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
Showcasing Victoria’s Innovative Medtech Manufacturers
One of the challenges we face in Australia is getting more homegrown medtech products purchased and used by local hospitals and health services.
MTPConnect’s Pathway to Market – Medtech Capability Uplift Program has been supporting ten market-ready Victorian medtech manufacturers to position themselves competitively for local health procurement opportunities.
The recent Australian Medtech Manufacturing Alliance (AMMA) Medtech Showcase profiled Victorian-made products and innovations from 25 local manufacturers spanning surgical care and diagnostics to hospital consumables and equipment. From a new nasal swab designed for children to smart bedding systems for aged care and healthcare sectors, the lineup was impressive.
The Showcase highlighted ‘Better Health Made Here’ – and the MTPConnect Podcast was on the ground talking to companies involved, including those taking part in the Pathway to Market program - Ventora Medical’s Edward Buijs, Rhinomed’s Michael Johnson, Dentalife’s Tom Stray, Sleeptite’s Cameron van den Dungen and Certius Medical’s Tim Stewart - as well as local leaders Care Essentials’ Helen Skazas and Lindo’s Robert Gangi.
The Pathway to Market program is an initiative of the Australian Medtech Manufacturing Alliance (AMMA), delivered by MTPConnect in partnership with BioMelbourne Network and supported by the Victorian Government.
Applications for the 2026 Pathway to Market program will open towards the end of 2025.
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 podcast. I'm Caroline Jewell. One of the challenges that we face in Australia is getting more homegrown MedTech products purchased and used by local hospitals and health services. This year, MTP Connect's Pathway to Market MedTech Capability Uplift Program has supported 10 market-ready Victorian MedTech manufacturers to position them competitively for local health procurement opportunities. In early October, along with the BioMelbourne Network, we hosted the Australian MedTech Manufacturing Alliance's MedTech Showcase, with a curated exhibition of Victorian-made products and innovations from 25 local manufacturers, spanning surgical care and diagnostics to hospital consumables and equipment. This Melbourne event was all about highlighting better health made here. And the MTP Connect podcast was on the ground talking to companies involved, including those taking part in the Pathway to Market program, to find out how the support is making a difference for their businesses. Let's hear all about it.
Edward Buijs:Our device is the first of its kind. It's a airway pressure monitor for infants and neonates who are on non-invasive respiratory support. The device works by giving clinicians insight into how much pressure is actually being delivered to a baby's upper airway. So we are very fortunate to be based at Melbourne Connect here in Melbourne as part of a vibrant Victorian ecosystem of medical device innovation and research and support. And tell us about your team. Fentura is made up of a number of different people, so biomedical engineers like myself, as well as clinicians and business experts. So we've got a wide range of expertise which all comes together to bring this device to market.
Caroline Duell:And tell us at what stage is your device, where is that at along the innovation pathway?
Edward Buijs:Yeah, so Ventura's airway pressure monitor is in development. We are looking forward to finishing up a clinical trial that we're currently running at the Royal Women's Hospital in the next sort of six to 12 months, and then hopefully being able to use that information and that data into regulatory submissions. So at the moment, we are using the information that comes from our clinical trial to inform some really important design decisions as well as get a really good understanding of what the clinician and the nurse needs. And using that information will actually form and help us to format our regulatory submissions. What's different about your innovation? That's a really good question. So many babies who are in neonatal intensive or special care will need some sort of breathing support during their first few weeks and even months of life. And so the current therapies are CPAP and HighFlow, and these systems work to keep the baby's lungs open and inflated between breaths. The difficulty is that these therapies provide very little feedback to the clinician in how much pressure is actually being delivered to a baby's upper airway. And so there can be two babies on the same level of support receiving very different levels of therapy, and as a result, having very different outcomes. And so where our device fits in is it actually provides objective measurement internally of how much pressure is being received by those patients, allowing clinicians to make really informed decisions about what they need to do next. So whether or not that is about escalating care or whether it's actually about optimizing sort of the CPAP or high flow so that this particular baby can thrive.
Caroline Duell:And it's a non-invasive device.
Edward Buijs:Yeah, so our device uh leverages um some existing tubing in other parts within the NICU, which means there's no additional invasiveness to the patient. And that's one of the key value propositions of our device, making sure that for the baby themselves, they don't actually experience anything different. Um, what our device is able to do is actually help the clinician uh to care for them. So our device does do constant monitoring or consistent monitoring, so it's accurate internal, uh, continuous monitoring, which is really important for this particular product. It allows the clinicians to have a really deep insight into how the therapy has been delivered over time and optimize it accordingly.
Caroline Duell:So tell us about your involvement in the Pathway to Market program. How valuable has that been?
Edward Buijs:We've been really, really fortunate to be part of the Pathway to Market program, the MedTech Capability Uplift Program. It's a program which is designed to help local medtech companies gain access to procurement advisors, uh hospitals, and clinicians. And so throughout the program, whether or not it's been the workshops, which we've had a lot of insight from experts in in terms of procurement and tendering, but also how to approach healthcare systems and their needs, right through to events like today, where we've been able to have one-on-one conversations with the people who will ultimately be the decision makers when it comes to using and procuring our device.
