Optimising Health and Well-being
Helping people to optimise their health and mental health, regardless of their stage of life or health status
About this hub
Our School’s research aims to optimise the safety and quality of care provided to people accessing and receiving care in primary, secondary and tertiary settings.
Enhancing the capacity of the health and social care workforce to promote well-being in this context, and at all stages of life, is a further focus of our work.
- Supporting those who are currently healthy, to stay healthy
- Restoring the health and well-being of those affected by acute illness and injury
- Supporting the health and well-being of those with long-term physical and mental health challenges
- Supporting end of life care
Meet our researchers in the optimising health and wellbeing hub
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Audiology and Speech Pathology
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Clinical Researcher | Research areas include language development, cochlear implants, hearing loss and health informatics
Email: dawn.choo@unimelb.edu.au
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Principal Research Fellow, Director of Research | Listening experiences of people living with hearing loss, improving clinical management for people using hearing devices, and digital tool development
Email: kgalvin@unimelb.edu.au
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Lecturer, Principal Research Fellow | Research areas include stem cells, regenerative neuroscience, hearing and hearing loss, next generation cochlear implants and applications of MRI for hearing loss management
Email: b.nayagam@unimelb.edu.au
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Graeme Clark Chair in Audiology and Speech Science
Email: grance@unimelb.edu.au
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Principal Research Fellow, Hearing Loss and Cognition Program | Research areas include comorbidities and biomarkers/predictors of hearing loss
Email: jsarant@unimelb.edu.au
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Lecturer | Research areas include global audiology: highlighting the need for prioritised public policies and interventions for the delivery of effective ear and hearing care services in low-and middle-income countries
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Professor of Speech Science | Research areas include speech and language biomarkers, neurodegenerative disease, clinical trials, monitoring brain health through digital technologies, swallowing and mealtime outcomes
Email: vogela@unimelb.edu.au
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Senior Lecturer | Research areas include cochlear implants, maternal input and factors affecting communication development for children with hearing loss
Email: dettmans@unimelb.edu.au
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Nursing
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Lecturer | Scholarship of learning and teaching
Email: mckeever@unimelb.edu.au
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Lecturer | Research areas include nurse wellbeing and critical care
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Lecturer, Course Coordinator Graduate Certificate in Cancer Nursing | Research areas include health services research, emergency department utilisation, cancer nursing
Email: polly.dufton@unimelb.edu.au
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Professor | Research areas include infant and child health, implementation science, families as partners in care
Email: deniseh@unimelb.edu.au
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Professor and Head of Department | Research areas include emergency and critical care nursing
Email: gerdtzmf@unimelb.edu.au
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Senior Lecturer | Research areas include skin integrity, chronic wounds, patient engagement and self-treatment
Email: suzanne.kapp@unimelb.edu.au
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Optometry and Vision Sciences
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Professor | Research areas include improving the understanding and clinical assessment of visual disorder of the eye and brain (specific interests in glaucoma, migraine, and ageing).
Email: allisonm@unimelb.edu.au
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Associate Professor and Dame Kate Campbell Fellow | Research areas include ocular diagnostics and therapeutics, tear biomarkers, clinical trials and research translation.
Email: ldownie@unimelb.edu.au
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Orthoptist, Clinical Vision Research Fellow | Research areas include Digital Health, Childrens Vision, Public Eye Health, Eyecare across the Lifespan, Binocular Vision.
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Assoc. Professor | Research areas include cellular-resolution imaging of the retina to investigate the essential structure-function relationships required for vision and how this is supported by vascular and neural processes.
Email: ametha@unimelb.edu.au
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Principal Research Fellow | Research areas include retinal disease, gene therapy, and low vision medical devices (bionic eyes, sensory substitution). Also research translation and commercialisation, as Director of SPARK Melbourne.
Email: layton@unimelb.edu.au
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Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Optometrist | Research interests include inherited retinal diseases, ocular imaging, gene therapy trials, and evidence synthesis.
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Associate Professor | Behavioural investigation of human vision, both in health and disease; Factors affecting decision-making processes in the brain.
Email: aaj@unimelb.edu.au
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Postdoctoral Research Fellow | Research areas include cellular-resolution imaging of the eye to understand the earliest stages of vision and the supply of nutrients to tissue. Also technological developments in optical imaging and image processing.
Email: pabedg@unimelb.edu.au
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Assoc. Professor, Teaching Specialist, 3rd, 4th year OD and Placement Coordinator | Research: low vision, clinical training and assessment, failure to fail, training educators.
Email: antheac@unimelb.edu.au
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Lecturer, optometrist and human visual neuroscientist | Research areas include understanding eye and brain changes with healthy and pathological ageing, childhood and adolescent development, vision anomalies in ophthalmic and neurological disorders.
