Philips Australia partners with Southern NSW Local Health District to enable Acute Care in the Home

A milestone in virtual care

The announcement of the partnership to provide Respiree™  to SNSWLHD is more than just an addition of new technology; it's the result of years of close collaboration between Philips and SNSWLHD-a digitally mature health district that has consistently demonstrated leadership in reimagining care beyond the hospital walls. SNSWLHD has worked extensively with Philips on virtual health care delivery, creating a foundation of innovation and clinical readiness that will underpin this next step.

Helen Callum, Clinical Consultant at Philips ANZ and lead for the Respiree portfolio, described the program as “not just a technology deployment, but the continuation of a long-standing partnership with health districts who understand what it takes to bring hospital care into the community.” She added that earlier remote monitoring programs were designed primarily to spot-check patients with chronic conditions over years. This breakthrough deployment moves well beyond that, ushering in a model of continuous and scalable cardio-respiratory surveillance that can be applied across acute care, transitional care, and even into residential aged care.

Responding to regional realities

The partnership reflects the particular challenges of the Southern NSW health district: vast distances and scarce clinical resources have made timely access to care an ongoing challenge. In this region, virtual care is not just a convenience. It is an essential lifeline for communities spread over large rural expanses.

Margaret Bennett, Chief Executive, SNSWLHD said, “We look forward to this program enabling patients across our district to receive equitable, timely, and high-quality care, no matter where they live.”

Relieving pressure on the health system

The challenges facing Australia's hospitals continue to mount. Some emergency department wait times have tripled since 2018, while ambulance ramping and hospital over-occupancy have become daily realities across NSW [1]. For clinicians, being able to access near real-time vital sign data from patients outside the hospital offers a much-needed access to patient data.

The Respiree™ wearable sensors and clinical dashboards provide on-the-go alerting to enable healthcare teams to intervene earlier, prioritise resources, and reduce avoidable readmissions [2]. Some programs provide decision support algorithms that flag deterioration and help staff focus where they are most needed [3]

This comes at a time when the Philips Future Health Index 2025 reveals that three out of four Australian healthcare professionals (74%) are already losing valuable clinical time due to incomplete or inaccessible patient data—nearly one in five losing over 45 minutes per shift, adding up to 23 full days per year [4]. Consolidating real-time data from patients at home and in community settings, the Respiree™ solution addresses this pain point directly and saves clinicians time for what really matters: caring for the patients [5].

"The ability to monitor patients’ vital signs at home means our clinicians can detect a change in patient condition and provide hospital level care in the home." Ms Bennett said.

Better care for patients and families

For patients, the impact is deeply personal. Respiree provides a chance to recover at home, maintaining comfort and dignity while still receiving the same level of oversight that would have been available in hospital. Families are no longer forced to make long and exhausting trips to distant facilities, a change that is particularly transformative in rural areas. Through patient and caregiver apps, loved ones gain visibility into vital signs and can communicate more easily with clinical teams, helping them feel empowered and included in the care process [6]. 

"People will get to stay at home, in an environment they know, surrounded by family support. It will be like having the hospital right in the home with them,” Ms Bennett said.

GP integration is a key priority. As Callum explained, general practitioners are central to clinical governance in the care journey and the bond between primary care and hospital oversight needs to be strengthened. With mobile alerting and connected data, GPs and facility staff alike can act more quickly and make safer, more informed decisions.

Technology designed to scale

The Respiree™ solution  is an all-inclusive system that incorporates wearable IoT sensors, a clinical command centre dashboard, mobile apps for clinicians, and patient-facing applications. The sensors monitor everything from respiration rate and tidal volume to oxygen saturation, heart rate variability, and patient activity.. These streams of information run through continuous AI algorithms, trained on large and very diverse datasets, which ensure precision and reliability that clinicians can trust [7].

The system is designed not only to monitor but also to support broader health reform goals. FHI 2025 data shows that while 66% of Australians welcome new technology if it improves the quality of their care, more than half-53%-worry it might reduce face-to-face time with their doctor [8]. Respiree demonstrates how technology can free up time, strengthen patient-doctor relationships, and ultimately build trust by integrating AI seamlessly into workflows and making sure clinicians remain at the centre of care.

Alignment with health reform

SNSWLHD’s Hospital in the Home program supported by the Respiree™  solution, has close alignment with the NSW Health Strategy to provide Hospital in the Home services [9], one of the most ambitious health reform agendas in the country It reflects   the  Quadruple Aim by improving patient outcomes through continuous monitoring, enhancing patient experience with home-based care, empowering clinicians in both urban and rural settings, and reducing system costs through hospital substitution and avoided readmissions.

This program embodies the mission of Philips. "This partnership is a blueprint for how we can achieve better care for more people," said Joe Cain, Acute Care Informatics Leader, Philips APAC. "By combining innovative technology with strong clinical partnerships, we are building a future where geography and resources are no longer barriers to quality healthcare in Australia and across Asia-Pacific."

Philips' deployment of the Respiree™ solution throughout Southern NSW represents more than a regional success story: It is a model for what is possible nationwide. With flexibility across residential aged care, emergency department diversion, rural outreach, and transitional monitoring, Respiree offers a scalable solution that can adapt to Australia's diverse healthcare delivery needs.

According to Helen Callum, this is only the beginning: “The Philips Respiree platform proves that with the right technology, collaboration, and vision, we can redesign healthcare delivery in Australia.” 

References

[1] https://www.aihw.gov.au/hospitals/topics/emergency-departments/waiting-times

[2] https://www.respiree.com/index.html@p=1758.html

[3] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/396075387_Vital_Signs-Only_Machine_Learning_Model_for_Acute_Inpatient_Deterioration_A_Retrospective_Multicenter_Study

[4] https://www.philips.com.au/a-w/about/news/future-health-index/reports/2025/building-trust-in-healthcare-ai.html

[5] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/396075387_Vital_Signs-Only_Machine_Learning_Model_for_Acute_Inpatient_Deterioration_A_Retrospective_Multicenter_Study

[6] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32449051/

[7] Respiree Pte Ltd. (2024). RS001 Cardio-respiratory Monitor: Operator’s Manual (RS001.2.D Ver 1). Retrieved from https://www.respiree.com

[8] https://www.philips.com.au/a-w/about/news/future-health-index/reports/2025/building-trust-in-healthcare-ai.html

[9] https://www1.health.nsw.gov.au/pds/ActivePDSDocuments/PD2025_004.pdf