“Digital and connected health is a broad and rapidly evolving sector,” says Ms Bronwyn Le Grice, CEO and Managing Director of ANDHealth.
“Whether it is wearable sensors, connected implantable devices, AI driven diagnostics, precision genomics, or digital therapeutics – or anything in between – the most exciting thing about digital health is its potential to profoundly change the way we deliver health and care.”
Strengthening Australia’s digital health ecosystem
Bronwyn started ANDHealth in 2017 to help companies overcome major commercial challenges in digital health.
“ANDHealth was founded on the principle that emerging digital and connected health technologies, products and services face significantly different commercialisation and uptake challenges than technologies in the more traditional biopharmaceutical and medical device industries,” explains Bronwyn.
“Our purpose is to accelerate the development, commercialisation and uptake of digital and connected health technologies for the benefit of patients across Australia and the world.
“At a company level, this means providing access to expertise, mentoring, training, and one-to-one support. It also includes non-dilutive funding and international market access opportunities that would often otherwise be beyond the reach of our small, high-potential, technology-driven companies.
"At a sectoral level, this means increasing clinical trial activity, creating jobs, attracting follow-on investment, regulatory approvals, international market launches and delivering widespread patient impact.”
Driving the growth of digital health startups
The Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) supports ANDHealth+ – a program that grows small and medium enterprises at the proof-of-concept stage. These companies have early evidence that their digital health innovations work, but further development is needed for them to be market ready.
ANDHealth provides each company with a support team and a tailored advisory panel comprising multi-sectoral, multidisciplinary industry leaders and consumer, community or end user representatives. The company develops a project plan with support from these mentors and receives funding based on its achievement of milestones and navigation of ‘go/no-go’ points.
“By harnessing the collective experience and skills of a broad, experienced and diverse group, we can identify barriers to commercialisation at the company level and implement strategies to overcome them in the most effective and impactful way,” says Bronwyn.
One company on the ANDHealth+ journey is Navier Medical, the Western Australian creator of the software platform Mosaic. Mosaic analyses CT angiography scans of the heart and arteries to detect high-risk cardiovascular disease.
Navier Medical has developed next-gen AI-powered imaging markers that go beyond conventional analysis, helping to reveal hidden disease that is often missed by routine image assessment. By improving understanding of a patient’s true cardiovascular risk, clinicians can identify disease earlier and deliver more personalised treatment to help prevent heart attacks.
Navier Medical joined the ANDHealth+ program in April 2024. In June 2025, the company achieved a major milestone when Mosaic V1 received clearance from the United States Food and Drug Administration. This marked an important step towards commercialisation of the technology.
“The digital health sector lags behind its medtech and biotech peers in accessing private capital and is only just starting to enter the mainstream. The funding provided by the MRFF has been a gamechanger for accelerating our highest-potential proof-of-concept digital health companies,” says Bronwyn. “This helps companies to grow in Australia instead of moving offshore or closing due to limited capital.”
Expanding globally while staying Australian
“Within a digital health context, software is a scalable product. It does not face shelf-life and manufacturing challenges that some other health and medical research products face,” explains Bronwyn.
“So, there is a real opportunity for the companies we support to ‘grow locally and scale globally’.”
However, the realities of Australia’s geographic distance from major markets cannot be underestimated
“With targeted and direct intervention, it is possible to provide our health and medical technology-based companies with greater scope to build more meaningful local footprints and to undertake a greater proportion of their research, development and commercialisation here at home.
“While it may not be realistic in the short term to aspire to retain 100% of a scaling company’s team and activities in Australia, ensuring access to the necessary funding and skills will increasingly keep more activity, investment and jobs here.”
Bronwyn believes the MRFF has a fundamental role in supporting this expansion and in creating a virtuous cycle.
“Increasing capital, technology and opportunity will attract and retain talent, generate further capital and create a cycle of continuous growth.”
Advice for future innovators
Bronwyn knows that bringing health-related innovations to market is difficult and encourages early-stage digital health entrepreneurs to seek support.
“One of the core values of ANDHealth is to ‘know what you don’t know’. Seek expertise from other innovators, expert advisors, investors and organisations like ANDHealth that can help you refine your product, elevate your pitch and connect you to global players.”
She says resilience is vital.
“If things do not work out the way you thought the first time, reflect, redesign and pivot if you have to. Stay focused on your end game.”