Bright ideas will be quickly turned into practical solutions that can transform dementia, palliative and complex care for older people and those who care for them with the launch of Hammond Innovations.
The new initiative announced today by HammondCare CEO Andrew Thorburn at the Ageing Australia National Conference 2025, will harness research, creative design, the latest technologies, and cross-sector partnerships with fast implementation to respond to the care challenges of Australia’s growing aging population.
Mr Thorburn said experienced health innovator Dr Anna Barker would lead Hammond Innovations and bring together the resources of the highly-regarded The Dementia Centre, The Palliative Centre and The Centre for Positive Ageing.
He said Dr Barker’s accomplishments as an executive leader and board director and her 20 years’ experience in healthcare, aged care and research innovation made her an outstanding appointment to lead Hammond Innovations. Dr Barker will be part of the HammondCare Leadership Team
Mr Thorburn said Hammond Innovations would continue HammondCare’s history of pioneering care for people in need, dating back to 1932, when it was established to find housing solutions for destitute families. Since then, pioneering efforts have included the small household model, Dementia Support Australia, and an early pilot of the Specialist Dementia Care Program.
“Hammond Innovations will build on this pioneering legacy of improving quality of life for people in need. It will take burning questions and bright ideas, then test, refine and apply them to create insights that transform care,” he said.
Dr Barker (above), who will be Executive General Manager of Hammond Innovations, said the new initiative will be about real-world solutions, not research that remains in journals “without being embedded in practice”.
“The aged and health sectors face growing pressures including workforce shortages, preventable harms, rising costs, administrative burden and slow translation of evidence into practice,” Dr Barker said. “We want to respond to this with solutions through a provider-led innovation model – not just research that is too slow or pilots that are too narrow – that is technology inspired and makes use of innovation pathways to move from problem to product with speed, agility and scale.”
The heart of Hammond Innovations will be the IDEA Hub – short for Insight, Design, Evidence and Action – described as an engine room to identify the most urgent problems, test solutions and scale what works. Partnerships with technology, university and philanthropic partners along with other sector providers will underpin the Hammond Innovations approach.
A high priority will be improving the environments of older people, including developing safer, personalised, digitally enabled homes, nursing home settings and hospitals.
A second priority will be supporting care practitioners with practical digital tools, AI assistants and streamlined workflows to free them up for more time being present with older people in their care. Developing new ways to help older people and their caregivers and supporting networks, including families, will be a third priority.
Digital solutions now market ready – including smart lamps, ambient listening, radar sensors, digital pill boxes, AI companions and VR therapy – will be among the first areas to be explored for their potential to improve care.
“We want to deliver what matters most – happier, healthier days for older Australians with more nights on their own pillows. For care practitioners, we want more hands held and fewer pens pushed,” Dr Barker said.
Dr Barker has a PhD (Geriatrics) and a Masters of Physiotherapy (Geriatrics) as well as qualifications through the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She also has significant research experience, establishing global collaborations with Harvard Medical School and Mayo Clinic in her role as Head of Health Services Research at Monash University.