Caroline Duell:Yeah, so today we're here at the Amma MedTech Showcase. It's been a pretty good vibe. We saw you pitch earlier, there was a lot of cheering. It was a bit like a you know, a small football field, really, a lot of love for better health made here. How have you sort of found the day in terms of that feedback?
Edward Buijs:Yeah, I like your football reference. I'm I'm a huge football fan, but um, it was really encouraging to have the support of the ecosystem here today. And and as I was able to pitch, there was a number of people who came up to me afterwards and um spoke really highly about the solution that we're trying to bring at Ventura. And that's really encouraging and inspiring as well. Um even presenting at our booth today, having the opportunity to see clinicians and and procurement managers, CPAs and the like come across and and really talk really positively about how this particular solution could fit within their clinical settings is really important for us because it it provides validation of not only what we're doing, but what we're trying to achieve, which is ultimately helping uh babies return from the NICU sooner with their families.
Caroline Duell:Edward, tell us what's on the table right now for Ventura? What are you working on?
Edward Buijs:At Ventora, our development is going really quickly. So we're currently raising some capital to help support uh operational growth as we look to put our regulatory submissions in. So bringing on some quality and regulatory personnel within the team, as well as uh some engineering support as we get closer to those submissions. So that that's the one of the key things at the moment. But obviously, we've got our ongoing clinical trial at the Royal Women's Hospital still well and truly uh operating, and so managing and balancing both of those are really important uh along with all the other things that come with being a startup founder.
Caroline Duell:Well, we wish you all the best with that. It's been great to have you on the podcast, Edward.
Edward Buijs:Thank you very much. It's lovely to be here.
Robert Gangi:Robert Gangi from Lindo CEO and founder. Uh, we design and develop systems and products to reduce the spread of HAIs and reduce the growth of biofilms. Uh, we've got two products in Go. One's a medical device, it's called Lindo Tube. Uh, it's an endotracheal tube engineered with antimicrobial blue light, the purpose of which is to mitigate the growth of biofilm near the cuff of an ETT. The problem we're trying to solve is so if you go into surgery, you're an ICU, you are unfortunate enough to be intubated. It's a horrible process where they stick a tube down your throat, you're in mechanical ventilation. If you're intubated for a period of longer than 24 to 48 hours, there's a 23 to 28% chance that you'll get pneumonia. They call it ventilator-associated pneumonia. Now, this is a problem in every ICU across the globe. Uh, the current methods of treating this is a course of antibiotics. Now, the course of antibiotics, now, so we've actually, and fortunate enough, we were on a trade delegation with MTP Connect to MedTech uh two years ago. This was in Anaheim. Uh, we connected with Mayo Clinic, and from that connection, uh, we were able to get into enter an agreement with those with Mayo Clinic, which is probably the best in the world. So we're really excited about that. We've been working with them for over a year now. Um, but based on our conversations, I asked a simple question, which was okay, so how do you treat VAP, so ventilated, satiated, pneumonia? And the answer was we give them a course of antibiotics. I said, Okay, great. How long? It's seven days. I said, Why seven days? And the clinician had no idea. He came back to me a week later and he said, There's seven days in a week. I said, Are you serious? Seven days in a week. That's why he goes, it's been like that forever and a day. And so in different geographies, so in Australia, they'll I think it's either five or ten days, in Europe it's either five to ten days. But it's a course of antibiotics that they've been doing for decades. And there's no rhyme or reason, it's just seven days in a week. And if after those seven days you still got pneumonia, you get another course of antibiotics. So the problem with this is not only is that it's detrimental to your health, yes, it's killing the disease, but what it's doing is it's increasing uh the growth of antimicrobial resistance, which is a huge problem in the healthcare industry and global industry, global uh community as a whole. So our device, Lindo 2, has a light engine. We generate antimicrobial blue light. So antimicrobial blue light works like ultraviolet light. Ultraviolet light's been around forever and a day, but ultraviolet light degrades material, skin, and tissue. Antimicrobial blue light does not do that, but it still destroys bacteria and viruses and biofilms. So, really novel device. We have a light engine, produces that light source through a fiber optic goes into an endotracheal tube. We've got a really novel connector, and then we disperse the light through the tube where the problem area is, so near the cuff. Um, currently at TRL3, we're going into TRL4, we've applied for an IGP grant, we're hoping that we get that, it helps progress to clinical trials in two years' time. Um, and we design develop everything here in Victoria.
Caroline Duell:So we're talking about a really innovative startup, um, one that's getting itself connected to all the right people in all the right places. You're here today at the AMA MedTech Showcase. Tell us how that experience has been.
Robert Gangi:Uh, it's been excellent, to be honest with you. It's been great to connect with different parts of the industry. Now, I don't come from a medical background, I'm an engineer, I'm actually a Sparky by trade. So this is all very foreign and new to me. Um, and I look at things from a very practical point of view, and so to have all these different different people from different walks of life and different um departments within the healthcare network, the ecosystem, is great because you can just learn off so many different people. So you have people from procurement, you have people that are nurses, people that are clinicians, and you get to learn off all of these people. You have industrial designers that hit me up quite a bit. I'm very happy with our industrial designer market design, Lloyd Fenn, I'll give him a shout-out. Um he's a weapon, but it's really good because you get to learn. Now, the interest has been really great for our devices, uh, which is which is fantastic. Um, and now, you know, even through, you know, talk to people at Cabrini, Northern Health, uh, Austin, you know, we're now we're looking at okay, we want to do pilot studies. So we want to do pilot studies, so we get to engage with the people that can make that happen, which is really, really important for companies like mine.
