How a visionary doctor supported my TGA success

Back in October 2019, Dr Phil Ewart from Hastings Medical Centre at Wauchope on the New South Wales mid north coast reached out to me as Managing Director of Balance Mat Pty Ltd on LinkedIn.

Dr Phil Ewart had been receiving numerous referrals from aged care facilities concerned that their residents were at risk of falling. At the time he was using the Berg Balance Scale to assess falls risk but as a busy GP in a regional area he was finding the half an hour to three quarters of an hour per session it takes to do a full-scale assessment extremely time-consuming.

Hastings Medical Centre entered an Innovation Partnership with Balance Mat Pty Ltd in May 2020 and practice nurse Karen Hamilton was employed to measure patients’ balance.

Fast-forward two years later to November 2022 and more than 500 people have had their balance tested at the surgery by Karen and other registered nurses. The result is that Dr Ewart’s time has been freed up somewhat since only about 10% of patients have had a balance problem that needed a full-scale assessment.

The hands-on research by this innovative general practitioner was instrumental in the Balance Mat being granted Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) approval and will form part of the evidence required for an application to the Australian Medical Services Advisory Committee for inclusion in the Australian Government’s Medicare Benefits Schedule.

The Balance Mat system was officially launched by the Minister for Regional Health Dr David Gillespie MP at the Hastings Medical Centre on 18 January 2022. Nurse Karen Hamilton tested Dr Gillespie’s balance at the launch and agreed that he was, in his words, “a well-balanced bloke.”

Dr Gillespie has been a strong supporter of the Balance Mat since a demonstration of an early prototype at Australian Parliament House in February 2018. As a medical practitioner of 30 years’ experience he believes the Balance Mat has tremendous potential for use in medical practices, hospitals and aged care centres.

In response to Dr Ewart’s request for additional information about the general health of patients, and particularly those with diabetes, Nurse Sarah King (pictured) is now testing patients on the Balance Mat at Wauchope.