Speakers

Dr Nada Signal is an Associate Professor and Associate Head of Research for the School of Clinical Sciences. Nada is a Principal Investigator with the Medical Technologies Centre for Research Excellence and recipient of a New Zealand Health Research Council Emerging Researcher Award (2019) and the AUT Vice-Chancellor's Award for Research Excellence-Emerging Researcher (2019). Her research focuses on innovation in rehabilitation clinical practice and the development of novel technologies to augment rehabilitation.

Phil has been in the Medical Devices Industry for over 15 years. During this time he has built up his expertise and knowledge across multiple clinical disciplines in Trauma & Orthopaedics, General surgery, Cardiothoracic, Urology and Gynaecology. Originally from the UK, Phil relocated with his family to NZ to take up a position with Obex Medical in 2012. He is passionate about healthcare and is driven by that passion to seek out and bring  quality  and innovative technologies to the NZ  market, that will ultimately improve clinical outcomes for our customers and their patients.

Ju is the founder and CEO of Formus Labs and a passionate believer in the power of computational biomechanics to improve orthopedic practice. Ju has a PhD in Bioengineering from the Auckland Bioengineering Institute and conducted post-doctoral research at the ABI, Imperial College London, and Stanford University on the way to building Formus Labs.

Robyn is a public health physician and Clinical Director Innovation at Waitemata DHB’s Institute for Innovation and Improvement. She is also Assoc Prof at the National Institute for Health Innovation (NIHI) at the University of Auckland. Her research interests are in developing mHealth interventions to be delivered to people directly using their mobile phones.

Sarah is a driven and commercially astute senior leader with more than 20 years of strategic sales, marketing and medical affairs expertise across the manufacturing, medical device and pharmaceutical industries in Australia, New Zealand and Asia.
Prior to being appointed to the role of General Manager & Country Director, Medical New Zealand, Sarah relocated to Singapore in the position of APAC Senior Director for Ethicon’s largest platform, Wound Closure & Repair (WC&R). Sarah was a member of Ethicon’s Global and Regional Leadership Team. During this period, Sarah played an integral role in shaping the global WC&R strategy, accelerating market access in APAC through real world evidence, surgeon education and shaping future product and service innovation.
Sarah has held diverse senior leadership roles across Johnson & Johnson Medical and Janssen, in the disease state/specialty areas of General Surgery, Bariatrics, Orthopedics, Diabetes Management, Oncology, Immunology and Medical Affairs. Over her 14 years at J&J, Sarah and her teams have partnered closely with Health Economics and Government Affairs and Policy to accelerate market access and overcome reimbursement challenges.
Sarah is passionate about Women in Leadership in Med Tech and was a founding committee member of J&J’s ANZ Diversity and Inclusion ERG and strategy.
Sarah has a Bachelor of Business (Marketing) from University of Technology, Sydney, and a Master of Business Administration (with High Distinction) from Charles Sturt University. Sarah was also a graduate from the J&J ASCEND Global Women Senior Leadership Program in 2018.

With 30 years of international commercialisation experience, Tara is a Regulatory and Quality executive delivering successful outcomes to the global Medical Device and Health Technology sectors. She is co-founder of:

• Covid-19 Corporation Ltd. (NZ), a R&D COVID-19 vaccine company (2020).
• Caduceus Medical Development, Ltd. (NZ), a NZ based consulting firm (2014), with offices in the US since 2010.
• Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society (RAPS) NZ Networking Group (2018).
  

  
  Tara is a:

• Member of RAPS
• Recognised SME, invited international speaker and educator with RAPS;
• Member of the Society of Quality Assurance (SQA);
• Member of Life Science New Zealand;
• Regulatory Advisor  to government and industry.

Commercial highlights  include but are not limited to successes in:

• Approval of 70+ health technology products in all major markets world-wide;
• Guiding technology innovators through the complex regulatory process resulting in viable health products;
• Regulatory strategy and pathway development including expedited programs, from late discovery through late clinical trial and approval phases;
• Develop and maintain positive working relationships with government agencies and key stakeholders;
• Strategic alignment of quality management systems (QMS) to ensure start-up ventures deliver adequately compliant products; while giving the business much needed flexibility.
• Trainer with the British Standards Institute (BSI) – European Notified Body.

