Associate Professor Simon Egerton is a regionally based digital health researcher at La Trobe University’s Bendigo campus. He is Deputy Head of the Department of Computer Science and Information Technology, Director of the Technology Innovation Lab, and leads the Digital Health for Rural Equity and Innovation research stream within the Violet Vines Marshman Centre for Rural Health Research.

His research focuses on using digital technologies to improve access to healthcare and reduce health inequities for people living in regional, rural and remote communities. He has particular expertise in digital health, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, robotics and community-led co-design, with a strong focus on chronic disease prevention and management.

Simon’s work begins with the needs and priorities identified by rural consumers, clinicians and health services. He collaborates with communities, healthcare providers, researchers, government and industry to develop solutions that are practical, culturally responsive, accessible and low burden for patients and providers.

He has an established track record of translating technical research into scalable models of care. He has published more than 60 peer-reviewed papers, graduated 14 PhD students and secured more than $1.4 million in competitive research funding.

Simon currently leads a Medical Research Future Fund project developing and evaluating a more accessible model of care for Heart Health Checks in rural populations. The project is investigating home-, pharmacy- and community-based approaches to cardiovascular risk assessment, improving early detection and supporting timely intervention.

He also led the Australian-first Internet of Medical Things Aged Care Service Model, which extended chronic disease monitoring into the homes of older people, including homes without conventional mobile or Wi-Fi coverage. This work demonstrated how connected health technologies can support care outside traditional clinical settings and created a model with broader translation potential.

Simon welcomes collaboration with rural communities, health services, clinicians, researchers, government, policy organisations and industry partners. He is particularly interested in partnerships that combine community knowledge, clinical expertise and responsible technology development to create sustainable improvements in rural healthcare. 

Simon is currently supervising PhD projects in the areas listed below. If you would like Simon to consider you as a potential PhD student, please mention one of the areas listed below in an email to him, include why you would like to undertake a project in the area of digital health and relate your explanation to your current interests and background (you are unlikely to receive a reply from Simon otherwise).

• Digital health for rural health equity and access to health
• Community-led co-design of health technologies and services
• Technology-enabled models of care for chronic disease prevention, monitoring and management
• Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Medical Things and connect health systems
• Remote monitoring, healthcare in the home and low-connectivity solutions
• Healthcare robotics and assistive technology
• Translation of scalable digital health innovations to improve health and wellbeing and inform policy