Dr Katherine Chen is a paediatrician clinician researcher at The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH), the University of Melbourne and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI). Katherine is also the Clinical Lead of the Short Stay Unit at RCH which cares for most children admitted for common conditions such as asthma, respiratory and viral illnesses. Katherine completed her PhD in 2018 from the University of Melbourne studying the early life origins of cardiovascular disease and transitioned her post-doctoral research to Health Services with a focus on asthma to better align with her clinical work, allowing her to initiate, drive and translate her research findings. Katherine currently holds a Melbourne Children's Clinician Scientist Fellowship.

Katherine is an emerging implementation scientist passionate about translating evidence to benefit children and their families. She led the multi-centred linked Childhood Asthma REadmission (CARE) study which provided key evidence regarding the rising hospital readmission burden and importantly, modifiable systems solutions for children with asthma.

The findings were instrumental in securing Victorian state government funding for the Improving Childhood Asthma Management (ICAM) Inner West project which brought together the Department of Health, hospitals (RCH, Sunshine Hospital- Western Health), community services (cohealth), asthma peak bodies (Asthma Australia and National Asthma Council), primary care (North Western Melbourne Primary Health Network (NWMPHN)), pharmacists, quality improvement experts (Safer Care Victoria), and consumers to develop an integrated learning health network. Katherine has received ongoing funding from Asthma Australia and support from Safer Care Victoria to extend the ICAM-Inner West to ICAM Sustain to benefit children statewide through collaborations with the Victorian Paediatric Clinical Network.

Katherine is a member of Safer Care Victoria’s Acute Care Learning Health Network Advisory Group and the internal RCH working group for the Victorian Paediatric Clinical Network. She also co-leads the Health Systems pillar for the (preschool) Wheeze Wise MCRI flagship which aims to generate and implement personalised care for one of the most common paediatric conditions worldwide. Katherine is completing a data champion fellowship through the Centre of Health Analytics on the Melbourne Children’s campus to develop her expertise in using data and digital solutions for sustainable research implementation.