Caroline Duell:So Better Health Made Here, fingers crossed, uh, you're just moving along that journey.
Robert Gangi:Yeah.
Caroline Duell:Um, it's been great to have you on the podcast, Robert.
Robert Gangi:Thanks so much. Thanks for having me.
Helen Skazas:My name is Helen Skazis, and I'm here representing Care Essentials and their sister company, Farm Ost Manufacturing.
Caroline Duell:And tell us about Care Essentials.
Helen Skazas:So, Care Essentials is a family-run business. It initially was born in 1996 and then changed hands in 2011. In that time, we have seen the Cocoon Warming System, which was their flagship product, which is used pre-operative, perioperative, and post-operative, specifically for patients that are high risk for hypothermia. So it is a warming system and a warming blanket, which then ensures that patients aren't going into a hypothermic state.
Caroline Duell:And often used in operating theatres or yes.
Helen Skazas:And where's the company based? So the company is based in regional Victoria, so out of Geelong. We've got a manufacturing plant there as well as our sales headquarters. We export to over 60 countries internationally, and we've got a very big footprint across the public and private health sectors here with the hospital settings too.
Caroline Duell:And tell us about this innovation. Well, particularly the cocoon product. Um, how did that come about?
Helen Skazas:So the cocoon product, it was more about seeing a need in the market. There were a couple of big players already who had products very similar to this. And the feedback was, for example, there were certain clips that were always breaking, and it was really born out of feeling a need for what physicians needed and what perioperative nurses needed. From there, the blanket range actually increased as a result of direct feedback from nurses. And there was a nurse in Townsville that had given feedback to one of our owners to say, Oh, we often tape these two blankets together and we do this and we do that. And from there, we then had new blankets born and raised. So I'm really proud to work for a company like this that has such an incredible footprint when it comes to innovation. They are small enough to be agile and nimble, but large enough to be able to execute Australia-wide and globally, and to be able to see that it makes me really, really proud.
Caroline Duell:I feel like today there was a lot of pride and excitement in the room when um the lightning pitches were happening when Victorian companies uh were pitching their products and talking about the reasons why the health system should be using um and buying better health products made here. Did you feel that?
Helen Skazas:Absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt. I know the biggest thing for me was looking at the the range of where businesses were at and where products were. So you had those true startups that are sort of still at evaluation stage. You had the ones that had closed a couple of sales and they were looking at how do they get onto tenders. You had people like me who were there who were looking at how do I get into more hospitals and how do I get in front of the right CPAs and CPMs and in front of the right people to be able to showcase a range of products. So care essentials is more than just the cocoon warming blank, but that that's a lot of what we're known for. So during COVID, we did then go into sterilization wraps, we went into um into masks as well. Since then, we've acquired Pharmost Manufacturing and we've gone into pharmaceuticals, so we do skin prep products such as chlorhexidine. The list goes on and on. So to be able to be here and to be able to share ideas and showcase things and see partnerships come to life in in real life and in real time, it's exceeded all of my expectations.
Caroline Duell:There's been a real buzz in the room, I think. Um standing room only, I noticed at some points. There is a lot of support for this concept of Better Health Made here. And how have you found the feedback from from some of the experts here today, you know, around the process and and that type of thing?
Helen Skazas:So for me personally, I've actually been really proud to be in a room like this and work for a company like Care Essentials to hear in real time the feedback on what's working, what can be tweaked. You know, it's those little one percenters. And to be able to be an Australian manufacturer that can make those changes. You know, I have worked for larger corporates years gone by, and a lot of time you would feed information like this back from procurement in an Australian hospital. If you even got a response to an email like that, you may have seen a revision five, six, seven, ten years down the line by the time it'd go through all of the RD. But I mean, I had an instance earlier this week where we went to a hospital, we got feedback on a certain clip. Within two days, the RD team had prototypes on my desk saying, have a look at this, what do you think? So the speed that we can work to, because we are on the ground, we are hearing it straight from people here, and we can act on it straight away.
Caroline Duell:That's really exciting because what we're talking about here is a product that is, you know, life-saving, um, part of that critical care. And to be able to be that nimble and to have that sort of connection and feedback directly from um healthcare professionals, that's really special.
Helen Skazas:It sure is. And I think what really struck me with Care Essentials was when we look at them as being a manufacturer, everything, so end-to-end it is done locally, and we see then the production line, you see the jobs here in Australia, you see not just in production, you see them in manufacturing, you see them in sales and you know, in the office, and it really is that spillover effect where you see that these products absolutely make a difference to patient lives, but they absolutely make a difference to our economy too.
Caroline Duell:Yeah, so it's it's a whole industry.
Helen Skazas:Absolutely.
Caroline Duell:Which is so exciting. So I think that is also the message from today. It's not just about the product, it's about what happens around that. And it's really great to see, you know, companies like Care Essential, who, you know, have a really well thought-out product that's obviously being sold all around the world, um, but also still working on um making sure that it's available in hospitals here in Australia. And I think that's that's really important. Thanks for coming on the MTP Connect podcast, Helen.
