enhancement.
Dr. Geraghty elaborated that with the increase in modern health concerns including the opioid crisis, homelessness and a severe rise in mental health issues, there is a critical need for the industry to develop and adapt to the world around it.
With this comes a need for never-before-seen levels of interoperability, requiring groups including the criminal justice system, mental health professionals, health care professionals and pharmaceutical companies, to work together for a healthier outcome for the community.
Dr. Geraghty said whether looking at America or Australia, for smarter city programs to be successful, interagency collaboration must be partnered with leveraging powerful technology platforms for seamless information sharing.
Similarly, Dr. Geraghty shares whilst health and place have long been recognised as partners, new technologies are only recently allowing more and more members of the public to leverage such insightful information.
“With this growing importance of inter-agency cooperation and collaboration, it is important that we leverage technology and software platforms like geographic information systems (GIS) to further the implementation of innovative plans,” she said.
Dr. Geraghty explained one benefit of GIS is the ability to help governments tailor the right intervention, targeted to the right places resulting in the best possible outcome for a community – highlighting that no one community’s needs are ever the same.
“When we are talking about health, we are talking about saving lives, preventing illness and protecting our future generations. This means that it is imperative to use every resource available to us, focusing on the outcome of a healthier future for the community.”
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