New research institute to transform health and well-being

Bringing INSIGHT to life comes after a long and well-planned gestation for those who had the vision to encourage and support researchers to think outside the box and challenge us to work across traditional boundaries to find innovative solutions to entrenched health issues.   

Thanks especially to Professor Debra Anderson, Dean of the Faculty of Health along with Professor Angela Dawson, Associate Dean (Research) Faculty of Health, and many other colleagues for persisting in their vision to establish this new Institute at UTS. 

INSIGHT offers a unique convening space to bring together disciplinary experts across UTS and to engage with external partners to undertake meaningful multi-disciplinary research together and co-design solutions designed to have an impact in the real world. 

A whole-of-life course approach to health

INSIGHT will build on the excellent existing research capacity across UTS and link it across different research areas, to bring together a whole-of-life course approach to health – from understanding how to provide the best start to life from before birth to the best end in terms of healthy ageing as well as better outcomes for those burdened with chronic diseases and managing palliative journeys. We also want to ensure the health and well-being can flourish along life’s journey, and that access to quality health care is not reliant on postcode, knowledge or wealth, instead that access to health and related services can be matched to real need. 

We will be bold in our reimagining of how we can improve the future delivery of health and health-related services in our rapidly changing digital and physical environments and how person-centred care can be sustained in the face of future uncertainty and unknown future shocks. 

At the heart of INSIGHT research two important lenses will be applied: 

• Firstly, a person-centred approach will be brought to improving life course wellbeing rather than a clinically centred approach.  We will attempt to “walk in the shoes of our patients”, we will listen to patient and community voices, and strive to improve health journeys for all peoples 
• Secondly a social justice and equity lens will pervade our research – so that no group is left behind as we work to improve health for all, regardless of their social status, ethnicity or other identities. 

Launch event

At our INSIGHT Launch, held on 28 June at UTS, we were fortunate to have Dr Jordan Nguyen as our guest speaker. Jordan completed his PhD in Biomedical Engineering at UTS, and then drawing upon his own life experience of a near-miss broken neck he developed a mind-controlled smart wheelchair for people with high-level physical disability. He then founded Psykinetic, his company that designs life-changing technologies focusing on intelligent, futuristic and inclusive technology to improve people’s life journeys. 

His passion for health and medical research, taking the ‘right people, right collaborations’ approach of bringing people together with you on the journey from the start, is the mantra for INSIGHT.    

The launch of INSIGHT signals the start of our journey to change what we can no longer accept to transform all of our health futures. 

Follow us and be part of the journey at uts.edu.au/insight

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Professor Susan Morton MNZM BSc(Hons) MBChB PhD FAFPHM FNZCPHM   
Inaugural Director, INSIGHT   
UTS Research Institute for Innovative Solutions for Well-being and Health