Cardiac Surgery Health Literacy

The project

This project aims to develop and evaluate a co-designed digital intervention to provide support, reduce digital exclusion, strengthen self-management and prevent avoidable cardiac events, emergency presentations and readmissions.

The involvement opportunity

The research team would like to involve a small group of consumers including carers, family members, and community representatives with lived experience of cardiac surgery and recovery. The group will take part in co-design workshops and consultation activities to help identify patient needs, priorities, barriers, and facilitators related to accessing health information and digital support following cardiac surgery. They will contribute to the development and refinement of educational content, digital resources and self-management tools, provide feedback on the usability, accessibility and acceptability of proposed digital interventions and help ensure that the resources are relevant, inclusive and patient-centred. The group may also contribute to discussions regarding recruitment strategies and implementation considerations.

Skills and experience

The research team are seeking consumers, carers, family members and community representatives with lived experience of cardiac surgery and recovery. They welcome individuals who have experience accessing health services, using online health information, digital health technologies, telehealth, remote monitoring, or self-management tools following cardiac surgery. No prior research experience is required; however, an interest in sharing experiences, contributing to discussions, working collaboratively with researchers and other consumers, and helping shape patient-centred digital resources would be valuable. Involvement by people with diverse backgrounds, including those who have experienced challenges in accessing or using digital health technologies is encouraged.

Members will need to reside within the Perth metro area.

Other information

Initially, the time commitment will be a one-hour, online meeting during the last week of October, and a review of a grant application (2-hours)

The group will then meet regularly – the commitment will be discussed with the research team

An honorarium of $50/hour is offered

Applications close 23 October 2026