Santosh Kaur is a passionate registered nurse and mother of a 5 year old. She has worked in healthcare for over 15 years from frontline to senior management/executive roles. She practiced as a doctor in India, successfully running her private practice before moving to Australia in 2009 and becoming a nurse. Throughout her journey around wound care, she was frustrated to see the simple gaps in wound care resulting in negative patient outcomes. Santosh is the founder of SmartHeal which launched in 2020.
SmartHeal is a technology alternative to manual measurements and manual sharing of important wound data, replaced with a no touch technique. It aims for healthcare professionals to have live remote access to wound data, make wound assessments and assist with speech to text notes thus saving time, cost and people. SmartHeal also aims to assist healthcare professionals in providing optimum wound care by analysing the wound tissue for infection, moisture and providing suggestions for suitable dressing. Source: https://sbeaustralia.org/news/4358.
Australian Health Journal spoke with Santosh prior to another startup pitching contest (where SmartHeal won).
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Bionic eye trial shows improvements in functional vision for retinitis pigmentosa
Results of the first clinical trial of Australia’s ‘second generation’ bionic eye have demonstrated ‘substantial improvement’ in four participants’ functional vision, daily activities and quality of life over a period of more than two and a half years.
Led by the Centre for Eye Research Australia, Bionics Institute, University of Melbourne and Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, the trial findings add to interim results which showed that the second-generation bionic eye developed by Australian company Bionic Vision Technologies provided rapid improvements for four patients with blindness caused the genetic eye condition retinitis pigmentosa.
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Recognising service in health regulation
In April 2023, Professor John Skerritt retired from his position of Deputy Secretary Health Products Regulation Group, a role he has been in since 2012. During his time at the TGA he had line responsibility for over 1200 staff involved in the regulation of therapeutic goods, regulation of gene technology and industrial chemicals and control of drug import, export and production.
At this year’s ARCS 2023 Conference, ARCS Australia CEO Dr Shanny Dyer paid tribute to Professor Skerritt and his service to the Australian health industry. She led a tribute with fellow industry heads, Elizabeth de Somer, CEO, Medicines Australia, Anne Harris, Managing Director, Pfizer Australia & New Zealand, Deon Schoombie, CEO, Consumer Healthcare Products Australia, Ian Burgess, CEO, Medical Technology Association of Australia and Arthur Brandwood, President ARCS Australia.
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Belonging in a medical device company
Edith de Boer is the HR Director for Zimmer Biomet in Australia and New Zealand. Her career originally was in telecommunications and consulting in Europe. After leaving The Netherlands, Edith worked into the Australian medical research industry, before moving into a human resources role at Zimmer Biomet. Edith spoke to Australian Health Journal about her role and the organisation.
