Victorian public oral healthcare is provided on a ‘first come, first served’ basis, with eligible adult consumers typically waiting up to three years to access care. This can disadvantage consumers who have urgent care needs but are not triaged for timelier access to comprehensive dental care. To achieve a more equitable resource allocation, reduce dental waitlist times, improve health outcomes, and enhance consumer experiences, an accurate assessment of oral health need and disease risk is identified as high priority area for improvement. Therefore, we are working with a Victorian community health service, Your Community Health (YourCH), to assess and evaluate the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, CoTreat, to enhance Victorian public oral healthcare.
Prior to integrating CoTreat, YourCH implemented the Heal and Seal triage pathway (usual care) in 2020. The triage pathway included a telephone consultation and an in-person dental screening appointment. The Heal and Seal triage pathway segments and identifies consumers with urgent oral health needs, who are then offered comprehensive dental care, and exempted from the three-year adult dental waitlist.
In 2024, YourCH partnered with CoTreat Pty Ltd to integrate CoTreat into the Heal and Seal triage pathway through a pilot co-designed study, designed to overcome the subjective triage assessment by dental practitioners, and increase the efficiency in service delivery. The CoTreat-augmented Heal and Seal triage pathway pilot study provides a foundation to measure health outcomes in a consistent manner, and apply its generative AI technology to put consumers at the centre of Victorian public oral healthcare.
