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Nalini has more than 25 years’ experience in innovative design and delivery of medicine and health programs in several countries. Her medical education research focusses on curriculum and assessment design, digital and inclusive education, and integration of biomedical sciences into health professional programs. She has a particular interest in educational technologies (including AI) and cognitive load, and curricular approaches that support positive learning behaviour, wellbeing, critical thinking and professional development. Nalini's research also includes medical imaging diagnositics and the use of AI.

Nalini is the co-founder of the Health Universities Initiative, which frames a whole-of-university approach to student success and wellbeing. She has several awards (Faculty, Vice-Chancellor, Australian Award for University Teaching) for her contributions to higher education. Nalini is the Chair of the International Program for Anatomical Education (FIPAE) of the IFAA, and an Associate Editor of Anatomical Sciences Education (Impact Factor, 7.2). Nalini is a Board Member and Fellow of ANZAHPE, Fellow of the Scientia Education Academy, and Fellow of HERDSA.

Nalini currently supervises 5 PhD students in the following topics:

• Health Advocacy in Medical Education: Evaluation of current practice and implications for medical programs
• Cosmetic female surgery: A consumer-driven evaluation of demand and its implications for medical education
• Fetal and Embryological Collections: A paradigm to examine the ethical practice of informed consent
• Anatomical Education: The role of digital-based pedagogies in future practice
• Liver and Gallbladder Imaging in Paediatric Patients: Developing a pipeline for diagnostic automation

Nalini currently supervises 4 reseach honours students on the following topics:

• Relationship-based support interventions in medical programs
• An evaluation of intersex education in medicine programs in Australia
• Left ventricular compaction: evaluation of MRI diagnostic criteria
• VR in biomedical sciences education: current scope of practice

Dr Melinda Protani is an epidemiologist with over 15 years experience in research and tertiary education. She is the current Program Director for the Master of Epidemiology at UQ. Her research is focussed on cancer aetiology, survivorship and patterns of care, with a particular interest in inequity in access to health services and the receipt of optimal cancer care. Dr Protani has experience in a number of methods including medical record audits, surveys of the general population, patient groups and clinicians, and data linkage using registry and administrative datasets.

Dr Megan Ross (she/her) is a titled research physiotherapist and postdoctoral research fellow at RECOVER Injury Research Centre, The University of Queensland. She is part of a research team, led by Professor Trevor Russell, which focuses on developing more effective and efficient health services supported by technology innovation. Megan’s current research projects include exploring consumer perspectives of the telerehabilitation service delivery model, factors that influence the uptake and utilisation of telerehabilitation, and exploring the acceptability and usability of digital health innovations. Megan has a broad range of research skills that span both quantitative and qualitative methods and co-design approaches, including systematic reviews, cross-sectional and longitudinal study designs and data analysis, discrete choice experiments, interviews and focus group discussions and thematic analysis.

Dr Ross received a Bachelor of Physiotherapy (with First Class Honours) in 2012 and a PhD in Physiotherapy in 2020 from The University of Queensland. Megan is the inaugural Chair of the Australian Physiotherapy Association’s LGBTQIA+ Advisory Committee, is Deputy Chair of the Australian Physiotherapy Associations’ National Advisory Committee and sits on the Queensland Gender Affirming Network Steering Committee. Dr Ross leads a program of research in the area of LGBTQIA+ experiences of, and access to healthcare with a focus on physiotherapy and allied health. Megan is passionate about ensuring safe and affirming access to healthcare for people with diverse gender identities, sexual orientations and sex characteristics and has received over $1M AUD in funding, including a CIA MRFF grant to co-design, implement and evaluate an LGBTQIA+ affirming model of primary care. The overarching objective of Dr Ross’s work is to improve access to, provision of, and experiences with health care and ultimately contribute to improved health and wellbeing for the LGBTQIA+ communities.

Dr. Helena Schuch is a senior research fellow at the School of Dentistry, University of Queensland.

She is a dentist and an oral epidemiologist with special interest in social epidemiology. Helena is also interested in methods to estimate causal inference and on applying machine learning techniques to predict oral health outcomes.

She completed her PhD in Oral Epidemiology at the University of Adelaide (2018) and is currently in the Editorial Board of Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology.

Qualifications: BDS, MScDent, PhD

Research Interests: Oral health inequalities. Life course epidemiology. Causal inference methods. Machine learning applied to oral health.

Professor Anthony Smith is the Director of The University of Queensland’s Centre for Online Health (COH), and Adjunct Professor at the Hans Christian Anderson Children's Hospital and University of Southern Denmark, in Odense, Denmark.

