APAC Connect 2026: Advancing the future of digital health across the region

Key insights from APAC Connect 2026 on how secure, seamless access is transforming clinician workflows and improving patient care across the region.

Imprivata’s APAC Connect 2026 brought together healthcare leaders, clinical informatics experts, IT professionals, and technology innovators for a day of insight, collaboration, and forward-looking discussion on the future of digital health.

At the heart of this year’s event was a clear message: delivering secure, seamless access to technology and information is essential to improving clinician workflows and patient outcomes.

Setting the stage: A strategic vision for APAC

The day opened with a strategic update from Imprivata, reinforcing its commitment to supporting healthcare systems across the Asia-Pacific region. As digital transformation accelerates, the urgency for secure, efficient access to clinical systems continues to grow.

This set the tone for a day focused on practical innovation—where strategy meets real-world application.

Keynote: A reality check on digital health

Kate Renzenbrink, Chief Clinical Informatics Officer at The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, delivered a compelling keynote, “The State of Digital Health: A Reality Check.”

Drawing on frontline experience, she challenged the audience to look beyond progress and confront an emerging gap in digital health: while healthcare systems have strong foundations in clinical safety and quality, the same level of rigour is not yet consistently applied to digital risk.

As digital transformation accelerates, new risks are being introduced—from system complexity to unintended impacts on clinical workflows—placing additional pressure on already stretched clinicians. Her message was clear: digital health must evolve with the same discipline, governance, and safety mindset as clinical care.

She also reinforced a critical principle: technology should enable care, not add to the burden. Addressing issues like clinician burnout, fragmented systems, and usability challenges requires a stronger focus on designing solutions that align with real-world clinical practice. Involving clinicians at the very beginning is key to designing what the future looks like.

The keynote grounded the day in a practical reality—progress is being made, but without a sharper focus on usability, safety, and clinician experience, digital transformation risks falling short of its potential.

Driving innovation: Simple, secure access for healthcare environments

John Clark, SVP of Product Management at Imprivata, outlined the company’s vision for simplifying secure access across healthcare environments.

His session focused on how identity and access management can:

• Reduce friction for clinicians by providing fast, easy access to clinical systems and devices
• Strengthen security by reducing the reliance on complex logins and passwords and generic accounts
• Enable faster, safer care delivery where the clinician can focus on the patient rather than the technology

The balance between security and usability emerged as a consistent theme throughout the day.

Clinical leadership in focus: CNIO perspectives on access security, efficiency, and clinician experience

A standout session brought together leading clinical informatics voices to explore how organisations are balancing security, efficiency, and clinician experience.

Moderated by Claire Reilly, VP Clinical Operations and Chief Nursing Informatics Officer at Imprivata, the panel featured:

• Kate Renzenbrink, The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital
• Antonela Vogranic, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
• Claire Lake, Sydney Children’s Hospitals

The discussion highlighted the growing pressure to improve patient outcomes while reducing clinician burden. Key strategies included:

• Mobility and access: Enabling frictionless, secure access wherever care is delivered even when using shared devices
• Workflow redesign: Reducing friction and cognitive load allowing clinicians to focus on the patient
• Clinician engagement: Designing with end users, including clinicians at the design stage so that workflows meet the requirements of the frontline users
• Measuring impact: Linking technology and systems to patient outcomes

The panel reinforced a critical point: successful digital transformation depends on aligning technology with real clinical workflows, with CNIOs playing a pivotal role.

Insights from the field: Access as a continuous experience

Research from Honeycomb highlighted a fundamental reality: system access is not a single event, but a continuous experience.

Clinicians constantly move between patients, devices, and applications—requiring repeated authentication and context switching. Each interaction becomes a trade-off between security and efficiency.

Key insights included:

• Clinical workflows are dynamic - access must follow the clinician as they move between patients and different locations
• Re-authentication adds friction and cognitive burden – it needs to be seamless
• Poorly designed access impacts productivity and care – distracting clinicians from their patient

The conclusion was clear: access must be designed around clinical workflows, not the other way around.

Customer spotlight: Monash Health and improving access

Monash Health brought these concepts to life, demonstrating how improving access—“one tap at a time”—can deliver measurable impact.

Since implementing 'Tap and go’ single sign-on in 2019, clinicians can securely access systems with a simple badge tap, eliminating repeated logins and maintaining session continuity across devices.

The results are significant:

• 3.9 million logins per month across 19,000 users
• 5+ seconds saved per interaction
• 5,000+ hours of clinical time returned monthly

For some clinicians, this means over 140–200 system interactions per week—highlighting the importance of frictionless access and the potential for time-savings and reduced cognitive load.

Monash has also extended this model to mobile environments, including the Victorian Heart Hospital, where clinicians use handheld devices to access:

• Microsoft Teams (with Baret)
• Oracle Health mobile apps
• Philips Care Assist
• Upcoming Power Mic Mobile integration

The result is a fully mobile, connected care environment—where access is instant, secure, and aligned with clinical workflows.

Collaboration and connection in digital health

Beyond the sessions, APAC Connect fostered valuable networking and knowledge sharing. Attendees connected with peers and explored solutions in the partner showcase, featuring organisations such as Zebra, Microsoft, IGEL, and Ascom.

These conversations are a vital part of advancing digital health across the region.

Looking ahead: Tackling healthcare challenges

The day concluded with an expert panel and open Q&A, reinforcing a shared commitment to tackling healthcare’s challenges together.

From strategy to implementation, APAC Connect 2026 delivered a clear takeaway: the future of digital health in APAC depends on secure, seamless access that empowers clinicians and improves patient care.

If you would like to learn more about how Imprivata can support digital transformation in your organisation, read the Monash Health case study: The Victorian Heart Hospital partners with Imprivata to streamline access to applications on Zebra TC52 mobile computers, doubling users’ time savings, or contact us today to arrange a meeting.