Email: bnguyen@unimelb.edu.au
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Research Fellow (Industry Engagement) and Optometrist | Research areas include neurodegeneration, diagnostics and therapies, research translation, improving health services.
Email: huif@unimelb.edu.au
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Research Fellow | Translational, technolgoical developments and clinical assessment of the visual neural system.
Email: ping.liu@unimelb.edu.au
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Professor | Research areas include neural basis of visual perception, attention and predictive coding, disorders of communication across the brain and dyslexia.
Email: trv@unimelb.edu.au
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Postdoctoral Clinical Research Fellow | Research areas include dry eye disease, blue light and ocular health, evidence synthesis and translational research.
Email: sumeer.singh@unimelb.edu.au
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Assoc. Professor | Research areas include preclinical investigation of vision and the retinal vasculature in healthy ageing; mechanisms of age-related susceptibility to neurodegeneration.
Email: bvb@unimelb.edu.au
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Senior Lecturer and Optometric Clinician | Research areas using the eye as a marker for brain disease (specific interests in Parkinsons and Alzheimers disease) in preclinical and clinical space.
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Senior Lecturer | Research areas include digital technologies for feedback and assessment, inter-professional education, and inter-disciplinary object-based learning engaging with material culture.
Email: ckwang@unimelb.edu.au
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Clinical Research Optometrist | Research areas include management of dry eye disease, childhood myopia and developement of myopia control devices.
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Clinic Director, Melbourne Eyecare Clinic | Research areas include anterior ocular disease and advanced contact lenses, clinical training and assessment, and evidence-based practice.
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Associate Professor, 4th year OD Coordinator | Evidence-based practice.
Email: mjp@unimelb.edu.au
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Senior Lecturer | Research areas include corneal neuroimmunology, neuropathology in corneal injury and disease, ocular surface immune cells in homeostasis and nerve regeneration.
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Research Fellow | Research areas include understanding ocular changes in neurodegenerative diseases (e.g. Parkinson's, Diabetes and Glaucoma), and using ocular biomarkers to test drug efficacy and monitoring.
Email: vickie.wong@unimelb.edu.au
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Postdoctoral Researcher | Research areas include healthy ageing, migraine, magnetic resonance spectroscopy and visual snow.
Email: yu.chan@unimelb.edu.au
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Lecturer (Teaching Specialist) | Research interest areas: Educational research including interprofessional education, cultural competency, student engagement and wellbeing.
Email: jjlek@unimelb.edu.au
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Resesarch Assistant | Research areas include retinal structure-function relationship in various preclinical models and ocular biomarkers for Parkinson and Alzheimers disease.
Email: anh.hoang@unimelb.edu.au
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Research Fellow | Research areas include Neural mechanisms of visual attention and predictive coding; visual perception; sleep research.
Email: ele@unimelb.edu.au
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Physiotherapy
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NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow, Dame Kate Campbell Senior Research Fellow | Research includes lower limb biomechanics of walking and running, and the clinical and biomechanical effects of foot-based interventions for musculoskeletal conditions
Email: kade.paterson@unimelb.edu.au
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Associate Professor and Dame Kate Campbell Fellow | Research areas include exercise and physical activity for patients with lung cancer, other cancers, critical illness and respiratory diseases
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Lecturer | Research areas include health services research, multi-disciplinary models of allied health care for people with cancer, measurement of physical activity
Email: larae@unimelb.edu.au
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Associate Professor in Physiotherapy
Email: selina.parry@unimelb.edu.au
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Honorary | Research areas include Sport and Exercise Medicine, tendinopathy and osteoarthritis
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Clinical Research Fellow | Research areas include critical care recovery and rehabilitation, frailty and digital health
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Physiotherapist, Senior Lecturer, Research Fellow | Digital Technologies
Email: merollim@unimelb.edu.au
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Senior Research Fellow | Research areas include the brain-behaviour nexus during rehabilitation after stroke
Email: kate.hayward@unimelb.edu.au
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NHMRC Research Fellow | Research expertise includes anterior cruciate ligament injury and knee osteoarthritis outcomes and interventions
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Chair in Physiotherapy at Austin Health | Research areas include sleep and breathing disorders in neuromuscular disease, health systems and data research, clinical trials of therapies and care models
Email: djberl@unimelb.edu.au
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Senior Lecturer, Post-Doctoral Researcher | Research areas include physical activity after neurological injury, stroke recovery and rehabilitation
Email: natalie.fini@unimelb.edu.au
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Senior Research Fellow, NHMRC Emerging Leader, Dame Kate Campbell Fellow | Research areas include osteoarthritis. exercise, biomechanics; meta-analyses, clinical trials
Email: halm@unimelb.edu.au
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Research areas include improving the health of people with chronic musculoskeletal conditions, especially osteoarthritis, implementation science, and increasing access to care, including telerehabilitation and digital health
Email: ranash@unimelb.edu.au
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Deputy Head of Physiotherapy | Research areas include exercise for chronic musculoskeletal conditions, hip & knee osteoarthritis, outcome measurement, meta-analysis
