Professor Peter Steel
Director, Centre for Digital Transformation of Health,
Associate Dean of Digital Health & Informatics, University of Melbourne
Chief Transformation Officer, The Royal Melbourne Hospital
There is a global ambition to transform health through data, AI and digital technologies. New capabilities are emerging at unprecedented speed, reshaping what is possible in healthcare.
The Centre draws together diverse expertise from across the University in data science, implementation science, health services research and education to translate this potential into better care at scale. We're partnering with healthcare organisations and industry to deliver meaningful, measurable and equitable public value.
My role sits at the intersection of the University of Melbourne and the Royal Melbourne Hospital by design – because embedding research directly into clinical operations is where technological potential becomes real-world impact.
This is what drives the Centre's work: not the ambition to adopt technology, but the discipline to ensure it genuinely benefits patients, clinicians, and the communities we serve.
Leadership
Associate Professor Tangerine Holt
Tangerine specialises in designing and scaling innovative education and workforce development initiatives that build capability in digital health, artificial intelligence and learning health systems. With global academic and executive leadership experience, she translates research, policy and innovation into high-impact workforce capability and system transformation.
Dr Kit Huckvale
Kit is a clinically trained digital health researcher focused on building systems that generate decision-relevant evidence for emerging health technologies before they are deployed in clinical care. He leads the Centre's Digital Health Validitron, a research lab that uses clinical simulation and pre-implementation evaluation to test the safety, performance, and workflow fit of digital and AI-enabled tools.
Dr Meredith Layton
Meredith brings her experience and passion for facilitating collaborative, interdisciplinary science to solve significant problems in healthcare and her skills in research development and translation into improved care to her role supporting strategy, engagement and operations at the Centre for Digital Transformation of Health.
Centre Staff Members
Leslie Arnott
Leslie is an expert consumer, specialising in embedding consumer engagement principles across the research lifecycle. She has a strong background in facilitating partnerships between researchers and communities, and provides tailored support to digital health researchers, ensuring best-practice consumer engagement in research design, implementation, and dissemination.
Dr Kara Burns
Kara is an experienced health professional working across digital health, research, business development, innovation, and clinical care. She is an early-career researcher, leading a team who specialise in early-stage digital health project development, in the Centre for Digital Transformation of Health.
Mark Christopoulos
Mark has a background in Biomedical Science and over a decade of experience teaching STEM in secondary education. For the past eight years, he has worked in learning design, developing university courses for major Australian universities.
Dr Portia Cornell
Portia is a health economist with research interest in aged care, social care in the health system, and social determinants of health. Her expertise is in using econometric methods to evaluate complex health-system and policy interventions using experimental and quasi-experimental design.
Dr Omar Dabash
Omar has a portfolio career conducting, translating, and commercialising research. His expertise includes digital mental health, data science, clinical trials, and wet lab techniques. As the study lead for the Mind Grid (MRFF-funded), he led the launch of an app for merging biological and digital data for tailored mental health treatments.
Dr Belinda Davey
Belinda is as researcher and educator with a diverse background in psychology, data science, and digital health.
Dr Sathana Dushyanthen
Sat is a Medical Educator, Lecturer and Researcher with specialisation in Cancer Sciences. She is an Academic Specialist at the Centre for Digital Transformation of Health.
Dr Mahima Kalla
Mahima is a Research Fellow within the University of Melbourne's Digital Health Validitron. She is an inter-disciplinary professional with a bachelor in engineering and PhD in medical sociology.
Dr Olivia Metcalf
Olivia is a mid career researcher and behavioural scientist who specialises in digital mental health. Olivia is interested in leveraging technology, including wearables and smartphones, in assessing and treating mental health problems that can result after trauma, including PTSD, addiction, and problem anger.
Heather Morris
Heather is a highly qualified management and executive administration specialist with over 20 years’ experience across the tertiary education and public sectors. She has supported senior academic leaders including Centre Directors, Deputy Deans and Pro Vice-Chancellors.
Dr Quinn Nguyen
Quy (Quinn) is a final-year PhD candidate in the Graduate Research Industry Partnership program at Monash University. Collaborating with a healthcare system in Melbourne, he undertakes a 'research-to-order' project focusing on designing dashboard systems for optimal patient flow management in hospitals.
Dr Teresa O'Brien
Teresa is a postdoctoral researcher in digital health. Her research interests centre on clinical simulation as a method for evaluating digital health interventions prior to their real-world implementation. This ensures that technologies are not only functional but also practical, safe, and effective in real-world healthcare settings.
Dr Debbie Passey
Debbie is a health services researcher with a background in occupational health and health promotion. Her research more broadly focuses on using implementation science methods to translate digital health research into clinical practice.
Dr Vlada Rozova
Vlada is a data scientist and a machine learning practitioner passionate about developing automated systems to improve patient care. She trained in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science and is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Centre for Digital Transformation of Health at the University of Melbourne. Vlada works with stakeholders of diverse backgrounds to build solutions that address user needs.
Zoe Stephenson
Zoe is a dynamic communications professional with over 15 years' experience across the health research, medical technology, and international development sectors, with a proven track record in strategic communications, stakeholder engagement, and organisational change.
Dr Joël Fossouo Tagne
Joël is an AHPRA registered pharmacist with close to a decade of clinical experience, and digital health researcher with a focus on using innovative IT solutions to enhance patient and medication safety.