Career Development Program
Vision
The Career Development Program is a training platform for Connected Health CRE-affiliated early career academics and clinician scientists that creates cooperative, flexible opportunities to enhance digital health research capacity and develop relationships with academic and non-academic stakeholders.
Mission
Support cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral digital health research capacity and career development among early career academics and clinician scientists to transform chronic disease outcomes
Values
Collaboration I Training I Innovation I Leadership I Flexibility
Our Members
Amandine Barnett
Ms Amandine Barnett is an Accredited Practising Dietitian and PhD candidate at the Centre of Online Health at the University of Queensland. Her PhD focuses on electronic and mobile health to support nutrition care management for individuals with chronic conditions in hospital and outpatient settings. Amandine has previously contributed to research work relating to technology-supported lifestyle management and rehabilitation which have been published in esteemed journals and presented at national conferences. She also has been successfully appointed as a research assistant on numerous occasions, project managing studies related to chronic disease management. Prior to the commencement of her PhD, Amandine worked as a private practice dietitian.
Chaofan Wang
Chaofan is a PhD candidate at the School of Computing and Information Systems at the University of Melbourne. His research is focusing on human-computer interaction and ubiquitous computing. Currently, his research interest is automatic monitoring of hand hygiene in healthcare settings.
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Charlene Wright
Charlene is an Accredited Practicing Dietitian and PhD candidate in Menzies Health Institute Queensland, situated in the Centre for Applied Health Economics at Griffith University. She is examining the service provision for patients who have undergone bariatric surgery and is particularly interested in incorporating health psychology and behaviour change with digital health for long term management. She holds a Masters in Nutrition and Dietetic Practices and a Bachelor in Food and Nutritional Sciences.
Dominika Kwasnicka
Dominika (Dom) is a research fellow at the University of Melbourne; she is a behavioural scientist who has diverse interests in health psychology, digital health and research methods focusing on individuals. Before joining the NHMRC CRE, Dom studied and lived in Scotland and England, then she worked on digital health projects at Curtin University and Central Queensland University, in Australia as well as collaborated broadly with European colleagues in Poland, the Netherlands, Germany, the UK and Finland. Dom leads Open Digital Health initiative that promotes reusing open digital health solutions across contexts and settings, she is also passionate about science translation and is a leader of the Practical Health Psychology blog currently translated to 27 languages.
Chris Lynch
Chris has a research focus on wearable technology, physical activity, and sedentary behaviour. He is interested in how wearable technologies can improve health behaviours, such as increasing physical activity or reducing sedentary behaviour among those with chronic disease. Working with RMIT University and the Northern Health, he has previously explored how fitness trackers may increase the physical activity of breast cancer survivors. He is part of the Australasian Institute of Digital Health – Fellowship by Training program.
Websites:
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9503-6994
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Chris_Lynch7
George Siopis
Dr George Siopis is an Executive Dean Health Research Fellow at the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN) of Deakin University. An epidemiologist who has delved in lifestyle interventions, obesity, diabetes and COVID-19, George is committed to elucidate the junction between non-communicable and communicable diseases, with the ultimate objective to drive public health initiatives and actions and to inform clinical practice, in order to ensure a healthier human species within a sustainable planet. He has a diverse research experience ranging from basic science, including molecular and structural biology, to evaluations of clinical- and cost- effectiveness of interventions, and understanding barriers and enables to patient engagement with health services. George is passionate about science communication to the public and about informing policymakers.
George Zisis
Georgios is a Registered Heart Failure Nurse with a primary focus on Acute Decompensated Heart Failure volume management, post discharge patient engagement and disease management. He also has a research interest in cognitive impairment and progression to Alzheimer’s Disease. He is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne, through the Faculty of Medicine and Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute.
