Johanna Westbrook is Professor of Health Informatics and Patient Safety at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Macquarie University. She is internationally recognised for her research measuring the effects of digital technologies in health care. She investigates questions about if and how technologies support safer and more efficient health care, and how to identify and address the new problems that these systems create. Reducing medication errors, the most frequent cause of preventable harm to patients, is a particular focus of her research. In addition to large trials evaluating technologies such as electronic health record systems, she has developed innovative observational methods to capture how health professionals deliver care, including measuring the impact of interruptions and multi-tasking on their work and errors. Johanna also undertakes research in the aged care sector and presented to the Aged Care Royal Commission how digital systems can contribute to improving care quality. 

Johanna has received several research awards including the Health Services Researcher of the year award (2022) from Research Australia; and the Elizabeth Blackburn Investigator Award from the National Health and Medical Research Council (2019). She has published over 600 research papers and is regularly asked to present at national and international events.