Great Big Secret of the Online Economy – SmartWard

23rd December 2015, Australian Financial Review By Jacob Greber

Confined to a children’s ward as his eldest daughter suffered a four-month fight against brain cancer that took her life at the age of 19 months, Matt Darling started watching the nurses. Closely.

The 42-year-old computer-systems engineer systematically recorded how overworked hospital staff went through their shifts.

He was struck by how much of their valuable time was lost to basic paperwork – an ocean of it.

Decades of growing complexity in healthcare – as well as the need to create a paper-trail to firewall hospitals, doctors and nurses against lawsuits – have gradually turned the profession into an administrative nightmare.

Darling estimates nurses in Australia’s hospitals now spend less than one-third of their time with patients.

“The problems in hospital care are systemic ones,” he says. “A very dedicated workforce are distracted from patients by a sea of paperwork. It’s not very efficient, but that’s not the staff’s fault.”

Darling’s response – building on a career addressing information-technology headaches for the departments of defence and finance in Canberra – was to design a software system that could not only reduce the paper blizzard, but adapt to changes in care and treatments. Importantly, it had to be easy for nurses and other health professionals to use.

He founded Canberra-based company, SmartWard, which has raised more than $10 million from investors and has run trials of its system in hospitals in Victoria and Queensland, with more planned elsewhere.

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