Harry Iles-Mann

Harry is a highly experienced and respected health consumer leader, digital health expert, disability and mental health ambassador, speaker, and health strategist.

He is first and foremost also a young person living with complex chronic illness and disability since early childhood, and the recipient of two liver transplants - during which time he spent more nearly 50 weeks admitted to hospital.

His mission is to be an influential agent for positive transformation of experiences and outcomes of health care by leveraging and empowering lived experience to drive design and decision-making.

By pairing his own lived-experience and extensive systems literacy with a collaborative design approach to health policy and service reform, he works with organisations to translate lived-experience and expertise into innovative and impactful reform and transformation in health care.

"Health systems have been my second home since birth, and I'm incredibly passionate about ensuring that the insights of those with a lived experience of complex health challenges are elevated and empowered so that they can more meaningfully affect design and decision-making in health."

By drawing on more than 2 decades of personal lived-experience navigating the Australian Public, Primary, and Private health system and almost a decade of practicing as a professional in collaborative design, lived-experience engagement, and health strategy consulting Harry works with the sector to provide insight on more effective methods of meaningfully engaging and partnering with lived-experience in order to realise valuable, equitable, and sustainable reform and innovation of service provision, policy, and strategic decision making in health.

He leverages an extensive network of peak advocacy, clinical, policy, and research bodies, thought leaders, and sector experts to ensure organisations benefit from having the right voices in the room at the right time to secure insight that can be leveraged and effectively translated into meaningful change and system impact.

He is keenly focussed on working with the sector to improve equitable digital-enablement of service administration and the provision of care, and to also equip people and organisations to practically apply principles and methods of collaborative design that reflect and serve the needs and values of stakeholders.

To date, his insight and services have been engaged by multiple Australian State/Territory and Federal Government Health Agencies, Private, and Not-for-profit organisations including the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA), the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care, the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health, NSW Health and Ministry, the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation, the NSW Clinical Excellence Commission, the National Children’s Digital Health Collaborative, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Consumer’s Health Forum of Australia, headspace, BATYR, Beyond Blue, the International Institute of Communications, and People With a Disability Australia.

He was a sitting member of the National Health and Medical Research Council’s Consumer and Community Advisory Committee 2020-23 triennium and among other roles currently sits as the Consumer Representative Advisor to the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care’s Digital Health Branch.

He is sought after as speaker and health consumer leader and has delivered keynotes internationally on his personal health journey and professional practice, and the insights into health service design and delivery that have been realised from unique experiences as both a patient and professional in the health strategy, reform, and transformation space.

Lived experience – Disability and chronic disease; Mental health; Youth; Digital health; Inpatient care; Primary care; Care in the home; Specialist care; Organ transplant; Complex care management; Pathology and medical imaging; Paediatric care

Areas of particular interest – Disability and chronic disease; Mental health; Youth; Digital health; Complex care management; Interoperability and system reform and transformation; Patient experience; Lived-experience engagement and stakeholder partnerships; Clinical governance and innovating models of care