Helen Skazas:Thanks for having me. It's been great to be here.
Tom Stray:Tom Stray, so Managing Director of Dental Life Australia. So we um have been manufacturing dental materials and infection control products for 25 years. Um my father started the business in the garage. Um so I remember coming home from school and helping him fill off products and things like that. So um, and obviously, yeah, uh business has come a fair way from there. So now we've got uh 30 staff in Melbourne and and 20 over in um Bangkok manufacturing. So and we're now transitioning into the medical market.
Caroline Duell:Tell us about the innovations that you've developed for the medical market.
Tom Stray:So through the dental materials that we have, we have compliance for ISO 13405 and medical devices, um, and the disinfectants that the Australian market requires are class 2B disinfectants, so they're they're sort of unusual for the global market, so there's not many players. But because of our dental materials, we were able to comply regulatory-wise with that standard. So I guess just after COVID or during COVID, we transitioned our production and upscaled our production so we could produce the different format of the disinfectant. So we went from a tub format, which was what was produced in the dental market, to a flat pack format, which was more accepted in the medical market, which meant we could produce bigger volumes at a better price point. So we had to invest significantly in some equipment and upscale that, work on the regulatory um side of it, and then also work through the antimicrobial testing. So there was a lot of different testing and different organisms needed for the for the medical market as opposed to the dental, and um, I guess rightfully so. So we uh been on a journey for the last four years, um, I guess fine-tuning the product and and making sure that it's per um fit for purpose now.
Caroline Duell:So you're talking about a wipe, literally like a baby wipe, but not a baby wipe, of course.
Tom Stray:Not a baby wipe, no, I wouldn't use it on babies.
Caroline Duell:Tell us what's special about this wipe. Why should we be using this in our healthcare services?
Tom Stray:Yeah, so um so we have used a different substrate, so the white material compared to a lot of the previous um wipe materials, which were just the the basic baby wipe or a uh quite a thin, flimsy spun lace material, which was used, I think, because of a cost saving, because per wiper was cheaper. So we have used a melt blown material, which is a slightly thicker material. Um we also have have put a bit of technology into it so it it holds more liquid in. So the benefit of that is that it covers a broader surface. So um in terms of usage, you're using less wipes because it's covering a bigger area. There's also a lot less waste, so so big environmental um factors as well. But then because you're using less, you're also spending less as well. So we um we often and we heard today that Australian um uh manufacturing is seen as a higher price, and and always people seem to think they need to pay more for that. Um but we've certainly found a way to produce that at a more cost-effective unit price, but also using a lot less as well, so much more environmentally friendly as well. And then also because it's not um it's not sort of dousing the the surface with disinfectant, there's a lot um a lot of good research that the the issues with compatibility and uh machine cracking or things like that, or or plastic um breakage is around the fact that there's a lot of liquid left on the surface. So our our wipe makes sure it it holds the liquid and retains the liquid so it covers a bigger area but doesn't douse as much um on the surface.
Caroline Duell:And these are for surfaces in operating theatres, dental surgeries?
Tom Stray:Yeah, so so the benefit of the being a 2B disinfectant, which is a medical device disinfectant, is it can be used everywhere. So um the other level of disinfectant is a hospital grade disinfectant, which sounds like it can be used everywhere, but the TGA requires a medical device to clean a medical device, and a medical device disinfectant has to come under a class 2B classification. So the benefit of having that is that you can clean everything. You don't have to specify between surfaces or instruments or anything like that. Um so this is for like a general purpose disinfectant for medical equipment in operating theatres, um, in uh reception areas and everywhere in between.
Caroline Duell:So you're part of the Pathway to Market programme, Dental Life. Tell us why this program is so important to you.
Tom Stray:Yeah, well, I think what we heard a bit today about um that a lot of the a lot of the Australian Medic companies are SMEs, and one of the challenges that we have is that we don't have the connections and we we just it's we don't have lobbyists, we don't have um a massive marketing budget or a massive marketing team. So being involved in these programs gives us um access to to clinicians, access to CPAs or the experts, and and and much better, I guess, exposure to hospitals and and those sort of things. So um if it wasn't for um the the Pathhoodomed Tech program, we'd we'd really be on our own trying to bang on doors and and trying to find our own way. Um so it certainly helps us leverage the the broader um skill set and broader, I guess, network uh that is available.
Caroline Duell:Yeah, getting that sort of procurement ready capability is kind of vital because it's a complex pathway.
Tom Stray:Yeah, absolutely. We we I say we made the mistake, but maybe not the mistake, but it um during COVID when we were going to upskill into the medical market, we um I guess naively assumed that we were the only Australian company doing it. We knew our product stood up, it was probably gonna be pretty straightforward, so we invested heavily in equipment. But that's uh certainly got a a slap in the face trying to work through the the medical procurement um landscape. So um, as I said, we've we've been working at it for four years, but we've had a lot of help along the way. But certainly the accelerator program and and and it just helps it make sure we're ready and make sure we're spending our resources the right way and and certainly giving us access to to people we wouldn't otherwise get access to.
