Future of Health
In developed countries across the world, healthcare spending is rising steadily as ageing populations, an epidemic of chronic disease, advances in biomedical knowledge, increased digital healthcare innovations and higher public expectations place additional demands on services.
In Australia, for example, health expenditure rose by an average of 5% a year in real terms over the last decade, outstripping GDP growth of 2.8%. In locations worldwide, healthcare delivery systems are now reaching breaking-point and there is an urgent need to develop new working practices innovative business and funding models.
The University of Queensland (UQ) Business School’s experts bring new perspectives to this debate. With backgrounds in areas such as innovation, management, strategy, marketing, finance, accounting, information systems, economics and technology, they work alongside clinicians and healthcare leaders to help address the challenges in the Future of Health.
Through our work with private and public healthcare providers, patients and families, we are internationally recognised as thought leaders in the healthcare sector.
The Future of Health initiative draws together the School’s expertise across different disciplines to help transform healthcare delivery for the benefit of patients and society at large.
Future of Health Research
Our research on the Future of Health has a strong focus on being industry-relevant and high-impact, benefiting stakeholders in the health sector. We provide insights and encourage engagement with leading healthcare providers and policymakers at a local and global level.
The work of UQ Business School offers unique value to healthcare providers, complimenting health driven research outcomes from clinical trials. Practitioners place high-value on the different methods and insights we bring.
Managing for Transformational Healthcare Change
Our research offers insights into leadership and change management in health organisations, to transform the way healthcare is delivered. Our researchers specialise in organisational development, innovation and corporate governance practices that have future-focused healthcare impact. Projects include evaluations for the State Government into the delivery of new models of mental healthcare services.
Transformative Health and Wellbeing Innovations
Digital technologies have the power to transform healthcare delivery, reduce costs and save lives. However globally, its uptake has been slow and fraught with problems. UQ Business School is at the forefront in helping organisations to harness the potential of digital in healthcare, develop new strategies, create more effective models of care and introduce health innovations. Our researchers are currently assessing the transformation of Brisbane’s Princess Alexandra Hospital and other flagship IT projects, identifying lessons for others.
Patient Centred Care
Patients are at the heart of the healthcare system, so it is critical to understand and support their needs. UQ Business School experts work with healthcare providers for the delivery of services to diverse groups including rural and remote patients, Indigenous Australians, children, and the elderly to find better ways to address their needs and improve uptake of technology-driven healthcare delivery modes (i.e. telehealth) and patient care platforms (i.e. virtual reality; gamification).
Accountable and Flexible Healthcare Systems
Funding is one of the biggest constraints facing healthcare providers. Our research looks at how best to develop and assess new funding models, invest in new innovative healthcare services, incentivise staff and implement management control systems in healthcare organisations.
UQ Business School’s research expertise complements that of The University of Queensland, which is a global leader in improving the health of populations. Business school staff are involved in projects for UQ’s Centre for the Business and Economics of Health and Centre for Research Excellence in Telehealth, Centre for Research in Telerehabilitation, the Centre for Online Health (based at PA Hospital), the UQ Centre for Health Services Research, RECOVER Injury Research Centre and the Digital Health CRC.
Future of Health Experts
Business School academics who span management, strategy, business information systems, and accounting work together to improve the quality and impact of research related to the future of health.
UQ Business School experts plan and execute impactful research to lead change in healthcare delivery and plan for future-focused health innovations. Our researchers and academics have deep relationships with industry partners at a public, private and not-for-profit level, also engaging and influencing key policymakers.
Leads
Professor Andrew Burton-Jones
Professor in Business Information Systems
Design, use, and governance of IT in healthcare
Associate Professor Nicole Hartley
Associate Professor in Marketing
Health innovation and technology, patient experience, health
Key Researchers
Professor Janet McColl-Kennedy – Patient-centred care, health service co-creation, patient experience
Professor Nicole Gillespie – Adoption of virtual health services, change management, trust in health services, leadership.
Professor Victor Callan – Health leadership and change management service delivery and design
Associate Professor Paul Spee – Strategy processes in healthcare
Dr Anna Stephens
Dr Anna Jenkins - Processes and activities involved in creating high impact startups, how small businesses manage setbacks and failures
Dr Anthony Davidson - Marketing and sustainability, value co-creation, consumer experience
Dr Gemma Irving – Physical space and change processes in healthcare organisations
Dr Giuliana Oyola Lozada - Regulatory bottlenecks for the development and adoption of biomedical innovations
Dr Lilliemay (Lily) Cheung – Patient-centred care, health service co-creation patient experience
Dr Oliver Canfell - Digital health transformation
Dr Robyn King – Management control systems in healthcare
Dr Saeed Akhlaghpour – Digital transformation & social media in health
Dr Stuart Middleton - Political contests between different societal institutions
Dr Toby Hodgson - IT within the healthcare system
Dr Zara Taba - Service research
Cross-Faculty Partnerships
Associate Professor Haitham Tuffahs
Associate Professor Damian Hine
Dr Sue McAvoy - Centre for the Business and Economics of Health
Dr Lisett Pregelj - School of Chemistry and Molecular Biology
Professor Trevor Russell - RECOVER Injury Research Centre (HABS)
Dr Jean Spinks - Applying economic principles to achieve better population health outcomes from medicines used in primary care
Industry Advisory Board Members
David Bunker (Chair)
Tanya Kelly
Chris Dougherty
Julie White
Robyn Littlewood
Cameron Bean
Malcolm Thatcher
Adrian Carson
Jennifer Finch
PhD Students
Ana Ximena Alvis Gonzales
Carlos Rincon
Claire Cunningham
Erika Meler
Grace Williams
Javad Pool
Krishna Dermawan
Kevin Blasiak
Perrin Moss
Rebecca Hamilton
Rosie Gallagher
Trevor Gormley
Xianxian Jiang
Yu Zhao
Oscar Zhu
Future of Health Projects
2022–2026 Roadmap Options for Melanoma Screening in Australia (Melanoma-ROSA).
