Kia ora from Callaghan Innovation,

Welcome to the February 2023 edition of the HealthTech Activator (HTA) Monthly Wrap. 

In this edition, we share a blog post from the team at ACC Investments discussing their Health, Safety and Wellbeing Impact Fund and the opportunity it presents to companies seeking to develop and implement solutions across ACC’s injury categories. 

We also feature upcoming April events and the launch of our 2023 Christchurch events in May. Our March events are almost full, but there are a few spots still available for our online Capital Planning workshop on March 9th - you can register or join a waitlist for all upcoming events via the HTA website.

Read on for more information and links to sector news from the past month, and if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions to improve this newsletter, we would love to hear from you! As always, thanks for subscribing to the HTA.

HTA blog

ACC Impact Fund Rises to Injury Prevention Challenge

ACC Investments team

The ACC Health, Safety and Wellbeing Impact Fund was launched in September 2020 aiming to invest in companies making an impact on the health and wellbeing of Kiwis. In this month’s blog, the team at ACC Investments discuss the growing opportunity in safety solutions and when in a company’s journey they look to invest. 

Read more on the HTA website

Featured upcoming HTA workshops 

Sales Planning & Strategy Workshop

4 April 2023, Auckland & 25 May 2023, Christchurch | Facilitated by Dan Hansen and Will Perry

This new full day HTA workshop focuses on the principles of sales planning and strategy, to provide key knowledge and frameworks for understanding the sales process. The workshop is recommended for healthtech companies that have completed the HTA’s “Introduction to Knowing your Customer and your Market” workshop - but this is not a requirement for attendance.

Valuation Workshop

27 April 2023, Auckland | Facilitated by Jai Basrur

Our next HTA valuation workshop is ideal for healthtech business founders wanting to improve their understanding of company valuations and the role they play in capital raising. Run by Jai Basrur from CGB Consulting, this in-person workshop provides an overview of the principles and techniques involved in valuing a company - including hands-on exercises to familiarise you with using valuation methods. 

Demystifying Quality and Regulatory Workshop

3 May 2023, Auckland | Facilitated by Natalia Lopez and Yaara Yarmut

This regulatory workshop is provided in collaboration with Te Tītoki Mataora and is hosted at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute (ABI). Aimed at pre-spinout research groups and early-stage startups, this workshop covers the fundamentals of quality and regulatory considerations for medical devices.  

Increasing the Value of your Healthtech Company Workshop

9 May 2023, Christchurch | Facilitated by Kate Wilson and Jai Basrur

This workshop is ideal for earlier-stage healthtech businesses seeking to develop strategies for leveraging their existing and future intangible assets to maximise value. It provides participants with an overview of the relevant principles, concepts, and practical considerations for bolstering the value of their healthtech business.

You can view all upcoming events and e-learning on the HTA website.

Upcoming healthtech community events

WiHT Event: 50 ways to fight unconscious bias

9 March 2023, Auckland. Hosted by Women in Healthtech (WiHT), read more here. 

DHA In-Person Networking Event with Emmanuel Jo

14 March 2023, Auckland & online. Hosted by the Digital Health Association (DHA), read more here. 

Hack Aotearoa - Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare 

17-19 March 2023, Auckland. Hosted by University of Auckland and Otago University, read more here.

Life Sciences Summit

22-23 March 2023, Wellington. Hosted by BioTechNZ, read more here.

Digital Health Leadership Summit

30-31 May 2023, Wellington. Hosted by HiNZ, read more here. 

Healthtech Week 2023

27-29 June, Auckland. Save the date. 

Other sector news

Digital tool launched to support youth struggling with mental health

Clearhead has launched a free digital tool for supporting youth mental health after receiving a Health Smart Grant from the nib foundation in 2022 (8 February, NZ Herald)

ED app saves thousands of hours of patient wait time

The Emergency Q (EQ) app has saved over 500,000 hours in ED waiting time and 129,000 hours of ED nurse and doctor time - equivalent to adding 80 FTEs to the national workforce (12 February, eHealthNews.nz)

Helius expects medicinal cannabis sales to near double this year (paywall)

Helius Therapeutics plans to be the first company to begin exporting medicinal cannabis from NZ sometime in 2023, after raising an additional $13m in 2022 and total investment reaching $60m (13 February, NBR)  

‘Major milestone’: Ground-breaking NZ cancer therapy closer to reality

Malaghan Institute researchers have given a dose of NZ’s first CAR T-cell therapy to the final participant in their ENABLE trial, with full results expected later this year (20 February, NZ Herald)

National Medtech-iQ hub launches to accelerate growing sector (paywall)

A national hub, spearheaded by the Consortium for Medical Device Technologies (CMDT), has been launched to build on existing initiatives driving capability development and the commercial translation of healthtech research nationally (21 February, NBR)

Kitea Health raises $6 million as its implant nears human trials (paywall)

Kitea Health has raised $6 million in a funding round led by Pacific Channel, with scaled up trials for their hydrocephalus pressure monitoring application planned for 2024 (24 February, NZ Herald)

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Kind regards,

HealthTech Activator team

Callaghan Innovation