Flinders Digital Health Research Centre is a newly formed multidisciplinary research entity, established as a cornerstone in Flinders University’s expansion in the health technology domain.
The Centre will provide expertise, innovation and leadership to ensure that Flinders University achieves national and international recognition as a premier institution for digital health systems and technologies research. It will also foster digital health university-industry alliance relationships benefiting South Australia and the nation. Projects which provide commercial opportunities will be nurtured through close collaborations with business and industry, and with the government and health sectors.
At Flinders Digital Health Research Centre, our mainstream research interests follow the Centre theme of “Digital Health – Enabling Health Smart Living”.
We concentrate on projects developing and deploying computational solutions which provide benefits to the management of health in numerous social and clinical settings, including home and workplace. Our emphasis is on empowering individuals through customising and personalising health information and processes. Our projects are generally applied in nature, and we cover a wide range of technical areas in health informatics including cybersecurity, data management and analysis, human-computer interaction, health software, messaging and terminologies, mHealth and social media, telehealth.
We study the design, implementation and use of digital technologies (hardware and software) to deliver personalised assistance, customised healthcare needs and disease specific services for older adults. This includes working with the local government and aged care service providers in co-design projects to develop, test and deploy apps that support community dwelling older adults to continue living in their local neighbourhoods. The significance of our research in this area lies in the benefits of providing mobile digital platforms which can be ‘tailored-to- suit’ the delivery of person-centric apps that inform and empower older adults to remain engaged in their local communities.
Current/recent projects
Flinders Assistant for Memory Enhancement (FAME) Study
This study is part of the project titled ‘Ageing in Place - Assistance through Personalised Online Technology for older people with memory loss associated with early stage dementia’. The study will examine the feasibility of delivering non-pharmacological intervention using a simple, intuitive tablet-based application for use by community-dwelling older adults living with mild cognitive impairment or early stage dementia. This contributes to the South Australian Government’s ‘Ageing well’ and the Commonwealth’s ‘ageing-in-place’ agenda.
Phase II - newsletter
Phase I (completed) - newsletter
Project of Dementia Friendly Community
The aim of this study is to gather information that would inform the council on the needs of people living with dementia to enable the development of sustainable and inclusive environments, which would support them to live well in the community. This is a joint initiative between City of Holdfast Bay council and Flinders Digital Health Research Centre.
For further information about Digital Health Supporting Our Ageing Society research, please contact Dr Lua Perimal-Lewis@flinders.edu.au or 08 8201 2069
Computer-based behaviour change intervention; lifestyle logging and monitoring for healthy living; social media and web tools for healthy communities (including mHealth)
Ecological models emphasize the importance of context in understanding wellness and health. This strategic focus area covers physical and mental wellness in context. Understanding context requires a multilevel approach which starts with individuals but also considers the physical, cultural, political factors that impact on individual wellness including interpersonal (e.g. social networks, workplace, clinical) , local environment (e.g. buildings, neighbourhood), regional and national policy (e.g. OHS, urban planning). The significance of digital health research on wellness is the holistic approach which draws on sources of digital information available in the broader environment to better understand personal constraints and opportunities presented by the local environment which in turn can better inform behaviour change programs.
Current/recent projects
Workplace wellness (2016-2017)
Physical activity monitoring (2017-2018)
Devices for patient health condition data collection (IoT, sensors, wearables); standards for health data and health systems conformance and interoperability; Health Smart Living environments
This focus area covers the Internet of Things, embedded sensors and smart environments, wearables, communications, and cybersecurity. It also encompasses software, artificial intelligence, machine learning, dataflow processes, and data and software standards, with deliberate attention to the impact of these technologies to patient safety. The significance of our research in this focus area lies in improving safety, security and resilience in the emerging distributed health technology domain. With an increasing number of data sources there is a need to provide integrated and secure platforms for data exchange, interoperability and communication, as well as understanding the potential effect of technology on individuals and the healthcare system.
Current/recent projects
Safe Wi-Fi for the hospital environment (Cisco)
Infrastructure maturity assessment for digital hospitals (Cisco)
Electronic medication management (Telstra Health)
Interoperability and security in the Health Internet of Things (Cisco Chair)
App labelling for security and privacy (Cisco Chair)
Security of devices on medical IT networks (ISO)
Security metrics, cascading failure and resilience (Cisco Chair)
Improving safety and quality of health care, supporting health service delivery and health data analysis for cancer, cardiac, mental health, rehabilitation.
This focus area covers the use of digital health data for direct clinical purposes, usually associated with a specific disease or cohort. This includes data management, analysis of EHRs or other health datasets, and longitudinal health condition modelling. The significance of our research in this focus area lies in the benefits of having better data to inform clinical decision making, overcoming the limitations of conventional care-episode based health records. By broadening the types of data considered, and including data which provides personalised information about individuals, more value can be obtained when applying pattern recognition and cohort characterization techniques than “one-size-fits-all” outcomes.
Current/recent projects
Health data integration for evidence-based interventions (ARC ITRP)
Actionable Intime Insights mental health monitoring (D2D CRC)
Cancer survivor data framework (CMPH)
Improving cardiovascular risk prediction utilising machine learning algorithms
Professor Anthony Maeder
Co-Director, College of Nursing and Health Sciences
Professor Trish Williams
Co-Director, College of Science and Engineering
Associate Professor Niranjan Bidargaddi
Deputy Director, College of Medicine and Public Health
Ginger Mudd (Research Associate)
Gihan Gunasekara (Research Associate)
We also work on long-term collaboration activities in conjunction with several major Australian research groups, including:
South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute
South Australian Department of Health and Ageing
Centre for Research Excellence in Telehealth
Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre
Edith Cowan University Security Research Institute
Flinders University Medical Device Research Institute
International Laboratory for Health Technologies
We have a number of well-established international research relationships, including:
Harvard University, USA
Rhodes University, South Africa
Royal Holloway, University of London
Shandong Academy of Sciences, China
University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
University of Michigan, USA
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
TUDresden University of Technology, Germany
Australian and international postgraduate (honours, masters and PhD) students have an opportunity to undertake research at this Centre.
Identify your area of interest by searching through our website.
Send your CV and an expression of interest to digitalhealth@flinders.edu.au
Your interest will be sent on to an appropriate supervisor, and you will be contacted to further progress your application. This process involves:
1. Preparing a research proposal and send to your supervisor for comments.
2. Identifying suitable scholarships and their deadlines, prepare all necessary supporting documents and start application process:
Once the scholarship is confirmed, you should start VISA and arrival preparations. If you are an international student, you will be assisted by the International Office who will guide you with your entry to Australia and Flinders University.
For all other student enquiries please contact Flinders Connect
Flinders University
Level 2, Building 1, Tonsley campus
Flinders University
1284 South Road, Clovelly Park
South Australia 5042, AUSTRALIA
Phone: (+61) 8201 2023
Email: digitalhealth@flinders.edu.au
Acknowledgement: The Flinders Digital Health Research Centre is supported by the Premier’s Research and Industry Fund provided by the South Australian Government and Cisco Systems Australia Pty Ltd under the Cisco Digital Health Initiative.
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