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Gold Coast Health & Knowledge Precinct

The NeuTex Image-guided Therapy Surgical and Robotics Training Centre is up and running without a hitch! More than 20 specialist neurovascular fellows, including a group of 8 from overseas (Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia) christened the new facility in May 2023. The centre has since hosted groups from Korea, India, Pakistan and Australasia.

The world-first training centre outside a hospital is backed by global medical technology leader Philips, who’ve installed their multi-million dollar Azurion image-guided therapy biplane system, and was made possible by Northwest Healthcare properties, who supported the fit-out of the pilot centre ahead of its move into a permanent facility in their state-of-the-art RDX development in the Precinct. The facility is also supported by the Queensland Government through an Advance Queensland Regional Collaborative Futures grant.

Philips partnership powers unique Asia-Pacific training hub

Led by interventional neuroradiologists Dr. Hal Rice and Dr. Laetitia de Villiers, who deliver the latest innovative treatments for stroke and brain aneurysms at Gold Coast University Hospital (GCUH), the new facility showcases Philips’ interventional solutions and trial new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and novel 3D printed anatomical models.

The pilot centre is also being supported by NorthWest Healthcare Properties, ahead of moving into their state-of-the-art new building, ‘RDX Lumina’, on a prominent GCHKP site in the Lumina commercial cluster.

 
 
 
 
 

It was a full-on four days (May 4-7th) for the trainees and Neutex founders Dr Hal Rice and Dr Laetitia de Villiers, with the latest devices and technologies being showcased by six global MedTech companies – Stryker, Medtronic, Penubra Inc, Microvention, Balt and Phenox. High-tech video capture equipment and software from Bird Dog provided live, high-fidelity links from the Gold Coast University Hospital to the training room, while trainees utilised cutting-edge personalised 3D models of patients’ brain anatomy, as well as stroke software by Nicolab to learn complex new interventional brain procedures. Fortunately, they were well fuelled by fantastic food to keep their brains firing!