First CTCM Annual Symposium Connects Medtech Trailblazers

27 November 2023

Pictured: The first annual Clinical Translation and Commercialisation Medtech program Symposium held in Sydney brought together CTCM awardees, partners, guest speakers and MTPConnect staff.

MTPConnect’s Clinical Translation and Commercialisation Medtech (CTCM) program held the first annual CTCM Symposium in Sydney recently. For the first time, the Symposium brought together all 11 companies from around Australia who have been awarded CTCM funding, to develop new ground-breaking medtech projects to improve health and wellbeing.

The CTCM program is nurturing high quality Australian medical device projects and aims to boost the commercialisation success of home-grown medical products.

In her opening remarks at the Symposium, MTPConnect’s COO Lisa Dubé said it was a special milestone as it was the first time that all CTCM awardees had gathered together in one place.

An incredible brains-trust of entrepreneurial talent

“We can categorically say that there is an incredible brains-trust here of entrepreneurial talent to facilitate meaningful discussions that can and will drive transformative changes within Australia’s medtech and pharma sector and for patients.

“This event is also a great opportunity to strengthen connections and forge new ones. Professional and business relationships are critical for success and to learn from others who have trod a similar path is a real benefit of being part of one of our programs,” Dubé said.

Pictured: Director, Clinical Translation and Commercialisation MedTech program, Danielle Shand, speaking at the first annual CTCM Symposium in Sydney.

Medical entrepreneurs from each of the awardee companies shared their innovation journeys through presentations – from developing a next generation hydrogel condom to a new ablation catheter for treating atrial fibrillation.

Showcase presentations by CTCM awardees and follow-up Q&A panels

Symposium attendees heard from CTCM Round 1 awardees ARIA Research, Eudaemon Technologies, LBT Innovations Ltd, Navi Medical Technologies and OncoRes Medical in a Showcase Presentations and Q&A Panel session chaired by MTPConnect’s Director Stakeholder Engagement – NSW and ACT, Dr Duncan Macinnis; and the CTCM Round 2 awardees Showcase Presentations and Q&A Panel session was chaired by MDPP’s MedTech Venture Partner, Dr Kerstin Schütz, and included 4DMedical, CathRx Limited, Medical Developments International (MDI), Ventora Medical, VitalTrace and VividWhite – all with different innovation journeys and learnings.

To inspire the group, two medtech leaders – SpeeDx Pty Ltd CEO Colin Denver and MedTech International’s Warren Bingham shared very personal and thought-provoking keynotes.

Pictured: MTPConnect’s team at the MTAA Medtech Awards 2023 event, from left, Caroline Duell, Lisa Dubé, Elizabeth Stares, Andionne Parlade, Danielle Shand and Mana Liao.

In his ‘Fireside Chat – Journey of a Medtech CEO’, Mr Denver focused on his journey with SpeeDx. A seasoned sales professional – with more than 20 years’ experience in the Life Science and Diagnostic fields, Mr Denver joined SpeeDx as Vice-President of Sales and Marketing, later becoming CEO. He shared his experiences and insights about the acquisition of new licensing and commercial agreements and overseeing global expansion into the US, Europe, and Australia/New Zealand for SpeeDx. The ‘Fireside Chat’ session was chaired by Cicada Innovations Hebbat Manhy.

An inspirational keynote made from the heart

Warren Bingham’s keynote ‘Leadership: Putting Purpose in the Driving Seat’ was made from the heart as he shared his career experiences over 30 years, including stories of tragedy, humour, community, and advice on how to become a better leader. He explained that in today’s environment being a leader requires a person to understand and embrace resilience, empathy, purpose, gratitude, humility, self-confidence and intuition, and sometimes it’s hard to know where to start.

Symposium participants took advantage of a valuable workshop on regulatory strategy with the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA)’s Simon Singer, Medical Technology Association of Australia (MTAA)'s Jasjit Baveja PhD, and Increment4 Pty Ltd's Judy Andrews.

Pictured: from left, MTAA’s Stuart Anderson facilitating Workshop 2 – Clinical Trials at the CTCM Symposium; and, seated on stage, Avania’s Executive Director Business Development Deborah Bell, and Medtronic’s Director of Clinical Research and Medical Science Deama Amr.

On the Symposium’s second day, awardees heard from experts Avania’s Deborah Bell from and Medtronic Australia and New Zealand’s Dr Deama Amr from, about how to set up Clinical Trials effectively. Following, Stuart Anderson from MTAA facilitated an in-depth and interactive QA sessionwith the group at the close of the first day of The MedTech Conference 2023 which was held at the International Convention Centre in Sydney. The CTCM group were then invited to take part in celebrating the MTAA Medtech Industry Awards Dinner.

Positive feedback, raising awareness, new connections and helpful insights

Director Clinical Translation and Commercialisation Medtech program, Danielle Shand said that the feedback from CTCM project teams attending the Symposium was very positive.

“Our project teams found the CTCM Symposium raised awareness about their company and innovation, while also identifying new connections, maintaining networks, and providing helpful insights about their CTCM project and other aspects of their medical device development journey.

“It was also gratifying to see everyone come together in one place, to learn from each other and spark up interesting and thought-provoking conversations and valuable new connections – that was terrific to see.”

The MTPConnect podcast recorded interviews with some of the CTCM awardees at the Symposium in Sydney ... stay tuned for the podcast coming soon!