A new MedTech and digital health partnership has been signed between the University of Western Australia and the Texas Medical Center in the United States. This allows the sharing of resources between the Texas Medical Center (TMC) Biodesign entrepreneurship program, and the similar University of Western Australia administered Biodesign Australia. In particular, Biodesign programs across…
The latest grant under the Modern Manufacturing Initiative is worth $23 million and will support the production of precision medicine and theranostics in Australia. The MMI collaboration stream grant will support a $71.2 million Australian Precision Medicine Enterprise (APME) Project being jointly undertaken by Global Medical Solutions (GMS), Telix Pharmaceuticals, and Monash University. The facility…
A new innovation seed fund in Western Australia is now accepting applications to fund health and medical innovation and commercialisation. The grants will be awarded to early-stage startups in the range of $250,000 to $500,000 to commercialise innovation or undertake an activity that enables the firm to get funding through other funding channels. The funding will…
In its latest announcement under the federal Modern Manufacturing Initiative, the government has funneled $61.2 million into a cancer drug project. The co-funded grants come under the collaboration stream of the $1.3 billion Modern Manufacturing Initiative (MMI) will support the $185 million Precision Oncology Screening Platform enabling Clinical Trials (PrOSPeCT). The project is being led…
More funding and a fairer procurement process are needed to support the local HealthTech sector, according to a new report published by the industry body. Alongside five recommendations, the Medical Software Industry Association (MSIA) published the results of its industry survey, which indicated the need for greater support from the federal government. In particular, 59…
The Western Australian government has opened applications for a share of $10 million in health and medical research grants, which followed a federal announcement on Tuesday of $23 million in similar grant funding. WA’s Research Excellence Awards 2022 will deliver grants of up to $450,000 to early and mid-career researchers while grants of up to…
Scientists at the CSIRO have produced a breakthrough in vaccine storage and transport technology that greatly extends their lifespan while avoiding the need for specialised refrigeration. A research paper published in Acta Biomateriala authored by CSIRO senior postdoctoral fellow Dr Ruhani Singh describes how scientists used a metal organic framework (MOF) to protect a vaccine…
The federal government has spent a further $30 million buying imported rapid antigen tests for the aged care sector, as several Australian companies continue to wait to get local manufacturing off the ground. The Commonwealth has now spent more than $90 million this year on purchasing rapid antigen tests (RATs) manufactured overseas. These contracts are…
The at home COVID-19 testing key to Australia’s pandemic recovery is not accessible to blind and low vision users, prompting warnings from advocates the sudden shift to self-testing has created an unacceptable risk to the community. Disability groups are now calling for a national approach to at home testing for vulnerable people to minimise the…
Artificial intelligence (AI) represents a fundamental change across society and cannot be treated as a trend that will pass us by in a couple of years, according to Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre (DHCRC) Chief Innovation Officer Dr Stefan Harrer.
Digital health is an area in which AI has some of the most promising applications due to its foundation of evidence-based, data driven processes.
In clinical settings, Dr Harrer says “AI could analyse data and create insights for carers and providers to better diagnose, prognose, treat and manage diseases.”
Dr Harrer sees AI as one of the most groundbreaking technology developments of our times and encourages everyone to have an active role in the discussions around its development.
Dr Stefan Harrer: Chief Innovation Officer, Digital Health CRC
“This is not something to shy away from, it’s something to be utterly excited about. It’s only just the beginning at this point,” he told InnovationAus.
AI promises healthcare innovation
The uneasiness about the impact of AI is a natural, understandable reaction to new technology.
“It’s a healthy mechanism that ensures technology isn’t getting out of control, and that it’s developed in a way that benefits the whole of humanity,” he said.
But fears that AI would render humans redundant are unfounded. With automated, pre-defined, repetitive tasks that can predictably be executed over and over again, such as gathering data or processing data, AI can be used as an assistive system incorporated into human workflows.
With medical imaging, which has been at the forefront of using assistive AI, it can find patterns of interest in scans, easing the workload on humans.
“AI technology has been getting better and better at analysing images and then recognising patterns of interest in those images,” said Dr Harrer.
