Our research

The Health and Well-being Research Beacon's research focuses on three key themes.

Healthcare systems and operations

This research theme examines the structure, skills, and management systems that enable efficient healthcare delivery in complex environments.

  • Designing and Managing Health Systems
  • Operations Management and Professional Skills Development in Healthcare
  • Health Economics, Performance Management and Cost Effectiveness

Current projects

21st Century Skills in Healthcare (Dr Hanoku Bathula, Dr Ruhi Bajaj)

Technology’s impact on health care practice

This research theme explores how digital technologies, AI, and data systems are reshaping health work, workforce roles, and healthcare delivery.

  • Future of health work, and tech-driven workforce changes
  • Emerging technologies (e.g., AI) in healthcare
  • Health Informatics

Current projects

  • AI in shared decision-making (Nataly Martini, Laszlo Sajtos)
  • AI-Human Collaboration in Healthcare (Karen Day, David Sundaram, Sarah Marshall, Farkhondeh Hassandoust)
  • Co-designing a health chatbot for Pacific community (Karen Day, David Sundaram, Farkhondeh Hassandoust)
  • Regulatory and non-regulatory challenges of implementing AI in healthcare (Ruhi Bajaj, Farkhondeh Hassandoust)
  • VitaHub-AI: Harnessing the power of artificial intelligence to build resiliency and combat frailty through a telehealth platform (Paul Rouse)

Environmental and socio-cultural challenges in healthcare

This research theme investigates how aging populations, cultural competence, and physical environments shape healthcare practices and well-being.

  • Older and ageing population
  • Cultural Intelligence of the health workforce
  • Determinants of health (eg physical environment and its health implications)

Current projects

  • End-of-life hospital cost and informed decision-making (Julie Harrison, Paul Rouse, Paula Lorgelly, Laszlo Sajtos)
  • Cultural intelligence (Hanoku Bathula, Emmy van Esch, Laszlo Sajtos)
  • Preventive healthcare for geriatrics (Valery Pavlov, Ruhi Bajaj, Sarah Marshall, Xinyan Zhang)
  • Oral health and system diseases (Sam Madanian, Sarah Marshall)
  • Long COVID registry (Paula Lorgelly)
  • Indigenising health economics (Paula Lorgelly)