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Children and families should be at the centre of the healthcare and research that affects them.

Claire is a paediatric researcher and dietitian working to improve how healthcare and research are designed, delivered and experienced by children and their families.

Her research program spans paediatric clinical trial design, tube feeding and nutrition, priority setting, and consumer and community involvement in research. Claire is particularly interested in developing approaches that enable children and young people to meaningfully shape the research intended to improve their health and healthcare. She believes children and families should be at the centre of the healthcare and research that affects them.

Claire is based within UQ's ULTRA Clinical Trials Capability team and is affiliated with the Child Health Research Centre. She is also Senior Paediatric Dietitian at Queensland Children's Hospital and an executive member of the Children's Inpatient Research Collaborative of Australia and New Zealand (CIRCAN), contributing to collaborative paediatric research across Australia and New Zealand.

Professor Nerina Scarinci is the Head of School, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences at The University of Queensland. Her main research focus is on the implementation and evaluation of patient- and family-centred care for adults and children with communication disability. Professor Scarinci has clinical and research expertise in the development, implementation, and evaluation of alternative models of allied health service delivery, including group interventions, eHealth, and communication partner training. Professor Scarinci has over 20 years clinical and research experience, with expertise in co-design, patient- and family-centred care, and the evaluation and management of communication disability.

University Profile: Professor Nerina Scarinci is a Professor in Speech Pathology and Director of Higher Degree Reserach Students in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences.

Teaching Themes: Professional Practice and Communication Skills, Children with Special Needs in Communication, Paediatric Speech Pathology, Hearing Impairment, Service Delivery, Professional Issues and Ethics

Research interests: Paediatric and Adult Hearing Impairment, Communication Disability, International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), Third-Party Disability, Family-Centred Care, Early Intervention, Co-Design

Grant funding: Professor Scarinci has attained >$10.2 Million in grant funding, with >$4.12 Million as Chief Investigator and >$6.1 Million as Associate Investigator or Program Lead.

Reviewer: International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology; International Journal of Audiology; Ear & Hearing; Speech, Language and Hearing; Disability & Rehabilitation; Child Language Teaching & Therapy, American Journal of Audiology; BMC Geriatrics; Clinical Interventions in Aging.

Editorial Boards: Associate Editor for International Journal of Audiology; Editorial Consultant for International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.

Professional Memberships: Speech Pathology Australia; The Hanen Centre; Ida Institute.

Dr Lucy Shinners is an Indigenous clinician‑researcher with 25 years of ICU nursing experience and a career deeply embedded in the health system. Her work is grounded in the realities of clinical practice and the experiences of patients, families and communities, shaping a research program that examines how emerging technologies can strengthen safe, high‑quality and culturally responsive care.

Using a sociotechnical lens, Dr Shners studies how artificial intelligence influences the health workforce, clinical decision‑making and the conditions required for safe adoption. Her internationally used SHAIP tool supports health services to understand workforce perceptions of AI and ensures that consumer perspectives remain central to technology design and implementation. She also works with Indigenous health organisations to co‑design technological solutions that reflect community priorities, and has contributed to establishing First Nations leaders’ priorities for AI, an expanding line of work shaping future governance and innovation.

Her research intersects with infection prevention and vascular access safety, where she investigates healthcare‑associated infections, device‑related harm and opportunities to improve surveillance, early detection and patient experience. Increasingly, these domains converge as she explores AI‑enabled approaches for infection risk prediction and monitoring, and evaluates how emerging technologies can enhance clinical governance and system performance.

Dr Shinners’ work provides health services, policymakers and industry with evidence‑based, culturally informed insights into AI, infection prevention and the future of safe care.

Dr Shakti Shrestha is Deputy Director of Research and Lecturer in Pharmacy Practice and Medicines Management at the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Queensland (UQ). His research program focuses on optimising medication use in older people and those with life‑limiting illness, with particular interests in deprescribing, medication safety, dementia and palliative care, quality use of medicines, and the implementation of evidence into practice.

