Gold Coast Health & Knowledge Precinct
Transform with us
Driving entrepreneurial culture for healthcare innovation
A layered program to build business literacy, skills, networks and resources to drive clinical innovation
Entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial training, team support, one-on-one mentoring and expert regulatory, financial, legal, data and business know-how….everything a clinician needs to bring their best ideas for patient care to the bedside and beyond through novel new digital health and medical technologies and clinical practices – Welcome to our Clinician Entrepreneurship Change Agents Program.
Our exclusive free training program starts with online business literacy, then moves through the core program of face-to-face workshops, guest presentations, networking and masterclass webinars (coupled with opportunities for mentoring, student placements, and individually-focused expert-in-residence support), and culminates with customised commercialisation training for those ready to take the leap.
We’re creating change for a future of cost-effective medicine and high-value biomedical and health-tech jobs.
Third cohort running April-May 2024. Online program always open. Commercialising program coming soon, by expression of interest.
Developed and delivered by:
Proudly supported by the Queensland Government through an Advance Queensland Regional Collaborative Futures Grant.
CECAP Program launch - May 15, 2023
Meet our Cohort 1 (June-August 2023):
Cohort 3 (April-May 2024)
Thanks to all our mentors and participants!
Meet our program leads
Professor Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation Naomi Birdthistle, Griffith Business School. Award-winning academic and researcher, author and long-time entrepreneur, Naomi has advised and mentored 450+ entrepreneurs and taught enterprise skills to 8,000+ students. Naomi leads the overall training program. Learn more.
Dr Brent Richards, Medical Director of Research Commercialisation, Adj. Professor of Critical Care Research, Gold Coast Health. Striving to continuously improve patient and system outcomes in healthcare, this former Director of Intensive Care and now Chair of the Queensland AI Hub Advisory Board, has a passion for the power of AI in medical innovation. Brent is the clinical conduit and will lead a datathon. Learn more.
Become a clinician entrepreneur or intrapreneur
Open to all qualified clinicians in Queensland
We’re calling on clinicians with clinical problems to solve through their new ideas and technologies. Our partner, the Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service, is encouraging and supporting staff to become ‘intrapreneurs’ – innovating within the organisation and more broadly within Queensland Health to progress commercially-minded healthcare innovations – as well as encouraging staff to pursue their entrepreneurial business ideas.
We’re also seeking Gold Coast health practitioners across private hospitals and practice – GP’s, nurses and allied health professionals, as well as clinical researchers who want to translate their ideas, and are open to interest from Queensland health practitioners outside our Gold Coast region.
Program at a glance
Business Literacy
- On-line self-paced modules
- Approximately 8 hours of content + videos
- Additional Self-reflection exercises for deeper learning
- Handy glossary of business terms
- Literally an A-Z of business!
- Opportunity to earn a digital badge (on completion of required self-reflection exercises)
Clinician Entrepreneurship Change Agents Program (CECAP)
- Approx 35-40 hours of face-to-face training in two x 2.5 day module blocks including networking
- Module format delivered by Griffith Business School
- Guest speakers, including clinician entrepreneurs and MedTech/HealthTech experts
- Additional webinar masterclasses on specific topics
- 3 x formal networking opportunities
- One-on-one mentoring
- Access to clinical entrepreneurs/experts in residence over a 1-2 week block period
- Potential student placements to support the progression of innovation/business planning
- Access to GCHKP innovation eco-system
- Access to Griffith Business School network and support services
- Potential access to design and prototyping services at Griffith University’s Advance Design and Prototyping Technologies Institute (ADaPT)
- Potential access to ICT, AI and data science support by Griffith University
Commercialisation Program
- Targeted and customised commercialisation training – TBC
- Follows CECAP or available to clinicians with an MVP and preliminary business plan
- Scheduled for July-August 2024
- Specialised expert masterclasses/workshops
- Peer-to-peer support in a pre-accelerator environment
- Targeted mentoring/matching
- Access to GCHKP innovation eco-system
- Access to Griffith Business School network and support services
- Potential access to design and prototyping services at Griffith University’s Advance Design and Prototyping Technologies Institute (ADaPT)
- 2 x formal networking opportunities
Program delivery in the heart of the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct
Recognised as Queensland’s leading innovation precinct, the GCHKP is home to the $1.76 billion Gold Coast University Hospital, a top 10 Australian hospital, and the Gold Coast Private Hospital, a modern $285 million facility, alongside the burgeoning Gold Coast campus of Griffith Univeristy, ranked in the top 2% of universities worldwide.
We already employ over 15,000 people, including 1,000 researchers, and cater to 20,000 students, while boasting 50 start-ups or SME’s.
With a strong focus on health and enabling technologies, and with almost $250 million of commercial construction underway, we’re building a world-leading transformation ecosystem.
The 200 hectare GCHKP is Asia Pacific's emerging innovation hub
Flexibility - face to face and online
We’ll be delivering our face-to-face training, networking and programming from the Griffith Innovation Centre, a flexible learning and collaboration environment and part of the Precinct’s Cohort Innovation Space, home to around 50 SME’s and start-ups and the people behind the successful LuminaX Accelerator program for healthtech founders.
Components of our program will also be delivered online for flexibility, including opportunities to schedule one-on-one mentoring to fit in with clinical workload demands.