National Survey of Research Commercialisation - Australian ...

NATIONAL SURVEY OF RESEARCH COMMERCIALISATION
Impedimed, formed in 1999 as a spin-off from the University of Queensland, received
a Queensland government innovation grant in 2000, and, with the university and
Royal Women’s Hospital, has applied for a NHMRC grant for continuing research. In
1992–93, the ARC provided funding for the original research which led to Impedimed’s
‘Lymphometer’, the most accurate instrument in existence for measuring lymphoedema.
So far, sales of the Lymphometer, released in 2002, have earned $32,000, and the
company’s sales of bioimpedance instruments have already reached just under $1 million.
The company has received government grants in excess of $120,000. Its founder and
Managing Director, Lucille Bridges, says: ‘ARC funding was a great help in the early
stages, and obtaining the Innovation Start-Up Scheme (ISUS) grant enabled us to move
from low-tech to high-tech research and development in one giant leap!
‘Lymphoedema has been widely ignored and is not well understood. It hasn’t been taken
as seriously as it should. There is still no cure for Lymphoedema, but early and accurate
diagnosis makes for far better management and much improved quality of life.’
Before the Lymphometer, she says, ‘one of the more common ways to determine the
degree of fluid build-up was by using a tape measure, or imprecise procedures such as
prodding, pinching the skin, or water displacement, which involves placing the affected
part of the body into a bath and noting how much water was displaced. Too often, the
lymphoedema had to be quite severe before it could even be detected’.
Although Impedimed is small, it is about to increase the number of people it employs in
line with its goal of becoming the world leader in medical applications for bioelectrical
impedance.
‘This exciting, emerging technology lends itself to the monitoring and management
of such procedures as drug dosing and renal dialysis, and a wide range of medical
conditions, including oedema (fluid build-up), cardiac disease, obesity, diabetes and
wasting disorders such as AIDS and anorexia,’ says Mrs Bridges.
‘Impedimed is implementing plans to launch its range of three bioimpedance devices
worldwide, and, as part of this, we’re in the process of obtaining approval to sell them in
the US through the Federal Drug Administration.’
INNER VISION BIOMETRICS
A physicist’s curiosity about the relationships between metals and biological processes
has led to a new multi-million dollar pathology service that improves the management of
serious liver diseases and eliminates the need for painful, invasive biopsies.
The technology and service arose from Dr Tim St Pierre’s research into the behaviour of
magnetic materials in biological systems, and has led to a new non-invasive method of
analysing iron build-up in the liver, which can lead to potentially fatal diseases.
The spin-off company, Inner Vision Biometrics, incorporated in 2000 to commercialise
the science, has predicted annual earnings of $5.3 million by 2005.
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