Email: fdobson@unimelb.edu.au
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Senior Lecturer | Research focus is on design of models of health service delivery to implement evidence-based practice for osteoarthritis and other chronic conditions
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Associate Professor | Research expertise in expertise in women’s health, specifically disorders related to the pelvic floor
Email: h.frawley@unimelb.edu.au
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Head, Department of Physiotherapy | Research areas include movement and function across the lifespan in healthy people and those with neurological conditions including stroke, Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy and autism spectrum disorder
Email: mcginley@unimelb.edu.au
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Professor of Physiotherapy Rehabilitation | Research areas include neurological gait disorders, running, task-specific strength training and focal spasticity management
Email: gavinw@unimelb.edu.au
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Lecturer | Research areas include stroke rehabilitation, balance training, falls prevention, motion-tracking technologies and telehealth
Email: bower@unimelb.edu.au
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Clinical Research Fellow (Acute Cardiorespiratory) | Researching physical activity and exercise in cancer and critical illness; interested in quantitative and qualitative methodologies, co-design and sustainability
Email: shaza.abo@unimelb.edu.au
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Research Fellow | Research areas include the impact of developmental therapy and early intervention on brain development and rehabilitation in the newborn period and beyond, and the role parents play in delivering this intervention
Email: abbey.eeles@unimelb.edu.au
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Lecturer in Physiotherapy
Email: tandyh@unimelb.edu.au
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A/Professor Physiotherapy Western Health | Research interests include rehabilitation and fall prevention in older people and people with neurological disorders
Email: csaid@unimelb.edu.au
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Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor, NHMRC Investigator Fellow and Dame Kate Campbell Fellow. Director of the Centre for Health, Exercise and Sports Medicine | Research focus is on the management of musculoskeletal conditions particularly osteoarthritis
Email: k.bennell@unimelb.edu.au
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Research Assistant | Areas of research include telehealth and implementation of health services to help improve the lives of those with chronic musculoskeletal pain (e.g. osteoarthritis)
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Sir Randal Heymanson Fellow
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Social Work
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Research Assistant
Email: isobe.j@unimelb.edu.au
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Chair and Head, Department of Social Work, and Deputy Head, School of Health Sciences | Research interests include health, mental health and disability
Email: louisekh@unimelb.edu.au
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Associate Professor | Research areas include health, ageing and community services
Email: ralph.hampson@unimelb.edu.au
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Associate Professor in Social Work, Director of Learning and Teaching, MSHS | Research areas include impact of criminal justice system, trauma and mental health, alcohol and other drugs, domestic & family violence, children and families across borders and health/mental health in forensic systems
Email: drose@unimelb.edu.au
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Professor - Direct Practice | Research areas include clarifying, measuring and evaluating the outcomes of social interventions in health and mental health, focusing on the contribution of formal and informal social network factors
Email: ljoubert@unimelb.edu.au
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Course Coordinator, MSW | Research areas include navigating complex service systems, disability and the NDIS, social work in the legal and justice systems and the impact of social policy on health and wellbeing
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Associate Professor | Research areas include Child Protection during the perinatal period, Out-of-Home Care and human service system governance and change
Email: sarah.wise@unimelb.edu.au
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Associate Professor | kNOwVAWdata; safe, ethical and inclusive measurement of violence against women and children with a focus in Asia and the Pacific
Email: k.diemer@unimelb.edu.au
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Research fellow | Specialises in interviews with children and young people about sensitive issues like child sexual abuse and family violence. Interested in research collaborations that benefit the health and social lives of children and young people in Australia and across the globe
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Professor | Dedicated to optimising the health of all family members where there is domestic and family violence
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Post Doctoral Research Fellow | Research Interests include intervention responses at the intersections between child abuse, domestic violence, mental health and problematic substance use, approaches that promote recovery post-violence and interventions for women who use force in the context of family violence
Email: mkertesz@unimelb.edu.au
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Lecturer | Research areas include family adaptation in circumstances of adversity such as those which bring families into health settings as well as post-disaster recovery contexts
Email: lauren.kosta@unimelb.edu.au
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Lecturer | Research areas include family violence, sport development, custodial settings, and Indigenous communities
Email: david.gallant@unimelb.edu.au
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Senior Lecturer | Involved in Narrative Practice Research innovations (narrative therapy and community work in research) and collaborations with Insider/Peer researchers and First Nations researchers
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Lecturer | Experienced in qualitative and mixed methods research with a particular focus on co-production. Her areas of research include trauma-informed care, mental health, disability, and diversity and inclusion
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