Annual Report: 2024-25 Overview: About the agency

Overview: about the agency

Our strate­gic focus

Our organ­i­sa­tion­al structure

Notes

• The CEIH is an attached agency to DHW.
• South Aus­tralian Com­pre­hen­sive Can­cer Net­work (SAC­CaN) is exter­nal­ly fund­ed through an agree­ment between the State and Com­mon­wealth over four finan­cial years.
• The Patient Report­ed Mea­sures (PRMs) Pro­gram was exter­nal­ly fund­ed, report­ing through to the Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, Con­sumer and Clin­i­cal Partnerships.
• Two trans­la­tion­al research staff are exter­nal­ly fund­ed through Med­ical Research Future Fund (MRFF) and report to the Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, Clin­i­cal Infor­mat­ics and Innovation.
• The Lead­ing Inno­va­tion INter­face Con­nec­tions plus (LIINC+) is exter­nal­ly fund­ed for a 12 month cal­en­dar year basis includ­ing trans­fers from SA Pathol­o­gy staff (3 FTE includ­ing one exec­u­tive) to the CEIH.

Changes to the Agency

Dur­ing 2024 – 25, the fol­low­ing changes occurred:

• The CEIH Statewide PRMs Pro­gram ceased oper­a­tion as of 30 June 2025, fol­low­ing a deci­sion by SA Health LHN Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cers (CEOs) not to com­mit fur­ther fund­ing to the pro­gram beyond that date. This includ­ed decom­mis­sion­ing of the ZEDOC plat­form. The CEOs are com­mit­ted to statewide PRMs and a con­sis­tent, sys­tem-wide approach, and SA Health are look­ing at alter­na­tive ways to col­lect and use data, with lead­er­ship from the LHN Dig­i­tal Leads and local teams.
• SAC­CaN has com­mit­ted fund­ing of $77 mil­lion for South Aus­tralia over four finan­cial years (2024−25 to 2027 – 28) to sup­port the estab­lish­ment of a statewide can­cer net­work to max­imise can­cer pre­ven­tion, ear­ly detec­tion, and trans­form deliv­ery of can­cer care.
• The exter­nal­ly fund­ed LIINC+ pro­gram at CEIH is stream­lin­ing health­care inte­gra­tion across South Aus­tralia through dig­i­tal inno­va­tion and data-dri­ven col­lab­o­ra­tion, aim­ing to improve patient out­comes by con­nect­ing providers and strength­en­ing work­force capability.

Our Min­is­ter

Hon Chris Pic­ton MP is the Min­is­ter for Health and Well­be­ing in South Australia.

The Min­is­ter over­sees health, well­be­ing, men­tal health, pre­ven­tive health, sub­stance use and sui­cide prevention.

Our Exec­u­tive Team

Pro­fes­sor Kei­th McNeil
Com­mis­sion­er

Pro­fes­sor Kei­th McNeil is a health­care leader with a 42-year career spent on the front­lines of patient care and dri­ving sys­tems inno­va­tion. Kei­th joined the CEIH from his posi­tion as Chief Med­ical Offi­cer of Queens­land Health in Octo­ber 2023. He has pre­vi­ous­ly served in senior lead­er­ship roles in the health sec­tor, includ­ing Chief Clin­i­cal Infor­ma­tion Offi­cer roles in Queens­land Health and the NHS, hos­pi­tal and health ser­vice CEO roles in Queens­land and Cam­bridge UK, and as Act­ing Deputy Direc­tor Gen­er­al of Clin­i­cal Excel­lence Queensland.

Katie Billing
Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, Con­sumer and Clin­i­cal Partnerships

The Con­sumer and Clin­i­cal Part­ner­ships Direc­torate is focused on devel­op­ing sys­tems to build and nur­ture the rela­tion­ships between clin­i­cians, com­mu­ni­ties, con­sumers and car­ers, and oth­ers who work in the health sys­tem. Our part­ner­ships work towards improv­ing expe­ri­ences for those receiv­ing care, and work­ing in the health sys­tem, fos­ter­ing inno­va­tion, and ulti­mate­ly lead­ing to bet­ter health outcomes.