Ilona McNeill
Ilona McNeill splits her time between working as a Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne and as a Lecturer at ACAP; she is a behavioural scientist with a key interest in finding effective strategies to increase the performance of risk mitigating behaviours. Her current work focuses on the development of a digital platform that improves people’s ability to self-manage their health and wellbeing. She also has a strong interest in quantitative research methods and analysis, including measurement development and validation and multi-level modelling. Before joining the NHMRC CRE, Ilona led a BNHCRC funded project at The University of Melbourne that focused on increasing the performance of risk reducing preparatory behaviours by residents living in bushfire and flood prone areas. She has collaborated broadly with Australian colleagues, American colleagues, as well as European colleagues based in the Netherlands and the UK.
Jaimon Kelly
Dr Jaimon Kelly is a consultant Accredited Practising Dietitian and Senior Research Fellow at The University of Queensland Centre for Online Health. Jaimon is an expert in digital health and nutrition in chronic disease and was the lead of Dietitians Australia’s Position Statement on Telehealth. Jaimon has a PhD in technology-supported lifestyle interventions and delivering dietary education to improve people’s dietary self-management. Jaimon’s research program focuses on understanding the feasibility, experience, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of technology-enabled health systems and interventions for improving patient-centred care in chronic disease and simplifying nutrition communication for clinicians and people living with chronic conditions. Through research, advocacy and practice, Jaimon is now using his experience in technology-supported nutrition care to advance nutrition in chronic disease management and sustain the use of telehealth-delivered nutrition care in Australia.
Jonathan Rawstorn
Dr Rawstorn’s research broadly explores the use of mobile and web technologies to promote and support healthy lifestyle behaviour change, with a particular focus on physical activity and exercise. A key research aim is to understand how technologies can improve the accessibility and utilisation of evidence-based behaviour change interventions. Jonathan is interested in using technologies to quantify behaviour, understanding how measurement outcomes can be used to inform individualised interventions, and designing mobile and web technology platforms that deliver evidence-based interventions to promote physical activity and exercise.
Website:
https://www.deakin.edu.au/about-deakin/people/jonathan-rawstorn
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jonathan_Rawstorn
Justin Braver
Justin is a PhD student at the University of Melbourne in the Faculty of Medicine, Density and Health Sciences and the Baker Institute’s Preclinical Disease and Prevention unit. His research focuses on remotely delivered and technologically enabled models of care that leverage digital health tools to increase equity of access to care and improve health outcomes. Justin’s PhD is investigating the benefits of remotely delivered and e-Health prevention programs to prevent cardiovascular events. He has a particular interest in rapid translational research via the formation of collaborative partnerships aimed at bridging the gap between research and delivery of evidence-based solutions. Justin concurrently works as a Senior Strategy Advisor in the healthcare industry and as a physiotherapist, with experience in the design and implementation of remotely delivered chronic disease management programs. He has a Bachelor of Physiotherapy from La Trobe University and a Masters of Business from Monash University.
Kaley Butten
Kaley Butten is a postdoctoral fellow with the Australian eHealth Research Centre, CSIRO. Her research interests are informed by the social determinants of health; the non-medical factors (where people are born, grow, work, live, and age) which affect human health and a person’s access to health care.
Lu Yang
Lu is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Baker Department of Cardiovascular Research, Translation, and Implementation, and an Adjunct Research Fellow in the School of Psychology and Public Health at Latrobe University. Lu Yang is an Associate Professor in Social Science at the Faculty of Sociology and Population Studies, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China. Lu received her PhD in Public Health from the University of Technology Sydney and her Master in Food Science and Nutrition from the University of New South Wales. Lu’s research interests are public health, chronic disease care and management. Lu’s research program has attracted over 800,000 Chinese yuan (AUD 177,000) in competitive funding, including the National Social Science Grant from China. Lu currently leads 10 national and provincial research projects. Her work provides practice and policy insights in areas such as cardiovascular diseases and care, healthy ageing, and a number of other national and global health challenges. Lu is also dedicated to supervision, mentoring and teaching. She has convened and lectured undergraduate and postgraduate courses in sociology, such as Social Research Methodology, Population Sociology, and Medical Sociology. Lu currently supervises 4 Master’s degree students and has mentored over 10 bachelor’s degree students on their research projects.
