# Mental health care efficiency boosted by $3m MRFF funding > Source: > Published: 2026-07-20 22:30:24+00:00 Australians with severe mental illness die up to 20 years earlier – but a new AI-enabled program aims to catch the warning signs first. Mental health care will benefit from a $3 million Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) grant for Flinders University to help develop the next generation of AI-integrated health systems. Professor Niranjan Bidargaddi from Flinders Digital Health Centre has received a $3 million MRFF 2024 National Critical Research Infrastructure Grant for a new project – “AutoReview: A smart, scalable Community Mental Health Care program”. AutoReview is an AI platform that that scans health system records against clinical care guidelines, and identifies mental, physical and social health care gaps to identify which clients need to be reviewed — surfacing mental, physical and social care gaps on a clinical dashboard, with links to available care solutions, so that health teams can act before a crisis, not after one. About 800,000 Australians currently live with severe mental illness – and as a consequence they experience a 20-year life expectancy gap due to delays and errors in detecting and resolving health issues. These problems add pressure to health system inefficiencies; more than 206,000 Australians with severe mental illness are hospitalised each year – although it is estimated that at least 25% of these hospitalisations would be preventable through early detection and intervention. Professor Bidargaddi says the problem is not a lack of caring clinicians. “It is that no one — not case managers, not psychiatrists, not carers, not GPs — has the capacity to review every care gap.” Systems must improve to turn these figures around. Reviews by Community Mental Health Care (CMHC) services are vital safeguards for people with severe mental illness, but these reviews are currently very resource-intensive, and can still miss some patient needs. By accessing electronic health record datasets and the span of metal, physical and social clinical care guidelines, Professor Bidargaddi believes AutoReview will accurately identify mental health clients who need review, and present insights on a clinical dashboard with links to available care solutions. He believes AutoReview will also help case managers and carers through developing efficient care plans with registered health care providers. “It will help keep consumers connected with their case managers and other healthcare professionals when they transition from care back into the community,” says Associate Professor Niranjan Bidargaddi. An AutoReview companion app for clients and carers will enable convenient two-way communication with case managers. An earlier version of the software, developed by a team of digital health researchers at Flinders University, was tested during an eight-month trial with psychiatric patients from the Inner North Community Health Service, located in Gawler, South Australia. The new funding will allow researchers to evaluate the care, efficiency and cost impact of AutoReview after it is introduced to 6 CMHC services in SA over a 30-month period. Professor Bidargaddi is confident the AutoReview system can improve ongoing mental health support problems – and believes successful results from this trial will see it delivered via a state-wide rollout, then a nation-wide rollout to both public and primary care settings. The new project – due to be completed in 2031 – hopes to provide more comprehensive monitoring of patients so that mental health care plans “Once a patient has sought an initial consultation with a clinician they might be provided with a diagnosis, a mental health care plan and then they are sent off with instructions for treatment such as taking medication or trying therapeutic techniques. Multiple ongoing medical appointments and medications are burdensome for patients to manage on their own. “The problem is that most clinicians don’t have the resources to keep track of every patient manually. This can lead to the patient relapsing and potentially becoming hospitalised. The aim is for AutoReview to provide better communication to help prevent this.” Flinders University’s Professor Sharon Lawn, a lived experience and mental health researcher, says the research outcomes will provide a necessary boost for focused mental health care. “People living with severe mental illness want care that reflects what matters to them—not just what is recorded in health systems,” she says. “By partnering with people with lived experience throughout the design and governance of this project, we are helping ensure the technology supports recovery, respects priorities and earns community trust.”