Caroline Duell:Where's the product being sold at the moment?
Tom Stray:Yeah, so um so it we've been in the dental market for 25 years, so it's it's sold wider in the dental market. Um we we've had a bit of success in New Zealand as well, so it's growing through there. Um, we've got a couple of private hospitals on board at the moment, which has been really exciting. That's been a very long process. Um where yeah, where I guess the the public system is a bit of a longer process to get into with um tender processes and things like that. So we're hoping the the PPE tender comes out um early next year, which will hopefully make a difference if we can manage to get on that. Um, and then I guess we also with our facility in in Bangkok we we supply broadly through Southeast Asia as well. Um, that uh the medical landscape there is a little bit easier to navigate than it is here.
Caroline Duell:Tell us about your experience today at the showcase. Um you've you've been an exhibitor, um, you've heard some interesting presentations, and obviously there's a real groundswell here of support for better health made here. Um, what's it been like to be here today?
Tom Stray:Um yeah, it's certainly been good, and and certainly been in a room that people uh come to where they know that they're coming to look for Australian-made product and support Australian-made product is a really good starting point. Um certainly there's high standards required in the medical field, which is fair enough, but but we we can have conversations and work through all that. Um, we're able to do our lightning pitch, which was really exciting, and and Josephine um knocked that out that out of the park and was really good, and and we had a lot of good feedback from that, and it generated a lot of good conversation as well. But certainly these forums where there's a lot of the right people in the room, um, it's really exciting for us to be able to present um and and and yeah, share what we've got.
Caroline Duell:Well, thanks for being on the podcast, Tom. It's been a pleasure.
Tom Stray:Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Cameron van den Dungen:My name's Cameron Van der Dungen, and I'm the founder and CEO of a company called Sleep Tights. Sleep Tights an innovation company, a product development company that designs and manufactures and then sells products for the uh aged care, disability care, and really the broader healthcare sector.
Caroline Duell:What sort of products are they?
Cameron van den Dungen:Our focus is in the name, Sleep Tight, we focus in and around the bedroom. So mainly um beds, mattresses, and also sensor technology that helps understand what's happening for people in the healthcare sector whilst they're sleeping at night in their beds. But it is starting to shift, but chairs are in the bedroom and therefore chairs are becoming a focus as well.
Caroline Duell:And you you are part of the MTP Connect Pathway to Market program. Can you tell us uh what that experience has been like?
Cameron van den Dungen:The MTP Connect Pathway to Market program is actually quite interesting. It's come about through the Industry Growth Program, a federal government body. That's how we ended up part of this program and the introduction. What it's doing is unlocking the public health sector procurement practices, getting companies like mine, which is uh an SME, a small medium enterprise for for want of a better term, um, and giving us access to public health procurement, which from an outsider, it's really hard to break in when you don't understand how it works. So programs like this Pathway to Market actually help um demystify and upskill us to prepare us for public tenders and understanding what's relevant, what's not, and where our gaps might be and how we can overcome those gaps.
Caroline Duell:And what's the process, you know, going through this program? What's it been like? Has it been illuminating?
Cameron van den Dungen:It's certainly been illuminating. That's probably a really good way of putting it. Um what it what it has done is is suggested that uh it's probably more a communication thing than than a real barrier for entry for companies like us. There is there's a willingness from the public health procurement people to look for companies like Sleep Tight and actually get locally made or locally designed innovations within the sector into their world. But they have realities that they must face that we probably didn't see as small medium enterprises that are trying to sell to the public health sector. So um that communication, that gateway between the two parties, one that buys and the other that sells, um, it's been advantageous for me because I've started to understand the pressures that the sector faces, but also realise it's not as much of a locked shop as it looks like from the outside.
Caroline Duell:And today you're here at the AMMA MedTech Showcase. What's that experience been like?
Cameron van den Dungen:I'll be honest with you, I didn't realise what it was going to be. I thought maybe I'll just approach it like another trade show. So bring our wares and show them, not really knowing who is going to be here. The quality of conversations has been fantastic. Um, the bit that's got me, I've got product that's already commercially ready for sale, but most of the sector's more interested in what's coming and where is the trend, where's the trend for technology that's evolving and emerging in aged care, um, disability care, broader health care. And for me, that's um that's heartening because whilst I've got product for sale now, that interest in what's coming shows that there might be an appetite for adoption of new technology, and I think that's critical for the future. At the same time, I need to sell product now so I can stay in business to develop more products that are exciting and new and different. So it's it's been a it's been a good experience. And so far I've been very happy with the meetings I've had.
Caroline Duell:You talked earlier today when you were doing your pitching on stage to the group, um, healthcare procurement leaders, government, entrepreneurs. You talked about a family connection to the aged care sector and how that sort of spurred you on to develop your um, let's call them sleeping innovations. So we've seen your bed, I'd call it a smart bed, but um you might have another definition for it. But you talked about how people who might want a bed that Sleep Tight make, they don't see themselves as patients. They don't want a hospital bed. Can you just expand on that a little?
