Be part of an interdisciplinary society of doctors, allied health practitioners, public health professionals, health executives, educators and researchers advancing Lifestyle Medicine
Join top experts to explore cutting-edge solutions in patient care, digital health, and Lifestyle Medicine. Gain practical tools, policy insights, and game-changing strategies to transform your practice. Don’t miss this chance to shape the future of healthcare!
This event is designed for health professionals, researchers, and industry leaders looking to deepen their understanding of how design and Lifestyle Medicine can create better health outcomes for individuals and communities.
Key Objectives
You are visiting the 2025 Lifestyle Medicine Roadshow – Melbourne Event Program Page. Visit the Main Roadshow Event Page.
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Symposium 9:00am – 5:30pm | Networking Event 5:30pm – 7.30pm AEDT
Creating spaces and systems that empower patients to take charge of their health.
Speakers:
9:15am – 9:30am – Professor Madhu Bhaskaran: Wearables and point of care diagnostics – Cross sector collaborative outcomes
Both wearables and point of care non-invasive diagnostics can be utilised to extract powerful information about biosignals and biomarkers for enhanced health management. Having the ability to check in on your health parameters through a simple saliva check or with a band aid like patch (which wirelessly sends data to your health professional) can be life changing.
The presentation will focus on our collaborative outcomes to realize simple and low-cost fabricated sensors for rapid and accurate sensing.
9:30am – 9:50am – Ms Kathy Nguyen and Ms Diane Gargya: Scaling Self-Management: Evaluating Gro-AUS as a Prescribed Solution in Australian Healthcare
In this talk, Diane will discuss the co-design process behind Gro Health Australia (Gro-AUS) and how collaboration with users and healthcare providers will shape a personalised and engaging digital health platform. Using design thinking methodologies, the adaptation process focuses on modifying content, tailoring language, and enhancing usability to meet the needs of diverse Australian populations. This approach ensures Gro-AUS is culturally relevant, accessible, and user-centred, supporting greater engagement and long-term impact in chronic disease management. Kathy will then dive into the randomised controlled trial (RCT), evaluating Gro-AUS as a holistic lifestyle intervention. The app integrates nutrition, exercise, mental wellbeing and sleep —all within a single platform. By examining its real-world impact, this study aims to determine whether Gro-AUS can be a scalable, prescribed solution in Australian healthcare.
9:50am – 10:05am – Dr Chiao Xin (Chelsea) Lim: Predicting Type 2 Diabetes Risk with AI-Driven Voice Biomarker Analysis
Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a global epidemic affecting 496 million people globally. Currently, T2D is diagnosed 5-7 years after onset of first symptoms. Often at the time of the diagnosis, patients have already developed diabetes complications which negatively impact vision, kidneys, nerves and cardiovascular system and contribute to excess mortality. We aim to significantly reduce time-lag between the onset of diabetes symptoms and diagnosis by developing an artificial intelligence (AI) model capable of analysing voice data to predict the risk of T2D. This approach is rooted in emerging evidence suggesting that vocal biomarkers can provide insights into various health conditions, including metabolic, mental health, heart failure and neurological disorders. This initiative could pave the way for innovative non-invasive, cost-effective risk prediction tool to alert people who potentially have T2D to seek medical advice in a timely manner.
10.05am – 10.20am – Dr Kimmi Ko: What Really Matters: Innovating Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) Experiences Through Design
A Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) is an artificial heart pump that helps patients with end-stage heart failure. It can serve as a bridge to a heart transplant while patients await a donor heart, or as a long-term solution (destination therapy) for those ineligible for a transplant.
This project explores the key factors that affect the Quality of Life (QoL) of VAD stakeholders—patients, caregivers, and healthcare practitioners—and investigates how design-driven innovation can enhance their experiences throughout the entire treatment journey. The focus will be on examining the impact of design innovation on the Quality of Life for patients, caregivers, and healthcare practitioners.
10:20am – 10:35am – Associate Professor Russell Conduit: Rethinking Screen Time: Can VR Relaxation Improve Sleep Quality?
Challenging traditional assumptions, this talk examines how VR-based relaxation before sleep may enhance sleep quality and well-being.
How can we integrate Lifestyle Medicine more into the business of health?
11:30am – 11:45am Dr Kate Anderson: Why I’m No Longer Talking About Lifestyle (15 mins)
This talk will explore the sensitivities and stigmas surrounding lifestyle medicine within chronic illness communities, and how these can be effectively navigated in the pursuit of impactful consumer partnerships. The talk advocates for the adoption of participatory and trauma-informed design at all levels of lifestyle medicine and explains how this works in practice, illustrated through a current example of research in the long-COVID community.
11:45am – 1:00pm
Join us for a candid conversation hosted by Acting Deputy Vice Chancellor RMIT University, Professor Catherine Itsiopoulos and featuring the following guests on the panel;
Expect discussions on:
How can we apply intentional design into real-world clinical settings?
This session is all about practical applications – ready for you to take back to your workplace on Monday.
Speakers:
This session will be full of practical tools and fresh perspectives on integrating Lifestyle Medicine into daily clinical practice.