Narayan Subedi
Narayan is a PhD student at Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), Deakin University. His research focuses on understanding the implementation and scalability of a digital cardiac rehabilitation intervention-Smartphone Cardiac Rehabilitation, Assisted Self-Management (SCRAM). SCRAM aims to improve the accessibility and utilisation of comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation services to those who could not access hospital or centre-based cardiac rehabilitation programs due to several barriers, including remoteness. His research interests include digital health, physical activity, chronic disease prevention and management, and implementation science. Narayan completed his undergraduate and postgraduate degree in Public Health from the Institute of Medicine, Tribhuvan University, Nepal.
Rebecca Nourse
Rebecca is a PhD candidate at Deakin University, she is affiliated with both the Institute of Physical Activity and Nutrition and the Applied Artificial Intelligence Institute. I am exploring the potential use of a behaviour change program delivered by smart home technology for people with heart failure. My interests lie in health behaviour change and co-design, I will be using these principles to guide the development of my intervention during my PhD
Reza Daryabeygi
Reza is a PhD student at the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), Deakin University, Australia. His research focuses on using digital technologies in chronic disease prevention and management. His key research interests include diabetes, e-/ mHealth, sedentary behaviour, physical activity, diet, micro-randomized trial (MRT) design, and application of computational models in health care. He has completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s in Nutrition Science in Iran. His Master’s thesis research at Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) focused on the application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour to improve carbohydrate counting, physical activity and low-fat dietary behaviours among people with type 2 diabetes.
Rita McMorrow
Rita is a newly qualified general practitioner (GP); she believes that clinical work as a GP and being involved with research leads to better outcomes for her patients. She is currently undertaking her PhD at the University of Melbourne with the Data Driven Quality Improvement Team in the Department of General Practice. Her PhD explores the use of digital health interventions to facilitate early identification and management of people at risk of; or diagnosed with type 2 diabetes within the Future Health Today project. Rita has secured a competitive scholarship through Rotary Health Australia and was awarded the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) Foundation Alan Chancellor Award in 2019. She is currently the chair of the Early Career Research and Capacity Development sub-committee of the Australasian Association for Academic Primary Care and committee member for the RACGP Victoria Women in General Practice Committee.
Robab Abdolkhani
Robab is a digital health researcher and lecturer at the University of Melbourne. She holds a PhD in health informatics and information systems. Her research focused on data quality management issues related to the consumer and medical wearable devices used in remote patient monitoring of chronic diseases to explore the value of these data for clinical decision-making. Robab is a connected health innovations strategist and intensely passionate about integrating new technologies into clinical workflows and translating research knowledge into real-world practices for optimal chronic disease management. Robab is also an enthusiast of career development in digital health and health informatics disciplines. She is nationally and internationally recognised for her research and learning excellence. She currently serves in the leadership of the Victoria branch of the Australasian Institute of Digital Health.
Tilman Dingler
Tilman is a Lecturer at the School of Computing and Information Systems. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Stuttgart, Germany where he worked on technologies to augment cognitive abilities, including people’s memory and information processing capabilities. Tilman has worked on five different continents and, before coming to Melbourne, he did his post-doc at Osaka Prefecture University in Japan and the MIT Media Lab. In between his academic career, Tilman worked as an engineer at Yahoo! Inc. and multiple startups. Currently, Tilman investigates how people receive and process information through media technologies and — in the context of the CRE — applies his work to building tools to help self-management of chronic diseases. Tilman is a technology enthusiast and passionate developer of mobile devices, including smartphones, chat bots, and voice assistants.
Yuxin Zhang
Dr Yuxin Zhang completed the Bachelor of Engineering degree in Automation and the Master of Computer Technology degree from the Southeast University, Nanjing, China. He received the Master of Information Technology Systems and Ph.D. degree from Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. He is currently a Research Fellow at the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University, researching wearable and AI technology in digital healthcare. He has ten years of experience conducting innovative translational research projects in healthcare settings. His research interests are in the area of smart sensing, mobile computing, and edge AI for out-of-hospital personalized chronic disease self-management.
