Dr Maria Alejandra Pinero de Plaza works with organisations across sectors where success depends on understanding people, using evidence and making change work in practice. She helps partners define problems, understand behaviour, identify and analyse evidence, develop grants and policy, build team capability, support health promotion and implementation, and improve existing programs and services.

A distinctive feature of Dr Pinero de Plaza's approach is the integration of data science, machine learning, co-design and implementation science. This combination has already been applied successfully in real health-service settings to develop software-enabled evaluation that works alongside everyday practice, identifying what is changing, for whom, and why, so organisations can respond earlier, strengthen implementation, and protect their investment, growth, strategic vision, and values.

She holds a PhD in Health Promotion, Behaviour and Health from Deakin University, with an interdisciplinary background in Marketing Science and Social Communication. She is a Research Fellow at Flinders University, an Adjunct Fellow at Adelaide University, a Certified Health Informatician Australasia (CHIA), and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)-certified in Applied AI and Data Science. She serves as an Associate Editor of JBI Evidence Implementation and a Handling Editor for Frontiers, and is a recipient of the STEM Sisters Healthcare Innovator Award. Together, these roles and credentials extend her expertise across implementation science, health informatics, applied AI, data science and computational evaluation.

1. Human-centred AI, Digital Health and Implementation Science

This research theme examines how digital and AI-enabled systems can be evaluated for comprehension, trust, acceptability, adoption, workflow fit and optimisation before and during real-world implementation. It combines implementation science, behavioural science, expert knowledge elicitation, and computational methods to generate evidence to support responsible deployment in complex health-service environments.

A central contribution is PROLIFERATE, a human-centred framework for co-designing, measuring and optimising innovations within complex adaptive systems, and PROLIFERATE_AI, which extends this work through Bayesian reasoning, Monte Carlo simulation and expert-informed evaluation.

Within RAPIDx AI, this approach was applied across 12 South Australian emergency departments, with evaluation co-designed by 15 transdisciplinary experts and tested by 24 emergency clinicians.

• ·         Research evidence:
  Human-centred AI for emergency cardiac care: Evaluating RAPIDx AI with PROLIFERATE_AI | PROLIFERATE foundation paper | PROLIFERATE_AI in inter-professional education | Human-centred evaluation of online evidence resources
• ·         Independent translation evidence:
  CSIRO — Research translation through ON Prime | CSIRO ON Prime Innovation Reward 2024 | RAPIDx AI program | Interactive demonstrator | Testing AI with AI — EurekAlert!
• ·         Major programs and funding:
  RAPIDx AI — NHMRC GNT1191914, A$1,230,191; Evaluation Lead and AI Specialist
  PROLIFERATE_AI / CSIRO ON Prime — A$5,000; Chief Investigator A and Team Lead

Impact: 12 emergency departments · 15 experts · 24 clinicians · CSIRO-recognised research translation.

The Healthcare Innovator Award 2024 recognised Dr Piñero de Plaza’s contribution to healthcare innovation and research translation. Her work includes the development and application of PROLIFERATE and PROLIFERATE_AI, alongside research in Caring Life Course Theory, homebound health and telehealth, and RAPIDx AI across 12 South Australian hospitals.

Her research and career have also been profiled by Franklin Women and MAGNIFY / STEM Sisters. She has contributed to public discussion of health equity and access through ABC Radio National, ABC North and West SA, and the Consumers Health Forum Big Ideas Forum, hosted by Ellen Fanning from ABC TV’s The Drum, including discussions of telehealth access and structural barriers affecting homebound, frail, and disabled Australians.

She was also featured in Dr Oluwatomilayo Omoya’s Stories Behind the Research interview for the Academic Research Logs Podcast. The conversation explored her research journey, motivations, experiences as a woman of colour in academia, and the influence of identity, purpose and community on research and knowledge translation. She also had a Spanish-language interview on PBA FM's Siempre Lunes. Her work has been recognised with 19+ research-related prizes.