An award-winning researcher for over 25 years, Professor Nilmini Wickramasinghe is dedicated to driving innovation in digital health.
Professor Wickramasinghe is the Optus Chair of Digital Health in La Trobe’s School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences.
“My research is focused on health informatics and digital health. It examines how emerging technologies can bridge gaps and elevate healthcare accessibility across Australia,” she explains.
“Some of the key challenges we hope to address include the rapid rise in chronic diseases, an aging population and longer life span, escalating costs and work force shortages.”
Professor Wickramasinghe is currently working on several projects using digital twin technology in the healthcare environment.
“A digital twin is a virtual replication of a physical entity,” she explains.
“When we bring this technology into healthcare, it becomes a virtual representation of the patient or one of their organs, such as the heart or lungs. This is called a grey box digital twin, and we use the virtual model alongside a simulation to identify what needs to be done to improve the function of that specific organ.”
“We can also use this technology to model processes in healthcare, like going to the emergency department in an ambulance. We can simulate all the vital measurements of the patient while they are en route to hospital, allowing emergency department doctors to know how best to treat the patient as soon as they arrive.”
“In a setting where every second counts, this is a game-changer.”
“The black box digital twin is a virtual representation of a disease, such as cancer. When combined with AI, the virtual representation can simultaneously enable precise, personalised clinical decisions to be made while incorporating an understanding of disease progression,” she explains.
Professor Wickramasinghe and her team are currently in discussions with prospective industry partners to progress this technology even further.
“We're very excited because we know this technology has the potential to address some of the biggest challenges facing the health care sector and, ultimately, improve healthcare for all Australians.”
