Australian of the Year

Dr Samuel (Sam) Heard is a pioneering general practitioner and global health information innovator who has advanced the practice of healthcare. 

Sam’s interest in health records began in London in 1984, when he built a patient management and follow-up system on a secondhand computer. Sam led a general practitioner IT cooperative of 80 East London doctors, who together, through health record innovation, achieved London’s highest immunisation and cervical screening rates for their low‑socioeconomic community.  

Returning to Australia, Sam continued his pioneering work in health record innovation, much of it in his own time. He co-authored openEHR, a specification for lifelong health records that can be used with any technology and in any language. In 2026, the OECD and WHO recognised openEHR as the international standard for health records. 

Furthermore, to support remote Territorians, Sam invented the H-box; a system that allows patients to receive medical advice and medication even when no health practitioner is physically present.