Digital and data driven healthcare improvement

Monash University’s Graduate Research Industry Partnership (GRIP) program was developed in response to the rising demand for researchers with interdisciplinary capabilities and the readiness to apply their expertise to solving real world problems in industry. Cabrini is a partner in the Monash University GRIP Program, co-designing the strategies and projects that have brought together experienced project teams with expertise in research, implementation science and leadership. The breadth of engagement and the translational focus of the PhD projects being undertaken by Alexandra Mullins and Ali Tehrani at Cabrini is reflective of the intent of the GRIP, which exceeds the contributions of traditional PhD projects and ensures tangible impact for Cabrini and the broader Monash Partners network.

Alexandra is an experienced business development and strategy consultant with a demonstrated history of building strategic partnerships with large-scale stakeholders to deliver national impact, having worked in Australia, Europe and the UK. Since finishing her Honours in Biomechanics over 10 years ago, she has always had an interest in going back to university and pursuing a PhD (specifically to improve her writing and research skills). With her background in business development and working history in industry, Alexandra decided to explore the option of pursuing a PhD that was heavily involved with an industry partner. This brought her to the GRIP program. The GRIP program facilitates the investigation of real-world problems and ensures the rapid delivery of impact across the healthcare sector.

Alexandra’s PhD focuses on My Health Record, Australia’s national electronic health record, and its adoption, use and utility by emergency department staff at Cabrini. Through this research, she aims to highlight the barriers to use (and explore ways to overcome these), enhance the benefits associated with use and to optimise system design and utility – specifically for clinicians at Cabrini but also to the wider healthcare system.

Following her PhD, Alexandra wants to expand her research to encompass other areas of information systems implementation, and the implementation of My Health Record more broadly across the healthcare value chain (outside of the emergency department) – specifically working with key organisational stakeholders to lead and influence change.

Ali ran his own home electrical appliances business for more than seven years importing products internationally from United Arab Emirates (UAE) and China, and exporting products domestically across cities in Iran. He also worked as a leadership development manager in a corporate business. After moving to Australia in 2010, Ali studied an English course for tertiary education and an International Foundation at the University of Newcastle. In 2011, he started his Bachelor’s degree in International Business/International Management at the University of Newcastle and La Trobe University. In 2014, he undertook a Business Honours degree in International Business and Geopolitics at RMIT University and achieved First Class Honours. For less than a year, he voluntarily taught vulnerable children and refugees at Footscray North Primary School and Melbourne Free University.

Since 2016, Ali has worked at RMIT’s School of Management where he teaches Managing International Business Responsibly, Cross-Cultural Management, Ethics and Governance, International Business, Issues in International Business and Work Integrated Learning. Ali has experienced coordinating and lecturing courses at RMIT Australia and Singapore. During these years, he has achieved 80 per cent or above in RMIT’s Good Teaching Scale (GTS). At RMIT University, Ali also worked as a researcher and presented at conferences including BESSCH (Tehran, Iran), and AIRAANZ (Melbourne, Australia).

In 2019, Ali started his PhD at Monash University in the GRIP program. Ali’s research interest is in eHealth, and his research crosses information systems/management, IT governance and healthcare. His research project is about improving patient-centred care through digital change. By evaluating Cabrini’s digital infrastructure Ali is aiming to understand the level of innovation, adoption and scaling. He is also exploring the opportunities and the challenges of a few digital systems for Cabrini’s stakeholders. This research project is going to help healthcare stakeholders including health policymakers by providing a more patient-centric approach toward health digitisation.

In the future, Ali would like to maintain relationships with the healthcare industry to conduct research in eHealth. Ali believes eHealth is the future of the industry and he would like to play his role in the health of our community.