BUSINESS - Gold Coast Health & Knowledge Precinct

Filed Under: BUSINESS, HEALTH, INVEST, People of the Precinct, PROJECTS, Research

Bright spots in 2020 and bright future in 2021 and beyond

Professor Mario Pinto, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research), Griffith University and Chair GCHKP Strategic Advisory Group

2020 marks the 20^th anniversary of the Precinct’s Institute for Glycomics at Griffith University, and Institute founder Professor Mark von Itzstein started on a high, by being named Gold Coast Citizen of the Year on Australia Day. Of course the year, and the celebrations didn’t quite go to plan.

We look forward to Australia Day 2021, with one of our Precinct’s favourite people, Dr Dinesh Palipana OAM, named Queensland Australian of the Year, and in the running for the nation’s top honour, capping off a stellar year for Queensland’s first quadriplegic doctor.

In between, much has happened in the Precinct and we can be sure that amidst the challenges, change and ‘pandemic pivoting’ that Australia is indeed the lucky country, and Queensland and the Gold Coast are the best places to be for a bright future, as GCHKP Strategic Advisory Group Chair Professor Mario Pinto reflects.

“For all the upheaval, and that very much includes our university sector, this pandemic year has brought research success, new partnerships and some business growth, and certainly heightened commercial interest in our Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct, beyond the COVID-19 horizon.

Who would have predicted that the pandemic would serve as a catalyst for increased interest in our Precinct?”

Probiotics-based biotech company Cluster Biotech moved into our Precinct in May, taking one of the new lab spaces at Cohort Innovation Space, and is already building new business. Compliance software start-up Virtual Mgr, also based at Cohort, turned the pandemic into an opportunity to pivot and even expand into the UK. Just a couple of ‘bright spots’.

Geography, stability and relative safety are strong attributes that will be more important than ever for our Precinct’s future success.

Social distancing has altered perspectives on company locations and remote working and only intensified the premium lifestyle appeal of the Gold Coast, as is evident by interstate and international company interest and reports of growing real estate sales through interstate migration, in the general absence of overseas migration and opportunities for international engagement.

Like other innovation precincts, we have a significant opportunity to build on renewed respect for science and research, and the appreciation of the value of our world-class Australian health system.

Given our healthcare assets and emerging and growing capability in advanced design and other Industry 4.0 technologies for future manufacturing, particularly in the area of medical technologies, our Precinct is well-placed to ride on a wave of interest and investment in the new economy, that will lead us through recovery and drive future growth.

Initiatives such as the Australian Government’s $1.5billion Modern Manufacturing Strategy and the focus on sovereign capacity and supply chain resilience, will assist us to partner with and attract innovative companies actively engaged in R&D, enrich and grow our existing innovation ecosystem, and enhance our impact.

Importantly, as an emerging Precinct, in a youthful city and relatively young nation, we genuinely represent a new horizon for global talent and innovative businesses, in a post-pandemic world.”

2020 Bright Spots

Professor of Emergency Care Julia Crilley (second from left) and nurse colleagues

Well-earned recognition in this International Year of the Nurse

2020 could not have been a more appropriate year to dedicate to acknowledging the amazing work of nurses.

Here in the GCHKP, Griffith University celebrated its Nursing and Midwifery program ranking No 1 in Australia, and No 2 in the world!

Meanwhile, Gold Coast Health became the first full health service in Australia to win prestigious International Magnet recognition for Nursing and Midwifery services.

Dedicated Gold Coast University Hospital nurse and Professor of Emergency Care Julia Crilley OAM was recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, alongside Griffith University Pro-Vice-Chancellor Health, Professor Sheena Reilly AM, who is a renowned paediatric health researcher.

COVID - health and research response

Professor Michael Good AO, Principal Research Leader, Institute for Glycomics, past Chairman of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and Queensland Great was appointed to the National Covid-19 Health and Research Advisory Committee.
Professor Michael Good

Gold Coast University Hospital treated some of Australia’s first COVID-19 patients in late January, and completed major COVID training across the health service, including 250 clinical simulations in April alone.
COVID 19 Clinical Research – researchers and clinicians have developed a world-first Precision Medicine Data Platform, including a COVID-19 dashboard, to help ICU clinicians make critical patient care decisions utilising artificial intelligence (AI). Start-up company Datarwe was awarded $1.5m Advance Queensland funding for platform and has set up a new data lab as Queensland’s new AI Hub for health at Cohort Innovation Space.

