Lions Outback Vision announced as winner of The Challenge

Lions Outback Vision has been announced as the winner of the $5 million Pilbara healthcare initiative ‘The Challenge’.

Lions Outback Vision overcame a field of 93 entries and 10 finalists to emerge as the winner of The Challenge, a global callout for innovators to brainstorm, collaborate and ultimately establish a ground-breaking solution to revolutionise health care in the Pilbara.

Professor Angus Turner, the lead of Lion Outback Vision’s Eye screening powered by artificial intelligence to transform primary care project, accepted the award alongside fellow team members Christine Stott and Alex Ramirez. The AI scanner plans to target remote and isolated Indigenous communities to improve accessibility to eye checks, and Professor Turner also hoped eye checks using AI would become a standard procedure in primary care, as they can detect other diseases that may be occurring around the body.

The Lyfe Languages project, delivered through the Women and Infants Research Foundation, was recognised with an honourable mention for their work during the Challenge as they demonstrated the profound impact of language on health and wellbeing, showing the importance of enabling access to health care and improving health literacy. 

The event was a unique opportunity to celebrate the Challenge program, but also to bring a diverse group of innovators and disruptors together in the region alongside professionals from healthcare, industry, local government, technology and community sectors.

The Challenge is enabled by the State Government’s Future Health Research and Innovation Fund and contributions from corporate partners BHP and Rio Tinto.

Learn more about The Challenge and Lions Outback Vision project.