Annie is passionate about understanding and improving health through the use of digital technologies.

As a researcher at the Australian Institute of Health Innovations, she looks after the consumer Informatics team, exploring and testing the boundaries of how we use digital technologies to improve our health.

Annie’s studies and career have taken her around the globe. Born in Hong Kong, she travelled to Australia to complete high school and university. She studied a Bachelor of Software Engineering, and then a PhD in Health Informatics at UNSW. She first started at Macquarie in 2014, then travelled to London to complete the NSW Health Early- Mid Career Research Fellowship at University College London (UCL)

Since returning to Australia and Macquarie just prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Annie has been researching Digital Health for Patients and Consumers. She believes, by working together with her colleagues, patients and consumers, they can generate innovative ideas.

Aside from work, she splits her time between Sydney and Wagga Wagga with her two young daughters and her husband, who works in regional NSW. She is endeavouring to learn the violin but admits that she is a bit of a ‘bad’ student and needs to practice more. Her favourite things in life are spending time with her family and friends, swimming, bushwalking, and going to markets.

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1. Something you’d like staff to know about
The Centre for Health Informatics is Australia’s largest and longest running academic research group in digital health and is one of three research centres within the Australian Institute of Health Innovation (AIHI)

This year, CHI is having its 21st birthday! Come and celebrate with us to learn about healthcare and digital transformation in the past two decades.

Register for the CHI 21st Anniversary Symposium.

2. Something you feel proud of
I am proud of my students for surviving the past few years of the COVID-19 pandemic. I know each of them has struggled but has also emerged stronger both personally and professionally.

3. What you need to do your best work
To get my work done, I like to visit my favourite cafe. I work best when I’m tucked in a little corner of that café by myself, with my favourite snacks, sparkling water, and my laptop. I always leave feeling content, productive, and surprisingly relaxed.

I also need my computer mouse. I simply can’t function without my mouse!

4. Something people usually ask you when they find out what you do for living
“Wow, that sounds so cool. But what is it?” 

5. Your definition of success
I feel like I’ve succeeded when I’ve ticked off everything on my to-do list for the day.

6. A website or app you can’t live without (and why)
Quora – I enjoy reading the questions that people ask, and the range of answers contributed from people of all walks of life.

7. Where you lived and what you like about living there
I lived in London while I was on my research fellowship. I liked that there was always something exciting happening, and a trip to Europe just around the corner.

8. A personal quality you value in others
Thoughtfulness is a quality I value. We live in such a busy world, so having someone take time out of their busy schedule to think about what you may be going through is so rare and precious these days. I value that quality in others and also make the effort to be thoughtful as much as I can.

9. Something you’re trying to do differently in 2022
I try to swim two to three times a week.

10. I’m happiest when…
The kids are asleep, and I finally get to collapse on the couch to enjoy my cup of tea.

BONUS: A favourite photo from your camera roll.
Here is my girls having fun and exploring Wagga Wagga.  Whenever I look at that photo, I get a sense that the world is their oyster.