Sudesh Sivarasu, Harry Teifel
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0812-568x, 0000-0002-6144-0275
With the SA outbreak of COVID in 2020 it was decided that the country needed to develop skills for medical device innovation – while using COVID as backdrop to learn about satisfying real-world medical industrialisation demands. Various parties including the National Ventilator Project (NVP), MerSETA and others initiated the challenge. A tender process was instituted for applicants to be selected.
Various parties got together under the University of Cape Town (UCT), namely University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), University of the Witwatersrand (WITS), Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) and the National Tooling Initiative (NTI), and successfully applied for grant funding in terms of Challenge. Collectively, the consortium is called “MediVentors”.
MerSETA is the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Sector Training Authority. MerSETA is both funding and overseeing the challenge. MerSETA is funded by levies collected from people being employed in various industries. This means that levies collected from the current generation of employees is deployed to fund the next generation of medical device engineers and innovators.
The goal of this challenge was to:
The Integrated Skills Development Programme (ISDP) was the learning strategy adopted as part of the challenge to achieve optimal outcomes. It is based on international best practice by integrating different pedagogical instruments for optimal outcomes, namely:
Project activity by the students focuses on a real-life medical device challenge as a core context. Every student, from each university, worked on a medical device project as part of their academic studies. After each student had progressed significantly in their projects, they completed an abstract submission, which is consolidated within this book.
Each abstract was independently reviewed by two sets of reviewers knowledgeable within the Biomedical Engineering field. If the abstract scored poorly against the set of criteria, then the submission was rejected. The set of abstracts that were not rejected by the reviewers were sent back to the authors for revisions. Thereafter, the abstracts were checked by a copyeditor and then finally formatted according to the UCT library approved format.
Placing oneself in the shoes of others by defining needs from the perspective of the customers. The students were required to complete the Lions’ Den Project Proposal document, which was the primary input to determine the participants who will be selected to present at the MediVentors Lions’ Den Event. This document was marked by a MediVentor selection committee. The purpose of this document is to approach the project work from a customer / patient perspective and train students in convincing other parties to back their industrialisation efforts.
Participation in a simulated real-world competition (“MediVentors Lions’ Den Conference”) to develop skills in promoting and communicating one’s solution to garner support or funding for realisation. The goal of the conference was to simulate a real-life challenge of any innovator, namely, to convince other parties to support their industrialisation proposal and provide funding. The conference also detailed the courses that the students participated in and how they applied their skills to their individual projects. Finalists who submitted the best project proposals were selected prior to the conference. These finalists presented their solution to garner support or funding for realisation to a panel of esteemed jurors.
On Wednesday the 2nd of March, some of the most innovative minds in biomedical engineering gathered to celebrate the conclusion of the first MerSETA Virovent Innovation Skills Challenge. This challenge saw participants from various institutions across the country collaborate toward one common goal: to develop skills for medical device innovation in South Africa.
The challenge ended with a MediVentors Lions' Den Event. The competition was inspired by the television series “Shark Tank”. The event provided the platform for the MediVentors to engage with other role-players in the MedTech space by presenting innovative ideas. This served to convince the industry to support their industrialisation proposal and, among other things, make funding available for product realisation.
The goal of this event was to:
The jury constituted various stakeholders in the MedTech innovation value chain, with a total prize value of R110 000 being awarded across the board following the Lions' Den pitching event. The Lions' Den Event also included two panellist discussions, namely: Innovation conversion: The skills and learner perspective; and Industrialisation: Putting the pieces of the chain together. The participants and panellists actively engaged in these discussions highlighting the current gaps within the context of the South African MedTech space, specifically the current difficulty in medical device product realisation and industrialisation.
There was a total of nine finalists from across the four institutions (UKZN, CPUT, UCT and WITS) that battled it out in front of the esteemed lions. Every finalist did a commendable job with convincing the lions to support their medical device proposal. Several awards were distributed according to the participants' unique proposals. Lan Xu (WITS) was awarded the WCMDC Most Promising MedTech Award (R5000), Joel Philpott (UCT) was awarded the MDMSA Most Promising MedTech Award (R5000), the MediVentors Best in Action Award (R1000) was awarded to Mikhail Solomons (CPUT) and the People’s Choice MedTech Award (R1000) was awarded to Pragesh Govender (UKZN).
Third place was awarded to Uchenna Okwuosa from CPUT, receiving R20000 towards further development of the PEEP Valve, CAPTUL. Joel Philpott from UCT came second overall and was awarded R30000 for further development of his medical device. First place for the MediVentors Lions' Den Event was awarded to UCT's Kerstin Lisa Hall and her novel design of the auto-injector. The device is called the OptiJect. Hall walks away with a prize of R50000 to be used toward MedTech device development.