Bill Ferris, chair of Innovation and Science Australia (ISA), believes the sector of medical technology will play a major role in the country’s innovation and think Australia could become the world leader in genomic medicine.
The expert shared this analysis in March 2017, just before a speech on March 15 to the Australian American Chamber of Commerce, where he outlined the six key challenges that will face the country to become a « top tier innovation nation ».
Australia: digital health services and big data management at the heart of innovation
Innovation and Science Australia is an independent statutory board which provides strategic advice to the whole Government of the Commonwealth of Australia on all science in science, technology and business development.
According to Bill Ferris, the most promising sectors on the Australian healthcare market are:
- Digital health services (digital medical documentation, history platform…), which facilitate big data access and analysis, enabling better prevention. This sector is « the one I’m most optimistic about it », said Bill Ferris.
- Big data: an effective big data management is essential, especially in the field of precision medicine. Success in this sectors stems « from our capabilities in gene sequencing and pathology analysis, » said Bill Ferris. « That is a huge area of activity and from our analysis Australia is already right up there and could be positioned at the front of the bus. »
Australia has already founded the Australian Genome Facility Referencing with the Melbourne branch based at the Walter and Eliza Institute, while Sydney has the Kinghorn Center for Clinical Genomics at the Garvan Institute.
In November 2015, the National Health and Medical Council has delivered the second largest grant in its history of $25 million (€23 M) to the Australian Genomic Health Alliance, a national network of 47 partner organizations, including hospitals, research institute, and universities.
The Australian medical sector is among the most advanced in the world, according to Bill Ferris
The Australian medical industry is already world-class in terms of knowledge creation, said Mr Ferris. According to him, the $500 million (€463 M) Biomedical Translation Fund would lead to more commercial successes and the database set up by the Ministry of Health, My Health Record (MyHR), would open up new opportunities for startups.
« [Through MyHR], privacy issues have already been well covered and in that sense we’re ahead of almost anyone in the world… It can become a valuable resource for better service delivery, prognosis, diagnosis and the basis for a whole pile of new business applications, including precision medicine. »
The six key challenges outlined by Bill Ferris:
- 1. Encouraging more Australian companies to achieve global best practice in innovative activity on the healthcare market;
- 2. Getting greater economic and social benefits through more innovative procurement and service delivery performance of governments;
- 3. Developing an education system more responsive to the changing needs of citizens and businesses;
- 4. Strengthening collaboration between Australian research and commerce sectors to increase innovation and commercialization;
- 5. Maximizing strategic international engagements to bring in the talent, knowledge and capital to fuel the innovation system;
- 6. Selecting high-impact projects capable of making changes in Australia’s innovation outcomes out to 2030 and beyond.
This six challenges will form the backbone of the recommendations Innovation and Science Australia will submit to the government by the end of 2017. Main goal: positioning Australia to be a world innovation leader by 2030.
« Our workforce will require the skills to generate, transfer and implement knowledge and ideas. We need an integrated education and skills system that produces and supports a workforce capable of reacting and adapting to change. We want our children to have highly developed skills in the areas of logic, creativity, and social interaction, » said Bill Ferris.
He also mentioned the possibilities of using major high-impact large scale projects to drive innovation.
« In developing the 2030 Strategic Plan, we hope to identify one or more major, game-changing, initiatives with scale that can deliver significant direct and spill-over benefits to the innovation system and broader economy. »