What Is The AMMA Medtech Showcase?

The Australian Medtech Manufacturing Alliance (AMMA) is a partnership of peak industry bodies, backed by a network of industry and health champions. Dedicated to creating stronger pathways to market for local manufacturers, the AMMA Medtech Showcase is a cornerstone of this mission.

The Medtech Showcase provided health organisations with the opportunity to engage with local suppliers, get hands-on with new technology, and provide invaluable insights into how manufacturers can engage the health system. Roundtable discussions held throughout encouraged deep discussion among industry peers.

Locally made medtech helps support a robust, innovative, and responsive healthcare system made for Australians. But achieving this doesn’t happen in isolation. It requires collaboration, shared ambition and commitment to supporting local capability. That is the Australian Medtech Manufacturing Alliances' (AMMA) vision, and that’s why, in late 2025, they brought together the brightest minds across medtech, healthcare and industry for the inaugural Medtech Showcase and Future Solutions Roundtable.

The Roundtable sparked thought-provoking conversations, new connections, and inspiring showcases of Australian medtech capability. Across the day, participants explored a central question: how can Victoria’s health system better harness local medtech capability to deliver greater value, resilience, and innovation?

Discussions centred on three key themes: leveraging local capability to strengthen resilient supply chains; embedding value beyond cost in strategic sourcing decisions; and developing effective partnership models to support the adoption of new technologies. These conversations laid a strong foundation for tackling the complex challenges and emerging trends shaping the future of medtech and healthcare in Australia.

This article captures the key insights, themes, and takeaways that do not represent the AMMA position, but rather what was heard at the Future Solutions Roundtable, which took place on October 16th, 2025.

Leveraging Local Capability To Strengthen Resilient Supply Chains

Australia’s health system relies heavily on imported health technologies, including consumables and PPE, as well as diagnostics, devices, and components. Despite Victoria having established and emerging medtech manufacturers, regional capabilities, and advanced manufacturing infrastructure, these capabilities are not fully integrated into mainstream procurement pathways. This wide-ranging conversation unearthed some interesting insights and solutions.

Establish a Local Supplier Catalogue to Build Visibility of Local Choice
Connecting with local suppliers is often problematic. Buyers frequently lack awareness of who these suppliers are, and integrating local suppliers isn't standard in their procurement process.

A way forward is to build a governed local supplier product catalogue that incorporates assurance mechanisms to build buyer confidence and improve local firm visibility during category planning and at backorder triggers.

Create a Shared Market Data View for Better Planning
Essential procurement data is trapped in separate silos across HSV, individual health services, and the industry, leaving suppliers confused about where to find relevant data. This lack of a unified, shared view of demand and supply prevents effective prioritisation and risk management.

Introducing a demand-supply intelligence dashboard to share market data and prioritise demand could enhance procurement planning and inform policy development. This would centralise data in a single location.

Reduce Contract Rigidity and Long Procurement Cycles
Current panel structures and long-tenure contracts create narrow entry windows and limited flexibility. This constrains SME access, makes contracts less competitive, and directly slows the adoption and application of better innovation and better local products between cycles.

The Roundtable unearthed a proposed solution to enable rolling refresh and mid-term triggers, and to right-size documentation and insurance requirements for low-risk categories.

Diversify The Supply Chain to Ensure Continuity and Reduce Risk
The fragility of our supply chain is caused by distance, customs, shipping delays, globally stretched supply chains, and upstream component shocks. All of these create recurrent lead-time risks for Victorian health services. When supply is concentrated with a single vendor, outages and recalls cascade faster, and recovery options are limited.

Diversifying the supply chain can help reduce outages and wait times.This could involve identifying and establishing a list of vulnerable products, engaging multiple suppliers, and dual-sourcing to ensure continuity.

Track and Highlight Local Content
Participants also raised the need for stronger support mechanisms to grow domestic supply, including clear targets and transparent measurements, which support local open competition.

A popular suggestion was to publicly report and track local content metrics, alongside an annual summary of outcomes. This summary would highlight categories in which using local capabilities improved continuity and quality, thereby linking targets directly to health-system value.

Embedding Value Beyond Cost in Strategic Sourcing

Health procurement operates under high scrutiny to maintain service continuity, meet probity requirements, and deliver savings. Price has come to dominate the concept of value, overshadowing existing policy frameworks that advocate for principles such as whole-of-life value, quality, outcomes, risk, and sustainability.

Shifting Away From Price as a Default Measurement
Price has become the leading indicator of value in health purchasing, a problematic trend. Annual budget cycles, savings-focused KPIs, and reporting requirements reinforce short-term financial decisions over life-cycle and long-term considerations.

The introduction of a best-practice network will encourage the use of different methods for measuring values and KPIs. Defining and using simple value statements alongside price would be helpful. Additionally, creating a method for measuring and making outcomes more visible.

Clinical Participation Drives Greater Value
Many participants suggested that value improves when clinical and end-user input is taken into account. However, capacity constraints and siloed structures can result in underrepresentation of clinical requirements or in reliance on individual champions in purchasing decisions.