COVID-19 vaccine and therapy research – there’s been extensive research into COVID-19 vaccines and therapies as well as pandemic impacts, including a multi-pronged Glycomics approach (which included a $200,000 investment by the Queensland Government and City of Gold Coast); $300,000 from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) awarded to Professor Nigel McMillan of Griffith’s Menzies Health Institute Qld for gene silencing (sRNA) technologies targeting COVID; and Professor Suresh Mahalingham, also of Menzies, partnering with a major Indian vaccines company to develop a live attenuated COVID vaccine.

READ MORE

Research, clinical trials, partnerships and developments

A major partnership between Griffith University and Gilmour Space will speed the launch of new low earth orbit satellites

Aerospace technology – Griffith University and Gilmour Space signed a major 5-year partnership that will see Low Earth Orbit satellites developed locally and launched to space by 2023, with extensive R&D anticipated in 3D printing and prototyping, sensor technology and AI, along with a range of student training opportunities.
Clinical trials – The GCHKP accelerates as a clinical trial hub during COVID-19 – Griffith University’s Clinical Trial unit became the first location in the world to recruit patients for a multi-national rheumatology trial while screening the first patient in Australia for another multi-national trial. Griffith researchers were awarded a $2m grant from Queensland Cancer Council to expand ovarian cancer clinical trials., while other university scientists received $1.46m from the National Health and Medical Research Council for diagnostics and therapies for chronic fatigue syndrome. Gold Coast Health reported 94 active clinical trials and 151 research projects, including a world-first trial of a robotic arm brain aneurysm procedure and will co-lead a $2.3m trial into treatments for deadly sepsis.
Medical technologies – materials science researchers developed new implantable electronics for use in brain stimulation and cardiac pacemakers; health technology researchers won the national iAwards 2020 Business Industry Solution of the Year with a device to better identify and treat pain, while another major biomedical engineering project is developing world-first artificial wrist ligament.

Proxima – child health and education centre of excellence

The $80m Proxima development by Evans Long was announced as a prestige integrated centre of excellence in child education and health – the first private commercial development in the GCHKP’s Lumina commercial cluster. Construction is set to start in the first half of 2021, with Sanctuary Learning Adventure named as the innovative operator of a special-needs focused childcare centre.

Cohort Labs – Cohort Innovation Space opened new PC1 and PC2 labs in May, including a new biotechnology lab quickly taken up by probiotics-based biotech company Cluster Biotech.

Filed Under: BUSINESS, People of the Precinct, Research

People of the Precinct – discovering an ocean of possibilities through data science

Dr Stephanie Chaousis is connecting academia, industry and healthcare to the power of AI and data science

With technology company Datarwe opening its doors to a new DataScience lab within Cohort in the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct, it can accelerate development of its Precision Medicine Data Platform (PDMP), a world-leading comprehensive acute care medical research platform – providing a major new resource to develop AI enabled diagnostics, treatment protocols and med-tech products in Queensland.

Driving partnerships and engagement, including a major partnership with Griffith University, is former alumnus Dr Stephanie Chaousis, an Ecotoxicology PhD whose own research saw her wading through a sea of data to develop a keen appreciation for the potential of AI and machine learning.

When Stephanie Chaousis undertook her undergraduate marine and molecular science studies at James Cook University, before completing post-graduate honours exploring therapeutic effects of jellyfish venom at the Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine in 2012, the opportunities presented by the next-generation of artificial intelligence (AI) may still have seemed oceans away, for novice researchers like herself.

Only eight years ago the potential of AI and machine learning for researchers, industry and indeed the whole world, was being rapidly developed in university computer science labs, tech companies and major corporations, but the ripple effect on research in other scientific fields was still to be fully felt.

Steph’s jellyfish project called for separating out multiple different molecules to determine which were lethal and which weren’t, in the hunt for those that might prove therapeutic – painstaking laboratory analysis performed without the help of a handy predictive algorithm.

After a short segue at the University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience, probing therapeutic opportunities in Tarantula venom, Steph embarked on a PhD at Griffith University in 2015, in a bid to discover a protein biomarker for exposure to chemical pollution from the cell and blood samples of sea turtles.

