MIME News - Thursday 9 July 2015
If you would like a story added to next month's newsletter please contact Susan Newland at mime-enquiries@monash.edu
$500 000 MIME Seed Fund – Phase 2 Open Now – Call to Researchers
Around 80 excellent proposals have been received from
clinician researchers from the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
in Phase 1 of the MIME Seed fund process. In this first phase clinician
researchers in our partner hospitals were invited to outline areas of unmet
clinical need that could potentially be addressed by engineering and IT
innovation. The proposals received covered a broad range of clinical areas,
such as cardiovascular, neuro and mental health, musculoskeletal, surgical
training, trauma, cancer and kidney disease. The accepted proposals can be
viewed on the MIME website.
Phase 2 is now open – we invite all Monash researchers to
peruse the clinical opportunities put forward in Phase 1 to identify how your
research expertise could potentially contribute to solving a major clinical
need. The range of research expertise needed is also very broad – such as
biomaterials, microfluidics, sensors, mechatronics, wearable technologies,
image analysis, data mining, industrial design, CFD, biomarkers and
bioinformatics, nanotechnology, decision support and app development.
For those topics where you have relevant expertise and are
interested in being part of the solution team, please contact the clinician
researcher to discuss the area further. Contact details are available on the MIME
website. As many of the clinical needs will require a multidisciplinary team to
solve the challenge, MIME is able to assist in arranging workshops or
brainstorming sessions for potential team members. Please contact MIME's Executive Officer, Susan Newland susan.newland@monash.edu.
When your team has formulated a proposed R&D program
that addresses the clinical challenge, the lead researcher should submit a
Phase 2 application for MIME seed funding. Up to $50 000 may be requested per
project area, to deliver a meaningful outcome within 12-18 months. If the area
of clinical need has a longer term research challenge that befits a PhD
program, teams are invited to flag if they wish to co-supervise a PhD student.
11-12 MIME PhD scholarships are available.
Phase 2 application forms can be downloaded from the MIME
website, and must be submitted to Susan Newland, susan.newland@monash.edu by 31 July. Any Monash staff
member may submit the application or be part of the team, but the team must
include the initiating clinician researcher, and a researcher from either
Faculty of Engineering or Faculty of IT. In Phase 2, only submissions directly
responding to a clinical opportunity put forward in Phase 1 are eligible for
MIME seed funding.
News from the Director - Affinity meetings make their mark
The best way to drive innovation in medical engineering and
Med-Tech development is to get
engineers/IT specialists and doctors meeting each other and developing
collaborations at an early stage in the evolution of a project or idea. MIME is reaching out to Monash University affiliated clinicians to encourage them to identify
problems that require engineering/IT expertise and then present their ideas to
a group of Monash Engineers, IT and Art and Design experts (from the Monash Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture (MADA)) at our Affinity Meetings. We have had several of these meetings
including a very successful recent Alfred Hospital Affinity meeting where
eleven Alfred Hospital Professors gave ‘quick-fire’ presentations over 90
minutes to a group of Monash Engineers and IT Faculty staff who MIME
transported to the Alfred for the event. The programme can be viewed on the News and Events webpage of the MIME website. You
will see the topics were wide-ranging and have great potential to stimulate the
development of new medical technology and IT for diagnostics, monitoring and
therapy. We are sure this represents the
‘tip of the iceberg’ in terms of untapped potential or nascent medical
engineering-IT projects. A number of
engineers, IT and art and design academics now have some new projects and new collaborators to
work with.
MIME aims to hold further Affinity meetings at Monash Health
(Monash Medical Centre), Monash School of Psychological Sciences and the Monash
University Department of Physiology. We
are also keen for our other Monash Clinical Schools to get involved with MIME (Cabrini Health, Eastern Health and Peninsula Health).
MIME is also encouraging these newly established research
groups to reach out to industry at an early stage of their projects. MIME has
many industry contacts and can facilitate these connections.
MIME PhD Scholarships
MIME Research Initiatives
MIME has
identified a number of clinical themes which research projects are grouped
around. Underpinning these themes are a range of capabilities, which in concert
with the research programs underway are leading to outputs in key output areas
such as medical devices and digital health. Strategically, MIME is undergoing a
process where it is affirming the clinical areas we are currently working in
and identifying new areas for the future. Some of these emerging themes will
come from the recent call for unmet clinical need for investment in projects
using the MIME seed fund. This process, along with the imminent formation of a
Research Working Group will allow us to roadmap where we are heading and
formulate the plan to implement the roadmap.