2:00pm – 2:20pm – Associate Professor Kevin Lee: Bringing Holism to the Individual, Clinical Space Design and Administrative Setup
Frequently we think of good patient care in terms of clinician skill and professionalism. Lacking is the context in which this care is taking place, the physical space and the administrative structures that will bring about a meaningful journey for those seeking medical care. Here, we provide an example and practical ways on how holism can permeate beyond the individual to the physical space, virtual domain and administrative structure which then reinforce healing in a deeper sense of the word for all involved.
2:20pm – 2:40pm – Dr Katharine See: Empowering Patient Care: Harnessing Digital Pathways & the Patient Activation Measure
In this presentation, Katharine will explore how digital care pathways are revolutionising patient care by integrating technology to create a more tailored and personalised experience. She will outline the role of innovative digital solutions in streamlining care processes and enhancing overall patient engagement.
A key focus of the talk will be the Patient Activation Measure (PAM), a critical tool used to assess a patient’s knowledge, skills, and confidence in managing their own health. By leveraging insights from the PAM, healthcare providers can customise interventions to improve patient outcomes, making care more responsive and effective.
2:40pm – 3.00pm – Professor Karen Dwyer and Dr Michael Axtens: Changing the Paradigm in Clinical Service Delivery
In this thought-provoking session, two experienced healthcare professionals—drawing from their diverse backgrounds across various clinical settings— will discuss changes that are required in healthcare to meet the quintuple aims and local initiatives that have failed to gather momentum and why and propose solutions moving forward.
3:00pm – 3:15pm – Associate Professor Soumitri Varadarajan: Patient Agency in Diabetes
Soumitri will describe his work in enabling patient agency through the Second Pancreas Project. Focussed upon delivering long range impacts, the project has carefully worked to stay true to a patient centred mission statement of producing a diverse ecology of technologically enabled solutions that constitute an ecology of an external body part the Second Pancreas. Key to the Mission of the project has been the shift away from public health and medical discourses that exclude the agency of the patient in the determining of bodily care practices. The vision and the long-range impact this project aims to have both through the solutions and through the demonstration of effectiveness of the methodologies implemented, is in the ways of undertaking health care focussed design research. Specifically in the activation of the agency of the patient through their ownership of their unique personal digital health ecologies.
The big ideas shaping the future of health and healthcare innovation.
Expect thought-provoking discussions on:
Speakers:
4:00pm – 4:15pm – Professor Chris Speed: Designing with Data for Healthy Living
In a world where personal data is constantly collected and monetised, how can we design with data to support healthier lives? Many of us use wearable trackers and health apps, but these tools often dictate what insights matter, rather than helping us define our own. Instead of passively consuming health data, we need ways to make it more personal, meaningful, and actionable.
One approach is to rethink how data is organised and connected across different aspects of our lives—moving beyond isolated metrics to richer, more holistic insights. The Qualified Selves project, for example, explored how individuals can co-create meaning from their digital footprints, using personal data not just for tracking, but for deeper self-knowledge and wellbeing. By designing systems that empower individuals, rather than just extracting value from them, we can turn data into a tool for truly healthy living.
4:15pm – 4:30pm – Associate Professor Jonathan Duckworth: Design Innovation in Brain Injury Rehabilitation
In this presentation Dr Duckworth will discuss the importance of design thinking and understanding user experience in the development of EDNA, a digital therapeutic application designed for movement rehabilitation for individuals with a brain injury such as stroke.
4:30pm – 4:45pm – Dr Cam McDonald: Precision Health & AI: Personalising Lifestyle Medicine for the Future, but Now!
Chronic disease and pain are some of the most pressing health challenges of our time, yet emerging technologies in precision health and AI offer unprecedented opportunities for prevention and personalised care. Dr. Cam McDonald, a leader in precision lifestyle medicine and the Precision Health Alliance, will explore how AI-driven tools and advanced data analytics are transforming healthcare.
Wrap up the Lifestyle Medicine Symposium with an informal networking evening. After a full day of insightful discussions and learning, take the opportunity to connect with fellow attendees, speakers, and industry leaders in a relaxed setting.
Speaker:
Turning a passion for Lifestyle Medicine into a career
Join us for an inspiring talk by Dr Gihan Jayaweera (affectionately known as Dr G). A Melbourne-based General Practitioner with a passion for Lifestyle Medicine, Dr G is dedicated to addressing two major health challenges—unhappiness and preventable chronic disease.
Attended the Melbourne Symposium? Access your recordings here:
Missed the Symposium but want to catch up? Purchase access here:
Electronics Engineer, Innovator, Researcher, Equity Advocate
Lecturer, Industrial Design
Consultant Endocrinologist and Specialist Physician
Chief Health Outcomes Officer and Director of Respiratory Medicine
Co-design Facilitator, Lecturer and Researcher
Exercise Physiologist, Accredited Practicing Dietitian, PhD scholar, and Educator
Academic, General Practitioner
General Practitioner and Author
Clinician-Researcher, Distinguished Professor & Business-focused Exec MBA
“Designing Health for Lifestyle Medicine” Symposium is an RACGP, ACRRM & AMA CPDHome approved CPD activity. It provides 6 hours of Educational Activities (EA) and 2 hours of Reviewing Performance (RP).
The symposium is also approved for 20 points in the ASLM Fellowship program and 6 hrs Attendance CPD towards ASLM Accreditation.
All attendees will receive a certificate of attendance.
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