Meet the team
Digital Health Week is supported by a Organising Committe with member representation from the University of Sydney, Macquarie University, Hunter Medical Research Institute and La Trobe University. The Organising Committee is a valued group, responsible for providing guidance across the scientific program and event organisation. The group members’ expertise include consultation on the scientific program, input from early career researchers and HDR student representatives, and large event and project management experience.
Conference Chairs
Dr Petra Avramovic
School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney
Petra Avramović is a lecturer, clinical educator, an early career researcher, and certified practicing speech pathologist. Petra completed a Bachelor of Applied Science (Speech Pathology) with First Class Honours and completed her PhD within the Acquired Brain Injury Communication Lab at The University of Sydney. She has held a number of roles in clinical and research settings with a variety of populations, with particular focus in working with people with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Her thesis, entitled “The development and evaluation of convers‑ABI‑lity: an online communication partner training platform for people with traumatic brain injury”, aimed to collaboratively develop a novel multimodal communication partner training program with people with TBI and others involved in their care, and to evaluate its effectiveness and efficacy for improving conversation skills following TBI. Petra is involved in academic, clinical education, and research supervision for speech pathology students within the university.
Anna Janssen
School of Medical Sciences,Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney
Anna is a health technologist and digital health researcher in the Research in Implementation Science and eHealth Group. She has also undertaken industry research fellowships through the Capital Markets Cooperative Research Centre and the Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre. Anna has a broad interest in the design and use of digital technologies in healthcare, and their effect on health in general. Her research looks specifically at attitudes of health professionals towards electronic data, harnessing electronic health data to change behaviour, the use of disruptive technologies such as virtual and augment reality in healthcare, the scalability and sustainability of digital health technologies and the design of health technology. She has been involved in a number of eHealth research projects, including investigating methods for engaging health professionals in online forums, and exploring the impact of technology on oncology MDTs in Western Sydney. Anna is Technology Lead for Digital Health Week 2021, and aims to help realise the conference vision of bringing together eHealth researchers across faculties, disciplines and institutions to share their experiences.
Partner Orgnisation Leads
Dr Louise Thornton
Hunter Medical Research Institute
Dr Louise Thornton is a Senior Research Fellow working across the University of Newcastle and the University of Sydney. She is Deputy Director of the HMRI Healthy Minds Research Program and Program Lead for Digital Interventions and Engagement at the Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use at the University of Sydney. She leads a program of research to identify and understand the most effective ways digital technologies can be leveraged to reduce chronic disease risk and improve people’s mental health. Her research primarily focusses on adolescents and young people, and people experiencing mental health problems. Dr Thornton also leads a program of science communication and research that promotes the Matilda Centre’s research to a global audience. Dr Thornton is the NSW representative on the executive committee for the Society for Mental Health Research (Australia’s peak body for mental health research). She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the International Society for Research on Internet Interventions since 2022.
Dr Urooj R. Khan
School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University
Dr. Urooj R. Khan is a teaching and research focused Academic at La Trobe University's School of Psychology and Public Health, leading LearnX award 2024 winning digital health postgraduate courses. She is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Digital Health, Certified Professional of the Australian Computer Society and STEM Advocate/Mentor. Driven by her lived experience and deep sense of purpose, Dr. Urooj focuses on enhancing technology adoption through innovative digital and virtual care models, benefiting healthcare consumers, providers, and the broader healthcare system. She is particularly passionate about design and implementation science, as well as digital health education for both the workforce and consumers. Before transitioning into research, Dr. Urooj accumulated over a decade of experience in the ICT software industry, designing, implementing, and managing digital solutions for government, higher education, and healthcare sectors, both internationally and locally. This background gives her a distinct edge in digital health translational research, allowing her to make a meaningful impact in the field.
Dr John Pierce
Centre for Research Excellence in Aphasia Recovery and Rehabilitation, La Trobe University
John is an experienced rehabilitation speech pathologist who researches ways to improve life for people with aphasia within the Centre of Research Excellence in Aphasia Recovery and Rehabilitation as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow. He is the coordinator for the Communication Connect project, a $1.8m government-funded project that aims to improve rehabilitation and self-management for people with communication disabilities after stroke and traumatic brain injury. He received the 2020 La Trobe student prize from the Tavistock Trust for excellence in work relating to aphasia. John has a passion for communicating research to other speech pathologists, students and people with aphasia.
Dr Hao Xiong
Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Macquarie University
Dr Sam Freeman
Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Macquarie University
Sam is interested in the development, application, and integration of artificial intelligence technologies in healthcare and how they can be implemented effectively and ethically. His research interests focus on how these technologies are governed and how clinical staff and patients interact with these technologies in different healthcare contexts.
Committee Members
Noah Sinac
The University of Sydney
Noah is a Network Support Officer in the Faculty of Medicine and Health providing project support.
He spent 3 years working at the Museum of Applied Art and Sciences (MAAS) across 3 roles - Research Assistant, Educator and Program Producer. I have a strong interest in all science, especially innovation, engineering, meteorology and aviation. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (Classical and Ancient studies).