Shakti conceived and co‑led the development of De‑TOPPLE, a deprescribing decision‑support framework designed to improve medication optimisation for older adults with limited life expectancy. He also served as a Research Fellow and Queensland site coordinator for the MRFF‑funded EMBRACE trial, evaluating strategies to enhance the implementation of evidence‑based psychotropic prescribing recommendations in Australian residential aged care. His broader research spans medicines optimisation, medication‑related quality of life, pharmacy practice, health services research, and implementation science, forming a coherent program aimed at reducing medication‑related harm and improving care outcomes for older populations, particularly those with palliative care needs.

He has published widely across ageing, medication safety, deprescribing and pharmacy practice, and received the 2025 Best Publication by an Early Career Researcher Award from the UQ School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. He supervises PhD, postgraduate and undergraduate research projects in medicines optimisation, polypharmacy, deprescribing and medication use in older populations, integrating his research expertise into teaching and research training.

Shakti’s academic and research work is informed by extensive experience across pharmacy practice, clinical research, residential aged care and higher education in Australia, the United Kingdom and Nepal. He was awarded the 2018 Australian Research Training Scholarship for his PhD in Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Practice at UQ and the 2022 Career Development Scholarship, through which he gained further clinical trail experience across Queensland Hospital and Health Services. He holds a Master of Science in Clinical Pharmacology with Distinction from the University of Aberdeen (UK), and Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Sciences with Distinction from Pokhara University (Nepal). During his Master's training in the UK, he gained research experience working with SITS-ISTR (Safe Implementation of Thrombolysis in Stroke-International Stroke Thrombolysis Registry) data within NHS Grampian.

Dr Kirstine Shrubsole is an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow at the Queensland Aphasia Research Centre. She holds a Bachelor of Speech Pathology (First Class Honours) from The University of Queensland, and completed her PhD in 2018. Kirstine has a research focus on improving implementation of evidence into practice in speech pathology and multidisciplinary services, with a special interest in stroke and aphasia rehabilitation. She has demonstrated that practice change is achievable for healthcare teams working in aphasia, leading to positive outcomes for patients, clinicians, and organisations.

Kirstine has published over 60 peer-reviewed journal articles, and has been awarded over $14 million in competitive research funding. Kirstine previously worked as the Conjoint Research Fellow in Speech Pathology (Princess Alexandra Hospital and The University of Queensland), providing research capacity building and mentoring to speech pathologists and supporting multidisciplinary research. Kirstine is the co-founder and Deputy Lead of the Collaboration of Aphasia Triallists’ Implementation Science in Aphasia working group, and a research affiliate of the Centre for Research Excellence in Aphasia Rehabilitation and Recovery.

Kirstine is completing a NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellowship on the following topic:

• The Aphasia Implementation Toolkit Project: Developing an implementation intervention to improve services for stroke survivors with aphasia

She is a chief investigator on three MRFF grants, including:

• Unspoken, Unheard, Unmet: Improving Access to Preventative Health Care through Better Conversations about Care

• Bridging the Digital Divide: Building Health Self-Efficacy through Communication-Accessible Online Environments

• Enhancing utility of neuropsychological evaluation for earlier and effective diagnosis of dementia in Parkinson's disease

Dr Joshua Simmich is a physiotherapist and digital health researcher at UQ’s RECOVER Injury Research Centre. His work focuses on technology-enabled rehabilitation: how tools such as telerehabilitation, mobile health, wearable sensors, virtual reality, serious games and artificial intelligence can make rehabilitation more accessible, engaging and effective.

Joshua’s research spans remote and hybrid models of physiotherapy care, patient preferences for telerehabilitation, the safety and effectiveness of video-based rehabilitation and exercise, and the evaluation of digital tools for pain monitoring and clinical decision-making. His PhD examined how active video games and wearable sensors could support physical activity in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

He works with clinical and research teams to design, evaluate and translate digital health innovations for rehabilitation. Current and recent projects include virtual reality for driving anxiety, personalised motorised wheelchair trials using simulation, AI-supported navigation of the Australian healthcare system, GPS-based functional assessment for people with persistent pain, and serious games for physiotherapy education.

