The MedTechVic research hub supports and connects individuals and organisations across the assistive and medical device sector in Victoria and beyond, to ensure rapid clinical and technical prototyping and manufacturing of new ideas. Utilising state-of-the-art technology and Industry 4.0 expertise, we are accelerating research and development across manufacturing, health, social innovation and co-creation. 

Our mission is to bring together individuals with lived experience, their supports, health professionals, engineers, designers, and industry to co-create products and services that enhance lives. 

At MedTechVic, we work across and with industry to advance ideas, promote product development, improve quality care practices, and advance the skills and capabilities of healthcare professionals.  Our activities include:

  • Collaborative activities
  • Fellowships
  • Industry grants and schemes
  • Research grants and tenders
  • Industry linked PhD programs
  • Fee for service activities
  • Co-design workshops to address a specific need
  • Consultancy
  • Collaboration and connection throughout Swinburne’s ecosystem.
MedTechVic
MedTechVic

MedTechVic

Learn how MedTechVic is supporting and connecting individuals and organisations across the assistive and medical device sector in Victoria.

View transcript [PDF 206KB]
Are you an industry professional with an end-user focused project?

We can help you connect with end-users through our co-design workshops and link in with Swinburne’s advanced manufacturing capabilities.

Register your interest by emailing MedTechVic@swinburne.edu.au

Are you an end-user seeking an assistive technology solution?

Speak to the MedTechVic team today to learn how we can assist you in finding a fit-for-purpose solution.

Email us today at MedTechVic@swinburne.edu.au to find out how.

Our key capabilities and insights

Engaging partners across medical and assistive technology, MedTechVic drives innovation, research, product development, service design and development, and supports technology readiness via the following capabilities: 

Co-design and collaboration

Expert clinical advice and support

Access to Swinburne's advanced technologies network

Training and fellowships

State-of-the-art facilities

One of MedTechVic’s core principles is collaboration. We bring together individuals with lived experience, healthcare professionals, engineers, designers, and industry experts to co-design medical and assistive technology solutions. By uniting diverse perspectives, we ensure that our innovations are tailored to real needs and challenges of end-users, ultimately leading to more meaningful and impactful manufacturing insights.

MedTechVic’s team of experts leverages its multidisciplinary skill set to offer expert clinical advice and support across the health care system. Supported by expertise across the health, disability and aged care sectors, we incorporate research, literature, lived experience and user co-design to provide pragmatic solutions and appropriate clinical testing.

MedTechVic brokers relationships with Swinburne’s wider advanced technology, design and manufacturing network, assisting industry partners in accessing the university’s leading capabilities. By harnessing Swinburne’s Industry 4.0 techniques, we can transform the way assistive technology is designed, developed and manufactured, in turn, enhancing the quality and customisation of assistive technology and empowering local manufacturers with cutting-edge capabilities.

MedTechVic is committed to ensuring that the healthcare and disability care sector are well-equipped with the skills and expertise to provide equitable support. As such, MedTechVic works closely with healthcare and disability care providers to right-skill professionals in the sector.

We achieve this through a variety of programs, including the Clinical Innovation Fellowship program, which teaches professionals from a clinical background how to think from a design and development perspective. Another such program is our ongoing wheelchair workshops, which are designed to help physical and occupational therapists better understand and perform minor adjustments required for functional and comfortable wheelchair use.

Through our Enabling Technologies Platform, we offer cutting-edge facilities equipped with advanced technologies. Our LivingAT Facility, the first of its kind in Australia, serves as a hub for development and prototyping of enabling technology products and services. This globally connected, fully accessible space has been co-designed with end users, and promotes innovation that is relevant, inclusive and locally driven.

  • “There is a growing need for medical and assistive technology that can help individuals live their best lives. At Swinburne we are uniquely placed to bring together the best aspects of design, digitalisation and human needs to develop and deliver innovative and scalable devices to meet increasing global demand.”  

    Professor Pascale Quester , Vice-Chancellor and President

Our Four Pillars

The MedTechVic Challenge Projects are the heart of the hub. The other pillars feed into, facilitate, and support this branch. These projects are where the MedTechVic team come together to draw on the whole university’s capabilities. In the Challenge Projects, MedTechVic works with industry partners to identify opportunities for change. This is the central point of co-creation and brings together people from research, industry, and those with lived experience. Projects can look at the types of products created, the way products are created or delivered, how a product is identified as being suitable for a person, or any other way people are supported to engage in their lives. Projects also investigate how industry and workforce fit into the current situation and what role they could have in creating change.

The Clinical Innovation Fellows Program is a first-of-its-kind training program that teaches professionals from clinical backgrounds how to think from a design and development perspective. The graduates help build the Clinical Innovation Network, which also includes the MedTechVic clinical advisors. This network is designed to provide meaningful advice and coaching to industry and research through a clinical lens.

The Manufacturing 4.0 business readiness program is run by the Factory of the Future in partnership with the BioMelbourne Network. Workshops and webinars equip manufactures of medtech to harness the potential of digital manufacturing in their businesses. This means that outcomes of the Challenge Projects will have appropriate industry infrastructure for production in Victoria. It is part of MedTechVic’s commitment to a holistic approach to filling the gaps in the medtech industry. 

The Enabling Technologies Platform is about creating facilities equipped with useful and innovative technologies and people with the expertise to use them. The platform provides physical spaces for MedTechVic to explore, test, and create. It consists of The LivingAT Facility and the Volumetric Capture (VolCap) studio. Watch the Enabling Technologies Platform video below to find out more!

LivingAT Facility

The LivingAT Facility has been designed as a central point of co-creation. It is a place for the Challenge Projects to unpack questions and test solutions. The space has been carefully crafted to allows end-users living with disability to access and input into the creative problem-solving process. It is somewhere for MedTechVic’s network and partners to come together and create meaningful outcomes.

VolCap Facility

The VolCap Facility takes an advanced technology that is being developed in commercial filmmaking and pioneers its use as a research tool. It has unique capacity for capturing volume and movement and potential to revolutionize approaches to data connection and assessment.

Virtual Reality and chronic low back pain
Co-design of an intervention and preliminary usability

Virtual Reality and chronic low back pain

Medibank commissioned Swinburne to explore the potential of Virtual Reality (VR) and for the remote rehabilitation of Chronic Low Back Pain (CLBP). Five bespoke VR experiences were developed and show promise as an evidence-based treatment for CLBP.
Download report [2 MB]
amjones@swin.edu.au amjones@swin.edu.au

Our people

Our latest news

Other initiatives

These initiatives are funded through the Victorian government's Victorian Higher Education State Investment Fund.

Contact MedTechVic

Are you a part of the industry and want to get involved?  A community member who wants to know more? Perhaps a student interested in a scholarship? Whatever your query, get in touch with us by emailing MedTechVic@swinburne.edu.au.

Contact us