Prof. Barry McMahon

Presentation Title:

Developing Ecosystems for Medical Technology Innovation

Presentation Synopsis:

The role of medical technology in delivering healthcare is rapidly evolving. Technology, and in particular medical devices, were once seen as tools to assist the clinician in providing healthcare. Now technology is starting to provide key roles in diagnosis, therapy, care and maintenance of healthcare and not just at specialist centres such as hospitals but also in the patient’s home and using modern IT infrastructure remotely and in a connected way. However we do not always make the best use of these technologies. This can be for a number of reasons, however principle to this is the idea that we do not include all the stakeholders in the team that design the applications. It is also important to make sure we are solving real healthcare problems rather that just looking for uses of technology. It we are to rapidly innovate in these areas we must look at the concept under development in a wider context and see how medical technology and ICT technology can be put to best use. To do this me must implement modern innovation practices and involve an interdisciplinary team of designers, technologists, clinical and patient users, etc and develop tools to optimise outputs. Smart companies and inventors doing this will develop key relationships with users as a method to design and develop technology that is better suited to the patient whether for use in healthcare facilities or in the patient’s home. Examples can be seen from my own activity on how through developing an appropriate ecosystem system for medical technology we not only expedite the ideation and innovation process but the end product at the output is of better quality as a vehicle for delivering better healthcare outcomes across a broad range of conditions in Healthcare.

Speaker Bio:

Prof. McMahon has a national and international reputation as an Academic Medical Physicist in the fields of novel physiological measurement and medical device innovation and design. Currently he is Director at the Innovation Academy, Trinity College Dublin, where he leads on broad curriculum programs in Innovation and Entrepreneurship for students, academics and executives. He has won a number of prestigious awards for his research and has successfully fostered a number of commercial offshoot companies. He has published a substantial body of work in several high impact journals related to his field of interest, and has secured significant funding from industry and grants to support his work including funding several PhD and MSc projects both at TCD and ITT Tallaght. Prof. McMahon has established many links in Ireland and internationally and is central to several multidisciplinary projects, in particular he has demonstrated an ability to support translational research programmes. Currently he is Chief Physicist/Clinical Engineer at Tallaght Hospital and a Senior Clinical Lecturer in Medical Physics and Bioengineering in the School of Medicine, Trinity College, Dublin. He is a co-founder of TAGG, and is driving the development of a strategic medical device innovation centre within the group.