The Centre for Online Health (COH) is a research centre within the Centre for Health Services Research. It forms part of the Faculty of Medicine at The University of Queensland.
The COH is world-renowned for its telehealth expertise. The Centre’s mission of telehealth research, teaching and education, consultancy and clinical service provision makes it unique amongst peer university centres. The COH was the host centre for the Centre for Research Excellence in Telehealth funded by the National Health Medical Research Council (2013-2019). Our outstanding expertise in research, education and training, as well as service delivery and consultancy in telehealth and virtual care have been nationally and internationally recognised.
The COH's multidisciplinary team of clinicians, academic researchers, educators, technicians, engineers and administrators brings together a broad mix of skills. They are research translation experts who pride themselves on a broad range of research projects that deliver solutions to real-world clinical problems.
20+ years of clinical telehealth experience
Tripartite mission of telehealth research, education and clinical service
Ranked number one globally for number of telehealth publications
Research translation experts
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community partnerships
Long established centre within the Centre for Health Services Research
Our vision
Better healthcare and stronger communities through telehealth.
Our mission
- Apply telehealth to address challenges in clinical service delivery;
- Seek, produce and share evidence to guide the integration of telehealth into clinical practice and policy;
- Develop, implement and evaluate new telehealth‐supported models of care to facilitate efficiency, effectiveness and equity in healthcare.
Our telehealth focus areas
The COH applies its telehealth expertise via four focus areas:
- Clinically focussed research with an emphasis on examining the feasibility, efficacy, clinical effectiveness and economics of telehealth and virtual care in a variety of settings;
- Academic and vocational education and training in telehealth and virtual care;
- As a service provider of clinical telehealth services; and
- A commercial telehealth consultancy service, which allows us to support industry partners in their telehealth endeavours across Australia and globally.
These four synergistic activities provide a unique environment in which telemedicine within the modern health service may be explored and understood.