Australian Health Innovation Showcase Set to Increase Collaboration and Investment

26 February 2018

Health Horizon has today launched an online collection of hundreds of Australian health innovations to unlock the possibility of collaboration on a national scale. The platform is the first milestone in an MTPConnect – the Australian Government Medical Technology and Pharmaceutical Industry Growth Centre - funded project to develop a National MedTech, Pharmaceutical and Digital Health Showcase.

The project will provide a ‘living’ showcase of health innovations in Australia, identifying, cataloging and tracking in real time innovations under development in Australia. Open to investors, health practitioners and the public, the Australian Health Innovation Showcase is a place for anyone to make sense of, and support, the diverse and rapidly evolving national health innovation ecosystem. The showcase aims to encourage and improve the coordination, collaboration and transparency of the entire sector, while reducing duplication and learning from the success or failure of others.

“We often get glimpses of incredible advances in health on the news, but too often never hear about them again,” said Marcus Dawe, CEO of Health Horizon.

“This project will make the progress of health innovations under development in Australia easily searchable and trackable, changing how Australians interact with what’s coming in health and improving future outcomes.”

The showcase creation is a culmination of effort from a consortium of national organisations and industry and academic innovation leaders Medical Technology Association of Australia (MTAA), Health Informatics Society of Australia (HISA), Medical Software Industry of Australia (MSIA) , ANDHealth, Hospital and Health Services IP Ltd, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Australia, Queensland University of Technology and the University of Newcastle.

Bronwyn Le Grice, Managing Director of ANDHealth, the Australian National Digital Health Initiative said: “We are delighted to have partnered with Health Horizon on this initiative. Digital Health is a sector which is growing at a pace that means that traditional directories are often out of date before they are published.

"The Health Horizon initiative will provide a living database of health innovations creating a foundation for increasing collaboration, partnering and investment both domestically and with international partners.”

“The emerging heath startup ecosystem in Australia is very supportive and we enjoy sharing what we have learnt with others” explains Dr Raghav Murali-Ganesh CancerAid Co-Founder who has mentored over 20 health tech startups.

“The [Australian Health Innovation] Showcase will allow us to share our successes with the broader community, opening up avenues for collaboration and growth”.

For more information about the showcase visit www.thehealthhorizon.com/ausshowcase.