NHMRC Synergy Grant - $5mil.
Researchers: Monika Janda, Anne Cust, Peter Soyer, Nicole Gillespie, and Zongyuan Ge.
2022–2026 Skin Imaging and Precision Diagnosis.
NHMRC Centre of Excellence - $2.5mil.
Researchers: Monika Janda, Anne Cust, Peter Soyer, Zongyuan Ge, Nicole Gillespie (AI).
2021 Building digital platforms to support precision prevention of chronic disease.
BEL Connect Grant - $19,553.
Researcher: Oliver Canfell, Andrew Burton-Jones, Clair Sullivan, Elizabeth Eakin.
2021–2022 Optimising the Allied Health Workforce Through an Eco-systems Lens.
Queensland Health Grant - $176,000.
Researcher: Nicole Hartley, Andrew Davidson and Lily Cheung.
2020–2024 Bringing Digital Excellence to Clinical Excellence in Queensland Health.
Digital Health CRC - $1.485M.
Researcher: Andrew Burton-Jones, Robyn Littlewood, Clair Sullivan.
2020–2024 Enhanced data extraction and modelling from electronic medical records and phenotyping for clinical care, and research: Case studies in management of medication stwardship.
Digital Health CRC - $469,000.
Researcher: Guido Zuccon, Clair Sullivan, Ash Rahimi, Sally Shrapnel, Andrew Burton-Jones.
2020 From Volume to Value with Data Analytics: Improving Patient Outcomes, Employee Well-being and General Practice (GP) Clinical Performance.
BEL Connent Grant - $17,000.
Researcher: Janet McColl-Kennedy, Mieke van Driel, Christoph Breidbach, Johnson, T, Dawda, Paresh, Damien Hine, Mohammed Zaki.
Past Projects
2018 Development of an active video game for the long-term maintenance of exercise of people with COPD.
UQ Faculty of Helath and Behavioural Science and Metro North Hospital and Health Science (CISS) Research Collaboration Seeding Grant $39,535.
Researcher: Trevor Russell, Nicole Hartley, Allison Mandrusiak, Jennie Money.
2017–2020 Home Telehealth Adoption in the Aging Population: Consumer Perspectives.
NHMRC $352,000.
Researcher: Trevor Russell, Deborah Theodoros, Nicole Gillespie, Nicole Hartley, Len Gray, Anne Hill.
2017–2020 Improving quality of care for people with dementia in the acute care setting.
NHMRC Boosting Dementia Research Grants $1.86m.
Researcher: Melinda Martin-Khan, Len Gray, Nancye Peel, John Hirdes, Amanda Henderson, Elaine Pascoe, Nicole Gillespie, Brant Fries, Veronique Boscart, Julia Crilly.
2017–2019 Understanding and Improving the Effective Use of Electronic Medical Records.
UQ Development Fellow (Strategic Research Fellowship) Teaching release.
Researcher: Professor Andrew Burton-Jones.
2017–2019 Using Electrnic Medical Records Effectively and Aligning to a Digital Healthcare Vision.
Queensland Health $278,000.
Researcher: Professor Andrew Burton-Jones.
2017–2018 Electronic Medical Records and a Digital Healthcare Vision: Benefits Evaluation.
Metro South Hospital $234,000.
Researcher: Professor Andrew Burton-Jones.
2016–2020 Evidence-based Approach to Evaluating Strategic Transformation.
Mater Misericordiae LTD $300,000.
Researcher: Andrew Burton-Jones, Victor Callan (CBEH).
2016–2019 Exploring the Value of Telehealth in Primary Care: A Controlled Trial within the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
NHMRC Partnership Grant $465,165 + matched funding from RFDS.
Researcher: Len Gray, Anthony Smith, Jenny Whitty, Elaine Pascoe, Geoffery Mitchell, Trevor Russell, Nicole Gillespie, Oscar Whitehead, Anita Hansen.
2016–2018 20 Modelling Multidimensional Multiparty Decisions to Improve Outcomes for Customers and Service Providers: New Theory and Measurement Tools.
