On 11 September 2008 three peak groups - BioMed North Limited, the Sydney West Area Health Service Office of Commercialisation (SWAHS OOC) and the Northern Sydney Central Coast Health Office of Commercialisation (NSCCHS OOC) presented the ‘2nd Annual IP Management and Commercialisation for Hospitals’ conference at Westmead Hospital, Westmead, Sydney.  This was held in response to a highly successful first conference held in May 2007 at the Royal North Shore Hospital.

Professor Steven Boyages, Chief Executive of SWAHS welcomed attendees and opened the Conference.  He then provided an overview of ‘The Role of Intellectual Property and Innovation in Improving Patient Care’ from the SWAHS perspective.

The theme for Session One was ‘The Strategic Importance of Intellectual Property in Health’ and Dr Gerard Cudmore, Director of Medical Research at the NSW Office for Science and Medical Research presented ‘IP Management Perspectives from the NSW Government Office for Science and Medical Research’.  Mr Ted Stapinski, CEO of Vaxine Pty Ltd presented 'The Vaxine Story – IP Commercialised from The Canberra Hospital, Canberra'.   Professor Carol Pollock, Chairman of Research at NSCCH then provided an overview of medical Intellectual Property worldwide, and The evolution and effect of IP Commercialisation at NSCCHS.

The second Session was all about ‘Managing Intellectual Property’ and presentations included:

Dr Martin O’Brien, Principal, Spruson & Ferguson presented ‘Important Aspects of IP Management for Health’.

Session three concentrated on IP Commercialisation, and included case studies and presentations on 

The fourth session was about ‘Recognising Our Success’ and three certificates were presented for Top Inventions for 2008 as follows:

The Chief Sponsor of the Conference was The NSW Office For Science and Medical Research, and other sponsors included Spruson & Ferguson, Innovation Dynamics, Australian Institute of Commercialisation, and The National Health Sciences Centre Limited.

Attendees included broad industry representation with about equal representation from Industry, Government departments involved in IP commercialisation, Department of Health, Hospitals, CSIRO, Research Institutes, Universities and Service Providers.   Again this year we saw interest from interstate with delegates from Western Australia, Queensland, ACT and Victoria.