Healthcare innovation is taking place at an unprecedented scale

The Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct is among the enterprises leading this healthcare revolution. It is one of the most advanced health and knowledge innovation hubs in the Asia-Pacific region.

The precinct is a legacy of the 2018 Commonwealth Games. It brings together business, industry and researchers to generate new ideas and create and commercialise innovative technologies.

The Queensland Connects program

In 2021, a team from the Gold Coast was one of four selected to take part in the Queensland Connects program.

Run by the Queensland Government in collaboration with Queensland University of Technology, the program works of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) regional entrepreneurship development model to drive innovation-led entrepreneurship in regional Queensland.

The Gold Coast team was led by Datarwe Partnerships Manager and Medtech Program Manager at the Queensland AI Hub, Dr Stephanie Chaousis.

The teams include participants from local government, universities, businesses and local entrepreneurs. They work collaboratively in conjunction with QUT entrepreneurship educators to set a ‘must-win’ goal.

The Gold Coast team looked at how they could strengthen the emerging health tech industry on the Coast, providing a way for local start-ups and SMEs to find funding opportunities.

They established the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct as a springboard to develop a pipeline of health tech business opportunities. It is now internationally recognised for transforming lives through healthcare innovation, new knowledge and next generation technologies.

Advance Queensland’s Regional Futures — Collaborative Projects — growing a health technology pipeline

The idea’s success won them funding through Advance Queensland’s Regional Futures —Collaborative Projects for three key health tech projects.

The projects were selected for their focus on germinating new health tech businesses, increasing the capability of promising start-ups, and scaling-up success.

The three health tech projects are:

  • Change Agent — Clinical Entrepreneurship Change Agents Program (CECAP)

    Empowering intrapreneurial clinicians to bring their ideas to life. Griffith University Business School received $200,000 to identify and support clinicians to branch into innovation through free training and support.

  • Start-up — LuminaX Health Accelerator

    Refining and connecting, start-ups so they can rapidly scale. CoSpaces Pty Ltd received $150,000 for assistance to commercialise 10 startups through a 14-week program aimed at accelerating growth and fast-tracking pathways to market and customers.

  • Scale-up — NeuTex Image-guided Therapies Surgery and Robotics Training Centre

    Extending cutting edge health tech services into a broader global market. NeuTex received $200,000 for its Gold Coast-based Image-Guided Surgical Technologies Centre.

Both the CECAP and NeuTex projects are led by the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct Office. The LuminaX Health Tech Accelerator has a partnership with the precinct, an initiative of the Queensland Connects supported Strategic Plan development.

The precinct plays a key role in diversifying the Gold Coast economy. Healthcare is now one of the region’s main economic pillars — along with construction, tourism and manufacturing.

The precinct’s Investment and Engagement Manager, Kathy Kruger, said they are strongly focused on building an investment pipeline.

'The healthcare system is connecting like never before,’ Ms Kruger said, ‘from student entrepreneurship initiatives — to clinicians learning entrepreneurial skills to take their ideas into clinical practice or commercialisation — and researchers forming start-ups and being accelerated to success through the LuminaX program.'

Ms Kruger

Last updated: 06 May 2024