Karen Reynolds

Karen Reynolds

Professor Karen Reynolds FTSE FAHMS HonFIEAust PhD, Director MDPP, Flinders University, South Australia

Professor Karen Reynolds is Director of the Medical Device Research Institute at Flinders University in South Australia. As one of Australia's leading researchers in biomedical engineering, Karen is passionate about bridging the divide between research and industry. In 2008, she founded the Medical Device Partnering Program (MDPP) Ideas Incubator, a program designed to facilitate early-stage innovation and collaborations across the medtech sector. Fourteen years later, this award-winning program continues to support early-stage innovation in the medtech sector. Karen has a number of external roles including as member of the Therapeutic Goods Administration's Advisory Committee on Medical Devices, and until last year, a member of the Australian Medical Research Advisory Board. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academies of Technology and Engineering and of Health & Medical Sciences, and is an Honorary Fellow of Engineers Australia.

The Medical Device Partnering Program (MDPP) (https://mdpp.org.au/), led by Flinders University, is Australia's longest running Medtech innovation program in Australia. The Program was designed as an ideas incubator; exploring new concepts, fostering collaborations and facilitating partnerships at the very earliest stage of medical device development, leveraging the capabilities and facilities of research organisations, and turning ideas into proven concepts.
Since its establishment in 2008, the MDPP has become a 'one-stop shop' for medtech entrepreneurs and start-ups, who would not necessarily have the connections, diverse expertise, and facilities to undertake these important first steps. Today it not only has a very clear, structured process for taking ideas and developing them into tested solutions, it also plays a significant role in connecting the Australian medtech industry with its broader stakeholders.
Since commencing operations, the MDPP has assessed over 650 ideas for new medical and assistive technologies, has facilitated 170 expert workshops to explore these ideas, completed 100 projects, and has provided manufacturing, partnering and new long-term commercial opportunities to over 30 Australian manufacturers. MDPP has also provided a stream of new clients and work to local service providers (intellectual property, industrial design, product development, finance and regulatory).