Cameron van den Dungen:That's that's been one of the key drivers for me. I think when I'm developing new products, my mother, she's nearly 80, and when I'm designing things, she's the classic baby boomer, was born in 1946, does not see herself as old, but she does need some more support. So when I'm designing new products, I'm like, what would my mum tolerate in her bedroom? What will make her not feel like a patient or feel like someone who's sick? My orma, when she came to Australia from the Netherlands, she ran private aged care homes. And I watched her, I wasn't there then. My father then went on to create a business with a group of others called 40 Winks, which is beds, shock horror, I'm in beds and aged care beds. But um my omar towards the end transitioned into residential aged care. And I remember her saying to me, and and excuse, I'm trying to do my Dutch accent here, she goes, I'm not a sicky person. I'm not a sticky person. I don't need, I don't want to feel like I'm a guinea pig if that's so I've got my mum who likes beautiful things and nice, well designed and crafted. My orma that said growing old is not a sickness, which is true, and the same can be said for the disability care sector. Having a disability is not an illness. So why don't we make beautiful, lovely products that suit the lifestyle and make people not feel like they are a victim or a patient or they're in hospital? Let's just give them products that do what they need when they need it and make it look beautiful.
Caroline Duell:You talked about sensors. What sort of tech is behind your beds?
Cameron van den Dungen:Well, let's stay on that theme of how do I make people not feel like patients and guinea pigs? That's a challenge for technology, particularly when you're talking about diagnostics. So I didn't want to build a wearable because that meant you had to put something on and then you felt like you were being monitored. So I needed to create a system of extracting data, which is another way of saying sensors, but not on the body, no wearables. We call them nearables, which means essentially proximity sensors. Uh the stuff that was in market globally was um uh probably quite rigid, inflexible, is probably the best way of putting it. So it normally goes under a mattress. And whilst I have some systems that go under a mattress, and there's various reasons we won't go into here, I actually developed in conjunction with RMIT University a system of um of printing conductive inks into fabrics, which is world leading. We now hold a global patent. Essentially, every major manufacturing market in the world, we have filed this patent, which is a process of creating and manufacturing at scale printable, stretchable, flexible, soft electronics. That was a gateway to get the data extraction off the top of a mattress, but it's actually opened a whole other door to putting sensors into clothing, sensors into seats for public transport, into trucks, into all sorts of different environments. You we've got defence applications, high performance sport applications. So whilst I was chasing a system of getting data, I created a whole new category, I guess you'd say. So there's lots of different ways to get data. I created some myself, but I also repurpose non-novel sensors in a novel way to get the information we need. The one key insight though, I didn't want anyone feeling like they were a patient. I didn't want them to feel like they were a guinea pig. So how did I make my technology invisible? And that's why we call it a nearable, and we didn't go down the path of a wearable.
Caroline Duell:Your sleep tight products, they're obviously invented in Australia. Are they made here?
Cameron van den Dungen:Lots of my stuff is made here. I make where I can get the best quality at the right price that can be scaled to be able to support the healthcare sector in Australia. So my mattresses, they're made in Australia. In fact, they're licensees of the Australian Made campaign, so I can run the logo. All of my attachments, bed sticks, side rails, all of those components that go onto my adjustable beds, I make here in Australia. I'm I'm based in Melbourne. I do a lot of prototyping in my own facilities, and then I use local engineering firms, more jobs locally, but it allows me to do the one-of-one runs, those small batch runs. I do have international supply chains when I can't buy something better or cheaper in Australia. I use an international supply chain. But the big value right now for innovators and manufacturers is in the design and the recipe making. That's the true value for manufacturing. The production line is actually a low end of the spectrum. You want to be the CAD designers, you want to be the ones that come up with the idea and then register the IP. We register all our IP in Australia. We do it under an entity called Sleep Tight IP to protect it because we do believe that Australia can lead the world when it comes to flexible electronics. So while we're partnered and still to this day are partnered with RMIT and we've co-located our lab with them, and we have our facility in Brayside where we do all of our IP making, our recipe making. But at the end of the day, we also can't be a drain on the healthcare sector. It's already struggling financially, so we have to make the right decision for the right product. So that's a long way of saying I buy and make wherever is best for the category.
Caroline Duell:Thank you, Cameron, for joining the podcast. It sounds like you have an incredible recipe for success, and we look forward to following Sleep tite's success, really. Thank you.
Cameron van den Dungen:Fantastic, and a huge thank you to MTP Connect for having me involved in the program as well. Sleep Tight really appreciates it.
Michael Johnson:So Michael Johnson, I'm the uh founder and CEO of Rhinamed. We're a Melbourne-based uh medical technology company. We sort of came into our came into fruition probably around 2013-2014, and we have a wearable nasal technology. So it's a nasal technology platform, which means that even though you put it in your nose, you can do multiple things with it. Um we started we recognised that uh asking people to put something in the nose is a pretty strange idea, pretty strange concept. So we worked out pretty quickly that we needed to identify people who would be prepared to put things in the nose. And of course, one of the I guess global groups of people who are desperate to solve something to do with a nose are snorers. So everyone knows a snorer, um, and we developed our technology, the mute product, which is now available globally to resolve that issue. So it opens up the nose, it's a stent, opens up the nose, very comfortable, can be worn overnight, um, and that resolves snoring. Not completely, but it certainly goes some way to resolving snoring.
Caroline Duell:And those products are available in chemists, and um they're basically a consumer product.
