I partner with health services, technology teams and research consortia to evaluate innovation, prepare AI for responsible adoption and turn evidence into implementation decisions. My approach combines applied complexity science, systems thinking, co-design and decision-focused analytics.
Start with the decision your organisation needs to make. I can lead a commissioned evaluation, embed within a program, strengthen an AI implementation, co-design a grant work package or build your team’s capability.
You have an intervention, model of care or reform, but need to know what is working, for whom, why and what to change before scale-up.
A defensible evaluation design, implementation measures, mixed-method findings and a practical scale-up or optimisation roadmap.
Your technology performs technically, but adoption, trust, workflow fit and safe use remain uncertain.
Role-specific readiness evidence, risk and barrier mapping, adoption drivers, scorecards and prioritised actions for responsible implementation.
You need evaluation capability embedded across a program, not a report delivered after the important decisions have passed.
Continuous learning cycles connecting consumers, clinicians, operational data and decision-makers throughout design, implementation and refinement.
A strong idea needs a fundable evaluation strategy, credible impact pathway and the right transdisciplinary team.
Co-developed research questions, methods, evaluation work packages, impact logic, partner roles and competitive funding contributions.
Commission a tailored capability experience grounded in real health-service, implementation and AI evaluation work. Each engagement responds to your organisation’s challenge and leaves participants with practical tools, shared language and a clearer action pathway.
Request a format and fee proposal ↗A focused leadership session on responsible AI adoption, evaluation strategy, implementation risk or health equity.
Boards · executives · program leadersYour team works through a live service, technology or policy challenge and leaves with a shared evidence and action map.
Health services · government · industryA tailored series combining teaching, facilitated application, coaching and reusable tools for sustained organisational capability.
Leadership cohorts · research consortiaAn engaging, evidence-led presentation connecting systems thinking, implementation, human-centred AI and equitable care.
Conferences · retreats · partner eventsResponsible AI adoption · Applied complexity science · Systems thinking for health innovation · Implementation and scale-up · Co-design with consumers and clinicians · Health equity in digital care
Documented funding across the five collaborations below, combining national competitive grants, health-service investment and philanthropic support.
Telemonitoring and primary-care-supported virtual care for people living with chronic disease in lower socioeconomic communities.
Evidence translation and human-centred AI implementation across 12 metropolitan and rural emergency departments.
A person-centred, co-designed cardiac rehabilitation pathway for women living in rural and remote Australia.
Rapid evaluation of how patients and clinicians perceived and used digital technologies in inpatient care.
A tailored telehealth cardiac rehabilitation pathway for underserved rural and remote populations.
Funding amounts and project dates are drawn from the Flinders University Pure awards record. Roles describe Dr Piñero de Plaza’s contribution to each partnership.
These examples show national policy influence, statewide service redesign and international hospital implementation, alongside work in equity and responsible AI adoption. Every claim links to evidence that partners can check.
Working with the SA Aboriginal Chronic Disease Consortium and Wardliparingga Aboriginal Health Equity at SAHMRI, I led research identifying cultural safety, sustained trust, community navigation, family networks and flexible relationship-based care as mechanisms for continuity.
The Australian Government’s National Strategic Framework for Chronic Conditions 2026 to 2035 cites the research as reference 70. Separately, AIHW cites it in Health Performance Framework measure 3.17 and in its Integrated Team Care evaluation.
As Lead Implementation Evaluator, I translated insights from rural consumers and clinicians into evidence on four flexible pathways: face-to-face, telephone, web and GP-supported cardiac rehabilitation.
SA Health’s Cardiac Rehabilitation Services Model of Care explicitly identifies CHAP as evidence that tailoring services to consumer barriers improves attendance and completion.
With consumer co-researcher Penelope McMillan and community partners, I led evidence on telehealth for people who are homebound. Together, we created the #FHBP campaign to make frail, homebound and bedridden people visible in research, policy and service design. Access, eligibility, usable technology and digital inclusion were treated as equity requirements, not optional features.
The research shows how virtual care can reduce inequity only when services address eligibility, usability and the practical barriers faced by people who cannot attend clinics. The evidence was cited by the Cancer Nurses Society of Australia in its 20 March 2026 submission to a Senate inquiry on Medicare access. This is documented parliamentary influence, not a claim of policy change.
I created PROLIFERATE_AI to combine expert knowledge elicitation, Bayesian analysis, Monte Carlo simulation and qualitative evidence into role-specific implementation scorecards.
Fifteen transdisciplinary experts co-designed the evaluation and 24 emergency clinicians tested RAPIDx AI, producing actionable guidance on trust, comprehension, workflow barriers and adoption before scale-up.
Working with Dr Regina Allande-Cussó and the HUMANCUIDA partnership, I contributed care-measurement, predictive-modelling and Fundamentals of Care expertise to implementation research across public hospitals in Andalucía.
