News and events

Clare currently serves as the Lead Strategic Designer in the Health Design Lab within the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care. Her work has been instrumental in fostering innovation and positive change in healthcare and related fields.

To underscore Clare's commitment to enhancing healthcare through design, she has earned a Bachelor of Design with Honours, as well as a PhD from QUT. Her PhD focused on the design of primary healthcare and studying the persistence of the preventable health condition, diabetic retinopathy, with a particular emphasis on care in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Clare's research laid the foundation for the human-focused innovation stream of the Eye Health Innovation Strategy, implemented by the medical and healthcare team at the QUT Centre for Robotics.

Her belief in the merits of human-centred design is evident through her work. Clare's approach to design focuses on the importance of understanding people's needs and interactions with essential services. She firmly believes in the power of co-design, collaborating with individuals who have lived experience to develop solutions that genuinely make a difference.

"I'm really passionate about co-design and working with people at the forefront or [with] lived experience in the spaces that I'm working," Clare highlights. When discussing her research on preventing diabetes-related eye disease, she underscores the significance of partnering with those who have lived through the experience of managing diabetes, along with the healthcare and support professionals dedicated to their care. "They often already have the solution," Clare points out. "It's not about coming up with something new and shiny, it's often about making small tweaks and implementing [those] solutions."

In 2019, Clare received the inaugural Queensland Women in STEM: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Jury Award, highlighting her outstanding contributions to the field.

She has shared her vision for the future of design and healthcare, saying, "I hope to see co-design used as a very genuine way of collaborating with communities to bring about impactful change, and I'm really excited about design merging with fields that are developing to create the future we all want to see."

She also emphasised her commitment to human-centred approaches, stating, "The key design principles I use and apply to health include a human-centred approach and collaborative design. It's about understanding people's needs, their interactions with the healthcare system, and designing a healthcare service that truly meets those needs."

Clare's work represents the cutting edge of design thinking and its application to healthcare, making her a much deserving recipient of the 2023 QUT Outstanding Young Alumnus award. Her passion for improving the lives of individuals through design and collaboration serves as an inspiration to not only those in traditional healthcare roles, but also to those in complementary fields who can bring fresh and innovative perspectives.