How Is AI Being Used in Australian Telehealth Services?

Introduction
Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming telehealth in Australia, equipping clinicians and patients with smart tools that facilitate diagnosis, optimize workflows, and increase access. While telehealth becomes the backbone of the national healthcare system, AI is ensuring its successful evolution. This article discusses how ai in healthcare in australia is revolutionizing telehealth in various areas, ranging from remote monitoring to clinical decision support.

1. Smarter Symptom Checkers & Triage
Perhaps the most influential application of AI in Australian telehealth is automated triage. For instance, health insurer NIB and Infermedica collaborated to create an AI-driven symptom checker. Built into their mobile app, the software inquires about symptoms and refers them to the right level of care—GP, emergency, or home monitoring. Chalk up a 97.2 % referral accuracy and more than 5,000 users triaged since February roll-out.

This not only reduces pressure on emergency departments but also enables international students and workers to better navigate Australia's healthcare system.

Nationally, digital triage platforms such as Healthdirect Australia's symptom checker use clinical information and AI to assist patients effectively
Integrating these tools into telehealth pathways ensures clinicians receive well-prepared patients, improving consultation efficiency.

2. AI-Facilitated Virtual Consultations
Australian telehealth platforms are now incorporating AI to complement remote consultations:

Clinical documentation: AI scribes such as Melbourne-based Heidi Health automatically document telehealth consultations into structured clinical notes, conserving time and minimizing administrative workload. The company now facilitates more than a million consultations per week and has recently received A$16.6 million in Series A funding to further enhance its capabilities, including summarized visit notes and task tracking 

LLMs for the production of notes: Large language models (LLMs) are being trialled in Australia to produce preliminary clinical notes following consultation, reducing doctors' 

Mental health support: AI chatbots and virtual assistants are being used under professional supervision to provide cognitive behavioural interventions and collect mood and behavioural information between conventional mental health sessions

Through automation of documentation and preliminary diagnostic support, AI enables clinicians to spend more time engaging with patients, ultimately improving care quality.

3. Remote Patient Monitoring via Camera & Sensors
Telehealth’s potential extends beyond video calls. AI-driven remote monitoring is emerging as a vital component:

A partnership between the Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District and the Visual Telehealth Lab at the University of Sydney applies AI algorithms to examine a patient's facial video during telehealth. The system can detect heart rate — and with possible updates, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, pain, and anxiety — without physical sensors

Australian e‑Health Research Centre (AEHRC) at CSIRO has implemented the Remote‑I platform for teleophthalmology. It automates diabetic retinopathy detection via AI-driven analysis of retinal photographs, greatly improving screening capacity in rural and remote areas aehrc.csiro.au.

Tele-dental platforms also employ AI to screen dental X-rays for early decay and disease

These technologies democratise health monitoring, making it more precise, less expensive, and more convenient than ever aehrc.csiro.au.

4. AI for Rural and Remote Access
The geography of Australia creates a special challenge for accessing health. Telehealth, with AI support, is crossing the divide:

In rural and Aboriginal communities, AI-supported instruments are aiding in ear disease screening. Machine learning algorithms have diagnosed ear pathologies in children at more than 80 % accuracy, allowing early detection where there are few ENT specialists

Teleophthalmology AI systems are tackling increased diabetic retinopathy rates in Indigenous communities in Australia's remote regions, providing in-spot screening and referrals.

Technologies such as Starlink satellite broadband further enhance the possibilities of AI by enhancing connectivity in remote regions, making real-time video and AI analysis possible that were before impossible

5. Efficiency of Operations & Administrative Relief
Apart from clinical treatment, AI healthcare in Australia is making operations more efficient and easing clinician burnout being relieved

Administrative automation through digital scribes (such as Heidi Health and NexusMD) reduces charting time and enhances note quality. NexusMD recently completed a A$6.3 million funding round to build AI agents that also help with compliance and documentation in emergency departments — enhancing performance by 30 % at Peninsula Private Hospital

Insurers such as NIB are using AI-driven virtual assistants (such as "Nibby") to lower customer service burdens, saving A$22 million and lowering call volume by 15 %

Hospitals like Monash Health and St Vincent’s are using predictive analytics to anticipate no-shows, manage resources, and allocate staff more effectively

This wave of AI-driven optimisation fundamentally enhances service delivery and cuts system-wide inefficiencies.

6. Clinical Decision Support & Diagnostics
AI is becoming a trusted partner in clinical reasoning and diagnostics:

Harrison.ai’s Annalise.ai platform uses AI to interpret chest X‑rays and assist radiologists during telehealth consults

AI systems within EMRs warn clinicians of impending problems such as drug interactions or the needs of chronic disease management

AI-powered wearables, for example, wearable electrocardiogram monitors by AliveCor, assist in the detection of abnormal heart rhythms during telehealth visits, allowing for timely intervention

These diagnostic systems improve patient safety and consistency, and evidence-based care remotely.

7. Ethical, Privacy & Regulatory Issues
While it has advantages, the incorporation of AI in telehealth brings with it challenges:

Safety issues come into play when AI is utilized inappropriately without clinician supervision. Instances have been reported by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) regarding inappropriate remote prescribing and uses of AI in the context of telehealth consults – sounding alarm bells for more stringent regulation 

Firms such as Heidi Health and NexusMD highlight data privacy — with the transcripts being held anonymised and on Australian servers, and no permanent audio recordings 

Governance by agencies like AHPRA, TGA, and OAIC is changing to ensure transparency, consent, and safe use of AI in clinical environments.

Strong regulation and ethical checks are necessary to unlock the full potential of AI while safeguarding patient safety and trust.

Conclusion
AI is transforming telehealth in Australia at a fast pace, making it a smarter, more convenient, and streamlined healthcare system. From triage and virtual consultations to remote monitoring and diagnostic assistance, AI-powered solutions are enhancing outcomes across geographical and systemic barriers.

But success relies on harmonizing innovation and oversight. With the growth of AI in healthcare in Australia, ethical adoption, regulatory alignment, and clinician engagement will be critical.

In the future, AI-enabled telehealth holds out the promise of:

Decreased clinician administrative burden

Increased rural and Indigenous health access

Increased early detection and diagnostics

Increased patient empowerment and system efficiencies

For Australia's future in telehealth, collaboration between human clinical acumen and artificial intelligence will be the unlock to providing high-quality, equitable healthcare to the country.