Tina Hardin
Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, Clin­i­cal Infor­mat­ics and Innovation

The Clin­i­cal Infor­mat­ics and Inno­va­tion Direc­torate dri­ves health sys­tem change by using inno­v­a­tive approach­es to prob­lem solv­ing and solu­tion design, build­ing inno­va­tion and infor­mat­ics foun­da­tions, and think­ing dif­fer­ent­ly about the use of data to improve health­care. We inter­sect between gov­ern­ment, indus­try, research, and the health sec­tor to solve prob­lems and deliv­er impact.

Com­mit­tees

The Health Chief Exec­u­tives’ Coun­cil (HCEC) Clin­i­cal Coun­cil reports to the HCEC ​‘Main Strate­gic’ group. It is the peak clin­i­cal body respon­si­ble for pro­vid­ing clin­i­cal engage­ment and input into statewide and strate­gic deci­sions that affect clin­i­cal care in South Aus­tralia. The over­ar­ch­ing pur­pose is to:

• Pro­vide rec­om­men­da­tions and inde­pen­dent and impar­tial strate­gic advice about sys­tem-wide issues that affect qual­i­ty, afford­abil­i­ty, effi­cien­cy, access, equi­ty and sus­tain­abil­i­ty of patient care.
• Review and pro­vide advice on the sys­tem-wide clin­i­cal impacts of pro­posed changes to patient care (e.g. mod­els of care, plan­ning and deliv­ery of health ser­vices etc).
• Pro­vide a forum for LHNs, Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­works, Statewide Clin­i­cal Com­mu­ni­ties of Prac­tice, and oth­er clin­i­cal groups to work togeth­er on com­plex sys­tem-wide issues, share best prac­tice and learn and sup­port each other.
• Pro­vide oppor­tu­ni­ties for broad­er sys­tem-wide clin­i­cal col­lab­o­ra­tion on com­plex sys­tem-wide issues (e.g. sec­tor wide ses­sions or forums on pri­or­i­ty issues).

Fos­ter a cul­ture of excel­lence and inno­va­tion with­in the health system.

The HCEC Work­force Well­be­ing Sub-com­mit­tee pro­vides strate­gic direc­tion and gov­er­nance over­sight to improve­ments in work­place well­be­ing cul­ture and work­er well­be­ing across the South Aus­tralian pub­lic health sys­tem. The Sub-Com­mit­tee func­tions as a coor­di­na­tion point for the health sys­tem. It has the author­i­ty to pri­ori­tise and induce col­lec­tive action to address local­ly iden­ti­fied, com­plex, and sys­tem-wide issues that are affect­ing the abil­i­ty of clin­i­cal and non-clin­i­cal lead­ers to cre­ate healthy, safe and thriv­ing workplaces.

The Com­mu­ni­ty of Con­sumers is a dynam­ic group of health­care con­sumers and car­ers who are engaged in the work of the CEIH. Mem­ber­ship of the Com­mu­ni­ty of Con­sumers includes con­sumer rep­re­sen­ta­tives who are mem­bers of our Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­works and con­sumers who have been engaged to sup­port the deliv­ery of spe­cif­ic projects and ini­tia­tives. The Com­mu­ni­ty of Con­sumers meets reg­u­lar­ly, sup­port­ed by the CEIH, to pro­vide a forum for them to share their expe­ri­ences of assist­ing health sys­tem change, pro­vide sup­port to each oth­er and to be informed about health sys­tem changes, ini­tia­tives, and opportunities.

Statewide Clin­i­cal Networks

Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­works (SCNs) are groups of health pro­fes­sion­als, health ser­vice organ­i­sa­tions, con­sumers and car­ers oper­at­ing across the con­tin­u­um of care, across pri­vate and pub­lic sec­tors and LHNs.

SCNs have two main func­tions: devel­op a net­work of clin­i­cians, con­sumers and the com­mu­ni­ty, with an inter­est in a spe­cif­ic area in health; and to resolve iden­ti­fied prob­lems that will lead to sig­nif­i­cant improve­ment in health out­comes for South Aus­tralians. Each Net­work has a clin­i­cal and/​or con­sumer lead and a steer­ing com­mit­tee to devel­op the vision, goals, and work pro­gram for the network.

