New CTCM MedTech Projects Kick-Off with Visits

15 September 2023

The CTCM team meeting with the Vivid White team at The Aikenhead Centre for Medical Discovery BioFab Facility in Fitzroy, Melbourne: back row from left, Dr Michael Coote, Dr Craig Ross, Chris Ong, Chris Smith, Andrew Batty and Dr Duncan Macinnis; front row from left, Danielle Shand, Hebbat Manhy (Cicada Innovations), Andionne Parlade, Stephen Blakeney (MDPP) and Andrew Milligan (MDPP).

Recently, the Clinical Translation and Commercialisation MedTech (CTCM) Program team held the first face-to-face Kick-Off Meetings with five of the program’s new Round 2 Awardees: Medical Developments International Limited, VividWhite, Ventora Medical, 4DMedical, and VitalTrace.

CTCM Director Danielle Shand said the CTCM team, along with members of MTPConnect’s Stakeholder Engagement team, had travelled to Melbourne and Perth to hold the meetings with the Awardees.

“It was a great opportunity to meet the different project teams, as well as learn more about their medical devices – we even got a glimpse of how some of them are made!

“We are looking forward to working with these SME’s as they progress their medical devices over the next couple of years to solve complex problems and make a significant positive impact on the Australian healthcare system,” Danielle said.

The CTCM team and Dr Duncan Macinnis, touring the MDI facility in Scoresby, where Penthrox (known as the Green Whistle) is manufactured.

The group visited Vivid White who are based at The Aikenhead Centre for Medical Discovery (ACMD), Australia's first collaborative, hospital-based biomedical engineering research centre in Fitzroy, Melbourne, where they are developing a medical device to treat glaucoma and prevent blindness.

While in Melbourne, the group also met with the team from Medical Developments International touring the company’s facility to learn more about development of the next generation Penthrox Inhaler for acute pain relief.

The group toured 4D Medical’s manufacturing facility in Port Melbourne to learn about the company’s plans to expand its dedicated lung ventilation analysis scanner to include blood flow perfusion analysis. They also visited innovation precinct Melbourne Connect to meet with Ventora Medical, who are developing an airway pressure monitor for newborns.

In Perth, the group visited the lab where VitalTrace is developing a novel continuous lactate biosensor for fetal monitoring, which has received FDA designation as a Breakthrough Device, and will soon enter first-in-human clinical trials.

The CTCM team visiting VitalTrace in its lab in Perth: from left, WA Hub’s Dean Nedelkos, Hebbat Manhy (Cicada Innovations), Celine Royet and Dr Michael Challenor from VitalTrace, Stuart Anderson (MTAA), and Danielle Shand and Andionne Parlade from CTCM.

The Clinical Translation and Commercialisation Medtech (CTCM) program, delivered by MTPConnect, is offered under the 2020 Early Stage Translation and Commercialisation Support Grant of the Medical Research Future Fund's Medical Research Commercialisation Initiative.

By supporting the development of innovative medical devices, the CTCM program aims to improve the health and wellbeing of Australians, while also helping projects to generate commercial returns and create high-paying jobs in the medical products sector.