Connect4Health: digital-enabled social prescribing to improve the health and wellbeing of people with cardiometabolic conditions
Our NHMRC Ideas Grant project aims to develop and evaluate Connect4Health, a digital-enabled social prescribing program designed to improve the health and wellbeing of people living with cardiometabolic conditions, including heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. Connect4Health brings together researchers, health services, community organisations, technology partners, and people with lived experience to create a more connected, person-centred approach to chronic disease management.
Connect4Health combines artificial intelligence, digital health technologies, and social prescribing to connect individuals with community programs, peer support networks, health services, and digital resources that support health and wellbeing. Through a personalised assessment, tailored navigation, ongoing support, and an AI Companion, the program aims to help people access the right support at the right time while ensuring equity, accessibility, and cultural responsiveness.
The overall aim of the project is to develop, optimise, and evaluate a scalable digital social prescribing model that strengthens social connectedness, supports chronic disease self-management, and improves health outcomes.
The objectives of Connect4Health are:
- To co-design Connect4Health with people with lived experience, clinicians, community organisations, and health service providers to ensure it is acceptable, equitable, and fit for purpose.
- To develop and optimise the digital platform, including AI-enabled assessment, navigation, and personalised support systems, to deliver scalable and responsive social prescribing.
- To evaluate the usability, acceptability, feasibility, implementation outcomes, and preliminary effectiveness of Connect4Health in real-world community settings.
- To identify barriers and facilitators to implementation and generate evidence to support future scale-up and integration into routine health and community care.
Connect4Health will generate important evidence on how digital-enabled social prescribing can strengthen connections between health services and community supports, improve the management of chronic disease, and reduce pressures on the healthcare system. Working closely with community partners, consumers, clinicians, and technology experts.
Connect4Health will develop a scalable model that can be adapted for diverse metropolitan, regional, rural and culturally diverse communities across Australia.
We welcome Honours, Masters, and PhD students with interests in digital health, implementation science, chronic disease management, artificial intelligence, health services research, consumer engagement, and community-based care.
For more information, contact Brian Oldenburg.