Joshua is available to supervise students interested in digital health, telerehabilitation, technology-enabled rehabilitation, AI in healthcare, virtual reality, wearable sensors, physical activity and rehabilitation service delivery.

Dr George Thomas is a Research Fellow in the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences at The University of Queensland and a member of the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child. His research focuses on children’s digital technology use, family digital routines, healthy screen use, and child health and wellbeing.

George leads an integrated program of research focused on understanding and improving how families manage children’s screen use. His work spans digital health, behavioural science, public health, and research translation through partnerships with government and industry.

His research has informed international policy and guidelines, including reports from UNESCO and the World Health Organization, and contributes to global initiatives such as the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance.

George is also committed to education and mentorship, having supervised more than 50 student research projects across psychology, dietetics, and exercise science, and supporting students to work on real-world policy and community initiatives.

I am a speech pathology and hearing researcher specialising in equitable access to early communication intervention. My work focuses on improving how services are designed, delivered, and experienced to support better outcomes for children, families, and underserved communities.

My research sits within health services research and implementation science, with a strong emphasis on real-world impact. I am particularly interested in understanding and addressing disparities in access and engagement across diverse populations.

Key areas of expertise include:

• Early intervention for children who are deaf or hard of hearing and/or other communicaiton disability
• Access to services and service engagement
• Health equity for culturally and linguistically diverse and rural populations
• Communication participation and inclusion
• Stigma in hearing loss and communication disability
• Telehealth and innovative models of care

I use a range of approaches, including mixed methods research, co-design, and large-scale data analysis, to work collaboratively with communities, clinicians, and service providers. My goal is to generate evidence that informs policy and practice, leading to more accessible, inclusive, and effective communication services across the lifespan.

I am an Advanced Accredited Practicing Dietitian (AdvAPD), and currently hold positions at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (Research Coordinator, Nutrition and Dietetics), and University of Queensland (Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Health Services Research).

My research program aims to improve nutrition care in Australian hospitals to prevent avoidable hospital-acquired complications and optimise patient outcomes, particularly for older inpatients. My research program consists of extensive observational research to establish the size and impact of the problem, qualitative research to understand patient, caregiver and staff perspectives and opportunities, and pragmatic implementation research to test, compare and evaluate different models of nutrition care in practice. Through my research, I am to improve care of people accessing health services across the continuum of care, with a particular interest in frailty, preventing delirium and functional decline, and person-centred care.

My research has been of interest nationally and internationally, receiving Research in Practice awards at national Dietitians Australia conferences, Young Achiever Award by the Dietitians Association of Australia in 2014 and New Researcher Award at the International Congress of Dietetics in 2012. My leadership and contribution to the dietetics profession was recently recognised through receiving the prestigious Barbara Chester Memorial Award.

I have an interest and developing expertise in consumer engagement in research and health service improvement, and I am regularly asked to speak on this topic at conferences, forums and panel discussions. I am proud of work I co-led with a health consumer to develop a co-design framework in Metro North Health. This framework is freely available online for anyone to use: https://metronorth.health.qld.gov.au/get-involved/co-design.

I am an implementation scientist and have facilitated workshops on this topic at UQ, QUT, University of Adelaide and Metro North HHS within a team of local and international experts. I was part of the team that developed the Allied Health Translating Research into Practice (AH-TRIP) initiative, which aims to increase knowledge translation capacity for health professionals. https://www.health.qld.gov.au/clinical-practice/database-tools/translating-research-into-practice-trip/translating-research-into-practice.

As a passionate advocate for the training and career pathways for clinician-scientists, I have supervised 3 PhDs to completion, and is currently supervising 6 research higher degree candidates (5 of whom are embedded health professionals within the health system), 4 early career research fellows and nearly 40 dietetics research honours students.