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Tell us about your company and the problem you're trying to solve.
Australis Scientific is a digital therapeutics company developing the Confidanz® Smart Patch, a connected neuromodulation platform for people living with overactive bladder and urge urinary incontinence.
Australis was founded through the Harvard Medical School HealthTech Fellowship, where we applied the Biodesign framework to identify a major unmet need:
“How might we provide patients suffering from overactive bladder and urge urinary incontinence with a discreet, clinically effective, and accessible therapy that can be delivered at home while reducing the burden of repeated clinic visits?”
Today, many patients delay or discontinue treatment because existing options can involve side effects, invasive procedures, stigma or frequent appointments. The Confidanz® Smart Patch addresses this challenge by delivering a clinically proven therapy at home while enabling clinicians to remotely monitor outcomes and optimise treatment.
Why did you apply for ANDHealth+ and what are you hoping to achieve through the program?
Australis has worked closely with ANDHealth for several years through programs including ANDHealth Masterclass, the TGA SaMD program and international delegations to HLTH USA and London Tech Week.
The guidance, network and commercialisation expertise provided by ANDHealth have been instrumental in helping us de-risk our clinical, regulatory and market access pathway. Being selected as an ANDHealth+ portfolio company is both a significant milestone and a natural progression in our journey.
Through the program, we hope to accelerate clinical validation, strategic partnerships and market adoption as we scale the Confidanz® platform in Australia and internationally.
What have been the biggest challenges in developing or scaling your solution to date?
One of our biggest challenges has been making a sophisticated connected therapeutic feel simple for patients and clinicians.
Behind the scenes, the Confidanz® platform combines wearable hardware, software as a medical device, remote monitoring, cybersecurity, quality systems and regulatory compliance into a single seamless experience.
As an Australian digital health company, we've had to simultaneously generate clinical evidence, navigate regulatory pathways, raise capital and prepare for commercialisation. Balancing all of these priorities while maintaining capital efficiency has been both our greatest challenge and one of our greatest strengths.
What evidence or early results have you seen so far that validate your solution?
What has been most validating is seeing patients successfully access treatment from home for a condition that has traditionally required repeated specialist clinic visits.
Our early clinical study has demonstrated meaningful improvements in bladder control symptoms with no device-related safety concerns. We have also seen strong patient acceptance, particularly among participants who value the privacy and convenience of receiving treatment at home.
Importantly, several participants came from regional and remote communities, where access to specialist care can be limited. For many, this was the first time they could access a gold-standard therapy without repeatedly travelling to a major city.
That reinforces our belief that connected therapeutics can improve both health outcomes and healthcare equity.
Tell us about your background and/or founder journey.
My background combines healthcare entrepreneurship and global medical technology leadership. I spent more than 15 years with Medtronic and Boston Scientific across Australia, the United States, China and Costa Rica.
Through Boston Scientific's Global Leadership Program, I worked across sales, marketing, R&D, corporate ventures, manufacturing and supply chain, while later leading product innovation initiatives and managing an US$80 million P&L in Greater China.
Australis Scientific was founded through the Harvard Medical School HealthTech Fellowship, where we identified a major unmet need in bladder dysfunction and created the Confidanz® Smart Patch as the first commercial spin-out from the program.
Where do you see the biggest opportunities for innovation in the Australian healthcare system?
I believe Australia's biggest healthcare opportunity is making access to specialist care independent of geography.
Too many Australians still have different healthcare outcomes based on where they live. Connected therapeutic platforms like Confidanz® can help change that by combining treatment delivery, remote monitoring, patient-reported outcomes and clinician decision-making into a single digital care pathway.
Rather than asking patients to travel to care, we can increasingly bring care to patients. For regional and remote Australians, that has the potential to dramatically improve access, outcomes and healthcare efficiency.
What's something the sector may not know about you?
One thing many people don't know is that I competed on Australian MasterChef and was fortunate enough to win Dish of the Day twice. Cooking remains one of my favourite creative outlets and a great way to unwind outside of work.
Professionally, one of the highlights of my career was representing Australis Scientific during Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's State Visit to the United States and presenting the Confidanz® Smart Patch to the Prime Minister and the Biden Administration at the White House. It was an incredible opportunity to showcase Australian healthcare innovation on the global stage.
ANDHealth is supported to deliver the ANDHealth+ program by the Australian Government through the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) 2024 BioMedTech Incubator Program.
Applications for the next intake of the ANDHealth+ program are expected to open in August 2026.
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