Staff profile

Marlien Varnfield obtained a BSc Honours degree from the Faculty of Natural Sciences and MSc (focusing on periodontal diseases) from the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Pretoria, South Africa. Her PhD research at the Department of Epidemiology & Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Australia, focused on evaluating the potential for large scale implementation of health-care interventions utilising Information and Communication Technologies.

Marlien currently leads the Mobile Health Systems Team at the Australian e-Health Research Centre, Health & Biosecurity, CSIRO. Her research focuses on the development, evaluation and translation of tele- and m-health services. Specifically, she has extensive experience in care models designed to deliver support in management of people living with chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and kidney disease, at home. Through involvement and management of numerous large research projects, she has studied innovative ways in ambulatory monitoring and management for best health outcomes, and creating new business and clinical service models to accommodate best practice care. In addition to numerous national and international conference presentations, she has extensively published in the field of chronic disease management and mobile health.

Marlien is a Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology and was a faculty member of the European Congress on eCardiology and eHealth that was held in Berlin in 2016 and Core faculty member of the same Congress in 2017 and 2018. In June 2018, she was awarded the prestigious CSIRO Julius Career Award and her team’s work has also been recognised through five 2018 AIIA Queensland Innovation Awards.