monash university, 2022

Mapping Melbourne Medtech

Mapping Melbourne Medtech Tactile Tools™ Workshop

Photographer Adam R. Thomas, 2022

Mapping Melbourne Medtech invited designers, design consultancies, businesses, researchers, engineers and health experts from across academia, healthcare, government, business and the start-up ecosystem to begin the process of Mapping Melbourne’s Medtech ecosystem. The activity used a specially designed tactile co-design toolkit that comprised nearly 1000 ‘Tactile Tools’ to map the projects, stakeholders and insights. After the event the physical mapping was documented to inform a data visualisation to share with key stakeholders for iteration and continued learning.

Mapping Melbourne Medtech elicited and consolidated shared memory. Through the process of mapping the collective history, shared and contested knowledges surfaced, bringing together diverse views to build a coherent picture of Melbourne’s Medtech ecosystem. The activity looked backward to look forward starting with identifying keystone innovations of the last 40 years, and drawing from these the key players, insights, connections and big ideas. The activity enabled the sector to visualise the turning points in Melbourne’s MedTech journey in addition to identifying roadblocks and opportunities that challenged the industry to pivot. It helped to identify future pathways towards generating collective impact across sectors in addition to highlighting central considerations in making the industry more sustainable.