A South Australian medical device company has opened the world’s first 3D Advanced Surgical Training Clinic within Adelaide’s BioMed City, creating 157 direct jobs in the fields of research, production and administration.
The $6.8 million investment made by the medical device company into the state’s health and medical industries sector, forms part of the company’s $26.5 million expansion plan in South Australia. The new clinic is anticipated to create an additional 800 indirect jobs in South Australia within the supply chain, medical tourism and higher education sectors.
The cutting-edge, 25-bed clinic will utilise 3D advanced manufactured, anatomically accurate, human body parts – disrupting the cadaver market by providing fully operable manufactured products with no harmful infectious diseases, and pathology on demand. It is expected the clinic will attract surgeons and medical staff from around the globe to rehearse and upskill on rare and complex pathologies.
The investment by the medical device company to establish the world’s first 3D Advanced Surgical Training Clinic in the state will spearhead a new era of Industry 4.0. The company’s innovative and revolutionary approach to medical training will support South Australia’s growing reputation in surgical training and medical technologies, further enhancing our hi-tech sector capabilities.
South Australia has one of the world’s most exciting bio-medical precincts and the health and medical industry sector is one of the fastest-growing sectors in South Australia. The state’s Health and Medical Industries sector strategy aims to increase the sector’s economic contribution to the state to $5 billion by 2030.
The new 3D clinic will be the only location globally where surgeons can upskill and rehearse on advanced manufactured models that will translate to living patients and de-risk medical procedures for patients and medical professionals.
The clinic will also be used to develop new surgical procedures and techniques, the medical device company’s Chief Executive Officer explained. He noted that it will also be used for new tool training, like the cutting-edge surgical robotic system by an American multinational corporation that develops medical devices, pharmaceuticals and more. This robotic system is currently being installed.
The CEO stated that the 3D clinic will attract international surgeons and Tier 1 medical device companies to South Australia, connecting universities, local industry and international companies to collaborate and develop new cutting-edge capabilities in the heart of Adelaide’s $3.8 billion BioMed City.
Adelaide’s BioMed City
Adelaide BioMed City is a hub for health and life sciences. It co-locates institutions from research, education and clinical care in a precinct in the heart of Adelaide. Their mission is to be a globally recognised partnership leading in research, education, clinical care and population health. And their goal is to build impact, leverage investment and inform evidence-based healthcare and innovation in ways that could not be achieved separately.
In 2020, the SA Productivity Commission released their ‘Review of Health & Medical Research in South Australia’. According to the review, Adelaide BioMed City is the $3.6 billion Healthcare Innovation and Translation precinct in the heart of Adelaide. It brings together capabilities in research, education, clinical care and industry to drive innovation and translation.
The review notes that as a State, South Australia must leverage its high-quality research in frontier technologies for translation and commercialisation. Fields such as precision medicine, drug design and rehabilitation harness the convergence of R&D outcomes from AI, robotics, sensors, software engineering and material science to develop earlier, cheaper diagnostics and interventions. Significantly, it is the combination of these skills that makes South Australia unique and give it an edge.