Monash Uni-Baker IDI-Monash Heart Cardiovascular Alliance meeting
The Monash Uni-Baker IDI-Monash Heart Cardiovascular Alliance meeting was held on Wednesday, 10 June 2015 with broad attendance from Monash Uni, Baker IDI, Alfred Health, Monash Heart and Monash Health. The day highlighted ongoing clinical cardiovascular research as well as identifying unmet clinical need and was aimed at bringing a closer understanding between our physician-scientists and our fundamental/basic scientists and engineers. Speakers gave presentations on hot topics, state of the art for treatment of various diseases, areas of interest, materials and technologies of interest and addressed the big unanswered clinical/research questions and gaps in these areas.
A number of the MIME leadership team and MIME researchers attended the meeting. Prof. John Forsythe spoke on materials for cardiac repair and Prof. Wenlong Cheng spoke about the wearable sensing technologies aimed at cardiac monitoring.
Based on the most significant unmet clinical needs in CVD, a range of research opportunities were identified, and MIME researchers are invited to consider how they may contribute to collaborative projects in these areas. These include:
A number of the MIME leadership team and MIME researchers attended the meeting. Prof. John Forsythe spoke on materials for cardiac repair and Prof. Wenlong Cheng spoke about the wearable sensing technologies aimed at cardiac monitoring.
Based on the most significant unmet clinical needs in CVD, a range of research opportunities were identified, and MIME researchers are invited to consider how they may contribute to collaborative projects in these areas. These include:
- Designing the ‘perfect device’ for the various valvular structural disorders
- Biomarker for identifying onset of neurotoxicity following cardiac arrest to enable clinical decision making
- Biomarkers/identification of vulnerable plaques (as opposed to the already ruptured plaque)
- Invitation to follow up on intriguing gene expression findings in the pressure overloaded heart
- Innovative approaches for fighting infection/would healing in the very specific problem of line entry/exit in the context of implantation of ventricular assist devices.
- Applications for wearable devices which practically become a ‘part’ of the patient’s skin
- Applications for access to the ASPREE databases - particularly for prospective studies in the elderly well where the predicted primary endpoints might be particularly insightful: 3787; Deaths: 1422; Dementia: 915; Cancers: 1946; CVD: 1792 (including hospitalisation for cardiac failure); Major haemorrhagic events: 981
- Applications for tissue engineering including light activated disrupted scaffolding bio-organic materials. Discussion on the feasibility of 3-D printed scaffolding.
MIME in the News
Recently reported in the Age, Monash Institute for Medical Engineering (MIME) researcher Stephen Wang in collaboration with Jenny Keating and Tony Goldschlager have created a potential solution to help people maintain good posture - "the Virtual Spine" project. This smart chair contains pressure sensors that can monitor a person's spine position in real time, compare against their ideal spinal position and wirelessly text message or email feedback to the person in the chair. The project is being carried out in conjunction with Monash Health and Austin Health. The full story can be viewed via the MIME media page.
2015 MIME Travel Grants
The Monash Institute of Medical Engineering (MIME) has a number of travel scholarships available for PhD students, postdoctoral fellows and early career researchers (<5 years post PhD award) working on projects that involve medical technologies. By medical technologies we mean a treatment or device to treat a medical condition, a diagnostic tool or IT system or approach directed towards improvement in clinical outcomes.
This funding, up to $2500, is to cover some of the costs towards:
i. International conference attendance in concert with visits to key groups for further learning, career development and to establish networks and collaborations with high profile international research groups, or
ii. Travel for new collaborative work or continue existing collaborations with key international research groups.
The travel should be carried out within the next 12 months, i.e. by 31st July 2016. Applications can be submitted electronically via the seed fund tab on the MIME website or via the MIME Travel Grants Google Form. The closing date for applications is 31st August 2015.
This funding, up to $2500, is to cover some of the costs towards:
i. International conference attendance in concert with visits to key groups for further learning, career development and to establish networks and collaborations with high profile international research groups, or
ii. Travel for new collaborative work or continue existing collaborations with key international research groups.
The travel should be carried out within the next 12 months, i.e. by 31st July 2016. Applications can be submitted electronically via the seed fund tab on the MIME website or via the MIME Travel Grants Google Form. The closing date for applications is 31st August 2015.
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