Our host, Richard Sokolov, Executive Director and co-founder of IDE Group, speaks with Prof Stephanie Watson, known for her ground-breaking research in corneal therapies with over 200 publications and international patents.

Prof Watson is a Professor at the Save Sight Institute at The University of Sydney, Head of the Corneal Unit at Sydney Eye Hospital and former winner of IDE’s BBFH Challenge

Richard and Stephanie talk about her mission to eliminate corneal blindness, the mission of her startup Ocurep to make it easy to close eye wounds, the three biggest learnings along that journey and why technology is about connecting with people.

About the BBFH Series

The Building Better Futures for Health (BBFH) Series is a series of interviews with founders, professors, executives, and other leaders of the Australian startup community. Together with our guests, we explore and analyse the drivers and challenges of the healthcare startup community in Australia and talk about their unique journeys and stories.

Website: https://www.idegroup.com.au/videos-podcasts

Website BBFH Challenge: https://www.bbfhchallenge.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ide-/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ide_group

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IDEGroupAU/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ide.group/  

Timestamps/Chapters

00:00 Intro

00:27 Prof Watson's background

02:30 Prof Watson's mission against corneal blindness

04:00 Ocurep's solution to seal the cornea without stitches to restore vision

05:01 Ocurep and the BBFH Challenge

06:20 Journey of Ocurep and major challenges

07:30 Ocurep's mission to make it easy to close eye wounds

09:20 How the BBFH Challenge helped Ocurep

10:12 Technology is about people and connecting with them

11:45 Biggest three learnings for other entrepreneurs and researchers

13:35 How did COVID affect Healthcare

15:15 The hope to eliminate corneal blindness

16:05 Advice for applicants of the BBFH Challenge