Leah Heiss joins ETLab
Associate Professor Leah Heiss has joined the Emerging Technologies Lab as the leader of the Health Futures program.
The Health Futures research program focuses on designing, developing and activating health futures that are safe, equitable, integrated, sustainable and attuned to diverse needs. It aims to work with diverse stakeholder groups to envisage and build optimal health futures for our communities, both local and global.
Leah Heiss is the Eva and Marc Besen International Research Chair in Design at Monash University; Chair of the Victorian Premier’s Design Awards; Co-chair of the Victorian Heart Institute New Technologies working group; and Designer in Residence at the Australian National Fabrication Facility. She is a global leader in human-centred design and co-design for technologies, systems and services for healthcare. This includes the design of wearable and sensing technologies for acute care, aging and hearing loss; and the co-design of models and systems of care including for blood disorders, cancer, acquired brain injury, eating disorders, voluntary assisted dying and global health.
Most recently, Leah has been working with the WHO and participants from across 15 countries to develop the WHO Design Principles and Tools to improve use and impact of WHO Guidelines, launching globally on 25 November 2024. She led the Statewide co-design consultation for the Hamilton Centre, Victoria’s system for integrated care of mental health and addiction, with Turning Point. The Hamilton Centre co-design consultation brought together participants from across 40 organisations to translate recommendations from the Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System into practice.
In the last 10 years Leah has led the design and user experience for wearable health technologies and services for COVID monitoring in aged care, hearing loss, cardiovascular disease, loneliness, MRSA/sepsis and the design of smart mattress sensors for aged care. Her design work has been recognised with nine Australian Good Design Awards, including the 2018 Good Design Award of the Year; two Victorian Premier’s Design Awards; the CSIRO Design Innovation Award and in 2022 her ongoing contribution to design excellence and leadership was recognised with the Australian Women in Design Award. She has presented over 120 presentations and keynotes globally on the role of design in improving the lived experience of health technologies and systems. Her wearable technology designs have been exhibited to over 800,000 people across Australia, Europe and Asia, are part of the Museums Victoria and NSW Powerhouse heritage collections and have been presented to the Victorian Royal Commission into Mental Health.
"Leah Heiss is one of Australia's most outstanding design researchers, I am absolutely delighted to welcome her world-class innovations in research and practice to Emerging Technologies Lab and FUTURES Hub. The Heath Futures Research Programme A/Professor Heiss leads is a flagship initiative demonstrating the best in national and international design-led impact" Professor and Director, Sarah Pink
Leah supervises PhD candidates Miriam Spano, Desiree Riny, Leander Kreltszheim, Rose Ee and is supported by graphic designer Hatoun Ibrahim.
Read more about the Health Futures program.