Gateway Health
La Trobe University and Gateway Health brought students into a two-day Innovation Sprint in Wodonga, tackling a live regional health challenge while building fresh ideas, workforce pathways and new opportunities for collaboration beyond traditional placements.
Partnership at a glance
- La Trobe University and Gateway Health partnered on a Health Innovation Sprint in Wodonga on 9–10 April 2026
- The Sprint built on an earlier summer student project looking at how people first access Gateway Health’s services
- The event was held at Gateway Health Head Office in Wodonga, and invited La Trobe students and alumni to work on real health service challenges
- Participants worked on a complex challenge, developing ideas to help clients find and access the right care more quickly and easily
- The collaboration gave students first-hand exposure to regional health and supported Gateway Health with fresh multidisciplinary thinking
- The La Trobe Entrepreneurship event reflects a broader and evolving partnership between Gateway Health and La Trobe University.
Case study
More than 20 La Trobe students gathered at Gateway Health Head Office in Wodonga for the La Trobe x Gateway Health Innovation Sprint, bringing fresh eyes to a complex regional health challenge. Coming from metropolitan Melbourne and the local area, they were asked to help Gateway Health think differently about how people access care – and how that experience could be made simpler, faster and more intuitive.
The Sprint grew out of an existing relationship between Gateway Health and La Trobe University, as well as an earlier summer student project looking at how people first access Gateway Health’s services. Over the two days, students and alumni worked in teams on possible digital and service solutions, alongside Gateway Health staff and leaders.
“We were looking at our intake processes – what it looked like coming in through the doors, the systems, the processes,” says Gateway Health CEO Trent Dean. The focus was on reducing duplication, lowering barriers to entry and improving the experience of accessing care. “Imagine someone comes to one service and has to repeat the same information 15 times as they go through the sector,” he says. “Or they come in through the phone system, when in fact they could have come in through a website that was more intuitive.”
Gateway Health operates across north-east Victoria and southern New South Wales, delivering services spanning mental health and wellbeing, alcohol and other drugs, primary health care, community wellbeing programs and health promotion. “We see access and equity as a real issue and a real challenge,” Trent says. “Our tagline is ‘people living well’.”
For Trent, one of the biggest strengths of the Sprint was the mix of thinking students brought with them. “Health is a microcosm, but it needs good minds from outside health,” he says. “It’s still a business, so how do we bring all that knowledge to look at a wicked problem?”
Health services can only do so much... We need the research, the rigour, the academia to show us better ways to improve and to innovate, particularly in regional areas.
Opening doors to regional health
Trent says the quality of the ideas presented during the event, and the way participants engaged with the challenge stood out immediately – with teams showing real creativity, purpose and collaboration during the short window they had together. “Seeing students tackle a deeply complex issue so quickly was, to me, a standout,” he says. “They picked it up very quickly and needled in on the issues and the opportunities.”
The event also gave participants first-hand exposure to regional health and the opportunities it offers. Many came from metropolitan Melbourne, and some had never spent meaningful time in a regional centre before. The Sprint was designed to bring people to Wodonga for an intensive hands-on experience, with subsidised travel and accommodation available for selected participants coming from outside the Albury–Wodonga region.
For Trent, that mattered not only because it gave students a better understanding of regional service delivery, but because it opened their eyes to careers they may not previously have considered. “We do need talent, we do need innovation in the regional areas,” he says.
Trent sees the Innovation Sprint as part of a broader and evolving partnership between Gateway Health and La Trobe. Alongside clinical placements and research, he points to future opportunities in student engagement, workforce development, co-design and new models of care.
“If we want a stronger workforce going forward, we really need to expose these emerging professionals to the challenges and the possibilities within regional health early,” he says. “That’s our duty as leaders and as health professionals – to help them build a career, not just a placement.”
For both Gateway Health and La Trobe, the value of the collaboration goes well beyond the event itself. The Sprint showed how students can contribute to a real challenge, how a regional health organisation can benefit from fresh multidisciplinary thinking, and how partnerships like this can build momentum for future work.
“Health services can only do so much,” Trent says. “We need the research, the rigour, the academia to show us better ways to improve and to innovate, particularly in regional areas.”