RMIT experts available to comment on the future of technology and health care

Associate Professor Kate Fox (0408 089 786 or kate.fox@rmit.edu.au)

Topics: biomedical engineering, new medical implants

“Bioprinting is rapidly advancing but the technology is not as close to reality as one would hope. Skin, kidneys and hollow vessels can be readily printed which takes pressure off autographs, allographs and animal tissue.

“Bioprinters can make organs like kidneys but the problem for more complex parts is always how do we get ongoing blood flow and circulation into these organs.

“Once that issue is solved, 3D biofabrication will accelerate but at this stage we are a long way from printing something like an adult heart.

“As engineering dips further into applications of the human body and new manufacturing techniques are developed such as additive manufacturing, new materials are being sought to provide new interfaces.

“Diamond is one such material. Currently you will find diamond already being used in surgical cutting blades and strangely enough as the electrode array in bionic implants. This is because depending on how it is made, diamond can be conductive or insulating.

“Our group has been investigating how to use the properties of diamond in bone facing implants and in particularly can we 3D print it.”

Kate Fox is a biomedical engineer in RMIT’s School of Engineering. She has been named on Engineers Australia’s prestigious top 30 most innovative engineers list and 2019 Superstars of STEM by Science & Technology Australia.

Professor Vishaal Kishore (0411 483 607 or vishaal.kishore@rmit.edu.au)

Topics: future of healthcare, technology and innovation in healthcare, industry collaboration

“Health transformation demands that we look beyond health. As the current pandemic has shown us, although only a small percentage of the global population has contracted COVID-19, entire populations are –and will continue to be – affected by it.

“In other words: we face not merely a health challenge but also a slew of economic, political and social ones. 

“In this uncertain world, individuals, societies and economies are being dragged into entirely new and tumultuous futures, testing existing structures, practices and capacities.

“At the Health Transformation Lab we create a place where leaders come to solve their most challenging problems at the intersection of the human and the technological and at the boundary of today and the future.

“The cybernetic dynamics of our health and social systems are coming to the fore. From new forms of digital tracking, tracing and risk analysis technologies to models of virtualised and mobilised healthcare.

“From radical wearable technologies to address loneliness to technology-enabed approaches to rapid transformation of non-healthcare spaces into ICUs and hospital wards.

“If there is one thing we have learned about health innovation it is this: it is a team sport. 

“Large technology companies (such as Cisco), dynamic social enterprises, community groups, trail-blazing entrepreneurs, designers, researchers, policy-makers and many more must come together to build our healthcare future. 

“There is no such thing as a ‘lone wolf innovator’. The catch cry for our health future? Together. Or not at all.”

Vishaal Kishore is the director of RMIT’s Cisco supported Health Transformation Lab and Professor of Innovation & Public Policy.

Distinguished Professor Milan Brandt (0410 569 416 or milan.brandt@rmit.edu.au)

Topics: 3D printing, biomedical implants

“Additive manufacturing is now rising in importance globally because of the many benefits it offers industry compared to conventional manufacturing. These include greater product diversity, product design and development, time to market, lower waste and product cost.

“Design and fabrication of complex structures such as metallic lattices using additive technology is growing globally as the technology lends itself perfectly for such structures. 

“RMIT’s Centre for Additive Manufacturing is researching the design, manufacture and mechanical performance of these structures for a range of applications in the aerospace, defence and biomedical sectors, in particular new generation medical implants. 

“These implants are patient and bone specific and carry the same load as the bone that has been removed and have particular benefit in cases of patients with bone cancer. 

“The long term goal is to establish local manufacturing capability for these types of implants which will deliver better patient outcomes at lower cost to Australia’s health care system.”

Milan Brandt is the technical director of RMIT’s Advanced Manufacturing Precinct and was named a Centenary Hero by peak industry body Engineers Australia in 2019 for his work on Australia’s first locally-made 3D printed spinal implant.

These experts will be presenting at live event #RMITechMatters on Wednesday 3 June. Read more or register to attend.

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