Cardihab named winner of the inaugural AIDH Organisational Award

Cardihab has been named winner of the inaugural Australasian Institute of Digital Health (AIDH) Organisational Award, chosen from a large field of high-quality applications submitted from across the Australian digital health sector.

The Organisational Award recognises organisations that have delivered high-impact digital health initiatives within the past two years - initiatives that improve outcomes for patients and advance the Australian digital health sector as a whole. Applicants were assessed across six criteria: real-world impact, innovation, collaboration, evidence of success, alignment with national digital health priorities, and scalability and sustainability. We're honoured that Cardihab's work in cardiac rehabilitation and primary prevention was recognised against this bar.

The problem we set out to solve

Cardiovascular disease is Australia's leading cause of death, and cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is proven to reduce mortality and improve quality of life. Yet fewer than 20% of eligible patients ever access it - geography, transport, time and competing life demands all get in the way, and women have historically been underrepresented in CR programs.

Cardihab is Australia's only TGA-registered digital therapeutic for cardiac rehabilitation (Class IIa Medical Device, ARTG ID: 520745). It delivers clinician-supervised, guideline-aligned cardiac rehab via smartphone, tablet or web browser - accessible from home, anywhere in Australia.

What the evidence shows

Cardihab's outcomes have been independently evaluated by the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, producing results published across six or more peer-reviewed studies in leading European cardiology journals, including:

• 59% uptake and 91% completion of cardiac rehabilitation
• A 71% reduction in hospital bed days compared with usual care (Braver et al., European Heart Journal – Digital Health, 2025)
• Improved survival and +1.434 QALYs gained per patient vs usual care (Braver et al., European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, 2025)
• Better value healthcare 87% of the time in probabilistic sensitivity analysis

The results have also been recognised well beyond clinical journals - as a case study in the Australian Government Productivity Commission's paper Leveraging Digital Technology in Healthcare, as an exemplar in the MTAA's Enabling Remote Care report (HealthConsult, October 2025), and in national media coverage including Nine News, the Herald Sun and the Sydney Morning Herald to name a few.

Today, Cardihab is used across 85% of Australian private health funds and delivered statewide by the Tasmanian Health Service, with growing adoption across all providers and health services.

Built on collaboration

None of this was possible alone. Medibank was Cardihab's foundational implementation partner, deploying the platform at national scale through the Heart Health at Home program for members discharged after a cardiac procedure. Medibank's clinical delivery arm, Amplar Health, provided the nursing workforce that supervised the program, and Medibank engaged the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute to independently evaluate the results - a decision that underpins key outcomes reported today.

That independent evaluation produced three peer-reviewed publications in leading European cardiology journals in 2025, with lead researcher Justin Braver recognised with the Young Investigator Award at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Madrid for the quality of the accompanying health economics analysis.

Thank you also to the customers who deliver our cardiac rehabilitation and primary prevention programs with us every day: nib, Bupa, HCF, La Trobe Health, the Tasmanian Health Service, GMHBA, St Lukes, Westfund, Honeysuckle Health and Queensland Country Care. Your ongoing partnership continues to extend Cardihab's reach across the country.

Thank you

As Cardihab's CEO Helen Souris said in accepting the award:

“The people I most want to thank aren’t on this stage but are the ones that own this honour. To my team - many of whom spent years in the unglamorous work of regulatory submissions and quality documentation, continuous improvement, long sales cycles, long before there was any results or award to show for it. […] To our wonderful partners and providers, who supervise every patient’s program with real care, and the patients who show up to our program from homes across the country because someone finally built a way for them to say yes to rehab.”

We sincerely thank AIDH for this recognition, and for the ecosystem AIDH continues to build around digital health in Australia. We're proud to play a part in it.

This award marks progress, not completion. More than 80% of Australians who have a cardiac event still aren't receiving the cardiac rehabilitation that could save their life. If you're a health fund, provider or health service looking to bring cardiac rehab to more of your members or patients, get in touch.