Michael Johnson:Yeah, it's a consumer product, class one, so registered with the TGA, the FDA, it's got a C mark, most markets now. We sell it through Chemist Warehouse, AMCAW, all the major pharmacy groups here in Australia. We also sell it through Walgreens and CVS in the US and Boots and a whole lot of pharmacies in the UK, and of course online through Amazon. So we've got a over about, I think it's about 30,000 shelves globally that we're on. So quite a significant network. And that's fantastic because it helps allows us to socialise this concept of putting something in the nose. Um and then over the course of the pandemic, we sort of responded to, I guess, a pretty acute need, which we identified was that everyone hates being stabbed in the head with a chopstick, which was the traditional swab. Um, and the people had to be lined up to do it because you couldn't be relied upon to do it yourself because it is difficult. Um, and that when we looked at the pathology space, we realized that that's quite a that randomness at the front end is really unique because everything else in pathology is very regimented, it's all quality controlled, it's all very, very detailed. So the most random part of it, which is the sample collection, is actually the biggest risk. And that's why you have a lot of false negatives and false positives. So we designed our swab so that it doesn't matter whether it's you know Bob out and Burwood or or you know a professor at the Royal Children's, it goes into your nose the same way and it and it will be repeatable, reliable, and predictable the result, and you get a bigger yield, so you're getting a bigger sample. So he collects two samples from each nostril, collects a sample from each nostril at the same time. That's important because the nose, you may not realise the nasal cycle alternates every 90 minutes, so you'll have a bigger load on one side, which is why when you have a cold, one nostril is always more clogged than the other. It's also why you toss your head and uh twist your head and nighted when you're sleeping from one side to the other, because you it's part of the um that nasal cycle is also related to the circadian cycle. So, you know, this is bizarre, I get off on noses, but there you go. So we introduced the uh the rhino swab, and then one of our clinicians we're working with in the Netherlands said this is fantastic, but kids are still scared of being swabbed. So that's when we said, Okay, well, how about we create a swab for specifically for children, which has got the moustache and the lips, and there's a koala and emoji, and it works exactly the same way. So it gets a sample, and but we were very lucky to work with the MCRI and the Royal Children's to validate the appeal of this product, and they identified that 74% of mums and dads weren't bringing their kids for testing because the kids were scared, and so we did a trial and it showed that the kids absolutely love it because that they everyone loves wearing a funny moustache, and um and uh not only did not only that, it actually turns out to be the clinical equivalent to a combined nose and throat swab. So it's much better performing, and we've been very lucky now to get TGA approval for that and FDA approval for the swab, and we've now just recently got TGA approval for the world's first COVID flu kit design specifically for children.
Caroline Duell:How fantastic! Well done.
Michael Johnson:Yeah, so pretty exciting times, and uh we're now waiting on the FDA approval of that kit in the US, and that will really uh I hopefully cause a revolution in the way that people are tested and tested for upper respiratory disease. So obviously, COVID and flu are two of the key uh targets we're looking at, but RSV and a whole of other pneumonia and other sort of um other upper respiratory diseases that we can sample out of the nose and then identify are also on the in the pipeline.
Caroline Duell:Obviously, you've had quite a bit to do with the US market. And is the appetite for this children's um diagnostic is that there?
Michael Johnson:Yeah, absolutely. So um children are about three or four times more likely to get up a respiratory infection than adults. And as we saw through like the pandemic, and as as any parent will know, that you know the kid will come home with some terrible like you know disease and then give it to everyone else in the family, be it gastro or the flu or coughs or colds or RSV. So there's certainly a very big recognition that children are a special population. Indeed, we're part of a uh program in the US called the SPARC program, which is the special population program, and the pediatric is a major part of that. So, yeah, there's a there's a great awareness of that, and that certainly was driven by the interest coming back to Australia from the MCRI and the Royal Children's as well. So certainly there's a I think there's a really there's a big need there, which is really critical.
Caroline Duell:And is this product available in Australia?
Michael Johnson:It'll be early early next year, we'll be bringing it to market and hopefully be rolling it out through our with our retail partners. So that'll be really exciting. And and I guess that's really important from our perspective, is it's about equity and economics of like, you know, can people access these sort of tests? And the best way for us to do that is through the pharmacy groups where everyone's got access to it.
Caroline Duell:And tell us about your experience being part of the Pathway to Market program for Victoria.
Michael Johnson:Yeah, so uh we've had a a you know very long relationship with the Victorian government, with you know the DJPR people and and so on and their precursors. And I guess the the um programmes allowed us to re-engage with the um the with government and re-engage with especially with the people like the folks out at Monish Health, like Andrew Coe and and so on, who have been really, I think, in step with the way we think about how governments should engage with industry and how they should procure in access or procure products but also get access to new innovation. Um it's not lost, I think, on anyone that you know a lot of medicos today, a lot of clinicians today have careers because of innovation. So cardiologists, you know, gastroenterologists, keyhole surgeons, all this stuff is stuff that's emerged as innovation from the last you know 50 years or 60, 70 years of you know, innovation. So this program has been really invaluable of reminding me, especially that there is these fantastic groups of people out in the public health sector who are desperately looking for solutions and really reinforces the need to be engaging more with those folks.
