Executive Summary
Big News: Awarded support from the Melbourne InnovatED program, which includes non-dilutive funding and connections in higher education
Wins:
Observations of lumbar punctures in the paediatric oncology space
Top 4 finalists for Building Better Futures in Health, an IDE Group pitch competition in Sydney
Accepted and attended the ANDHealth’s Accelerate in Digital Health Masterclass Program 2023
Accepted into the SBE Australia’s Life Sciences Intensive 2023
Updates:
Internal business case refinement and deep dive
Started a market research project with a team of MBA students from Monash to validate our current research on the training market
Company Summary
Vause Medical is a MedTech startup based in Victoria creating a guidance device to help clinicians improve the lumbar puncture procedure. Infants that may have a critical neurological condition require a lumbar puncture for accurate diagnosis, which is often performed without the help of medical imaging. To help reduce repeat punctures, inaccurate procedures, and pain for the patient, we have developed the LumVi System. Combining medical imaging and augmented reality, we are introducing better ways to train clinicians in lumbar punctures and ultimately better ways to perform the procedure.
Wins
Quarter 3 was a whirlwind of activity for the team, and we are happy to report on some exciting outcomes! We saved the best for last in our award of support from Melbourne InnovatED.
Lumbar Puncture Observations in Paediatric Oncology
We had the opportunity to observe lumbar punctures in the paediatric oncology space, and learned a tremendous amount about this patient group. While the LumVi System is designed for newborns, our vision is to make the system accessible for other patient groups. This spans from paediatric emergency, oncology, adult obstetrics and geriatric interventions. We gained insights on the challenges and pitfalls of clinicians training to perform lumbar punctures for the paediatric oncology patient group. From here, we want to ensure that our training protocol is designed to be easily adapted between types of patient groups.
BBFH Pitch Competition Finalists
On the night of September 13th, Mara and Shelby flew to Sydney to compete in the Building Better Futures for Health pitch competition. Mara delivered a fantastic pitch and Shelby fielded the questions during the intense Q&A from the judging panel. Although the team did not win the competition, the opportunity to pitch and present at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney was a prize of its own. A major thank you to the IDE Group for hosting the competition and for the opportunity to compete with the best!
ANDHealth’s Accelerate in Digital Health Masterclass
This year we were accepted to attend the ANDHealth Accelerate in Digital Health Masterclass, a six day intensive with digital health startups across Australia. While taking in a smorgasbord of topics and opportunities to workshop one on one with experts in regulatory, product development and more we also built relationships with other startups in the space. As we apply our new learnings from the Masterclass to the development and deployment of the LumVi System, we look forward to continued engagement with the ANDHealth ecosystem.
SBE Australia Life Sciences Intensive Acceptance 2023
After an intensive interview process, we were accepted for the SBE Australia Life Sciences intensive 2023! We had the opportunity to meet the cohort in an onboarding session, where we were introduced to other female founders from a variety of career backgrounds and fields of expertise. The team is looking forward to the connections with the ecosystem and stress testing of our value proposition at Vause Medical during the intensive. We have also received a scholarship from LaunchVic to attend the intensive.
Editor’s Note: Before publishing this newsletter, we attended the intensive and look forward to reporting on our overwhelmingly positive experience in the final year newsletter for 2023.
InnovatED 2023 Program Support and Funding
In September we had the opportunity to compete for support from Melbourne InnovatED, an education tech fund aimed at supporting innovation through the University of Melbourne. Vause Medical was successful in securing support, including non-dilutive funding and connections with key opinion leaders in higher education. This is a critical step for our team, as we will be able to further incorporate feedback from potential end users at the University of Melbourne Medical School as well as build our relationships with potential future customers for the LumVi Edu.
Updates
Business Case Work
This quarter, we have concentrated on understanding our business case on a deeper level. To that end, our team has been working hard to iron out the details and refine the opportunities we see in the training space for lumbar punctures. One key finding: we will benefit from entering the market as a training device because the early market entry provides user feedback that can be a key part of our regulatory submission in the future. The early market entry also allows us to enter licensing partnerships with interested research groups that would benefit from our proprietary hardware.
Market Research
We have engaged with Monash University’s MBA industry program, where we have tasked a group of talented students to validate our training market. Although we have done our own internal research on the training market, there are key areas where we would benefit from an outside perspective and opinion. This will strengthen our claims on market sizing, price benchmarks and value to customers through external validation. We look forward to the results of the research on the 17th of November 2023.
Message from the Team
Message from Michelle Callow (Co-founder): “ This quarter has really cemented the traction Vause Medical is gaining. It has been extremely empowering to see the team join industry programs that are aligned with the direction we see ourselves progressing into, alongside the validation we receive from pitching.”
Together, our team joined forces to have a positive impact on healthcare inequity in the world. Stay in touch as we help clinicians to train with ease and treat with confidence.