Year in review: apps for better lives in 2025

In a year defined by change and bold ideas, 2025 reminded us why we love building digital products. When people with vision meet a team who can help bring that vision to life, remarkable things happen. Across healthcare, education, research and social impact, this year’s projects showed how technology can transform imagination into meaningful, measurable change.

As our Managing Director, Guy Cooper reflected: ‘The highlight is always seeing clients gain commercial traction, secure pilots and get their apps into real-world use. It’s incredibly rewarding to watch their persistence and hard work pay off.’

It’s this mix of bold ideas and relentless effort that fuelled a year of breakthroughs – stories where technology met real-world impact.

System innovation

The year delivered standout moments for startup founders working in complex, high-stakes environments. The common thread across these projects was courage. Courage to build something new, introduce change and unify people from across the system to make it possible.

Aeromedical Rapid: A breakthrough year

The Aeromedical Rapid web app transforms a complex, manual dispatch process into a real-time decision support system. The app helps air ambulance services make faster, smarter choices. The result: better patient care, optimised resources, lower costs and reduced CO2 emissions.

For Aeromedical Australia, the turning point came midway through the year when their founder secured a pilot project with a major government agency. Guy described it as ‘massive in the real world’, not only because the pilot validated the product, but because of the commitment and strategic planning behind it. This included go-to-market strategy, procurement navigation, integration planning and brand development. After 18 months of design, build and rigorous testing to meet demanding operational requirements, the app was ready to support real users in a mission-critical dispatch setting.

This achievement reflects the determination it takes to gain commercial traction and stakeholder buy-in while navigating technical complexity, procurement processes and the pressure to deliver a resilient, dependable product.

‘The Aeromedical project is about coordinating optimal aircraft and ambulance deployment to help often remote patients get the care they need. The system factored in fuel stops, crew availability, patient priorities and aircraft capabilities to recommend the best asset for each mission. Working with our Senior Front-End Developer, Ali Azarkhish to bring the backend recommendation engine through to an interface dispatchers can use under pressure was satisfying. Knowing the system helps get critically ill patients to hospital faster made the technical challenges worthwhile.’

—Simon Walduck, Full Stack Developer

GoShare: Pushing the boundaries of digital health

AI continued to dominate headlines this year, but within digital health it became more than a trend. For Healthily’s GoShare app, it fuelled the next chapter of innovation. Their admission into the ANDHealth+ program opened the door to integrating conversational voice AI, supported by the Medical Research Future Fund.

GoShare empowers health professionals to share tailored, evidence-based information with patients across Australia. Its new conversational voice AI functionality is improving access to health education, helping people understand and act on critical health information – from medication guidance for osteoporosis to boosting childhood immunisation rates in regional communities.

'It was fantastic to push the boundaries of digital health using the latest AI capabilities, and to help bring cutting-edge ideas into a product already making a real impact,’ said Guy.

Thanks to the GoShare team’s vision and dedication, clinicians can deliver better patient education than ever before. At the same time, the platform is driving innovation and reaching more communities across Australia.

‘I have been involved in the development of the GoShare platform for almost a decade now. Knowing how beneficial the platform is across a wide range of healthcare use cases serves as a strong motivator. Working with the Healthily team is a rewarding challenge as we create a solution that is functional, flexible, performant and secure. Throughout this journey, I've witnessed the platform evolve to meet complex healthcare needs while maintaining the highest standards of quality and innovation.’

—David Wolfe, Technical Director

Institutional innovation

Institutions operate differently from founders, and this year brought substantial transformation for organisations with large teams, complex governance and mission-critical systems. Our focus was helping these organisations modernise, scale and meet regulatory and operational demand without disruption.

Chisholm: Completing a major multi-year uplift

This year marked the culmination of a significant two-year program of work on the Chisholm Institute’s Educator Passport app. Together we delivered major new capabilities, strengthened infrastructure, and ensured the app could support both existing and emerging customer needs.

Co-design played a vital role throughout.

‘The vocational competency mapping work brought together voices from across the organisation to inform the best solution. This year we rounded out several significant streams of work, which was a great way to close the year,’ said Guy.

The Educator Passport app gives educators and institutions a centralised way to track professional development and vocational competencies. With over 4,500 users – and more than 1,000 added each year – it helps TAFEs and training organisations plan, manage workforce capability and grow with confidence.

‘I’ve been working with Chisholm for almost 2.5 years as the Account/Project Manager for the Educator Passport app. What I enjoy most is when the team comes together to tackle a challenge. Those collaborative moments are incredibly rewarding. Delivering complex work alongside such dedicated peers makes me feel proud of what we accomplish. And nothing beats “pushing the button” to release a new feature and hearing genuine appreciation from a happy client.’

—Guillermo Soria, Digital Project Manager

S-Check: From research environment to real-world use

S-Check faced the challenge of moving a research-backed app out of its pilot phase and into real-world use. Coordinating a diverse group of stakeholders – including hospitals, researchers and health agencies – and navigating complex approval processes made the journey long and challenging.

‘It was a long journey with many stakeholders to bring together. We were really pleased to help move the app beyond the research environment and into the real world,’ reflected Guy.

We worked closely with the S-Check team in New South Wales to guide the app through technical, regulatory and process hurdles. The result is an app that gives people a simple, research-backed way to anonymously track and understand their meth use. It also connects them to trusted health resources and support, turning research insights in to tangible, real-world impact.

This project highlighted the importance of clear communication, technical guidance and careful navigation of complex processes. These factors are essential for the success of digital products. They become even more critical when multiple teams and approval pathways are involved.

‘The S-Check app was quite a technically complex project that spanned a couple of years and involved many clever and dedicated people. It was a huge relief when the app was finally able to be launched , and seeing a huge uptake in use. – i It's incredible knowing that this app is directly helping real people when they need it, as well as providing valuable anonymised data to the organisations working in this space.’

—Rebecca Dwyer, Operations

Social innovation

Social impact remained a powerful part of our year. Our work with The Push-Up Challenge demonstrated how technology can help communities act, connect and create positive change at scale.

The Push-Up Challenge: Impact across borders

After successfully testing an international market in 2024, this year marked a full overseas launch of The Push-Up Challenge. It was exciting to see an app that we helped shape supporting participants beyond Australia – now available in different languages.

Closer to home, the annual Challenge continued to grow, with over 232,000 Australians taking part and an incredible $12.89 million raised for mental health in 2025 alone.

‘It’s amazing to see something that started here now making a difference around the world,’ said Guy.

This work showed how strong foundations, clear communication and careful risk management can support long-term, repeatable impact.
‘The Push-up Challenge is a fulfilling project to be a part of. It’s rewarding to see the Challenge continue to evolve and expand into new regions and make a real-world impact.’ 

—Matthew Martin, Senior Developer

Looking ahead

Across every project this year, we saw the same pattern emerge. Brave ideas. Hard yards. Follow-through. And the shared belief that building something well can genuinely improve people’s lives.

We’re proud of the role we played in helping these products come to life. And whether it's building apps or bikes for disadvantaged kids - we're always up for the challenge.

Here’s to the next year of collaborating, imagining, designing and creating what comes next!

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