3 YEARS IN, PROGRAM BUILDS ON CAPABILITY AND CONNECTIVITY FOR EARLY CAREER RESEARCHERS IN ENT MEDICAL DEVICES Beyond Science gives in theatre opportunities, networking with stakeholders and support from mentors
With
Professor Payal Mukherjee, Adult and Paediatric ENT Surgeon
Otologist, Cochlear Implant and Skull Base Surgeon &
Clinical Professor, Macquarie University &
TGA Advisory Committee for Medical Devices &
Clinical Associate Professor, University of Sydney &
Surgical Innovation Lead, RPA Institute of Academic Surgery &
Head of Department ENT, Sydney Adventist Hospital &
Co-Founder & Co-Director, Beyond Science
Distinguished Professor Gordon Wallace AO,
Director, Intelligent Polymer Research Institute,
University of Wollongong &
Co-Founder & Co-Director, Beyond Science
AUSTRALIAN HEALTH JOURNAL SEGMENT
Filmed in Sydney & Wollongong | August 2025
Surgeon-scientists and surgeon-innovators have an important role in the entire medical technology translational cycle; not only from discovery to commercialisation, but in ensuring that health technologies are implemented in value-based manner.
This includes defining safety and regulatory standards, balancing patient outcomes against health care costs, and working with policy makers to ensure that funding is both sustainable and promotes equitable access to technology.
Despite a rich history of biomedical innovation in Australia, there are limited training opportunities for surgeons to develop these skills. Within NSW, there are no formal surgeon-scientist training pathways in Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery.
In 2022, Distinguished Professor Gordon Wallace AO and Professor Mukherjee jointly established Beyond Science as a clinician led, academically supported and clinician run Australian-first medical technology translation program.
The program is aimed at early career researchers and clinician-scientists working in medical device research specifically in otolaryngology (ear, nose, and throat), head and neck surgery.
Its core mission is to build capability and foster connections between researchers and key stakeholders such as industry, government, universities, and health systems.
This is through helping researchers understand health system priorities and translation pathways from research to real-world impact. Uniquely, this includes opportunity to enter surgical environments for observation and tissue collection.
Australian Health Journal spoke to its founders about how it supports academic mentorship and creates networking opportunities to help early career stage medical device researchers connect with clinicians, policymakers, industry leaders, and funding bodies.
Beyond Science is funded by Passe & Williams Foundation & the Sydney Local Health District
Source: Adapted from Beyond Science, RACS and University of Wollongong websites
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Redefining diversity in clinical trials
Ensuring inclusion, diversity, equity and patient input in the development of novel drugs and medical devices has become well accepted in health care. However appropriate implementation of these elements has been a challenge for many. Only by implementing these conscious inputs can patient outcomes be improved and health disparities in marginalised groups be addressed.
Australian Health Journal spoke to Gillian Mason, Consumer and Community Involvement Lead at Hunter Medical Research Institute in Newcastle, NSW on this topic discussed at the recent ARCS Conference in Sydney.
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HIGHLIGHTS The power of social determinants of health, panel discussion
Clinicians and consumers know only too well that life circumstances such as poor housing, income and food insecurity can have a negative impact on health outcomes. Conversely, participation in community activities, social connection and access to nature parks and leisure facilities can help maintain health and wellbeing.
More recent phenomena in public health have also focused us on the health and social care connection. Stress factors such as the sudden loss of employment and social interaction, moving to remote work or schooling, and the impacts of sudden, localised COVID-19 ‘lockdowns’ to prevent further outbreaks were triggers of increased psychological distress.
And loneliness is being described as our latest epidemic with chronic loneliness inked to a myriad of health problems and earlier death. A recent report found one in four Australians say they feel persistently lonely, and that loneliness costs $2.7 bn a year in health costs alone.
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Stroke care advances in translated research
New nurse-led protocols for stroke patients, based on ACU research, led by the Nursing Research Institute, have resulted in changes to policy, guidelines and clinical practice in Europe and Australia. The protocols were developed through the Quality in Acute Stroke Care (QASC) Trial (published in the Lancet, 2011) to manage fever, hyperglycaemia and swallowing (FeSS) post-stroke.
