Victoria doctors get a taste of startup life with LaunchVic-backed medtech accelerator

The Australian Society for Medical Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ASME) is among seven organisations backed by LaunchVic as part of a $2.4 million program to create pre-accelerator programs to help aspiring founders understand startup life.

ASME has partnered with MTPConnect to deliver the Australian Clinical Entrepreneur Program (AUSCEP) in Victoria. It offers clinicians the resources, mentorship and networks needed to succeed as startup founders. It follows a two-year pilot, supported by Melbourne and Western Australia universities, which helped 120 clinicians.

ASME was founded in 2023 as a not-for-profit to encourage clinicians, with a focus on doctors, to consider entrepreneurship in driving healthcare innovation. President Dr Brandon Carp, who is also the AUSCEP entrepreneurial lead, said the pre-accelerator program enters a new phase with the support from LaunchVic.

MTPConnect CEO,Stuart Dignam said: “This collaboration will strengthen the state’s life sciences ecosystem, fostering the development of an innovation culture for nurses, allied health professionals and doctors, with the valuable outcome of clinician-led innovations that address critical healthcare challenges.”

The state government-backed startup body provided up to $400,000 in funding to each pre-accelerator program, spanning AI and med tech, First Nations founders and regional Victorians, as well as social impact in the circular economy and disability tech.

The seven recipients are: Australian Medical Angels, Boab AI, ASME, Remarkable, RMIT Activator, Runway HQ and Dr Kyle Turner’s Ochre.

Read more about Ochre and Turner’s journey here.

Among those who took part in ASME’s pilot program was Associate Professor Fiona Brownfoot, an obstetrician.

“Going through AUSCEP has been invaluable for commercialising my portable foetal monitoring device,” she said.

“The support, resources and networking opportunities provided to clinicians who go through this program will boost the number of successful clinician-driven startups and innovations and ensure better clinical outcomes.”

LaunchVic CEO Dr Kate Cornick said health tech is state’s equal-largest subsector, with more than 500 Victorian startups in the state employing just over 9,000 people.”

“By backing programs like ASME with a proven track record of helping HealthTech founders, we’re ensuring support for our rapidly growing ecosystem and leaning into our sector strengths,” she said.