To enhance clinical and user participation, increased patient advisory, early clinical reviews, and input from product evaluation committees is recommended. Additionally, increasing clinical procurement involvement is essential for high-impact categories, supported by appropriate resourcing.

Evidence-based Value Measurement is Key
Participants noted that price often dominates as a measure of value because there is no shared, evidence-based approach to measuring value. Current system weaknesses include failure to capture lifecycle costs, siloed outcomes data, and the lack of acceptance of HTA-style methods in medtech. As a result, buyers by default use price as a measure of value.

To better define and measure value, it is recommended that a statewide policy on value-based procurement be implemented. This involves defining a practical value-based assessment framework and establishing a standardised system to record and share validated outcomes for procurement use.

Education and Knowledge Reduce Risk Aversion and Encourage Change
Purchasing decisions are stalled because many groups view value solely through the lens of price. These groups often find themselves stuck in patterns and have limited capacity for change, which hinders their ability to make value-based choices.

The most effective way to encourage the group to adopt a value-based approach is through education. By upskilling the workforce in value-based procurement and conducting pilot programs, it’s feasibility can be demonstrated and proven.

Education and Knowledge Reduce Risk Aversion and Encourage Change
Purchasing decisions are stalled because many groups view value solely through the lens of price. These groups often find themselves stuck in patterns and have limited capacity for change, which hinders their ability to make value-based choices.

The most effective way to encourage the group to adopt a value-based approach is through education. By upskilling the workforce in value-based procurement and conducting pilot programs, it’s feasibility can be demonstrated and proven.

Partnership Models For Adopting New Technologies

Adopting new technologies in Victoria’s health system is slow, complex, and often unpredictable; even when innovations are clinically sound and aligned with system priorities. Healthcare services juggle safety, probity and budget constraints. Innovators face different challenges, including navigating complex evaluation processes, securing approvals, and dealing with unclear demand.

Reward Faith In New Technology and Create Clear Pathways Forward
Ad hoc pilots, contract blackout periods, unclear decision-making, and fragmented funding processes are delaying the adoption of new technologies. The path to increased adoption involves creating best-practice networks and integrating value-based procurement practices as drivers for change.

To incentivise adoption, facilities should be rewarded for trialling new technology. Providing a transparent product evaluation pathway and simplifying processes, insurance requirements, and removing red tape will encourage innovation.

Shared Accessible Data Fosters Transparency and Innovation
Clinical, operational, and economic evidence exists, but it is not easily discoverable across services without shared formats and reporting. There is no central repository to prevent trial duplication, and trial results are often siloed. Normalising a minimum data standard and making de-identified results searchable would remove uncertainty, shorten cycle times and allow value to be chosen over price.

Creating a network to share trial outcomes and evidence would ensure that data is accessible to everyone, supporting equity and fostering better innovation. Additionally, a mandate to report on innovation outcomes will help avoid duplication of results and support innovation.

Increased and Clear Demand Signalling Would Benefit Suppliers and Buyers
Participants wanted a clear, updated list of unmet needs and challenge briefs so proposals match real clinical or operational gaps, and can move straight to evaluation. Unfocused development wastes time, money and resources.

To solve this problem, the group suggested  publishing a list of unmet needs, challenge briefs, ideally using an online portal. Coupled with annual demand signalling, this would create early-stage funding and give buyers a reason to engage with proposed solutions early.

Embed Commercialisation units within Health Services
Limited clinical capacity for intake, triage, pilot implementation, and evidence synthesis slows or prevents the adoption of otherwise viable technologies. Core operations often dominate workers' daily attention, while innovation is neglected.

One solution to improve capacity is to embed small, skilled commercialisation units inside health services, providing a single front door for intake. In addition, standardising pilot design and measurement would ensure projects are presented in a way that procurement and finance can use, to increase the chances of successful uptake.

Co-design Can Align Expectations and Reduce Misfires Early
Co-design can accelerate innovation and reduce misfires. Regular collaboration forums reduce search costs, align expectations early, and surface integration issues before tendering begins.

Establishing more opportunities for cross-sector forums and working groups to connect purchasers and innovators would improve collaboration, reduce risk and unearth more opportunities for innovation..

Increasing Med Tech Literacy Through Education and Culture Building
Embedding med tech literacy and sharing real case studies reduces the perceived risk of local technology and accelerates adoption. Building knowledge, a common language, evidence, lifecycle value, and implementation mechanics across clinical, procurement, and finance roles makes change less threatening and more executable.

To improve education and cultural development, we can establish a policy to facilitate communication between the health and industry sectors. Promoting medtech considerations in health strategy and incorporating local medtech into undergraduate and postgraduate education will educate and raise awareness of medical technology.

It's incredible what we can achieve when the health and industry sectors come together. Creating a platform for safe, open discussion to help shape the future of healthcare is exactly what we set out to do. It was inspiring to see so many participating and making meaningful connections. This is how we shape the future of healthcare and deliver lasting, long-term better outcomes for patients.