The CEIH assists in the estab­lish­ment of SCNs and pro­vides resources to man­age and inform clin­i­cal inno­va­tion and improve­ment projects with the focus of build­ing the capa­bil­i­ty of the mem­bers to nav­i­gate the pol­i­cy and prac­tice envi­ron­ments of gov­ern­ment and oth­er parts of the health system.

The Ado­les­cent Tran­si­tion Care Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work is com­mit­ted to sup­port­ing South Aus­tralian young peo­ple from all back­grounds to access a health­care sys­tem which works with and for them, to meet their needs and ful­fill their poten­tial, enabling equi­table and high-qual­i­ty out­comes for all. The Net­work aims to:

• Improve access to services.
• Pro­vide seam­less tran­si­tion to adult health­care services.
• Ensure young peo­ple are part of the sys­tem and its design.
• Improve qual­i­ty of care.

The Can­cer Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work aims to improve health out­comes for all South Aus­tralians affect­ed by can­cer by:

• Focus­ing on com­pas­sion­ate and equi­table care.
• Work­ing in col­lab­o­ra­tive part­ner­ships with key stake­hold­ers across the entire can­cer continuum.
• Build­ing on lat­est evi­dence to dri­ve excel­lence and innovation.
• Dri­ving improve­ments in safe­ty, qual­i­ty, and patient experience.
• Pro­vid­ing strate­gic exper­tise and advice on can­cer care.

The Car­diac Care Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work aims to improve car­di­ol­o­gy ser­vices for the South Aus­tralian com­mu­ni­ty through:

• Ensur­ing equi­table access to com­pre­hen­sive, evi­dence-based car­dio­vas­cu­lar care, aimed at reduc­ing the bur­den of car­dio­vas­cu­lar disease.
• Devel­op­ing a mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary, high­ly skilled, inclu­sive work­force who will deliv­er the best pos­si­ble outcomes.
• Using com­pre­hen­sive, high-qual­i­ty data to assist ser­vice plan­ning and dri­ve con­tin­u­ous qual­i­ty improvement.
• Inno­vat­ing, and imple­ment­ing new or improved mod­els of patient-focused care.
• Sup­port­ing a con­nect­ed and engaged work­force that is respon­sive to patient needs and deliv­ers high qual­i­ty care, teach­ing, and research at all levels.

The Chron­ic Pain Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work is com­mit­ted to build­ing a strong, con­nect­ed, and inclu­sive com­mu­ni­ty of prac­tice which pro­motes evi­dence-informed pre­ven­tion, ear­ly inter­ven­tion, and man­age­ment of pain across the life span for all South Aus­tralians. It aims to:

• Fos­ter improved recog­ni­tion and under­stand­ing of chron­ic pain and its effec­tive man­age­ment in the community.
• Fos­ter sys­tems devel­op­ment to enable trans­par­ent shar­ing of data which can sup­port cross-sec­tor ser­vice design, deliv­ery and collaboration.
• Sup­port improve­ments in com­mu­ni­ty, pri­ma­ry health and hos­pi­tal set­tings to ensure time­ly access to evi­dence informed care for all South Aus­tralians liv­ing with pain.
• Build an inte­grat­ed com­mu­ni­ty of prac­tice that opti­mis­es the expe­ri­ence and out­comes of chron­ic pain management.

The Clin­i­cal Genomics Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work aims for the South Aus­tralian genomics com­mu­ni­ty to work togeth­er to pro­vide the best pos­si­ble health care for South Aus­tralians by:

• Deliv­er­ing high qual­i­ty care for peo­ple through a per­son-cen­tred approach to genomics.
• Build­ing a skilled work­force that is lit­er­ate in genomics.
• Ensur­ing sus­tain­able and strate­gic invest­ment in cost-effec­tive genomics.
• Max­imis­ing qual­i­ty, safe­ty and clin­i­cal util­i­ty of genomics in health care.
• Ensur­ing respon­si­ble col­lec­tion, stor­age, use and man­age­ment of genom­ic data.
• Estab­lish­ing inno­v­a­tive projects that put South Aus­tralia at the fore­front of genomics.

