NgurraHub

Team Name

Lab25

Team Members

Project Description

This project supports Closing the Gap by transforming health data into real-world action. Its goal is to improve outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities through a platform that not only identifies critical health needs but also connects people directly to services.

Key features include:

• Smart Service Connections – matches health issues with appropriate providers, showing capacity, wait times, and cultural responsiveness.

• Direct Integration – one-click access to emergency, specialized, and geographically relevant services.

• Real-Time Tracking – monitors interventions, outcomes, and service connection history.

• Actionable Dashboards – instant service links, and capacity indicators.

• Community-Specific Solutions – ensures accessibility, cultural appropriateness, and effective specialty matching.

• AI-Powered Analysis and Recommendations – enabling faster, more accurate decision-making

By linking data insights with immediate service connections, the platform creates a closed-loop system that moves beyond identifying problems to delivering measurable solutions.

Data Story

Data Story for NgurraHub:

1. The Challenge – A Persistent Gap

Despite decades of effort and billions invested, the gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other Australians remains across health, education, employment, and justice.

In health, the statistics are devastating: suicide is still the leading cause of death among Indigenous Australians aged 15–39.

Government initiatives and data collection have not translated into improvements at the scale that communities deserve.
This isn’t a lack of data. We have enormous datasets from AIHW, ABS, NACCHO, and DHAC. The problem is how the data is used—or more often, not used effectively.

1. Why Data Alone Hasn’t Closed the Gap

Let’s ask a few critical questions:

Why hasn’t the situation improved? Often, government solutions are slow, fragmented, or too complex. Remote data carries high error margins, and insights rarely translate into local action.

What’s wrong with how we use data?

Data is analyzed but not applied in real-world service delivery.
Communities struggle to access or benefit from digital and AI tools.
Cultural practices around data are not always respected, limiting trust.

In other words, data has been treated as a record, not as a tool for change.

1. The Vision – From Data to Action

The opportunity is to transform health data into real-world interventions.

Imagine dashboards not just for reporting, but for predicting risks, matching services, and supporting local decision-making.

Imagine Indigenous communities empowered with tools that respect culture, while giving frontline workers the ability to act quickly.

This is where NgurraHub comes in.

1. The Solution – NgurraHub Data Insight & Action Platform

NgurraHub is an AI-powered mobile application that makes government and health data actionable.
It leverages the Indigenous Health Performance Framework to deliver:

• Real-time health analytics: live monitoring of community outcomes.

• AI-powered service matching: connects people directly to culturally appropriate health services.

• Predictive modeling: identifies risks early, such as suicide or chronic illness hotspots.

• Progress tracking: monitors intervention outcomes transparently.

• Community-level risk assessment: helps prioritize where resources should go.

• Cultural responsiveness scoring: ensures solutions align with Indigenous values.

• Emergency quick-connect: fast links to crisis services.

1. Why It Matters

NgurraHub turns static numbers into living insights.

For policymakers: it reveals patterns across outcomes and reform implementation.

For service providers: it ensures resources are directed where they’ll have multiplier effects.

For communities: it provides digital equity, ensuring Indigenous Australians are not left behind in the AI revolution.

Most importantly, it ensures data is not just collected, but respected, shared, and acted upon—helping close the gap in a way that is measurable, culturally appropriate, and community-led.