Research Projects

Future Health Today is a software platform designed by primary care for primary care. It streamlines the identification and management of chronic disease so that doctors and nurses can support patients to live healthier, longer lives. Further information is available at futurehealthtoday.com.au

Overview: Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation (exCR) saves lives but participation in current programs is very low in regional areas. We developed a technology solution that solves key accessibility issues to reach people in almost any location, but our program is only available in research trials.

Health Literacy describes an individual’s ability and motivation to understand and use information to promote and maintain good health. The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), and the Australian government’s rapidly changing restrictions, has required individuals to acquire, interpret and apply information to their context and to adjust their behaviour at an unprecedented pace.

Exercise rehabilitation improves quality of life, reduces hospital admissions, and saves lives for people with heart failure, but its potential impact hasn’t been realised because too few people can access face-to-face programs in hospitals.

Overview: Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation (exCR) saves lives but participation in current programs is very low in regional areas. We developed a technology solution that solves key accessibility issues to reach people in almost any location, but our program is only available in research trials.

The overarching aim of this research project is to determine whether a behavioural intervention delivered by a smart home ecosystem is a suitable, acceptable and feasible approach to support self-management of heart failure.

There is high (and growing) demand for quality, evidence-based, nutrition education support in chronic disease management.

The project involves three stages. First, a prototype activity sensor will be validated. Second, a smartphone app (iMove) will be developed and co-designed.

Previous studies have implemented and evaluated technology-enabled self-management systems by delivering voice- or text-based support to people with chronic conditions through computers, telephones, phone messages, and smartphone applications as interfaces.

This project aims to investigate the patient work conducted by patients with Type 2 diabetes and other comorbidities living in the community. Patient work is a concept that assesses the health-related work involved in self-management, as well as the contextual factors affecting such work.

Together with the “Hospital-in-the-Home ” (HITH) initiative at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, we have been working on defining the requirements and exploring the technology for monitoring patients in their home.

Hand hygiene is a crucial and cost-effective method to prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections, and in 2009 the World Health Organization issued guidelines to encourage and standardize hand hygiene procedures.

My Diabetes Coach program was developed based on the Telephone-Linked Care (TLC) Diabetes program, which revealed that education and coaching on diabetes self-management delivered through an automated interactive telephone-based platform significantly improved blood glucose control.