Judith Thomas

Dr Judith Thomas is a Research Fellow at Macquarie University's Centre for Health Systems and Safety Research (Australian Institute of Health Innovation) and holds a Research Assistant role at Macquarie Medical School. She specializes in health services research, telemedicine, pandemic management, and patient safety. Her work focuses on leveraging electronic health data to improve clinical decision-making and healthcare policies, particularly in general practice and emergency care settings.

Dr Thomas holds a PhD in Optometry from The University of New South Wales (2000), a Master of Health Management (MHM) from the University of Wollongong (2000), a BOptom from UNSW (1993), and a Graduate Certificate in Biostatistics from The University of Sydney (2023).

Her research interests span telehealth adoption, long COVID diagnosis, point-of-care testing (PoCT) standards, and emergency department pathology practices. Over 55 publications since 1995 demonstrate her expertise in pandemic response strategies, healthcare informatics, and diagnostic safety.

Key projects include the 2022-2023 study analyzing real-time general practice data to inform pandemic policies. Her work has been widely cited (h-index 27) and featured in media outlets like Mendeley and Bluesky.

Collaborations involve multidisciplinary teams addressing diagnostic quality, electronic test result management, and low-value care reduction. She contributed to national datasets on PoCT safety and co-designed clinical decision-support tools for emergency departments.