What will tomorrow’s hospitals look like? Forget traditional, centralised institutions - the future of healthcare is shifting towards person-centred, technology-enabled ecosystems. From digital health, AI and precision medicine to sustainability and community-based care, we’re entering a transformative era of innovation and opportunity.
But with opportunity comes complexity. How do we ensure innovation is equitable? How do we ethically and morally embrace AI and genomics without losing the human touch? And how do we build health systems that are resilient, responsive, and truly sustainable?
Join us for the final MedConnect of the year, hosted by Professor Cheryl Jones, Dean of UNSW Medicine & Health, as leading voices from Australia and around the world explore the hospital of the future, and what it means for patients, professionals, and communities in Australia and globally.
This event is proudly presented in partnership with the International Centre for Future Health Systems (ICFHS) at UNSW Sydney.
Professor Cheryl Jones is a world-renowned paediatric infectious diseases physician clinician-scientist and health and medical educator. A Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health & Medical Sciences, she has secured over $35 million in peer-reviewed funding and published more than 170 peer reviewed publications. Her research, particularly on childhood encephalitis, vaccination and mother to child transmission of infections, has significantly influenced global health policy. Professor Jones has held senior executive positions at leading University and Health and Medical research institutions, professional societies and statutory authorities and actively contributes to government policy and clinical practice guidelines. She is a Director of the Australian Medical Council, an Executive Member of the AAHMS Council and a Director of the Ramsay Health Care Research Foundation. Her work in supervising postgraduate students has earned her recognition for mentoring excellence.
Elizabeth was appointed Managing Director of Telstra Health, Australia’s largest digital health company and a subsidiary of Telstra Group Limited in April 2022 and is passionate about the potential of Digital Health to transform health care delivery. Prior to this Elizabeth had a long and distinguished career in the NSW health system, with her most significant role being Secretary, NSW Health for six years from 2016 -2022. As Secretary, Elizabeth was responsible for the management of the NSW health system, the largest health system in Australia with a $30 billion budget and 124,000 FTE. In 2020/2021, Elizabeth led the NSW Health system through the COVID-19 pandemic and advised NSW government crisis cabinet on the management of COVID-19 in NSW, and the subsequent vaccination roll out. Elizabeth has chaired the Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council (AHMAC) and its subsequent iteration of Health Chief Executives Forum. She is also a member of Chief Executive Women and is Chair of Randwick Health and Innovation Precinct (RHIP). Elizabeth was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2022 Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to healthcare. She has been awarded Honorary doctorates from Western Sydney University, the University of Sydney and UNSW Sydney.
Adjunct Professor Andrew Milat is Executive Director, Intelligence and Support for Innovation, Transformation and Evaluation, Agency for Clinical Innovation (ACI). He oversees data, analytics, modelling, evaluation, research, clinical redesign, virtual care, patient-reported measures, and experiential evidence functions of the ACI. In 2023–2024, he was Professor of Public Health, University of Sydney, and Senior Adviser to the Implementation Science Academy of the NHMRC Research Translation Centre, Sydney Health Partners.
He has also held positions including Acting Executive Director and Director in the Centre for Epidemiology and Evidence, NSW Ministry of Health; the Head of the Knowledge Transfer Division at the Sax Institute; Research Manager with the Australian Government Department of Health and a Local Health District Director of Health Promotion.
Andrew has published 171 peer-reviewed papers (92+ since 2018). His publications have been cited 7,172 times. He is CI/AI on over 10 NHMRC and MRFF grants. He ranks in the top 0.02% of global researchers in program evaluation (ExpertScape, Jan 2025). He was also a key contributor to the 2016 and 2023 NSW Government Evaluation Guidelines.
Peter Pronovost is a world-renowned patient safety champion, physician executive, critical care physician, prolific researcher with more than 1400 peer-reviewed publications, an innovator who has founded several technology companies and a thought leader informing U.S. and global health policy.
Dr. Pronovost’s transformative work leveraging checklists to reduce central line-associated bloodstream infections has saved thousands of lives and earned him national acclaim. This life-saving intervention has been implemented across the U.S., and as a result, central line-associated infections that used to kill as many people as breast or prostate cancer have been reduced by 80 percent. In recognition of this innovation, his highest-profile accolades include being named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine and receiving a coveted MacArthur Foundation “genius grant.”
While serving as Chief Clinical Transformation Officer at University Hospitals and as a Professor in the Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Management at Case Western Reserve University, Dr. Pronovost developed a checklist to make visible defects in value and deployed a management and accountability system to eliminate those defects. This system reduced the annual cost of care for Medicare patients by 30% over three years while improving quality. In 2022, Dr. Pronovost lead the efforts that culminated in University Hospitals winning the American Hospital Association’s Quest for Quality award, the industry’s most prestigious honor recognizing its member organizations for their commitment to quality. He was named the Veale Distinguished Chair in Leadership and Clinical Transformation in 2023.
Dr. Robert Marshall is the Chief Strategy Officer at St Vincent’s Health Australia, responsible for strategy development and delivery across St Vincent's portfolio of public and private hospitals, aged care services, research partnerships, and virtual and at-home care. A medical doctor, Rob interrupted his training with the Royal Australasian College of Physicians to pursue a Master in Public Administration (Health Policy) at Columbia University, supported by a Fulbright Scholarship. From there, he joined Boston Consulting Group where he led strategy and transformation efforts for governments (in Australia and the UK), hospital providers, private health insurers and other large corporates. He has also worked on cost-effectiveness analyses as a Consultant to the World Health Organization and on health system reform and the Closing the Gap Taskforce as a Policy Advisor to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Rob is passionate about strengthening Australia’s health and aged care system, driving better population health outcomes, and improving the value, quality, and equity of healthcare services.