In 2020 I was honoured by receiving an elected fellowship to RAPS for my significant contributions (in education and product realization to the community in global regulatory sciences) and leadership in advancing the regulatory profession.

Session: 10 Types of Innovation

Ross is a passionate innovation leader with 30+ years of innovation leadership and product development experience focused on identifying, creating, and delivering compelling value.

Ross defines innovation as “the discipline of creating value". Throughout his career, he has helped many New Zealand and Australian businesses to achieve successful commercial outcomes through clear focused actions, practical execution, and robust innovation discipline.

He has led innovation and design efforts across a wide range of technologies and HVMS sectors that include medical, scientific, automotive, consumer, computer, electronic, security, refrigeration, marine, heating, juvenile, gaming, communication, furniture, retail, logistics, and vending.

Prior to moving into executive innovation leadership roles, Ross ran his own full-service product development consultancy in Australia for 10 years. Konstrukt was an early champion of diverse collaboration and the use of emerging digital design technologies that included advanced parametric CAD, digital visualisation, and 3D printing.

A creative strategic thinker, Ross has a passion for understanding new thinking around innovation practice and effectively adapting and applying that to help New Zealand businesses deliver profitable growth.

Session: Health Tech Activator as part of What is Happening in the MedTech Sector?

Andrew Clews is Callaghan Innovation’s Head of Health Technology and leads the sector team working to support NZ based HealthTech businesses in commercialising their R&D. Andrew represents Callaghan Innovation as part of the Consortium for Medical Device Technologies (CMDT) and sits on the steering committee of the NZ Health Research Strategy (NZHRS). As New Zealand’s innovation agency, Callaghan Innovation works with ambitious businesses of all sizes, delivering a range of innovation and research and development (R&D) services to suit each stage of their growth. Callaghan Innovation works with more than 200 Health Technology businesses via the HealthTech Activator (HTA) an initiative to deliver advice, funding support, capability building programmes and connections across the HealthTech sector. 

Andrew joined Callaghan Innovation in 2014 following more than 16 years in the US working in complex sectors as diverse as electromechanical devices and life sciences. He has a background in business internationalisation and the commercialisation of new technology, new products and new brands in complex categories. Andrew has held senior management and leadership team roles in a wide variety of organisations from major corporates to startups and IPO-focused growth companies.

As Director of the Auckland Bioengineering Institute and Professor of Engineering Science at the University of Auckland, Peter Hunter is helping to develop standards based physiological models and the use of computational methods for understanding the integrated physiological function of the body in terms of the structure and function of tissues, cells and proteins.

Session: Clinical Research Brought to Life

Dr. Pitto’s clinical practice focuses on total hip replacement through both anterior and posterior approaches, and total knee replacement using computer-assisted technologies. Dr. Pitto also has extensive experience in revision total hip and knee joint replacement.

Dr. Pitto is very committed to teaching (and learning from!) residents and colleagues and has received several honours in his career.  He has received the SICOT Trainees Award in 1991, the John Charnley Award of the Hip Society in 1998, the Best Poster Award of the Hip Society in 1999, the Best Paper Award of the Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons in 2006, and the John Insall Award of the Knee Society in 2017.

Dr. Pitto is particularly active in the clinical research area of hip surgery and in the promotion of education and research in orthopaedics. 2006, he was elected President of the AO-ASIF Alumni, New Zealand Chapter (Association for the Study of Internal Fixation). He is active member of the International Hip Society and currently President of the Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons. 

Professor Susan Morton is an expert in life course epidemiology and a specialist in Public Health Medicine. She is the Director of the University of Auckland cross-faculty Centre for Longitudinal Research - He Ara ki Mua, and has been the Director (PI) of the contemporary longitudinal study of NZ children and families (Growing Up in New Zealand) since its inception in 2005. In 2021 she transitioned to a role of Foundation Director of the study.  The study follows 6853 children (born in 2009-2010) in the context of their families and the NZ environment. Her team engages with 16 government agencies to provide evidence to inform cross-sectoral policies to improve population wellbeing and solutions to reduce inequities in life course outcomes.

Andrew is a Customer Manager for Health and Digital companies at Callaghan Innovation. He works with NZ health companies and assists them with their R&D and commercialisation activities by connecting them with funding, expertise and opportunities. Andrew has been on the Health Tech Week organising committee since 2018.