Bupa was the industry partner of this year’s challenge that was split into two streams, one open to the public, and another for university students.

Finalists pitched their ideas to an expert judging panel to be in the running for a range of prizes, and contribute to the future of Australia's health and wellness industry.

Telstra and its sponsors provided qualifying teams with everything they needed to get their ideas up and running, including a development kit designed specifically for Australian innovators and developers.

The teams across both Challenge streams worked to design, build and code hardware devices including wearable devices and diagnostic systems.

Teams showed how IoT technologies could be used to improve the lives of patients and their carers, and in assisting those who work in the healthcare industry in providing the best care.

Cindy Shay, Bupa’s Director Health Partnerships and Innovation was on the judging panel for the challenge and witnessed the incredible creations teams came up with.

“To get the most out of our health system, identifying opportunities to empower both the individual as well as health professionals is important. We have seen teams apply their thinking and problem-solving to both groups across a range of real-world scenarios,” says Bupa’s Innovation lead, Gemma Cosgriff.

“I have been impressed with the effort that teams have put in to solve for problems which exist in health and care today. I’ve seen some great teamwork, creativity and passion across both the university and public teams. It’s been a great opportunity for everyone involved.” she adds.

Find out more about the 2018 Telstra Innovation Challenge winners and their innovative projects.

Public Stream Winner – Lynxx

"Sitting is the new smoking" - Ergorithm is a wearable device that strives to promote a desirable posture for its users. The team produced a belt using the Cat M1 board and a sensor, which can be calibrated based on the specific user, to monitor the user’s lower back posture and give real time feedback (i.e. alert if bad posture). In the future the design could be extended to also cover neck posture.

University Stream Winner – Team Laika (RMIT)

The Me-MG, a wearable EMG biofeedback unit, empowers users to exercise during home based rehabilitation by giving them real time feedback on their level of muscle activation and movement extension through a number of on-body lights and a display screen. One light will indicate the degree of flex in the knee and the other the muscle activation; together they will be an accurate measure of how well the patient is performing the exercise. The device must be calibrated to the individual by their physio based on custom thresholds that can be updated remotely over our dashboard. The dashboard is accessible to both the patients and the physios, and is a platform where they can access the muscle activity and flex data directly, review analytics, data tends, and set themselves or their patient’s goal for their rehabilitation over all.

Innovation Winner – Health is Wealth

A Point of Care (PoC) diagnostic system to detect presence and severity of Xerostomia (a.k.a Dry Mouth condition). One of the sensors measures the salivary flow rate implanted or by the way of removable prosthetics inserted in the mouth by a dentist. The other custom-built sensor measures volatile organic compounds (gases) coming out of the mouth. These sensors are connected to the IoT development board and the data from these sensors will be analysed using machine learning to improve the quality of condition detection.

Congratulations to all the winners.

The 2018 Telstra Innovation Challenge finalist pitching awards event was held at Telstra Labs in Melbourne on 26 May.

Find out more about the 2018 Telstra Innovation Challenge.

Photo and video credits to Telstra.

UP NEXT:

Australia’s brightest tech minds compete to solve major health challenges

The hub was designed with direct input from people with disability, their families and carers, and clinicians.

Bupa will continue to consult people from the disability community to guide the implementation of the hub.

This initiative will offer a truly integrated approach to care for people with disability. It will have a dedicated welcome area, treatment rooms and a gymnasium for individual and group therapy. It will also cater for carers and other family members, with lounges, tea and coffee making facilities, wifi, internet terminals and desk space.

Bupa's expansion of services to people with disability follows the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in 2013. The national roll out of the NDIS began in July and is scheduled to be completed by 2020.

Bupa Medical General Manager Dr Ros Blakley said the hub would not be limited to Bupa customers or NDIS participants.

“The NDIS is all about giving people with disability control over the support and services they use. Bupa’s Therapy Hub is as an opportunity for us to listen to people with disability to better help meet their needs,” Dr Blakley said.

“We asked our customers what they wanted and they told us they want a better standard of care. They also encouraged us to take a lead with service delivery, so that’s what we’re doing.

“We want to take the time to give people with disability what they deserve – and that’s the services and support they need to live their lives to the full.

“There are more than 4.3 million Australians with disability. Currently, many of those Australians don’t have access to adequate resources and expertise.

“There is also a real shortage of therapy services designed to help people with disability, their families and carers.

“Everything from layout to lighting has been taken into consideration.

“The bottom line is we want to create a great experience for the people who access our services. For instance, we’ve been told that the convenience of having multiple services under one roof is important because it means people travel less and receive more coordinated care.”

Bupa has deep knowledge in complex care and rehabilitation. In addition to running seven rehabilitation centres in New Zealand, Bupa today cares for close to 12,000 residents in 130 aged care homes across Australia and New Zealand.

“Given our history in rehabilitation services and complex care, we believe we can play a meaningful role in helping address these important community needs, particularly as people now have greater control of their choices through the NDIS," Dr Blakley said.

“We’ve listened carefully to people with disability, their families and carers, and clinicians. That’s why we’re confident this purpose-built facility will make a difference by delivering high-quality, person-first care.

“We want this to be a welcoming environment for people with disability, a place of comfort and convenience for carers and a great place to work for clinicians.”

Interested to learn more?

People enquiring about the new facility or its services can contact www.bupa.com.au/therapy

To learn more about how the centre was co-designed with the disbaility community, Dr Ros Blakley writes about the human centred design process here.

The polypill, a four-in-one tablet, is a major step closer to becoming reality with the announcement that The George Institute for Global Health and Bupa Australia have joined forces to develop the medication, through a joint venture called SmartGenRx.

Heart disease and stroke are the country’s biggest killers, and there are an estimated one million Australians at high risk who do not receive recommended preventive treatments long-term.¹

Research has shown, however, that patients who have suffered a stroke or heart attack are 40 per cent more likely to stick to their treatments if they take just one pill – a polypill – instead of four different tablets each day.²

Trials have consistently shown that polypills reduce both blood pressure and cholesterol, to levels that could halve the risk of having a heart attack or stroke.

Principal Director of The George Institute for Global Health, Stephen McMahon, said the partnership with Bupa Australia could save millions of lives around the world.

Professor McMahon said: “Heart disease and stroke are Australia’s biggest killers. Yet many people are dying unnecessarily because they either don’t continue taking all the medications they need or in low income countries don’t even get the chance to start treatment because the cost is just too prohibitive.

“A polypill is a simple, innovative and incredibly efficient way of addressing these global health problems.”

Bupa Australia and The George Institute have launched a 50-50 joint venture, SmartGenRx, to develop the polypill. It is expected to be publically available in around three years.

Key facts:

• Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is Australia’s biggest killer, claiming the life of one Australian every 12 minutes.³
• CVD affects one in six Australians, 3.72 million people.⁴ But just half of patients at high risk take recommended treatments long-term.
• Studies suggest heart disease costs Australia $18 billion each year with half of the cost attributable to repeat events.⁵
• In previous trials by The George Institute, more than 85% of patients said they would ask their doctor for a polypill if it came to market.⁶

Polypill in the media:

• Bupa moves into drug development with four-in-one Polypill - Australian Financial Review
• New polypill to tackle cardiovascular disease - Australian Journal of Pharmacy