Professor Smith is also the Editor in Chief for the Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare (Sage Publishers, London; 5y Impact Factor 4.9).

Professor Smith has more than 25 years of research experience, resulting in the planning, implementation and evaluation of a broad range of telehealth (virtual care) services around Australia. Specific research interests include the feasibility, effectiveness and sustainability of telehealth services in the public health system; genuine consumer engagement; and novel strategies to support our health workforce and telehealth adoption. His research has led to the development of pioneering virtual care services in Australia, including prominent statewide hospital-based telehealth programs in Queensland, wireless (robot) videoconference systems for remote consultations; and a community-based (and telehealth supported) health screening programme for Indigenous children in Queensland. Current projects focus on the integration of telehealth and virtual care services in residential aged care settings; evaluation of community-led First Nations health services; the delivery of video-based rehabilitation services to children in rural and remote primary schools; telementoring services for health professionals in primary care; and discipline specific clinical telehealth services.

Professor Smith chairs the International Conference on Successes and Failures in Telehealth conference. He is also a Fellow of the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences. Previous roles have included the President of the Australasian Telehealth Society (ATHS) [2013-2015]; and elected member of the ATHS committee [2008-2024]. In the field of telehealth and virtual care, Prof Smith has over 240 publications, including 230 peer-reviewed journal papers, three edited books and 13 book chapters on related topics. Whilst the field remains highly specialised in comparison to other disciplines, his work is cited over 2000 times each year.

Professor Smith also provides an extensive range of consultancy services for government agencies and industry partners in the field of telehealth, digital health and virtual healthcare.

Recent Awards:

1. Public Engagement and Community-led Research (including Citizen Science) Award, The University of Queensland Research Culture Awards, 2024.

2. Top Researcher in the field of "Medical Informatics"- for work involving telehealth, digital health and virtual care. The Australian Research Awards, 2023

3. Commendation, Academic Leader of the Year, UQ Faculty of Medicine Excellence Awards, The University of Queensland, 2023

4. Excellence in Indigenous Engagement Award - for "enhancing access to specialist health services through the use of telehealth for First Nations people. Engagement Australia Excellence Awards, 2021

5. Spirit of Reconciliation Award - for building research and community partnerships in Queensland. UQ Faculty of Medicine Excellence Awards, The University of Queensaland, 2021

Janet Stajic is a Yidinji–Jirrbal woman of Far North Queensland who grew up in Brisbane. With 17 years’ experience in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, Janet has worked as an Aboriginal Health Worker, in program management, policy, and research across the Aboriginal community-controlled, public, non-profit, and university sectors. With over a decade of research experience, Janet has contributed to projects spanning chronic disease, blood borne viruses, health services research, program evaluation, and workforce. Her doctoral research explored the racialisation of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Worker and Practitioner workforce, its positioning within the health system, their conceptualisations of care, and the limitations of the health system in supporting this workforce. Janet currently works for the University of Queensland Poche Centre for Indigenous Health as a Research Fellow and is a Professional Ambassador for the National Association of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Health Workers and Practitioners.

Yanfei has a discipline background as a physiotherapist. She completed her PhD at The University of Queensland in October 2021. Her PhD involved ultrasound shear wave elastography, quantitative sensory testing, and physical and psychological measures to uncover potential biopsychosocial mechanisms underlying work-related neck pain and disability in a high-risk occupation group. After her PhD, she was awarded a competitive UQ postdoctoral fellowship to conduct research related to musculoskeletal pain and injury at RECOVER Injury Research Centre. Her current research focuses on uncovering the biopsychosocial mechanisms underlying musculoskeletal pain and injury, developing, and implementing effective and tailored pain treatments. She also has interests in occupational health and health equity. She has a broad range of research skills applicable across methodologies, including randomized controlled trials, case-control, and longitudinal study designs, systematic and scoping reviews, and meta-analysis. Yanfei has presented her work at national and international conferences and received several presentation awards.

Charlotte Young is a research fellow at the Institute for Social Science Research at The University of Queensland. Charlotte is a qualitative researcher with interdisciplinary interests spanning sociology, public health, health promotion, and migration studies. Her research focuses on the systemic drivers of migrant health inequities and how they can be redressed. Charlotte is also interested in the ways migrants adapt and respond to systemic and structural drivers of inequity. Recently, she has been exploring how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted migrant and refugee background tertiary students and how young culturally and linguistically diverse social media influencers have been promoting COVID-safe behaviours online. Charlotte also explores immigrant organisations as critical settings to influence health and wellbeing. She is passionate about producing impactful research to affect positive change and tackling migrant health problems in solidarity with the communities they affect. Charlotte also has experience conducting evaluation research for large-scale health interventions.