Dr Steph Kershaw
The University of Sydney
Steph is a Research Fellow at The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use.
Steph leads an innovative program of research and translation to reduce the impact of substance use. Her research aims to improve the health outcomes for individuals, families and communities especially among vulnerable and disadvantaged groups. Steph is passionate about addressing the stigma and discrimination associated with alcohol and drug use.
Dr Liliana Laranjo
The University of Sydney
Dr Liliana Laranjo is a Senior Research Fellow at the Westmead Applied Research Centre (WARC), Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney. She holds a prestigious Horizon Fellowship investigating the use of artificial intelligence for chronic disease management. Dr Laranjo has a background as a general practitioner. She has a Master of Public Health from Harvard University and a PhD in Digital Health from Lisbon Medical School, Portugal. She leads the Digital Health Stream at WARC, where she coordinates several digital health trials and leads multidisciplinary teams across different fields, from medicine and health to data science and software engineering. She has been awarded a NHMRC Emerging Leader Investigator Grant (2023-2027) and an Honorary Future Leader Fellowship from the National Heart Foundation (2023-2026).
Dinushika Gunawardena
The University of Sydney Business School
Dinushika Gunawardena is a PhD candidate in Business Information Systems at the University of Sydney and a recipient of the Enhanced Business School Research Scholarship. Her research focuses on the translation of digitally-enabled health practices for Human Development and well-being - advocating a shift from traditional models of technology transfer to in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) towards more contextualized, people-centric approaches that prioritize knowledge translation.
Dinushika’s work investigates how knowledge translation can drive sustainable, long-term digital healthcare initiatives in LMICs by studying an ongoing global Continuing Medical Education (CME) program. She also analyzes an established virtual care service in remote Australia, to explore how relevant insights may be translated to inform digital health practices in LMICs, contributing to enhanced healthcare delivery and outcomes.
Dr Tessa Copp
The University of Sydney
Tessa is a postdoctoral research fellow with training in qualitative research and experimental psychology.
Her current research focuses on women’s reproductive health, including assisted reproductive technologies, pre-conception healthcare and polycystic ovary syndrome. She is particularly interested in evidence-based healthcare, overdiagnosis and the psychosocial impact of disease labels.
Dr Ali Gholamerzaei
The University of Sydney
Dr Ali Gholamrezaei is a clinical scientist. He studied Medicine and worked as a General Physician between 2010 and 2015. He conducted his PhD research on pain management at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven, Belgium) between 2015 and 2019, and has been working as a Research Fellow at the Pain Management Research Institute (at The University of Sydney) since 2020. Ali joined the Newcastle Hand Institute (a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving the lives of people with hand and upper limb conditions through research) as a Research Associate in 2023 and the University of Newcastle as an Honorary Lecturer in 2024. He is interested in improving the quality of care using value-based models, where value is defined based on what matters to patients and the community. Ali is experienced in various research methodologies, including translational research, co-design, development of patient-reported measures, randomised controlled trials, implementation and evaluation, and evidence synthesis. Ali has published over 80 papers in peer-reviewed international journals, presented his works at national and international conferences, and received multiple awards. He has also secured multiple funding for research as a chief or associate investigator (a total of $1,788,334). He is also passionate about teaching, supervising, and mentoring medical and HDR students.
Dr Niamh Chapman
The University of Sydney
Niamh is a blood pressure researcher that focuses on 'people and systems' to tackle the leading cause of death and disability in Australia and worldwide. She works closely with people from communities who have lived experience of high blood pressure to develop educational and digital health tools to improve the management of high blood pressure. She am completed my PhD in 2021 at the university of Tasmania, for her PhD project she developed a health station that used a touchscreen app to control a blood pressure machine so that people could have their blood pressure measured while they waited for a blood test at pathology services. In 2023 Niamh moved to the University of Sydney where she is a Senior Research Fellow and co-lead Patient Engagement of the Australian Hypertension Taskforce which is endorsed by the Federal Minister for Health with the goal of improving blood pressure control from 32% to 70% by 2030. Her current work is focused on empowering patients to navigate the management of high blood pressure through effective delivery of education in services people already use, like pharmacy.
Dr Chris Lynch
LaTrobe University
Dr Chris Lynch is a Research Fellow in the School of Psychology and Public Health, and Graduate Research Coordinator for the Baker Department of Cardiovascular Research, Translation, and Implementation at La Trobe University. His research centres on the intersection of digital health and chronic disease management, understanding how recovery and survivorship can be enhanced using eHealth technologies to better ‘self-manage'; that is, how individuals can use technology to monitor their symptoms, adhere to medication regimes, engage in positive diet and exercise behaviours, and better manage symptoms by either changing behaviours or seeking appropriate assistance. Chris finds the challenge of changing multiple lifestyle behaviours (e.g. increasing physical activity and decreasing sedentary behaviour, promoting healthy eating and improving mental health) across multiple health conditions (e.g. obesity, cancer, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease) fascinating. Recent work has focused on the co-design of technology-enabled ecosystems, that when guided by health practitioners, enable self-management solutions to better support those with CVD.
