Dr Vinayak Smith

Head of New Ventures @ Virtus Health

About

I am fortunate to be playing the roles of a practicing clinician, scientist and executive in deep technology companies. When I’m not caring for pregnant mothers and their babies, my broader passion focuses on optimising health technology innovation and implemetation in healthcare to improve outcomes and equitable access. My current areas of expertise involve: 1) Scientific direction for active early stage healthcare innovation 2) Healthcare strategy and implementation science 3) Commercialisation of new technologies in various sectors of medicine 4) Venture capital advisory 5) Working closely with tech startups to de risk their path to market I have also been privilaged to be involved cross sectorally in precision medicine and deep technology initiatives. To date, I have been involved in the development, active commercialisation and clinical testing of numerous novel technologies with academia and industry both internationally and locally (refer to experiences below). For this, I have been thankful to receive both academic and media recognition. During this time, I have also had the oppurtunity of working with a diverse group of highly innovative individuals, from backgrounds such as engineering and business, and have also developed close links between these fields. On top of this, I also am involved as the clinical strategy lead for several Healthtech companies where I help strategise their best clinical approach I continue to be inspired by open innovation and is working incessantly towards building links between academia, industry and clinicians. Through this, I hopes to empower the innovation ecosystem and aim to inspire others to join him this journey too.

Country

Australia

City

Melbourne

Industry

Medical Device

Skill

Medical Devices, Innovation Development, Clinical Research, Precision Medicine, Venture Capital, Private Equity, Product Innovation, Clinical Trials, Healthcare, Good Clinical Practice (GCP), Research, Leadership, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Health Technology Assessment (HTA), Technology Needs Analysis, Decision Support, Clinical Trial Analysis

Experience

Head of New Ventures

Virtus Health

2022-2 - Present · 4 yrs 8 mos

Virtus is the market leader in reproductive health services across Australia and Asia Pacific and broadly serves women and their families in becoming parents. I was appointed to i) oversee internal innovation processes and strategy, ii) strategic M&A activity for high growth ventures (H3) and iii) implement clinically focused digital transformation towards precision (individualised) medicine. This leverages off a unique combined expertise in clinical, commercial and technical know-how to accelerate innovation in reproductive medicine using cutting edge models of innovation management, open innovation, corporate venturing/ incubation, industry-academia collaboration and intrapreneurship to provide industry leading clinical outcomes for women and their families. Reporting to CEO directly. Track record - Creation/codevelopment of 5 first in world ventures in precision medicine, 3 patents, >20 proprietary algorithms and 1 regulatory approval - Sectoral thought leadership and contribution through advisory and 14 chairing/ speaker invitations at international conferences (averaging. 5 conferences/year at present). Online Talks 1. MTP Connect on MedTech commercialisation https://www.mtpconnect.org.au/Story?Action=View&Story_id=320

Adjunct Senior Lecturer (MedTech and Innovation management)

Monash University

2016 - Present · 10 yrs

Academic research focussed on innovation management, health technology translation and artificial intelligence (AI) development to establish best in class processes to simultaneously deliver rapid commercial outcomes and healthcare impact across 3 clinical areas (Women’s Health, Surgery, Anaesthetics). Track record - Personal research funding (2.18 M) and industry funding (880K) - 9 first authored publications which have been cited 368 times Google Scholar Link: https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=7qTo6VkAAAAJ&hl=en - 1 best poster prize - Ongoing Academic supervision and mentoring – 1x ongoing PhD supervision and 1 x BMedSci completed with HD - Collaborative inventorship of Fetal Kicks a first in world non invasive fetal movement sensor with Department of Chemical Engineering University media features links: Individual https://lens.monash.edu/@vinayak-smith Fetal Kicks 1. https://lens.monash.edu/@medicine-health/2019/10/16/1377240/pregnancy-monitoring-from-home-a-world-first-device-being-trialled-globally 2. https://www.monash.edu/medicine/news/latest/2020-articles/monash-researchers-awarded-stillbirth-foundation-australia-grant-for-fetal-monitoring-device

Adjunct Associate Professor

RMIT University

2023-6 - Present · 3 yrs 4 mos

Obstetrics and Gynaecology (OBGYN) Speciality Trainee

Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists RANZCOG

2016 - Present · 10 yrs

Familiarity and ongoing committed practice to clinical care delivery, practice management, digital health and healthcare implementation across various rural and metropolitan settings driven by a passion to improve women’s health through specialist training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (RANZCOG).

Co-Founder (Reproductive Health)

23Strands

2021-1 - Present · 5 yrs 9 mos

Initiative focused on using Whole genome sequencing and applying cutting edge data science, precision medicine and artificial intelligence (AI) to improving patient outcomes in reproductive medicine . This is an Australian first commercially and received a 2.7 M ARC linkage grant and over 6M in translational research projects.

Co-Founder

Livf.Women

2021-1 - Present · 5 yrs 9 mos

Impact initiative focused on delivering evidence based pregnancy care to women across India. This is an Indian first, has won the best women’s health startup in Tamil Nadu, India and has been used by over 100K women already generating immense impact.

Chief Scientific Officer

Biorithm

2016 - Present · 10 yrs

Singapore

Initiative focused on monitoring women outside hospital to detecting babies at risk of stillbirth using their heart rate and prompting their safe delivery through FEMOM. I am part of the founding team and currently function as the Chief Scientific Officer.

Fellow

Australasian Institute of Digital Health (AIDH)

2022-3 - Present · 4 yrs 7 mos

Awarded highest level of recognition from the Australian Institute of digital health (Fellowship) for contributions to digital health and thought leadership in the field.

Clinical Advisor (Venture Capital)

Pureland Global Venture

2019-6 - Present · 7 yrs 4 mos

Advisory on innovation management and due diligence for a Venture capital fund based in Singapore. Evergreen fund with impact investment philosophy.

Clinical Advisor

VitalTrace

2019-12 - Present · 6 yrs 10 mos

Initiative focused on development of continous lactate detection in labour to detect babies at risk of brain injury to prevent cerebral palsy. I have been part of the development team from an early stage and continue in a research advisory capacity.