Traynor, Victoria Professor

<p>According to the Deloitte Access Economics report, there were 4.8 million Australians aged over 15 years living with incontinence in 2010. The total financial cost of incontinence (excluding the burden of disease) was estimated to be $42.9 billion. Since 1996, Simavita, a start-up company headquartered in North Sydney, has been developing a revolutionary new product SIM® to help manage incontinence in aged care homes.  SIM® remotely monitors continence events to make assessment easier, simpler and more accurate than existing manual methods.  While the company had confidence in their new product, Simavita needed independent research and evidence to validate SIM® before taking it to market.  “As a small and rapidly growing global business, Simavita does not have the significant research resources at its disposal as a larger company might,” said Simavita’s Chief Executive Officer Philippa Lewis.</p><p>Dr Ping Yu from University of Wollongong’s School of Information Systems and Technology is an expert in the use of information technology to improve the effectiveness of healthcare and evaluation of health information systems.</p><p>The company became aware of Enterprise Connect’s Researchers in Business program that provides funding to help place experts from universities or public research agencies with businesses to develop and implement new commercial ideas.  <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/d597ix8ydn7nrmt/Enterprise-Connect-Success-Story-20110326.pdf?dl=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Enterprise Connect provided $50 000, matched by Simavita to engage University of Wollongong researchers, led by </a>Dr<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/d597ix8ydn7nrmt/Enterprise-Connect-Success-Story-20110326.pdf?dl=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Yu to evaluate the product</a>.   Researchers conducted two field trials in two aged care facilities and then evaluated the data to validate the efficacy of SIM®.</p><p><strong>Outcome</strong></p><p>Following the validation of its product, Simavita moved quickly to take SIM® to market. The company is now listed on the Australian Securities Exchange with the symbol SVA. It is operating in Australia, Europe and North America.</p><p>UOW and Simavita have continued their successful collaboration through commercial research. A multi-disciplinary team of researchers in Faculty of Informatics and Health & Behavioural Sciences, Dr Ping Yu, Prof. David Hailey, Prof. Richard Fleming and A/Prof. Victoria Traynor have published an original research paper to <em>Journal of Advanced Nursing</em> reporting the impact of SIM® on continence care in residential aged care homes in May 2012. They also disseminated the urinary continence care practices in Australian nursing homes to the international community through Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing in 2014.</p><p>The story of our successful research collaboration was show-cased by NSW Enterprise Connect program, reported in Simavita’s web site and UOW in 2012. It was showcased as <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/2fhydhnt50k8gtz/ContinenceMonitor2014.pdf?dl=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a successful university and industry collaborative research case at UOW</a>.</p>

Children today are, more than ever before, likely to interact with family and community members living with a dementia. These occurrences are more likely to happen as the population ages, with over 900,000 Australians expected to be living with dementia by 2050 (Deloitte Access Economics, 2011). Project DARE developed a short education intervention for Stage 2 (ages 8 - 11 years) at a local pubic school. It utilised art as a medium for children to express their knowledge and perception of dementia. The children were introduced to the talents of local artists who spent two full days working with the children at the school and teaching them new visual art techniques and histories. In between the two art lessons the children received a lesson on dementia.<br /><br />The children presented as surprised, excited and proud to learn new art skills and to see the results of their works. The project made children aware of the issue of dementia so that they can better understand people in our community who live with a dementia. In turn, Project DARE, in its stages of infancy, has started a small but powerful wave of change in our community... children who better understand dementia, who are more open to relating to those who have dementia, creating a more caring, understanding and humanistic relationship with those around us who need our care and compassion. It is this kind of impact that we can only hope will grow, as this project grows both in Australia around the globe.

<p>According to the Deloitte Access Economics report, there were 4.8 million Australians aged over 15 years living with incontinence in 2010. The total financial cost of incontinence (excluding the burden of disease) was estimated to be $42.9 billion. Since 1996, Simavita, a start-up company headquartered in North Sydney, has been developing a revolutionary new product SIM® to help manage incontinence in aged care homes.  SIM® remotely monitors continence events to make assessment easier, simpler and more accurate than existing manual methods.  While the company had confidence in their new product, Simavita needed independent research and evidence to validate SIM® before taking it to market.  “As a small and rapidly growing global business, Simavita does not have the significant research resources at its disposal as a larger company might,” said Simavita’s Chief Executive Officer Philippa Lewis.</p><p>Dr Ping Yu from University of Wollongong’s School of Information Systems and Technology is an expert in the use of information technology to improve the effectiveness of healthcare and evaluation of health information systems.</p><p>The company became aware of Enterprise Connect’s Researchers in Business program that provides funding to help place experts from universities or public research agencies with businesses to develop and implement new commercial ideas.  <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/d597ix8ydn7nrmt/Enterprise-Connect-Success-Story-20110326.pdf?dl=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Enterprise Connect provided $50 000, matched by Simavita to engage University of Wollongong researchers, led by </a>Dr<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/d597ix8ydn7nrmt/Enterprise-Connect-Success-Story-20110326.pdf?dl=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Yu to evaluate the product</a>.   Researchers conducted two field trials in two aged care facilities and then evaluated the data to validate the efficacy of SIM®.</p><p><strong>Outcome</strong></p><p>Following the validation of its product, Simavita moved quickly to take SIM® to market. The company is now listed on the Australian Securities Exchange with the symbol SVA. It is operating in Australia, Europe and North America.</p><p>UOW and Simavita have continued their successful collaboration through commercial research. A multi-disciplinary team of researchers in Faculty of Informatics and Health & Behavioural Sciences, Dr Ping Yu, Prof. David Hailey, Prof. Richard Fleming and A/Prof. Victoria Traynor have published an original research paper to <em>Journal of Advanced Nursing</em> reporting the impact of SIM® on continence care in residential aged care homes in May 2012. They also disseminated the urinary continence care practices in Australian nursing homes to the international community through Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing in 2014.</p><p>The story of our successful research collaboration was show-cased by NSW Enterprise Connect program, reported in Simavita’s web site and UOW in 2012. It was showcased as <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/2fhydhnt50k8gtz/ContinenceMonitor2014.pdf?dl=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a successful university and industry collaborative research case at UOW</a>.</p>

Children today are, more than ever before, likely to interact with family and community members living with a dementia. These occurrences are more likely to happen as the population ages, with over 900,000 Australians expected to be living with dementia by 2050 (Deloitte Access Economics, 2011). Project DARE developed a short education intervention for Stage 2 (ages 8 - 11 years) at a local pubic school. It utilised art as a medium for children to express their knowledge and perception of dementia. The children were introduced to the talents of local artists who spent two full days working with the children at the school and teaching them new visual art techniques and histories. In between the two art lessons the children received a lesson on dementia.<br /><br />The children presented as surprised, excited and proud to learn new art skills and to see the results of their works. The project made children aware of the issue of dementia so that they can better understand people in our community who live with a dementia. In turn, Project DARE, in its stages of infancy, has started a small but powerful wave of change in our community... children who better understand dementia, who are more open to relating to those who have dementia, creating a more caring, understanding and humanistic relationship with those around us who need our care and compassion. It is this kind of impact that we can only hope will grow, as this project grows both in Australia around the globe.