Since becoming the Eva and Marc Besen International Research Chair in Design, Associate Professor Leah Heiss has brought together global organisations, policymakers and thought leaders to reimagine how design can transform society.

Associate Professor Leah Heiss is an award-winning designer and thought leader in co-designing health technologies, services and systems including for global health, transfusion medicine, acute care, hearing loss and mental health and addiction. Her role as Eva and Marc Besen International Research Chair in Design spans three intersecting domains: Designing for global health, Co-designing spaces, services, and systems; and, Digital health and entrepreneurship. These areas continue to advance her commitment to design’s role in tackling complex health challenges, both nationally and globally.

Since commencing as Chair in mid-2021, Heiss has led work with local, national and global healthcare partners, focused on improving the lived experience of health technologies, systems and services. Her innovative co-design methods have been used to develop new models and systems of care across Australia with partners including Turning Point, Alfred Health, Silverchain, and Safer Care Victoria and globally with the WHO.

Heiss led the international design team to develop the WHO Principles and tools to improve use and impact of WHO guidelines. Launched globally in 2024 this 3-year project brought together clinicians, researchers and citizens from 15 countries, with a shared focus improving health outcomes across all countries. Building on this work with the WHO, Heiss leads work alongside the Australian Living Evidence Collaboration, Monash Faculty of Information Technology and Monash Indonesia to engage countries across South-East Asia and the Western Pacific to understand regional needs for an AI-enabled living evidence architecture to improve access to clinical evidence.

Heiss’s bold vision to solve system-wide health challenges was foregrounded in the Statewide co-design of the Hamilton Centre, Victoria’s Statewide system for integrated care of mental health and addiction. The process engaged over 40 organisations and was awarded a Good Design Award and the Service Design Best in Category award at the Victorian Premier’s Design Awards in 2024. Continuing this high impact systems level design work, Heiss leads the re-design of evidence-based systems to optimise immunoglobulin therapy across Australia, as part of her role in the OPTIMAL Centre of Research Excellence. These initiatives reflect a consistent focus on improving care through collaborative design at every level of the health system.