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Connecting with Healthcare Leaders at Digital Health Festival 2025

Last week, the RosterLab team joined thousands of innovators, clinicians, and digital health leaders at the Digital Health Festival 2025. This was an amazing opportunity for us to showcase our AI rostering platform on the buzzing show floor at the Melbourne Convention Exhibition Centre. From the moment the doors opened, it was clear that healthcare is undergoing a profound shift - not just in technology, but in how people think about staff wellbeing, fatigue management, and working smarter. Across two days of non-stop conversations, one thing came through loud and clear - rostering is hard - and it’s hard at every level. From shift workers feeling overlooked, to department managers managing last-minute changes, to leadership trying to meet safe staffing targets and retain staff - rostering pain points are everywhere. We spoke with nurse managers, health IT leads, hospital executives, and scheduling coordinators - all facing increasing pressure from growing clinical demand and legacy rostering tools that no longer cut it. “It’s not just a tech problem. It’s a people problem - a social and operational challenge rolled into one.” - DHF25 Attendee, Clinician and roster maker What struck us most was the emotional weight behind these discussions. Staff shortages. Burnout. Unfair patterns. Manual fixes that never end. Ultimately, there was a shared recognition that you can’t fix a bad roster by patching it - you need to rethink it entirely. Seeing their reaction to RosterLab’s true AI roster generation - which builds optimal, compliant rosters in minutes was a highlight for our team. Between booth conversations and walking the conference floor, we left with some clear takeaways: Wellbeing Is Non-Negotiable Healthcare leaders are demanding solutions that protect staff wellbeing, promote fairer work patterns, and prevent burnout - not just fill gaps. Visibility Builds Trust Staff want to see why they’re rostered a certain way and feel - and to feel their preferences matter. Healthcare organisations are realising that transparency in rostering logic is key to trust, fairness, and psychological safety on shift. It’s not just a technical challenge, it’s also a social one Rostering impacts real people, and any solution must earn trust by respecting staff work life balance and providing fairness. “Seeing how fast digital health is evolving makes it even more urgent to fix scheduling - it’s the foundation for safe, scalable care.” - Daniel Ge, Co-Founder at RosterLab Rostering is still one of healthcare’s biggest operational bottlenecks - and one of its biggest opportunities for impact. True automation is still rare. Many “AI” tools are manual behind the scenes, leading to frustration. Beyond the tech talk, this trip was a reminder of why we do what we do. Whether chatting with nurses from regional hospitals or CMOs from major metros, the message was consistent: better rosters mean better care. The RosterLab team at our DHF 2025 booth We’re grateful for the many meaningful conversations, curious questions, and future-facing discussions. And of course, the team moments - from early-morning booth setup to debrief chats over dinner - made the experience all the more rewarding. Want to see what we shared at the festival? Explore how RosterLab’s digital scheduling solution is helping healthcare providers optimise rosters in minutes, not days.

Whanganui Radiography Department Embraces AI Rostering

The Whanganui radiography department is revolutionising its rostering system by adopting RosterLab, a leading provider of automated rostering software with specialist expertise in healthcare. Whanganui Radiography aims to use this innovative technology to solve the classic problem that most medical departments still face today: heavy administrative burdens on rostering and clinical safety. The department had a dedicated radiographer using Excel every month to create the roster. It was a time-consuming process, and they wished to utilize their highly trained skills for patient care instead. The collaboration between RosterLab and the Whanganui radiography department began with a self-rostering research project led by Unitech. During the study, the department simulated two rosters to evaluate if self-rostering could provide greater fairness and autonomy for staff. As a result, it was clear that the self-rostering method successfully met a high level of shift preferences, especially prioritised requests, while fulfilling union requirements and staffing levels for the department to operate. The RosterLab system enables staff to have a say in the shifts they’re allocated, fostering a sense of work-life balance and autonomy. Following the study, the Department of Medical Imaging has decided to adopt RosterLab as their new rostering solution. Mike Petersen, the Associate Clinical Manager of Radiography, shared his excitement about this development: “I’m super excited to finally get started with RosterLab! Ever since our self-rostering study, I’ve been eagerly waiting for the day we can use RosterLab to generate our work rosters. We love the fairness it brings and how much time it saves.” Whanganui’s shift towards intelligent rostering reflects a broader movement across healthcare to reduce admin time, support wellbeing, and improve staffing outcomes. By streamlining complex rostering demands and honouring staff preferences, tools like RosterLab’s digital scheduling solution help departments focus more on patients and less on paperwork- ultimately creating better outcomes for everyone involved.

Royal Perth Hospital Partners with RosterLab for Smarter Rosters

The Royal Perth Hospital (RPH), a leading tertiary hospital in Western Australia, has partnered with RosterLab to implement an AI-driven rostering solution for its Acute Medical Unit (AMU) and Intensive Care Unit (ICU). The move marks a significant step towards strengthening workforce flexibility, supporting clinical teams, and enhancing continuity of care in two of the hospital’s most critical departments. Prior to adopting RosterLab, Royal Perth Hospital relied on manual Excel-based rosters, a method common across healthcare but increasingly limiting for managing the high acuity, complexity, and rapid pace of modern clinical environments. Manual rostering methods can make it challenging to meet the evolving needs of high-acuity environments like AMU and ICU, which requires dynamic, fair, and efficient staffing solutions. These traditional approaches make it difficult to optimise workforce allocation, maintain equitable shift distribution, and respond swiftly to fluctuating patient volumes. Like many healthcare organisations, the hospital faced the challenge of maintaining optimal coverage, supporting clinician wellbeing, and ensuring compliance with complex workforce agreements, including the WA Health System AMA Agreement. The new rostering solution, implemented in March 2025, introduces a rule-based, highly flexible system tailored to the unique needs of acute and intensive care environments. RosterLab's platform enables: Automated compliance with industrial agreements and department-specific rules Complete 13-week rosters generated in under 30 minutes Flexible support for diverse shift patterns and team hierarchies Quick response to last-minute changes by rewriting rosters with minimal disruption Fair distribution of shifts for all staff Staff visibility into team leave to improve planning and work-life balance The AMU registrar roster is the first phase of the rollout, with expected completion of all rosters by May 2025. By modernising its rostering practices, Royal Perth Hospital aims to strengthen continuity of patient care, support staff wellbeing, reduce administrative overheads, and enable a smarter balance of workload distribution. The implementation is particularly timely, given widespread industry challenges around clinician shortages and the need for sustainable rostering practices. “Ensuring clinical safety, optimising staffing levels, and enhancing work-life balance were key drivers for this initiative,” says Daniel Ge, rostering specialist and co-founder at RosterLab. “With improved visibility over team availability and better integration of leave planning, staff can organise their professional and personal commitments with greater confidence.” The transition to RosterLab also addresses a common risk in healthcare rostering - loss of institutional knowledge. By digitising roster logic and rules, Royal Perth Hospital is preserving critical operational expertise and ensuring consistent quality despite changes in roster coordinators or administrators. Early benefits already observed in similar healthcare settings include: Significant reductions in manual rostering time Improved staff satisfaction Better continuity of care The team at RosterLab is excited to be supporting Royal Perth Hospital with their rostering solutions and looks forward to continuing to help them optimise staffing, improve wellbeing, and enhance continuity of patient care across their critical services. Facing rostering challenges in your team? Get in touch to learn how RosterLab’s AI-powered scheduling can help - or book a demo today.