The Pal­lia­tive Care Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work aims to improve qual­i­ty and equi­ty of access for South Aus­tralians requir­ing pal­lia­tive care ser­vices by:

• Increas­ing aware­ness of advanced care plan­ning and bereave­ment services.
• Devel­op­ing bet­ter health lit­er­a­cy in the community.
• Col­lab­o­rat­ing to improve data collection.
• Col­lab­o­rat­ing to build lit­er­a­cy in pal­lia­tive care across clin­i­cal spe­cial­ties to embed the prac­tice of pal­lia­tive care in all settings.

The Sur­gi­cal and Peri­op­er­a­tive Care Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work aims to improve sur­gi­cal out­comes and expe­ri­ence for all South Aus­tralians across the sur­gi­cal jour­ney, and to decrease the require­ment for sur­gi­cal ser­vices by:

• Pro­vid­ing advo­ca­cy to ensur­ing equi­table access to bench­marked safe and high-qual­i­ty ser­vice provision.
• Col­lab­o­rat­ing to address key sys­tem pri­or­i­ties to ensur­ing appro­pri­ate­ness and effi­cien­cy across the sur­gi­cal journey.
• Decreas­ing the require­ment for sur­gi­cal ser­vices through improve­ment of pre- sur­gi­cal care.

The Urgent and Emer­gent Care Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work is com­mit­ted to sup­port­ing urgent, unplanned, and non-life-threat­en­ing care by:

• Cham­pi­oning clin­i­cal­ly appro­pri­ate care at the right place in the right timeframe.
• Link­ing con­sumers with appro­pri­ate hos­pi­tal alter­na­tive services.
• Improv­ing access to urgent care for con­sumers aged over sev­en­ty-five, those suf­fer­ing from men­tal health emer­gen­cies, and peo­ple liv­ing in rur­al areas who require ser­vices in met­ro­pol­i­tan areas.
• Col­lab­o­rat­ing to aug­ment mod­els of urgent care in South Australia.
• Piv­otal­ly involv­ing pri­ma­ry care in this whole agenda.

Estab­lish­ment of the South Aus­tralian Com­pre­hen­sive Can­cer Network

South Aus­tralia signed a Fed­er­al Fund­ing Agree­ment with the Com­mon­wealth Gov­ern­ment for a total of $77 mil­lion over four finan­cial years (2024−25 to 2027 – 28) and the CEIH has tak­en car­riage for the estab­lish­ment of SAC­CaN to deliv­er ini­tia­tives with­in the State through a Com­pre­hen­sive Can­cer Network.

On 15 April 2025, SAC­CaN was for­mal­ly announced with the South Aus­tralian Can­cer Plan by the South Aus­tralian Min­is­ter for Health and Well­be­ing and the Aus­tralian Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter for Health and Ageing.

SAC­CaN will bring togeth­er exper­tise from across the State, with link­ages to oth­er juris­dic­tions, to deliv­er ini­tia­tives that align with nation­al and local can­cer plans and sup­port­ing the Nation­al agen­da under the Aus­tralian Com­pre­hen­sive Can­cer Net­work and Frame­work to dri­ve improve­ments in equi­ty in access and the deliv­ery of opti­mal can­cer health systems.

Key pri­or­i­ties for SAC­CaN are:

• Data and intel­li­gence pro­gram deliv­ery pro­vid­ing a com­pre­hen­sive pic­ture for patients, con­sumers, clin­i­cians, researchers and com­mu­ni­ty to deliv­er a data ecosys­tem, ser­vices and solu­tions that sup­port SAC­CaN core deliverables.
• Enhance a statewide approach to clin­i­cal tri­als gov­er­nance, capa­bil­i­ty, capac­i­ty, and phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal stake­hold­er engage­ment, with a view to embed clin­i­cal tri­al par­tic­i­pa­tion as part of usu­al care for patients with cancer.
• Enhance health­care deliv­ery by inte­grat­ing (trans­lat­ing) exist­ing research into prac­tice while also gen­er­at­ing new research that can be effec­tive­ly embed­ded to improve patient outcomes.
• Sup­port imple­men­ta­tion of state and nation­al can­cer pri­or­i­ties, includ­ing work to invest in can­cer pre­ven­tion and address key chal­lenges faced by the Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander community.

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