Leah Heiss

Dr Leah Heiss is an award-winning designer, CSIRO visiting designer/scientist and Co-director of the RMIT Wearables and Sensing Network. Through collaborative projects Leah has brought human centred design to technologies for hearing loss, diabetes and pre-diabetes, cardiovascular disease, gut disease and loneliness. Her wearable technologies include jewellery to administer insulin, cardiac monitoring jewellery, swallowable devices to detect disease and emergency jewellery for times of medical crisis. Her current work investigates the use of stretchable sensors for heart health, pre-diabetes and aged care COVID monitoring.

The Facett hearing aid, that Leah designed for Blamey Saunders hears, won many awards including the 2018 Australian Good Design Award of the Year, the CSIRO Design Innovation Award and a Premier’s Design Award (Product Design). Leah’s design work is part of the Museums Victoria heritage collection and has been exhibited in Australia, Europe and Asia to audiences of over 650,000 people. She has delivered over 50 public lectures on the importance of design in the development of health technologies and her design work has been featured on TV, Radio and in print in Australia, Europe, Asia and the US. Leah teaches into the RMIT Master of Design Futures in heath sector innovation and design leadership.

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