Dr Achini Adikari
LaTrobe University
Dr. Achini Adikari is a Lecturer in Business Information Systems at La Trobe Business School, La Trobe University. Her research focuses on Artificial Intelligence and Information Systems, with a particular emphasis on human-centric AI. Her core research centers on computationally modeling human emotions, which has been applied in multidisciplinary research to model the emotions of patients, customers, and users across various applications. She also has a strong interest in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and its applications. With a blend of research and industry experience, Dr. Adikari contributes her expertise to industry projects, utilizing AI to solve real-world challenges. She has collaborated on over 20 projects with the Centre for Data Analytics and Cognition, spanning healthcare, transport, tourism, and social media applications. Her significant contributions to AI in healthcare earned her the Early Career Researcher Award at the IARC 2024 International Aphasia Rehabilitation Conference, Australia. She was also a recipient of the ABC Early Career Grant in 2023 and a recepient of La Trobe Business School Internal Grant Scheme in 2024.
Dr. Tafheem Wani
LaTrobe University
Dr. Tafheem Wani is a digital health academic, currently serving as a Lecturer (Teaching & Research) in the Digital Health Information Management cluster at the School of Psychology & Public Health. He completed his PhD on healthcare cybersecurity at the School of Computing and Information Systems, Faculty of Engineering & IT, The University of Melbourne. His key research interests include digital health, cybersecurity management, and ethical AI use. During his PhD, he developed a cybersecurity mitigation framework and maturity model, consisting of a comprehensive list of systematic, best practice, and evidence-based guidelines for managing cybersecurity risks arising from personal device usage in hospitals. As a researcher, he was also involved in key projects concerning Australia's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These include: i) evaluating COVID-based virtual care tools developed by Australian hospitals and providing recommendations to improve their efficacy ii) Proposing technical prototyping solutions for Victorian virtual emergency department (VED) initiatives.
Nick Kashyap
LaTrobe University
Nick Kashyap is a Research Assistant and PhD student within the Non-Communicable Diseases and Implementation Science laboratory. His PhD project aims to review adverse effects of machine learning based clinical decision support systems and develop tools to validate and monitor their performance. He is also assisting with grant applications, research projects and utilising content from his previous work on the mineralocorticoid receptor to publish papers where he will be a first name author. He has thoroughly enjoyed his time spent in research laboratories and believes it is a setting well suited to his skillset and personality. He is interested in further developing his expertise and believes that can best be achieved by pursuing a career within the biomedical research industry.
Dr Lu Yang
LaTrobe University
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.
Dr Michael Liem
LaTrobe University
Michael Liem, PhD, is a Lecturer at La Trobe University's School of Psychology and Public Health. Dr. Michael Liem is an educator and researcher with a background in biotechnology, bioinformatics, and digital health. After earning his PhD in Biochemistry from La Trobe University, he transitioned his focus to the intersection of healthcare and technology. His work explores innovative approaches to healthcare delivery, with particular interests in virtual care models, genomics, bioinformatics, and precision medicine. Dr. Liem serves as the Deputy Course Coordinator for the Postgraduate Digital Health program at La Trobe University and leads the Digital Health major for the Bachelor of Health Science. Collaborating with the Digital Health Education team, he has contributed to the development of specialized digital health programs at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Focusing on key themes such as virtual health, big data, and contemporary digital health practices. Dr. Liem is dedicated to creating accessible and practical learning experiences for students from diverse professional backgrounds, including healthcare, engineering, and business. His research focuses on the use of digital tools to address workforce challenges, the application of technologies like virtual reality in healthcare and education, and the ethical considerations of AI-generated content in learning. Additionally, he trains professionals on leveraging generative AI to enhance storytelling in medical education.
Jade Ng
LaTrobe University
Jade is a Lecturer in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at La Trobe University. She is an experienced registered nurse with a clinical background and postgraduate qualifications in intensive care nursing and is recognised for her expertise in nursing informatics. Jade has specific expertise in digital health and health informatics as it relates to nursing and midwifery pre-registration education and digital health workforce development. Jade is currently involved in undergraduate nursing and midwifery curriculum and subject development targeting the understanding of contemporary health policy issues, current legislation and how they relate to safety, quality and the application of digital health in nursing and midwifery.
Kylie Ovenden
LaTrobe University
Working Parties
The below working parties support the organisation of different aspects of Digital Health Week 2025:
Scientific: Steph Kershaw(Chair), Ali Gholamerzaei, Tessa Copp, Dinushika Gunawardena, Sam Freeman, Lou Thorton, Tafheem Wani.
Keynotes: Sam Freeman(Chair), Urooj Khan, Anna Janssen
Networking: Niamh Chapman (Chair), Petra Avramovic, Urooj Khan, Jade Ng, Kylie Ovenden, Noah Sinac
Social Media and Comms: Noah Sinac (Chair), Tess Copp, Urooj Khan, Kylie Ovenden, Jade Ng, Achini Adikari
ePosters: Petra Avramovic (Chair), Steph Kershaw, Niamh Chapman, John Pierce, Michael Liem