Episode 3:

Digital Transformation in Aged Care:

Smarter Pain Management with PainChek and VCare

About our guests:

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David Allsopp has 15+ years in healthcare, including six leading business development at PainChek. He partners with listed, church/charitable, and private providers, known for transparent, long-term relationships that align clinical needs with business outcomes.

Catherine Smith is an RN with 15+ years in aged care across quality and compliance roles. She has led teams, policy and education programs, contributed to pain-assessment research for First Nations residents with dementia, and is completing a Bachelor of Dementia Care.

Elizabeth Lear is a registered nurse and auditor with broad aged-care experience. She supports VCare implementations and training, strengthens care planning and mobility workflows, advises on audit readiness, and creates practical resources teams can use day to day.

Lynda Irvine leads clinical governance, standards, and quality improvement across Summerset villages, working with multidisciplinary teams to embed person-centred practice and lift outcomes for residents and staff.

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When technology serves people, care gets safer and teams get time back. In this panel, Lynda Irvine (Summerset), Elizabeth Lear (VCare), Catherine Smith and David Allsopp (PainChek) unpack what digital transformation really looks like in residential care—what’s working now, where the risks sit, and how to turn new tools into better outcomes for residents and staff.

We cover the move to electronic charts and records, point-of-care documentation, pain assessment at scale, and—crucially—how to manage the change so it actually sticks.

Key takeaways:

  • Start with the resident. Choose tech that improves safety, dignity and connection; then check it also helps staff work at the top of their scope.

  • “Gradually, then suddenly.” Adoption feels slow—until it isn’t. Be ready to pivot when the sector and solutions mature.

  • Proven wins: e-medication charts and electronic records reduce errors, reveal the full resident story, and make clinical reviews faster.

  • Point-of-care > office time. Mobile notes beside the resident increase interaction and cut duplication.

  • Define the goal up front. Know the outcome you’re chasing (e.g., fewer med errors, fewer unmanaged pain cases) and design the rollout to serve it.

  • Integration is now non-negotiable. New systems must “speak” to your clinical, medication and reporting platforms.

  • Change management is a programme, not an event. Stage training, refresh it, share tips, audit usage, and celebrate wins.

  • Use champions. Identify on-shift super-users who can coach peers and defuse day-to-day friction.

  • Support beats surveillance. Build a high-reporting culture—fix root causes, not people; keep confidence high after mistakes.

  • Measure what matters. Pair system data with clinical indicators (e.g., interRAI pain items, falls, adverse events) to track impact.

  • Mind the provider divide. Smaller services may need shared support models and lighter-weight solutions to benefit equally.

  • Think workforce, too. Modern, streamlined tools help attract and keep talent by reducing admin load.

  • Compliance gets easier, and more honest. Digital trails make you “audit-ready every day” and surface real improvement opportunities.

  • Keep improving. Expect to tweak workflows after go-live; quality is a moving target.

  • What’s next: fewer sensors in floors, more portable prevention tools; virtual consults used where they add value, not by default.