Speakers

Matt is a serial inventor and the co-founder of SmartWard, a company whose mission is to improve patient safety and the job satisfaction of clinical professionals.

Matt has enjoyed a long and successful career in IT, working on a large range of commercial projects and being a Senior Adviser to Government.  Matt found his passion when he saw first-hand the systemic problems of care in hospitals and since 2009 he has dedicated his life to solving some of them. “Patients are being harmed, but everyone involved is suffering.  The problems are systemic and many healthcare professionals end up traumatized by the errors they can’t stop occurring.”

People often ask why Health spends so much money on IT systems (as distinct from devices) without seeing any benefit.  The answer is that Health is unique insofar as 80% of contemporary clinical practice will change within 5 years and the pace of change is accelerating. Once you ‘codify’ clinical practices into an IT system it becomes a huge liability, needing constant maintenance to be painted as safe as possible.  SmartWard is a safety-critical clinical workflow system that is also highly adaptable.  “A next-generation approach is needed and that is what we have built.”

Matt’s work has spanned sectors as diverse as Cybersecurity, Safety-Critical Systems, Defence and now Health and encompasses new hardware as well as software solutions.  Matt lives in Canberra, Australia and travels regularly to Europe and the US.  His dream is to improve patient safety as a legacy for his daughter, Jem.