“Automatic image analysis has been one of the early applications of AI, and now we begin to see more advanced AI techniques in this field. These technologies are on the cusp of gradually finding their way into the routines of for example radiologists as they examine and analyse medical imagery.”
This is just one example of the potential of AI to augment rather than replace human understanding and analysis.
“The important thing being that AI is not substituting the clinician, the medical expert, in this particular case, but it’s actually enhancing their capabilities to make better informed, faster decisions,” he said.
“AI does not replace the human decision maker, but AI plus the human decision maker often creates a superior combination that outperforms either the human or the AI making decisions separately by themselves.”
Dr Harrer points to electronic medical record keeping as another promising health application for AI. Natural language processing, a type of AI that analyses written or spoken language, could be used to automatically analyse records such as medical reports and medical research papers to extract and present relevant pieces of information.
This would free clinicians from the time-consuming task of reviewing these records themselves.
“Clinicians have to keep these records up to date and extract information out of them. AI could ease the burden on the clinician from having to deal with these repetitive tasks, freeing them up to help patients more and develop new ways of treatment and care models,” he said.
“These assistive technologies relieve clinicians from some of the more tedious tasks dealing with repetitive data curation and analysis.”
Technologists have a mandate to broaden the message
Dr Harrer believes that scientists and technologists have a duty to promote and explain the potential of AI in a transparent, accessible and factual manner.
“Neither fear-mongering nor hyping AI is helpful. AI is a complex breakthrough technology that has triggered a lot of attention across our society.
We scientists have the responsibility to create awareness for the technical opportunities as well as the ethical aspects of developing AI technology responsibly.
No one needs to be afraid of AI – what we should be afraid of is not knowing about the game-changing opportunities that lie in responsibly developing and using AI technology to solve some of the most pressing problems of humanity,” he said.
If people have questions about life-changing new technology, and Dr Harrer is excited about how many people do have such questions about AI, it’s up to scientists to provide answers.
“It’s very important for experts in the field to communicate properly, honestly and transparently using scientific rigour,” he said.
“We want to build trust because we want AI to be adapted and used for good. That trust in AI is built by communicating, explaining, educating and spreading the enthusiasm we have from already experiencing this technology’s potential with the broader public,” he added.
“This approach should be a mandate for everyone who is working on breakthrough technologies.”
Microsoft has won a new contract with the Digital Health Agency following a closed tender process thanks to its whole-of-government sourcing agreement.
The contract, posted publicly this week and running from 16 June to 24 September, is worth more than $600,000.
The job did not go out for open tender, with the agency saying this was due to an “absence of competition for technical reasons”.
In response to questions from InnovationAus, a spokesperson for the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) declined to reveal what work the contract relates to, but confirmed it was signed through the government’s existing volume sourcing arrangement with Microsoft, inked by the Digital Transformation Agency.
“The Agency has an existing arrangement with Microsoft under this Whole of Government Volume Sourcing Arrangement. Under this arrangement, if the agency requires additional products and / or services the Agency is required to enter into separate orders under a limited tender arrangement,” the spokesperson told InnovationAus.
“The contract you have referred to relates to Microsoft professional services.”
The DTA’s whole-of-government agreement with Microsoft was renewed in 2019 and “gives agencies the tools to support their transition to a modern IT environment through the adoption of cloud-based services”.
At the time of signing, the Microsoft deal was expected to be worth just under $100 million over three years. The deal makes Microsoft 365 available to all federal government agencies and “opens the door to accelerated adoption” of Microsoft Azure and Dynamics 365.
The ADHA is in the midst of the first phase of its project to modernise the national digital health infrastructure.
Last month, Deloitte won a near-$18 million contract to develop the “foundational capability” for Australia’s future national digital health ecosystem. The consulting multinational will build the new Health Information Gateway, which will be a “secure and scalable platform for exchanging and accessing health information”.
This gateway will replace a key component of the controversial My Health Record, which is currently managed by Accenture on a huge decade-long contract.
Accenture was recently awarded a $57 million extension to this contract, which is now worth more than $630 million over 10 years.
The ADHA has also recently gone to market for a contractor to develop a new app for My Health Record.
The approach to market, which closed at the end of July, was for the development of the mobile app, along with supporting analytics and reporting infrastructure to “ensure usage and crash data can be reported to improve future releases”.
The app will connect to the MHR system through the new gateway, which supports two interaction models for consumer-focused apps.
A global pharmaceutical company will build a drug manufacturing facility in northern Adelaide after receiving $20 million in funding through the latest round of the federal government’s Modern Manufacturing Initiative.
Noumed Pharmaceuticals, part of UK company Noumed Life Sciences, on Thursday revealed plans to build an $85 million facility at Salisbury South, allowing it to locally manufacture around 40 million units of tablets, creams and liquids when the facility opens in 2025.
The company currently manufactures its products offshore but a $20 million grant from the federal government’s $1.3 billion Modern Manufacturing Initiative (MMI) will see the new facility built in Australia and create an expected 180 ongoing jobs.
Noumed is one of five companies to share in $36 million in funding from the latest round of the MMI, which focuses on medical manufacturing, a priority area of the government’s flagship manufacturing program.
A new pharmaceutical manufacturing facility will be built in Adelaide by Noumed.
Perth-based Avicena Systems received $3 million to scale up manufacturing of its Sentinel COVID-19 screening system, while fellow Western Australia medtech Cyclowest was awarded $2.5 million to expand production of its therapy radiopharmaceuticals which help clinicians diagnose medical conditions, including cancer.
Queensland company Vaxxas received a $4.4 million grant to produce a patch vaccination device that delivers vaccines into the bloodstream via a band-aid like device.
The APAC arm of NASDAQ listed Glucose Biosensor Systems, or GBS, received $6.3 million to build a device manufacturing facility for diagnostic tests.
The grants come from the medical sector portion of the first round of the MMI, and follow an announcement earlier this week of $14 million in grants for the space sector. The remaining priority areas are resources technology and critical minerals processing, food and beverage, recycling and clean energy, and defence.
On Thursday the government said the first funding round would be increased from $140 million to $200 million due to “the strength of applications”.
Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Christian Porter announced the grant recipients in a statement on Thursday.
“Quality medical products are central to any healthy society, but they can also be a centrepiece of a dynamic economy. That’s why we are supporting our manufacturers to grow and realise their potential in this expanding sector,” Mr Porter said.
“Importantly, our investments through our Modern Manufacturing Initiative are also helping to deliver strong job growth, with projects such as Noumed’s in South Australia set to create hundreds of opportunities for local workers.”
Pharmaceutical manufacturer IDT Australia is undertaking a feasibility study to assess the possibility of supplementing production of the COVID-19 vaccine in Australia.
IDT will assess the possibility of using its sterile production facilities to supplement local supplies, following a Department of Health request.
This comes as the federal government is being criticised for a slow and poorly planned rollout of vaccination.
Vaccines: IDT a second option for vaccine manufacturing
The Therapeutic Goods Administration gave approval for CSL to manufacture the AstraZeneca vaccine in Melbourne in a statement released on Sunday. See separate story here.
Less than one per cent of the Australian population has been vaccinated, while some countries such as Israel are already at 109 per cent, the UK is at 43 and the United States at 36.
Only 240,000 Australians have been vaccinated – 1.0 per cent of the population, about the same level as Cambodia and Senegal.
The federal Department of Health’s Australian vaccine agreements webpage updated in February said there would be “10 million doses available from early 2021.”
This is simply not the case, and only partly because the European Union has restricted 250,000 doses from being exported to Australia.
Australia is now, apparently, solely reliant on manufacture of the Astea/Zeneca vaccine at CSL in Melbourne.
Yet, as @AuManufacturing reported in August, IDT Australia responded back then to federal government appeals.
IDT said in August it was capable and prepared to manufacture COVID-19 vaccines.
Chief executive officer David Sparling said then: “IDT has already been involved in the government’s response during the initial phase of the COVID-19 crisis.
“IDT has made a submission to (the federal government’s) request for information because we want to continue to play a role in Australia’s COVID-19 response.”
Seven months ago the Health Department asked for and was offered additional vaccine manufacturing facilities.
Apparently it did nothing.
Australian manufacturing is often criticised. But in the case of the COVID-19 vaccine it was capable, it had the facilities, it was ready to respond, but it was simply not given the chance until this past week.
