HealthTech Talks, Lumina Podcast Series

It was a simple online pizza order that gave clinical psychologist Noam Dishon the idea to create an app that could keep his patients better engaged with access to support in between appointments. The app – Wellifiy - is now up and running, and is helping to improve outcomes for patient accessing support for mental health.

Ashley Hanger could not have predicted her latest career move. When the former journalist moved in with her former partner, and saw first-hand the daily struggles he experienced living with diabetes, she became so committed to making life easier for him and others, that she took a giant leap of faith and started her first business, Stripped Supply. Australia’s first diabetes subscription box automatically delivering medical supplies straight to people’s home, Stripped Supply also provides diabetes education making top-tier healthcare accessible to all. We spoke with Ash about her journey as a businesswoman and why she has become such a staunch advocate for people living with diabetes.

Come behind the scenes of the Lumina Gold Coast innovation precinct with Steve Dolores. Steve is the Senior Development Manager for the Lumina Gold Coast commercial cluster and is responsible for the success of the precinct from a development management perspective. Steve has a big job on his hands, from contract negotiation and stakeholder management to ‘place making’, but with his skills, experience and background he takes it all in his stride.

Over the past decade, Craig Rowsell has been responsible for bringing major economic development projects to the Gold Coast. His background includes attracting major sport and Hollywood film productions, including Pirates of the Caribbean. As a passionate Gold Coaster, he's now turned his energy to bringing the world's attention to the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct. As the Precinct's Director, Craig talks to us about his vision for the innovation district, that is growing exponentially and making a huge impact.

Maryann Thexton’s passion for everything horses led her to an opportunity in biotechnology that she could not have foreseen. She’s now the CEO of an award-winning company at the forefront of global science producing synbiotic ingredients to improve health and wellbeing in humans and animals. We spoke with Maryann about how working in the paddock changed the course of her life and how the company she co-founded has grown from strength to strength in just three years.

Dr Alan Parnham has a dream to make the Gold Coast a centre of health and medical excellence – a place where people will come from around the world to conduct research and grow their companies. As a nephrologist, researcher and now developer of The North Star – a medical facility at the Lumina health and Knowledge Precinct – Alan wants to set up a legacy for quality medicine and research and do more for the community. We talk to Alan about the North Star development, his passion for research, healthtech start-ups and the future of the Gold Coast.

The Nikiforides brothers have put their heart and soul into developing the Gold Coast Life Sciences Centre at the Lumina Precinct. The 11-storey centre of excellence for multidisciplinary diagnostic healthcare and translational research, means a lot more than just bricks and mortar to the third-generation property developers. We speak with William, Managing Director, and James, Sales and Marketing Director, about why they are so passionate about their latest development, why they have moved into healthcare after a long history in retail and residential development and what it takes for three brothers to successfully work together.

As an Intensivist, Dr Brent Richards' has spent his career in hospital intensive care units saving lives and supporting those at the end of their life. He's now turned his attention to research and healthcare innovation, including artificial intelligence in hospitals, and supporting healthtech start-ups as a mentor for the LuminaX accelerator program. We spoke with Dr Brent about his career in medicine, his vision for innovation and AI in healthcare, and the future for health tech entrepreneurs.

An immunoparasitologist, Associate Professor Danielle Stanisic fell in love with parasites as an undergraduate science student. She’s since devoted her career to studying the malaria parasite and developing a vaccine for malaria, a disease spread by mosquitoes that each year kills more than 600,000 people across the globe, mainly children under 5. As a co-lead researcher for the Malaria Vaccine Project at the Institute for Glycomics, Danielle spoke with us about her research, why she is so passionate about it, and how Lumina can support the advancements in her work.