HUMANCUIDA is a multicentre project implemented in Andalusian public hospitals through Spain’s nationally competitive Health Research Projects scheme. The Instituto de Salud Carlos III awarded €89,782 under grant PI22/00373. My three publications with Dr Regina Allande-Cussó connect Caring Life Course Theory, patient-centred measurement of caring interactions, and validation of the Spanish FoC Intelligence Modelling Tool. The validation study reported reliability of 0.97 and a predictive model showing how hospital context and nurse–patient relationships shape integrated care.
I combine applied complexity science, systems thinking, implementation science, mixed methods, co-design and AI-enabled analytics. The result shows not only whether an innovation works, but for whom, under what conditions and what needs to happen next.
Start with lived experience, context and the realities of practice.
Combine qualitative insight, quantitative evidence and expert knowledge.
Translate findings into decisions, service models and practical tools.
Scope and governance are agreed upfront. The work can sit within a funded research collaboration, commissioned evaluation, grant consortium or embedded program partnership, subject to institutional agreements.
Partner priorities, intended users, risks, decision deadlines and evidence gaps become one focused evaluation brief.
Output · partnership and evaluation scopeWe select fit-for-purpose methods, outcomes, data sources, consumer and clinician involvement, governance and success criteria.
Output · protocol, measures and impact pathwayMixed methods, implementation science and predictive approaches show performance, experience, context and uncertainty together.
Output · decision-ready findings and scorecardsEvidence is translated into prioritised changes, implementation strategies, service decisions, publications and funder reporting.
Output · action roadmap and credible impact evidenceThe innovation, operational context, decision authority, access to users and data, subject-matter knowledge and resourcing.
Governance, co-design, evaluation, analysis, learning cycles, implementation strategy, translation and academic outputs.
Evidence they can defend, actions they can prioritise and a clearer case to scale, adapt, invest or stop.
External recognition provides additional assurance for organisations choosing an evaluation, implementation or capacity-building partner.
Women of Colour in STEM Awards · selected from 205 nominations
CSIRO ON Prime · PROLIFERATE_AI
Recognition for contribution and impact
Australian Cardiovascular Alliance
Flinders University Vice-President & Executive Dean
Multiple Wiley research recognitions
Explore selected explainers, project stories and professional updates. You can also review the complete institutional and publication records.
Short videos on human-centred AI evaluation, implementation readiness and research translation.
YouTube playlistREAD↗Why telehealth can improve access for people who are homebound, and why eligibility rules need to change for equity.
Flinders newsREAD + WATCH↗Behind-the-paper stories, explainers and videos connecting systems evidence with health-service decisions.
Springer Nature Research CommunitiesFOLLOW↗Current projects, collaborations, presentations and implementation insights for professional partners.
LinkedInSelected publications demonstrate the evaluation, AI, digital-health and implementation capabilities available to partners.
Journal of Advanced Nursing · Spanish FoC-IMT validation · 1,053 patients
Care metrics · patient experience · predictive pathwaysInternational Journal of Medical Informatics · 196, 105810
AI readiness · adoption · clinical workflowHealth & Social Care in the Community
Equity · virtual care · service accessJournal of Advanced Nursing
Care pathways · engagement · system designClinical Rehabilitation · mixed-methods study
Service redesign · rural access · implementation barriersStudies in Health Technology and Informatics · 310:389 to 393
Digital evaluation · knowledge translation · impactStudies in Health Technology and Informatics
Equity analytics · population intelligence · unmet needInternational Journal of Integrated Care · 23(4):17
Cultural safety · continuity · national policyFrontiers in Health Services · 3:1154614
Implementation · co-design · optimisationSystematic review · 37 RCTs · 9,731 participants
Workforce models · evidence synthesis · chronic careSystematic review and meta-analysis
Co-design · engagement · evidence synthesisJournal of Clinical Nursing
Care metrics · fundamental care · systems thinking
Dr Maria Alejandra Piñero de Plaza is a Research Fellow at Flinders University, Adjunct Fellow at the University of Adelaide and MIT-trained Applied AI and Data Scientist. She partners across healthy ageing, cardiovascular and fundamental care, virtual care, digital health and artificial intelligence. Her work connects rigorous evaluation with the people, environments and operational realities that determine whether innovation becomes useful, equitable and sustainable.
Evaluation of ageing, frailty, homebound care, telehealth and service access, with attention to the people most likely to be excluded.
Care metrics, person-centred fundamental care, quality of life and practical measures that connect experience with service performance.
Physical, social, digital and service environments that support older people’s independence, participation, wellbeing and healthy living.
Systematic reviews, meta-analyses, scoping reviews and evidence translation for policy, service design, investment and research decisions.
Deakin University · 2017
Massachusetts Institute of Technology · 2025 to 2026 · Exceptional grade
Flinders University · completed 2025