By the time she was completing her final thesis to earn her doctorate and play her part in marine conservation, she had some 200,000 data points to work with, and was convinced of the opportunity that AI presents in an increasingly ‘big data’ world.

Steph (right) with research colleagues during her PhD at Griffith University

“When you have too much data it becomes more challenging to derive meaning, so I got really interested in AI and machine learning from that point.”

Having worked in both lab and teaching assistant roles at Griffith throughout her PhD studies, Steph proved her versatility by finding a position as an Environmental Scientist for the City of Gold Coast’s Water and Waste directorate, while simultaneously interning with Griffith’s Institute for Glycomics as a Business Analyst.

She’d previously connected with Datarwe CTO Dr Kelvin Ross at a Cohort event, and kept in touch, so he came knocking when the fast-growing company needed an energetic exponent of Data Science and AI, who could build collaboration with researchers in industry, academia and healthcare.

“It’s really exciting to be working with Datarwe from such an early stage and being a part of the company’s growth. Being in this space has offered up great opportunities such as developing and overseeing the MedTech Program for the new Queensland AI Hub, which is a dual role I’m currently in,” Steph says.

“What’s exciting about AI is that it can provide us with accurate prediction using insights from the medical data we already have access to – so rather than relying on future studies and trials, we can look retrospectively for clues and answers. But in order to extract this meaning, the data needs to be useable, accessible, accurate and secure, which is what we are doing at Datarwe by building the PMDP.”

The Datarwe data science technologies lab at Cohort

Datarwe’s PDMP, which earlier this year received $1.5 million funding from Advance Queensland, works by collecting de-identified patient data from hospital Intensive Care Units’ monitoring devices and clinical notes. The data is securely enriched so it can be used by developers to create tools using AI and ML to develop predictive analytics, which then help health care professionals make timely decisions at the patient’s bedside.

It’s a potentially life-saving platform, especially in the midst of a pandemic, and Steph was eager to inspire innovation, as chair of the inaugural Queensland AI Hub Medical Datathon, held in virtual mode in July.

Staged over two weekends, the event brought together multidisciplinary teams with expertise in data science, ML and AI, with clinicians and medical researchers, as well as the business and student communities, to work with real-world data on new medical applications. The impact has extended well beyond, with many teams continuing to develop their projects to make waves in the world of AI – read more.

“Overall, the last 6 months working at Datarwe and the AI Hub has opened my eyes to the appetite in Queensland, and particularly the Gold Coast, for the kind of advanced technology we are building at Datarwe and supporting through the Hub.

As I have personally experienced, the job opportunities in this space are growing rapidly right here in the GCHKP and Lumina, and I’m glad to be able to support the growth of this important industry for Queensland.”

Connect with Steph

Filed Under: BUSINESS, HEALTH

Precinct responds with professional courses and health education

Upskilling, reskilling and diversifying are the catch-cries of the COVID pivot. There’s never been a better time to embrace career change, professional growth and business transformation, and here in the Precinct we’re at the forefront of preparing for post-pandemic jobs and business opportunities – from Griffith University’s extensive suite of micro-credentials, to a significant ramp-up in professional healthcare training and exciting new innovation programs.

To quote Albert Einstein: “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.”

And as Eartha Kitt said: “I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma.”

Micro-credentials and professional learning the way of the future

The world of work will never be the same again, and the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct (GCHKP) provides the ideal learning environment to support both its 15,000-strong existing workforce and up to 20,000 students, with an entrepreneurial ecosystem and research collaborations to create and grow the jobs and businesses of the future.

While capital city corporate offices have been stripped of staff due to COVID-19 impacts and work-from-home practices that look set to be the new norm, precincts like the GCHKP are still buzzing, in a COVID-safe way of course – anchored by essential healthcare workers and enriched by a research-intensive university campus that is delivering flexible education face-to-face and online, alongside an agile innovation hub that quickly created new opportunities for professional and entrepreneurial learning, both physically and virtually.

On any given day, the majority of the Precinct’s workforce, clinical staff at Gold Coast University Hospital (GCUH) and Gold Coast Private Hospital and those behind-the-scenes supporting them, are busy at the coalface – providing frontline services, and training to meet the changing demands of the healthcare system.

Each month, Gold Coast Health’s Simulation Service delivers students and staff up to 500 participant hours of training ranging from emergency care and trauma drills, to practicing patient care while using PPE, and COVID-19 safe patient procedures.

