Digital Transformation Maturity Model for Public Health Services in Regional Australian Settings
Abstract
This study develops and validates a Digital Transformation Maturity Model (DTMM) specifically calibrated to the structural, geographic, and equity imperatives of public health services in regional Australia. Existing digital maturity frameworks, predominantly derived from metropolitan hospital and integrated health system contexts, are demonstrably inadequate for measuring and benchmarking digital transformation progress in regional, rural, and remote (RRR) health service settings, where the critical dimensions of equitable access, workforce distribution, and the integration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community health priorities constitute irreducible evaluation criteria. Employing an Index Development and Benchmarking methodology, this research constructs the Regional Health Digital Transformation Index (RHDTI). This composite measurement instrument integrates technology capability metrics encompassing telemedicine infrastructure maturity, AI-assisted diagnostic tool adoption, electronic health record interoperability, and digital health literacy levels across the clinical workforce with socio-epidemiological equity metrics, including patient-to-practitioner ratios in remote localities, demographic access differentials, chronic disease burden distributions, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health service utilisation rates. The RHDTI is constructed through a four-stage process of domain specification, indicator operationalisation, weighting validation, and benchmarking application, and validated across three structurally differentiated Australian health regions: the Murrumbidgee Local Health District in New South Wales, the Western Queensland Primary Health Network, and the Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services region in Western Australia. Cross-regional benchmarking reveals that technological capability and equity of access are not co-linear dimensions of digital maturity in regional Australian health settings; health services with advanced technology infrastructure profiles frequently demonstrate inferior equity access outcomes compared to technologically less mature but community-embedded services, a finding with fundamental implications for the design of digital health investment policy in the Australian National Digital Health Strategy.
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.51817/jas.v6i2.448
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