The real-world impacts of Brisbane’s MedTech innovation
Matthew Ames was 39 when a sore throat turned into septic shock. Four days after his symptoms began, he woke from an induced coma to find he’d lost all four limbs.
His story shows why patient-centred innovation matters. When diagnosis and treatment come too late, the consequences can extend far beyond a patient’s immediate health, affecting their family, career and quality of life for years to come.
At a recent Brisbane MedTech Celebration, Brisbane Economic Development Agency CEO Anthony Ryan sat down with Matthew and Microbio Founder and Chief Scientific Officer Dr Flavia Huygens to discuss the real-world cost of delayed diagnosis and what patient-centred innovation looks like in practice.
The conversation also explored how Brisbane’s growing MedTech ecosystem, supported by connected hospital networks, world-class universities, research facilities and specialist talent, can help locally developed technologies reach patients sooner.
Faster answers, better outcomes
Matthew sought medical help three times and was diagnosed with the flu on each occasion. When he presented to emergency for the fourth time, doctors identified septic shock caused by a streptococcal infection and placed him in an induced coma.
“The next time I woke up was three weeks later, and my arms and legs were gone,” he said.
The consequences extended far beyond Matthew’s own recovery. His youngest daughter, who was two at the time, effectively grew up in hospital.
“My daughter has no memory of me with arms and legs,” he said. “It changed all of our lives, affecting my broader family, my relationship with my kids and my career.”
Every hour of that delay carried a cost. It’s a cost Dr Huygens has spent her career trying to reduce.
Her focus on bloodstream infection and sepsis began during her early training in a busy blood culture laboratory. As she reviewed the paperwork accompanying patient samples, she realised many had come from people who had already died before the cause of their illness could be identified.
“That really hit home,” she said. “I thought: how can I bring my expertise and knowledge to the fore and use it for a purpose?”
Blood culture has been the gold standard for diagnosing infections for more than 60 years, yet Dr Huygens said it is only about 30 per cent accurate at best. She also said mortality increases by about 10 per cent for every hour effective treatment is delayed.
“The fact that you survived for four days without effective treatment is a miracle,” she told Matthew.
Microbio is developing rapid diagnostic solutions designed to identify bloodstream infections and sepsis faster, helping clinicians begin effective treatment sooner, improve patient outcomes and combat antimicrobial resistance.
For Matthew, the scale of the problem becomes clearest through the families he meets in his work as a patient advocate and health consumer representative.
“I meet a lot of brave families who no longer have their loved ones with them,” he said. “The story I hear from almost every one of them is about the impact of delay.”
According to Sepsis Australia, 84,000 Australians are hospitalised with sepsis every year and 12,000 die from it, more than the number of deaths caused by stroke and road accidents.
“The impact early diagnosis can have across the community is massive,” Matthew said.
Brisbane’s future as a MedTech innovation hub
Developing a promising technology is only part of the challenge. Innovators also need access to investment, commercial expertise, clinical networks and global partnerships to bring it into wider use.
With Brisbane’s universities, hospital and health networks, medical research institutes and skilled workforce providing a strong foundation, BEDA’s MedTech Initiative helps local companies commercialise new technologies, connect with global investors and take their work to markets around the world.
Since the program began in 2022, it has supported more than 40 companies. Collectively, its alumni have attracted more than $391 million in capital and created 315 full-time roles, with more than 85 per cent securing funding through grants, investment rounds and global partners.
Anthony Ryan said those economic results are inseparable from the human impact of the work.
“What you do often isn’t glamorous. It’s the hard yards at night, when no one really knows the impact of your work,” he told the innovators in the room. “But what I’ve seen is this genuine thirst to make the world a better place.”
Microbio is among the Brisbane ventures taking its work to an international audience. The company presented its technology to global investors during J.P. Morgan Healthcare Week in San Francisco as part of BEDA’s MedTech Initiative Global Accelerator, where it received highly commended recognition at the Pinnacle Investor Forum.
Progress starts with purpose
Investment and international recognition can help innovation reach more people. But Matthew measures its value by what it allows those people to do.
“I drove here today in my car, which is connected to my wheelchair, which is connected to my prosthetics, which is connected to the medical implant in my arm,” he said.
“I voraciously consume technology, but I don’t care about the technology for its own sake. What I care about is being able to do things, live my life and achieve something.”
Dr Huygens sees the technology through the same lens.
“From my perspective, innovation has to serve a purpose,” she said. “It needs an end goal, and that goal has to be improving human life.”
For both, progress begins by staying close to the people behind the science, statistics and investment figures.
“It’s easy to look at the numbers,” Matthew said. “But behind every one of those numbers is a person.”
That’s the focus of BEDA’s MedTech Initiative: to advance innovators who understand patient needs, to commercialise new technologies and grow globally, strengthening Brisbane’s health economy while improving lives here and around the world.
Ready to take your MedTech innovation further? Learn more about Brisbane’s thriving health ecosystem.
