Circuitwise is proud to be organising and sponsoring the NSW Active MedTech Community, which was launched today. The mission of the new community is saving and improving lives by making it easier to develop medical devices with electronics and software.
MedTech entrepreneurs face steep learning curves in multiple disciplines required to develop a product. To help reduce the learning curve for entrepreneurs, the community will run a series of thought leadership webinars and events with expert MedTech service providers.
The first activity of the community was a MedTech Hypothetical session. The session showcased an early stage startup and aimed to identify critical success factors for taking the project forward.
The case study was on MOSkin, a radiation dosimeter technology was developed by the Centre for Medical Radiation Physics at the University of Wollongong and is being commercialised by Electrogenics Laboratories.
Up to half of the patients who receive radiotherapy will suffer some level of collateral organ or tissue damage leading to a decline in quality of life, which can be debilitating or even lead to secondary tumors. The MOSkin project aims to develop a single-use, disposable sensing system, customised for use during a variety of cancer treatments, as well as angiogram, diagnostic and interventional scans. The device will have a small electronic device attached to the sensor to community the dose a patient is receiving, in real time.
During the panel session at community launch, Circuitwise General Manager Serena Ross offered a key piece of advice - that the developers focus on the testing bottleneck as much the assembled cost of each device. Because the MOSkin product will be high-volume and disposable, the temptation will be to focus on the lowering the component cost. However the cost of testing the device, an integral part of the manufacturing process, can dwarf the component and assembly cost. Unfortunately many product developers leave this critical step until the last minute, often when it is too late to optimise the design for testing.
Electrogenics Laboratories CEO Kim Lyle presenting the MOSkin technology at the community launch
There is a perception that developing active MedTech products such as MOSkin is hard – so hard that it scares off a lot of people with otherwise great ideas. The community is seeking to change that perception by identifying critical success factors in the disciplines required for successful MedTech commercialisation.
Circuitwise encourages anyone involved in the MedTech industry, from any discipline, to join the NSW Active Medtech community.