School of Nursing and Midwifery

Professor Theo Fotis

Professor Theo Fotis is Professor of Digital Health & Innovation and Associate Dean (Research) at ECU’s School of Nursing and Midwifery. He provides strategic leadership for the School’s research agenda, supporting research excellence, capability, collaboration and impact across nursing, midwifery and health.

Theo’s research sits at the intersection of people, healthcare and technology. His work examines how digital health technologies and AI can be designed, implemented and evaluated so they are useful, trustworthy and responsive to the people and professionals who use them. A central feature of this work is the use of Living Labs and co-production, bringing citizens, healthcare professionals, researchers and technology partners together to develop and evaluate innovation in real-world settings.

His work focuses not only on whether a technology works, but also on how it becomes part of healthcare practice, how people interact with it, and what it takes for innovation to deliver meaningful, sustainable benefit. His current interests include trustworthy and responsible AI, human factors, digital health evaluation, healthcare cybersecurity and digital resilience, and digital workforce capability.

Background

Before joining ECU, Theo was a Reader (Associate Professor) at the University of Brighton in the UK, where he founded and directed the Digital Health Living Lab from 2017 to 2026. The Living Lab provided an interdisciplinary environment in which citizens, health professionals, researchers, and industry could co-produce and evaluate digital health innovations, and it became a central platform for his work in real-world technology evaluation and knowledge exchange.

His academic career has included research, educational and visiting appointments across the UK, Europe, Australia and Asia, including a Visiting Professorship in Nursing at the University of Ioannina, a Senior Research Fellowship at the University of Plymouth, and visiting and teaching roles at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the Open University and the University of Peloponnese. He has also held leadership roles in research, postgraduate education, ethics and academic governance.

Theo’s professional background is in nursing. Earlier in his career, he served as an officer and registered nurse in the Hellenic Air Force, attaining the rank of Squadron Leader.

Professional and Academic Leadership

Theo contributes to international academic and professional communities through editorial, grant-review, and advisory roles. He is Associate Editor of DIGITAL HEALTH (SAGE), an Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Clinical Nursing (Wiley), and a columnist for the Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing (Elsevier).

His international grant review and panel work has included the NIHR Invention for Innovation programme, the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (Horizon Europe), the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships Peer Review College, the EPSRC, the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, and UKRI/Innovate UK.

He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK), a Registered Nurse with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (UK), and a member of professional communities, including HIMSS, the TIGER International Task Force, and Sigma Theta Tau International Honour Society of Nursing.

Awards and Recognition

• 2026 – University of Brighton Star Award, Education and Student Experience Best Team.
• 2025 – Best Paper Awards, AHFE International Conference, USA, for work on trustworthy AI and human factors in cybersecurity.
• 2024 – University of Brighton KEF Award for knowledge exchange and impact through the Digital Health Living Lab.
• 2019 – Digital Health Living Lab selected for the UK Made@Uni national campaign among more than 100 university breakthroughs improving everyday life.
• 2018 – Named one of the Top 50 Healthcare IT Leaders in Europe by HIMSS Europe.

Research and Impact

Theo’s research focuses on the human and organisational dimensions of digital transformation in healthcare. His work combines Living Lab methodologies, co-production and co-design, mixed methods, and real-world technology evaluation to understand not only whether digital innovations are effective, but also how they are experienced, trusted, adopted, and embedded in practice.

His research is applied and interdisciplinary, often bringing together health professionals, citizens and communities, researchers, health services and technology partners. His current work is organised around four interconnected themes:

• Human-centred digital health and AI – trustworthy and responsible AI, human factors, usability, acceptance and technology-mediated decision making.
• Living Labs, co-production and innovation – participatory approaches that bring citizens, health professionals, researchers and industry together to develop and evaluate health technologies.
• Evaluation and implementation of digital technologies – real-world evaluation of digital health interventions, including wearables, sensors, IoT and digitally enabled models of care.
• Digital resilience and workforce transformation – healthcare cybersecurity, privacy, digital capability and the changing relationship between healthcare professionals, patients and technology.

Research Collaboration and Supervision

Theo welcomes collaboration with researchers, healthcare organisations, government, industry and community partners interested in the responsible development, implementation and evaluation of digital health and AI-enabled innovations.

He supervises higher-degree research in digital nursing, digital health, Living Labs and co-production, trustworthy AI, human factors, healthcare cybersecurity, and the evaluation of emerging health technologies.