Caroline Duell:Well, it's been really good talking to you, Michael, about the sector, about the dreams of of Rhino Med and where you're going. It's an incredible product range that you have, um, and it's really great to hear about Australian companies that are that have cracked the US market because we know that you know that that is a big goal of of many. So we look forward to um hearing more about this pediatric diagnostic in Australia coming soon.
Michael Johnson:Indeed, thank you so much.
Tim Stewart:I'm Tim Stewart, I'm founder of Certius Medical. Um I'm a registered nurse and I work in the cardiac catheter lab and anaesthetics in a in a private hospital in Melbourne. I've been working in that role for years, and we're doing minimal invasive procedures using conscious sedation so the patient's awake on the operating table. And patient comfort's really been sort of an an afterthought and done poorly for years. And so I I looked at this problem with the surgical drape. We used to make homemade devices trying to fix the problem with bulldog clips and sticky tape.
Caroline Duell:And a surgical drape is something that stops the patient from seeing what's going on.
Tim Stewart:Yeah, it maintains the sterile field. Like with pacemaker, we're very cautious about in infection. So the poor patient's stuck under a large surgical drape, and the procedure can run for up to an hour. So myself as the anesthetic nurse, I'm able to improve patient assessment and improve patient comfort. And the operating doctor has to be reassured, and we've got to maintain the sterile field for them and maintain the drape.
Caroline Duell:So, from your experience, you're at the coal face of treating patients in a surgical environment. Tell us where the inspiration came to start developing your innovations.
Tim Stewart:My first teaching doctors was Prof. Ian Meredith, and he he introduced me to the CATH lab and the procedures. And we're treating ischemic heart disease. We're talking about patients that have uh got blockages in their coronary arteries, we're talking heart attacks, we're talking time critical procedures, and then there's workflow issues associated with those. And I've watched the radial access procedure evolve over the years, and I know what the cardiologist needs. They need their patient's right arm immobilized, and they need a a work table for the procedure and to accommodate the equipment. So I've developed the radial armboard which immobilizes the patient's arm and provides the work table for the cardiologist. I've found an economical material and it's able to be manufactured here in Australia, and we're taking it to market next year via distribution. And we're yeah, we're starting in Melbourne, and um the opportunity here at the Pathway to Market program is just exactly what I need to be doing at this at this time.
Caroline Duell:Have you trialled it in any hospital settings?
Tim Stewart:The armboard is used in my workplace. I've got 11 interventional cardiologists using it. We use it four out of five days a week. We've done 1400 procedures over the last uh three three years. We're using it for complex coronary stenting.
Caroline Duell:And the the surgeons are happy?
Tim Stewart:They're really happy. There's some alternative devices, but I know from my experience taking this to market, a lot of the cardiologists aren't happy with the right arm positioning of the alternative device. It's super expensive, it's made of carbon fibre, it's just been over-engineered. I'm just coming in with a simple ergonomic device that is patented.
Caroline Duell:That's really exciting. It's wonderful to hear about a device that's been created through your own experiences and with obviously with your surgical colleagues to get their feedback and to test it. And developed here in Melbourne.
Tim Stewart:That's right. It's tested in in the clinic. I've developed it with interventional cardiologists who are specialists here at the at the Heart Hospital, and it's it's just been a great privilege, and it's great to get a device into the operating theatre.
Caroline Duell:So you've been involved with the Pathway to Market program in the last few months. How has that experience been?
Tim Stewart:I've really enjoyed it. I've met some great fellow founders, I've met some great speakers. It's all about the difficulty in getting a medical device to market. It's exactly what I'm doing at the moment. So this program's exactly what I need to be doing right now.
Caroline Duell:Today you're here at the AMMA MedTech Showcase. What's the day been like for you?
Tim Stewart:The day's been really valuable. The speakers have given great insights. Obviously, the the pictures were a highlight, and the opportunity to present to the hospital supply procurement people in the room and get their insights has been been amazing. The facilitated matchmaking that's been really valuable. Got some good contacts there.
Caroline Duell:So, what's on the table right now for Certius Medical?
Tim Stewart:The last two quarters have been capital raising. I've had a friends, family, and clinicians seed seed round. I'm still need a little bit more money, but I'm now pitching to angel investors with a view to commence manufacturing. And uh I'm manufacturing in uh North Sydney. There I I've got ISO 13485 compliant manufacturing.
Caroline Duell:Well, it's really exciting to hear about your innovations, Better Health Made Here. Thank you for joining the podcast, Tom.
Tim Stewart:Thanks so much for having me.
Caroline Duell:That was Tim Stewart, founder of Certius Medical. The Pathway to Market program is an initiative of the Australian MedTech Manufacturing Alliance, delivered by MTP Connect in partnership with BioMelbourne Network and supported by the Victorian Government. A shout out to our colleagues at the BioMelbourne Network and the Australian MedTech Manufacturing Alliance for the teamwork involved in delivering these initiatives. And thank you to Dr. Amelia Vaughn, MTP Connect Director of Stakeholder Engagement Victoria and Health and Biosecurity, who leads our Pathway to Market program. Applications for the next Pathway to Market program in 2026 will open towards the end of the year, so keep an eye out for more information. 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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