During April they really ramped up exercises – performing over 250 medical simulations, more than the entire number completed in 2019, while they recently funded a new advanced virtual reality program designed to finesse the laparoscopic skills of tomorrow’s surgeons, and improve outcomes for more than 3,000 patients who undergo laparoscopic surgery each year, while saving on theatre costs.

“Based on our modelling, this will equate to a reduction of about 10 minutes per procedure and with theatres running at a cost of $2,000 per hour, that’s a significant saving each year,” according to Obstetrician Gynecologist Dr Belinda Lowe. Improved theatre time efficiency and cost savings are expected to enable more than 250 additional procedures annually.

A simulation exercise underway at GCUH

Gold Coast Private is investing heavily in ongoing education and professional development – an investment that has seen the creation of an entire ‘education team’ comprising 10 nurses, educators and facilitators, focused on coordinating and delivering programs across different sectors, including diabetes, wound care and intensive care.

Graduate nurse programs have been significantly expanded, giving on-the-job training with financial support to enable staff to complete Graduate Certificates at no cost.

Director of nursing Debra Billington says up-skilling staff and providing education opportunities is part of the long-term plan to become recognised as a tertiary hospital.

“While we are already covering a vast number of areas we are continuing to grow and have plans to introduce education coordinators into additional areas including cardiac services, as well as continuing in-house training for advanced life support and paediatric advanced life support.”

Gold Coast Private has also launched a new digital program for GP’s, which has already attracted 900 doctor registrations from across Australia for their webinar sessions.

The comprehensive RACGP-accredited education programs offer fortnightly, digital education sessions, making it easy for doctors to gain their mandatory CPD points, in what is a national pilot for Healthscope hospitals.

Members of the Education team at Gold Coast Private

Stackable qualifications and flexible options

Griffith University is meeting the challenge of preparing professionals for new employment opportunities in a post-pandemic world by introducing an extensive suite of micro-credentials from Trimester 3, 2020 – 22 individual courses starting in November, and up to 100 in 2021.

The courses, created to assist professionals to fast-track advancement of existing careers, are specifically designed to fill the skills gap that is widely expected to dominate the employment landscape in the wake of COVID disruptions, and are a direct response to the Queensland Economic Recovery Strategy.

“Each of these courses has been carefully selected based on our extensive research into the future of professional work and the key themes that will drive our economy in the near future,” Professor Nick Barter, the Academic Director of Griffith Online, says.

“These are not typical professional development courses as they are specifically targeted to provide graduates with skills and knowledge in industries that will offer high-demand employment opportunities nationally as the economy inevitably makes its way towards recovery.”

Griffith’s new micro-credentials broadly focus on essential skills for ‘worker-learners’ in leadership and management, increasingly popular information technology courses around cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, and business concepts. There is also an extensive offering in the area of public health, including courses targeting pandemic management.

Courses can be taken individually, earning graduates a digital badge for instant accreditation; two courses comprise a Certificate in Professional Studies; or any four courses can be stacked to earn a Graduate Certificate in Professional Studies.

Griffith’s overall domestic applications were up 49% for Trimester 2, 2020, and already school-leaver demand through QTAC for health courses starting in 2021 is up 38%, above the market increase.

Learning anywhere, anytime

While Griffith has phased a return to campus for staff providing selective teaching experiences and support for students, along with a large cohort of researchers needing to maintain laboratories, many staff remain working from home, with a majority of students learning in blended or online modes.

Having welcomed new lab and office tenants during the pandemic, the Precinct’s Cohort innovation space, in the heart of the Lumina commercial cluster, has been nimble in its co-working offerings and creative in its online programs and hybrid events, while providing a valuable meeting space (COVID-safe and by prior booking) to maintain physical connections when Zoom and Microsoft Teams meetings just don’t cut it.

Learning opportunities are largely online or in hybrid mode, including business mentoring, digital business workshops, bite-sized Expert lunch’n’learn sessions, and the Lumina Founder’s Club, launched in August, as a networking & learning club designed for leading founders of startups and scaleups to share their experiences, learn from their peers, and connect with fellow entrepreneurs. Many experiences are free, and others free for Cohort members.

Cohort TV also provides webinars and podcasts and a hosting facility for virtual events, such as the Gold Coast’s first NASA Space Apps Challenge event, part of the largest global hackathon, which will run in virtual mode on 3rd and 4th October.