Search on to find nation’s best health tech ideas
Four months ago, Christchurchbased health tech business owner James Hayes woke up to more than 50 emails from universities and hospitals all asking the same question.
How can their students access his learning software now coronavirus lockdown has made it impossible for students to attend their practical learning sessions?
Hayes has been using various aspects of technology like algorithms, virtual reality and simulation technology for years to reinvent the way healthcare students learn their skills.
His company, Virtual Medical Coaching, offers technology-based learning solutions for students and training institutes.
A virtual reality operating theatre allows a radiographer, scrub nurse or anaesthetic technician to perform tasks they would do in real life, but in an operating theatre that has visible and audible radiation to improve their radiation safety practices.
When Covid-19 compelled all learning institutions to move to distance learning, demand for Virtual Medical Coaching’s already sought-after products soared.
‘‘My inbox was flooded with requests,’’ Hayes said.
‘‘My inbox was flooded with requests.’’
James Hayes Health tech business owner
Hayes’s innovative, solutiondriven thinking is exactly the type of thing the Health Tech Supernode Challenge is looking for, said Kylie Yardley, content producer at ChristchurchNZ.
The HealthTech Supernode Challenge is delivered by Ministry of Awesome and the University of Canterbury’s Centre for Entrepreneurship with support from ChristchurchNZ, KiwiNet, and Ryman Healthcare.
It aims to identify and generate commercially viable solutions that address real healthcare problems. The challenge is open to anyone with a healthtech innovation or idea.
Applicants enter their idea, explain the problem they want to solve and what their proposed solution is, who their potential customers might be and how they will make money from this idea.
Up to 20 semifinalists will then be chosen to take part in the HealthTech Supernode Challenge virtual pre-accelerator programme, which is an opportunity to work alongside some of the brightest minds in New Zealand’s healthcare sector to turn the ideas into a commercially viable solutions.
There’s a cash prize package of $40,000 to be split between finalists as well as an invitation to take part in the ongoing incubation programme at Te O¯ haka or ThincLab.