Health Innovation
Chronic disease intervention
Chronic diseases are the leading cause of illness, disability and death worldwide, due largely to genetic and lifestyle factors and an ageing population. Finding ways to treat and prevent chronic disease requires advanced technology and a progressive, transdisciplinary approach.
Our research is focused on developing new and enhancing existing approaches to the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management of chronic disease.
We investigate chronic conditions including:
- cancer
- diabetes
- infectious and osteoarticular diseases
- cardiovascular, ocular, and neurological disorders
- osteoporosis
- mental health conditions.
We're employing technology from medical imaging and genomics to web-enabled smart devices to identify risk factors, implement interventions throughout the lifespan and improve end-of-life care.
Using insights from the social sciences and behavioural economics, we help people to make better health decisions for themselves and others, enhance compliance with treatments and improve government policy.
Injury prevention and management
Technological advancements can improve safety at work, on the road, at home, and in sport and recreation. Technology can also promote rapid recovery when injuries do occur.
Our research focuses on safety prevention and injury management, and the impact that injuries have on individuals and society.
Injury prevention and management researchers consider:
- the individual, including the impairments of movement that lead to fall-related injuries
- the interaction between the individual and assistive or augmenting technologies, including intelligent transport system design, human-machine interfaces and brain-controlled prostheses
- society, in areas like education, regulation and enforcement.
Our research includes:
- human movement studies
- neuroscience
- health psychology
- behavioural economics
- epidemiology
- orthopaedics
- trauma and emergency
- medical physics
- civil engineering.
We emphasise developing and evaluating assessment tools and interventions, and monitoring at both the individual and population level.
Our research findings provide insight into how to achieve behaviour change in healthcare consumers who ignore or disregard information about technological advances.
Health systems
An effective, efficient and progressive health system relies on integrating new technology, diagnostic approaches and interventions, all while containing costs, improving quality and effectively managing regulatory and ethical issues.
Our evidence-based research is investigating how we can provide optimised, economically sustainable health services to provide better care for those experiencing complex and chronic disorders, adversity or environmental disasters.
Taking advantage of new technology lets us redirect investment from low value health care to high value services. Our research is overcoming disciplinary boundaries, promoting work-culture change and understanding patient preferences.
Our behavioural economics and health systems research investigates ways to improve regulation of incentive structures for health care provision and choices.
We're also studying the use of emerging technologies like blockchain (to assist with management of data privacy) and social media (to quickly and effectively inform people of significant events such as epidemics and environmental disasters).