With the Rural Health Conference in May and Fieldays in June, rural health has been in the spotlight, and robust conversations about what’s working and what isn’t are gaining momentum. Both events highlighted the same fundamental truth: rural health professionals are getting on with it. While the system debates strategy, they’re adapting in real-time, working with what they’ve got to deliver care in some of the most under-resourced parts of the country. These reflections come not just from the conference stage, but from the countless conversations I have had with clinicians, students, funders and providers across both forums.
The heart of rural healthcare
The real story at the centre of rural health is the people. Rural healthcare is full of those who do more with less, not because they want to, but because they have to. They’re serving communities where being short-staffed and under-resourced is business as usual and they find ways to make it work.
There’s a grounded pragmatism that comes through in every conversation. If someone can’t travel two hours to see a doctor, the care model has to adapt. These are teams solving complex problems daily with limited tools, often outside traditional systems. In many ways, rural health professionals are already innovating; they just need the digital support to scale what’s already working.
Medical students attending the Conference were surprised that digital health was discussed more over a few days than they’d heard in their entire degree. That contrast was telling. They went away asking: Why isn’t digital health more embedded in medical training? Why are we still working in a system that leaves rural communities to figure it out for themselves?
Five reasons rural health is still under pressure
Rural health isn’t being held back due to capability or intent, but rather the five systemic constraints I outlined at the conference:
1. A policy environment that still fails rural
Health strategies remain urban-centric, applying metro models to communities that operate very differently. The result is policies that overlook what’s needed on the ground.
2. Vendor constraints
Most technology vendors are building for scale, but not the right kind. Rural communities need tools designed for flexibility, not just volume. There’s no commercial incentive to support niche use cases.
3. Lack of digital enablement in medical training
New clinicians aren’t being taught how to use digital health as a core part of care. This isn’t just a training gap, but a capability gap. We’re sending people out unprepared for the way rural healthcare actually works.
4. Local thinking without national backing
Great ideas are being built on the ground, but they’re being built in isolation. We need a model that supports local solutions with national investment and infrastructure.
5. Public and private partnership
The public health sector lacks the willingness to partner with the private sector. Instead of building at scale with those already solving pieces of the puzzle, public health is trying to manage everything itself, and it’s not working.
Community resilience in action
Despite these challenges, rural teams are adapting, collaborating and looking after each other. In these places, healthcare isn’t anonymous – everyone knows when the local midwife is away, or when the GP is unwell. That kind of shared responsibility doesn’t exist in urban environments.
We also need to stop pretending the status quo is acceptable when there are those who haven’t seen their GP in years because they simply can’t get an appointment when they need one. And in rural clinics, there often isn’t an option B. If digital tools can address that gap, then the question shouldn’t be “Why?” but “How soon?”
The opportunity of digital health
So, how do we support them? Let’s move away from more layers of management or new governance groups and towards better infrastructure, practical, scalable, accessible digital tools, platforms that work across practices and training that prepares clinicians to use those tools from day one.
AI-powered transcription services are already being used in primary and community care at a pace that’s outstripping official guidance. This shows that rural teams are ready to adopt new tools, but they need frameworks that support innovation, not slow it down. Technology isn’t the constraint anymore. It’s the structure around it that needs to catch up.
How Spark Health is contributing
At Spark Health, we’re doing our part to remove the barriers:
- Connectivity: We’re delivering rural broadband using satellite where fibre doesn’t reach.
- Digital-first training: We support initiatives to embed digital health into medical training, including the opportunity for a digital-first medical school.
- Strategy co-design: We’re working with the Rural Health Network to develop a digital health strategy that reflects rural realities.
We also advocate for a networked model of care. The way general practice is set up now, most clinics operate like they’re the edge of the world. We think that’s broken. Technology should make it possible to share resources, pool on-call duties and provide patients with 24/7 access when they need it.
Real-world examples show this is already working. In one clinic, Visionflex and Spark Health tools are enabling Clinical Nurse Specialists to collaborate in real time with doctors based hours away, avoiding unnecessary transfers and improving patient outcomes.
Backing rural innovation
Our role is to help communities connect the dots: infrastructure, data, access, support. Rural healthcare workers are already solving problems, so let’s back them with the right tools, the right training and the right partnerships. If we want to build a system that serves everyone, both rural and urban, then digital health is our most direct path forward.