ARC Discovery Grant $330,000.
Researcher: Janet McColl-Kennedy, Len Coote, Claire Wainwright, Scott Bell, Michael Brady.
2016–2018 Redesigning skin cancer early detection and care.
NH&MRC Partnership Grant $596,600 ($178,259 UQ).
Researcher: Monika Janda, Peter Soyer, Lois Loescher, Nicole Gillespie, Dimitrios Vagenas.
2015–2018 Examining the Effectiveness of Patient-centred Practices on Health Outcomes.
ARC Linkage Grant $1.1 million (including $180,000 from ARC).
Researcher: Pennie Frow, Janet McColl- Kennedy, Adrian Payne.
2015–2018 A Telehealth Framework for BushKids.
BUSHKids (industry grant, funding for PhD scholarship + 0.2 FTE RA).
Researcher: Deborah Theodoros, Trevor Russell, Nicole Gillespie, Nicole Hartley, Annie Hill.
2014–2018 The Centre of Excellence in Telehealth.
NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence Grant $2,495,357 over 5 years (3 year PhD scholarship and 3 year half time post-doc funding to UQBS).
Researcher: L. Gray, D. Theodoras, A Smith, N. Gillespie, N. Hayman, T. Russell, P. Soyer, & J. Whitty.
Business Insights
Managing Data Protection, Privacy and Cybersecurity in Digital Health
Through a multi-disciplinary programme of research and in collaboration with colleagues from Engineering, Health, and Business, Dr Saeed Akhlaghpour studies health data protection and organisational practices for managing data privacy and cybersecurity risks. This research has led to peer-reviewed publications that study data protection in different contexts, including tertiary hospitals (Integrated Electronic Medical Records), primary healthcare, telehealth, and also Covid-19 contact tracing mobile apps.
Emergency Departments as places of social inclusion in pandemics
Emergency Departments serve an important frontline function in Australia’s public health system as “places of social inclusion” where people with acute medical needs can go to receive free access to care and treatment.
Assessing the digital hospital transformation
The Digital Hospital transformation represents a multi-billion investment by the state to improve the delivery of healthcare to Queenslanders. It is important to evaluate the investment.
Actionable Intelligence - Delivering the right information into the right hands – System dynamics and the case-study of emergency care
Frontline emergency service providers in Queensland are struggling to serve unprecedented growth in demand, and it is putting patient lives at risk. There has been no change over the last 10 years in wait times for emergency departments (AIHW).
Getting to the heart of the matter: rural and remote health research has value
Future of Health's Professor Stephen Birch and UQ health economists have partnered with a rural health and medical research network to shine a light on the value of rural health research.
The digital health generation
How Queensland is leading the way in healthcare transformation.
Future of Health's Professor Andrew Burton-Jones discusses how his work with the Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre is helping to digitize and transform healthcare delivery in Queensland.
How AI will improve health care in 2030
Future of Health member Claire Cunningham and Associate Professor Nicole Hartley were featured in the UQBS Momentum Magazine. Claire provides insights into prdictions around how AI will improve healthcare in the year 2030.
Healthcare policy makers and shapers discuss Queensland’s future of health
System-wide technology reform, digital hospitals, technology implementation and out-patient customer experience for chronic disease management were all items on the agenda at a recent panel in conversation regarding the future of health in Queensland.
New technologies for recovery science in the digital era
Future of Health co-lead and MBA Director Dr Nicole Hartley was recently featured in a podcast alongside UQ’s Department of Physiotherapy Professor Trevor Russell discussing the complementary research angles of technology in service, telehealth and physiotherapy.
Past Events
Unleashing the future of health for Queensland
On July 29, the Future of Health (FoH) Research Hub hosted the breakfast seminar ‘Unleashing the future of health for Queensland’. Held at Customs House, the event brought together a panel of four world-class researchers and experienced health care leaders to discuss pathways to accelerate and strengthen high quality health care in Queensland. Speakers at the event included David Bunker (Executive Director, Health Translation Queensland), Dr Kellie Stockton (Director of Allied Health Services, Surgical Treatment and Rehabilitation Service, Queensland Health), Michael Draheim (Chief Clinical Information Officer, ORACLE Cerner) and Dr Robyn King (Senior Lecturer, UQ Business School).
Disrupters to the future of healthcare in Queensland
On Friday 12 November, the Future of Health held a breakfast at Customs House. The event was a success, with over 70 industry professionals and UQ academics attending. Speakers at the event included Assoc Prof Robyn Littlewood (Disruptors shaping healthcare in Queensland), Dr Tanya Kelly (Clinician driven business intelligence as a disruptor), Dr Saeed Akhlaghpour (Data privacy and cybersecurity as a disruptor) and Dr Mark Nelson (Digital capability as a disruptor). This was followed by a Q&A session and networking. Speakers were Prof Andrew Burton-Jones and Assoc Prof Nicole Hartley.
Contact us
If you would like more information or to explore opportunities with the Future of Health initiative please contact: