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The MTPConnect Podcast
The MTPConnect Podcast Series connects with the people and the issues behind Australia’s growing medical technologies, biotechnologies and pharmaceuticals sector.
The MTPConnect Podcast
Nurturing your Clinical Innovation with AUSCEP
In a special series dedicated to the Australian Clinical Entrepreneur Program (AUSCEP) we introduce you to some of the passionate health professionals taking part in this 12-month program to develop their innovative ideas into products and enterprises.
Dr Monica Hadges is a Clinical Educator and Mental Health Therapist and founder of Mi Team Mental Health. Monica’s digital health innovation, I-CiE Mi Team, is an app for client involved e-collaboration giving consumers and families easy access to participate in clinical review dialogues about their care.
Monica shares her start-up journey which began with the findings of her PhD research, and her innovation is now ready for funding to resource further development. She explains how the regular AUSCEP Pitstop events enabled her to find the time away from her busy practice and build camaraderie with other clinicians ‘seeking solutions’.
The program’s third cohort has been delivered in NSW and Victoria, in partnership with MTPConnect and Australian Society for Medical Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ASME) and supported by LaunchVic and NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation (ACI). The next 2025/26 cohort is open for Victorian applications until 20 June 2025 – apply at auscep.au.
This episode is hosted by MTPConnect’s Caroline Duell and Elizabeth Stares.
This is the MTP Connect podcast, connecting you with the people behind the life-saving innovations driving Australia's growing life sciences sector from bench to bedside for better health and well-being. Mtp Connect acknowledges the traditional owners of country that this podcast is recorded on and recognises that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are Australia's first storytellers and the holders of first science knowledge.
Caroline Duell:Hello and welcome to the MTP Connect podcast. I'm Caroline Jewell. Do you have a dream to translate your healthcare ideas into real world solutions? Join us as we meet some of the passionate health professionals doing just that and taking part in the Australian Clinical healthcare ideas into real-world solutions. Join us as we meet some of the passionate health professionals doing just that and taking part in the Australian Clinical Entrepreneur Program. This 12-month innovation program is led by MTP Connect and the Australian Society for Medical Entrepreneurship and Innovation, with support from Launchvic and New South Wales Health, and it's making a difference from bench to bedside. My co-host is MTP Connect's Elizabeth Stairs, who is the Innovation and Translation Lead for AUSCEP program.
Monica Hadges:I'm Dr Monica Hadges. I've been a mental health clinician for about 25 years, both in Australia and in the United States States, and helping people help themselves has been core to my business for all of that time. Currently, I'm a clinical educator, so I'm training the next generation of mental health therapists and also entrepreneuring my PhD research, called I See my Team, which is really about empowering clients to collaborate with their multidisciplinary team in real time for clinical review in a transformed way.
Caroline Duell:So these would be patients who are undergoing some sort of therapy or counselling.
Monica Hadges:So, caroline, we know that the global psychiatric burden is really high In Australia, about 45% of all Australians live with a high prevalence mental health challenge at some point in their lives, and even lesser than that with lower or less common mental health challenges. But what I see my team is about is working with consumers who have both mental health and physical health needs and often have more than one provider involved in their care. So imagine that you were living with significant anxiety and you also had diabetes. You might be somebody that has a thyroid condition. You may also have some carer responsibilities for a disabled child or an older adult. You work with an allied mental health professional like myself. So who knows you? Mental health professional like myself? So who knows you and who works with your GP directly to give you a mental health care plan and work with us for 10 sessions per calendar year. Often clients choose to extend that and pay out of pocket for some more sessions for the rest of the year. But imagine you live with all of these things and your allied mental health therapist, who you trust and you've got a really good relationship with, is trying to link your care team and rather than link your care team in the existing way, which means we write letters back and forth to each other and they're faxed and they're emailed and occasionally we miss each other, or very often we miss each other in telephone calls. Imagine if we could all meet briefly with you in real time, adapting telehealth, to discuss what's working, what's not and how you see things and ask us questions. So this is, I See, my Team.
Monica Hadges:My PhD research really is about bringing everybody together. My research found, or my data sample first of all, I should tell you, was mental health consumers and allied mental health professionals, and the data universally acknowledged that such an idea and an innovation would increase transparency of care. It would help multidisciplinary professionals know about each other and what the other people were doing, but more so would empower consumers. So I guess I was most impressed by some of the findings from the research that helped me understand how much of a burden consumers feel now to transmit messages between their care team, and I know, as a clinician working in the industry across sectors and building the future industry of mental health professionals, it's hard enough living with mental health. We should make it easier. They should not perceive the burden to transmit messages between us, and I see my teams really about addressing their challenges, coordination, reducing anxiety and bringing everybody together on the same page.
Caroline Duell:Well, that sounds like an incredible improvement for people that are obviously often vulnerable and overwhelmed by life generally. Is this going to be some sort of web-based system, or is it more of an app?
Monica Hadges:It's a plug-in to existing telehealth, so it's going to be adapting existing telehealth platforms and there's some components to it that are really exciting with the rise of AI scribes. So the research, really and this is my IP. Obviously there are pre-screen, on-screen and post-screen functions to improve the workflow. That's my IP and I'm working really hard to bring this to market and finding the right people to partner with to assist so that we can do things in a more transparent way.
Caroline Duell:This sounds so exciting. You've obviously taken a step into the Australian Clinical Entrepreneurs Program which is, I guess, a bridge really for clinicians and allied health professionals to develop an idea and expand that and commercialise it. What was your reason really for applying for the program?
Monica Hadges:Yeah, look, I've been so grateful for the opportunity to join AusSET. As an allied health professional, I was quite keen to commercialise the research all the way through my PhD candidature and couldn't find the right tribe. Research is a business and research has not yet sort of morphed into commercialisation, and I've always been an innovative thinker. So I think the reason I wanted to join and to see what was possible is because I needed some backup. I needed some ideas, I needed some structure and some help, and the Accelerator program has really first of all validated that there are lots of us with great ideas doing pretty impressive things and doing it in a very unsupported way. So I see my team, you know, has consumed literally eight years of my life and I'm yet to have something to take to market, and I'm pretty determined. I mean, I think I know the need.
Monica Hadges:I understand the complexity of the ecosystem. I've been a champion of digital health for, you know, 10 years now. I've represented peak bodies on the Australian Digital Health Agency. I know all about the workforce shortages and the ecosystem challenges, but the thing that really has sort of kept me in it is that we are practising now in a paradigm that has to prioritise client voice and we are and I have always been for 30 years of my practice somebody who really believes that clients know what's best for them. We have knowledge and skills, but we have to listen, and so this is really about listening and listening as a team. So we we, we do clinical reviews, and doctors talk to other doctors and doctors talk to other allied health professionals and, um, we all talk to each other, but I don't think we do a great job yet of talking with and that's what I see my teams about working in this field.
Caroline Duell:you would have been able to run this concept and your idea past others that you work with and obviously there's a huge need for your innovation.
Monica Hadges:I hope so. I mean that's certainly what the market's saying. We've also seen I mean, as you know, post-covid, the uptake of telehealth has increased exponentially. My data, you know. I started my research in 2017. So my idea was you know, even before COVID it was around, you know building capacity for people to have more empowerment in their care coordination when they do live with co-occurring needs, and many, many, many millions of people do all over the world.
Monica Hadges:So I think psychiatrists a little bit less able to visualize how it could work, because there's been a real hierarchy of that profession in mental health. Certainly, other psychologists, accredited mental health social workers, mental health OTs, all see the need. Dietitians, aged care carer groups everybody can see the benefits and what people tell me in my OSSEP experience is wow, this just is so simple, it makes so much sense. But it's not that simple to develop something that's medico-legally compliant when you're dealing with data and people's stories and people's lives. So that's my system is. I'm trying to build that system that can do it ethically. I know how it needs to be done.
Caroline Duell:Wow yeah, so some real challenges there, and it's so. It's great to hear that OSSEP has, I guess, been a sounding board for you and for some of those challenges that you're trying to conquer.
Monica Hadges:Well, it's interesting that even the medical doctors in the OSSEP program, especially the ones who work with genetic conditions or you know more rarer conditions, can really see the value of this idea as well, because we all collaborate. I mean to be a good clinician. My belief is that you work collaboratively and you always learn from other disciplines. Primary care is overstretched, and so GPs refer out to us as specialists, and there's a variety of specialists. I guess I see my teams about thinking that the consumers and the carers themselves can be part of that specialist team.
Caroline Duell:Elizabeth, over to you. I know you've got some questions.
Elizabeth Stares:I do. Obviously, you've been in the program and we're now coming to the, the last month of the program. What, to you, has been the greatest value of the program?
Monica Hadges:um, meeting other entrepreneurs, structuring the time. I think OzSep's done an amazing job. The pit pit stops enable very busy, hardworking clinicians like myself to pause, go to a place and work and focus collaboratively. Some of the speakers, the guest speakers have been, you know, really brilliant in terms of validating the start-up journey. It's very, very competitive. It's very, very difficult to actually be given money for innovations and yet we all keep persisting. So I valued that camaraderie. I think I mean to be very honest. My lived experience is that I am a part-time clinical educator, I have a private practice business, I have caring responsibilities myself and I'm working to be an entrepreneur and a researcher, you know so time is precious and I don't think we all would have continued to invest so much time on the learning management system. You know, in both the formal and informal ways, that you've linked us if it wasn't valuable. So I can congratulate you on keeping really busy people engaged.
Elizabeth Stares:That's fantastic. So we do get really good attendance at those eight pit stops, that which are a single day each time, and they're very important because they do allow that networking to happen and you to meet your tribe and your like minded peers. So we're going to launch the next cohort of our SEP on the 19th of May. What would be your message to anyone thinking of joining OSSEP?
Monica Hadges:Clarity and focus. There is really good value to be had in refining the pitch. Pitching is not something that easy or formulaic. I think there's a lot of models. I would say give it a go, try, if you can make the time to join. I would say keep an open mind. Think critically about everything that you hear.
Elizabeth Stares:What's next, for I See my Team. What's your next steps? Where do you see it going from here?
Monica Hadges:Well, I'm looking for a technological co-founder and I think I might have found some folks that are interested at the digital health 2025 conference. I do need more validation with a larger sample, but that is pretty easy to get, I think, once we've got the systems in place. I see my team. The bit that was the hardest bit for me to action was the summary, the medico-legal aspects and the regulation around the summary and how that was going to work with the interoperability of medical health records, and so I have some contacts now for that and I'm excited to be able to continue that.
Elizabeth Stares:I think that you have progressed really well. Obviously, there's still a mini mountain to climb, and that's that. Medical legal aspect is still, yes, a very big piece of work, but I think you sound very thorough and it's going to get there.
Monica Hadges:I hope so, elizabeth. I mean, I haven't given up after, you know, eight years of PhD candidature because I believe this. But also my clients, my actual. You know, I'm a mental health clinician, right, so I'm still practising and I hear from them every time I'm working that you know how's it going and is it there yet, and people really want this, they want the, the linkages. So it's differentiated by my understanding and sophistication of being, you know, a holistic provider and, unlike other tools that perhaps you know have got legs overseas in the States, this is really an Australian thing and it's geared for better access to allied mental health and you know the Medicare system that we work in here. There's interest overseas in London and stuff as well, which is nice to hear. But first of all, it's got to become a thing, and it can't become a thing without some resourcing, because I have no more to offer it without resourcing. I'm one, you know, one person. I need a team, um, so I'm working hard to build that and trying to attract some funding.
Caroline Duell:well, that's an exciting point to be at, though, and obviously this is all part of part of that profiling you and your innovation, and I guess this scale up period is going to be an exciting one for you, so we wish you all the best. Great to hear about how the AusSEP program has, I guess, helped you just take another step forward.
Monica Hadges:Thank you very much, aussep. I can honestly say it's been incredibly validating to meet other innovators who pivot, who think, who create and who don't give up, because that's what it takes. I have to shout out, especially to the women entrepreneurs really, there's like only a small proportion of women entrepreneurs in this cohort compared to the men. And, yeah, the sweat and tears and the hard work and the extra leaping. So let's go, let's try.
Elizabeth Stares:Let's keep going. One last question for you, Monica, would be how do we encourage people to get in contact with you?
Monica Hadges:It's just my website, so it's just wwwmyteamcomau, and then the email is just hello at my team.
Caroline Duell:Thank you so much, monica. We really appreciate your time. All the best with it. That was Dr Monica Hedges from my Team Mental Health, talking about her digital health innovation called. I See my Team. It's an app for client-involved e-collaboration, giving consumers and families easy access to participate in clinical review dialogues about their care. To find out how to be part of the next Australian Clinical Entrepreneurs Program, visit the AUSCEP website to find out more. A-u-s-c-e-p dot A-U. You've been listening to the MTP Connect podcast. This podcast is produced on the lands of the Wurundjeri people here in Narm, melbourne. Thanks for listening to the show. If you love what you heard, share our podcast and follow us for more Until next time.
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