Virtus Health

📢 Exciting news! Channel Nine's Big Miracles is coming back for season 3 in 2025. We’re honoured to be part of this ground-breaking docu-series, helping to break the silence and stigma around infertility in Australia. Together, we’re opening up conversations that matter - because every story of infertility deserves to be told. You won't want to miss a second of the incredible journeys ahead. These stories of hope, resilience, and love will inspire you, warm your heart, and yes, break it a little too. 💜 More details to come in the new year!

The Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand Annual Conference is an event that we are proud to be part of, recognising the research and achievements that are propelling the ART sector forward. At this year's conference we looked to the future with more clarity than ever before, with the FSA unveiling its 10-year roadmap for the IVF industry - a framework that we wholeheartedly support. With the average age of first-time parents rising, many more women and couples are turning to ART treatments, resulting in the number of babies being born from IVF increasing. We welcome the plan’s primary objective, to support the birth of healthy children through IVF and assisted reproductive treatment, especially as IVF plays an increasing role in helping to lessen the impacts of infertility in the community. Australia has one of the safest and most successful IVF programs in the world, and we believe the goals of the plan will further benefit patients. Presented by Professor the Hon. Greg Hunt, the framework’s recommendations include: ✅ uniform national legislation for ART in Australia. ✅ a single national donor registry. ✅ an expanded definition of infertility to help make IVF more accessible to include anyone who requires fertility treatment.  ✅ As one of the leaders in genetic carrier screening, we support a model to expand the number of conditions covered by rebates for genetic testing, to help more families avoid passing on genetic diseases to offspring. We believe the roadmap initiatives will help improve Australia’s world-leading access to IVF, research, and outcomes in IVF. We look forward to actively working with government and the FSA to ensure these recommendations are supported and acted upon. An incredible event, bringing together the best minds in the ART sector – a huge thank you to the FSANZ for another stellar conference!

Queensland Fertility Group and Spring Hill Specialist Day Hospital have officially opened their new home at 525 Boundary Street! The purpose-built laboratory and hospital are equipped with state-of-the-art technology, providing a beautifully designed space and the most advanced facilities for patients and their precious embryos. Minister Grace Grace joined us for the ribbon cutting and took a tour of the new facility last Friday. So much work and planning went into this facility. A huge congratulations to the QFG and Spring Hill Specialist Day Hospital teams for their incredible efforts in bringing their new home to life.

📢 IVF research: global study confirms AI embryo selection produces the same pregnancy outcomes as embryologists and performs selection ten times faster.   We’re thrilled to share the findings of a world-first 3-year study, published in peer-reviewed medical journal Nature Medicine this month. The research has revealed that artificial intelligence software (iDAScore®) produces the same pregnancy outcomes achieved by trained embryologists using standard manual assessment, when ranking the best embryo for IVF - while performing the selection ten times faster.   This study was led by Fertility Specialists and Scientists at Virtus Health and demonstrates that deep learning AI-powered embryo selection provides reproducible and reliable embryo selection, to assist embryologists.   Until now, AI-powered embryo selection tools have been retrospectively tested. Virtus Health, in collaboration with Vitrolife, took the time and investment to test its effectiveness in a widespread clinical setting. In an IVF lab, embryos are grown in sophisticated incubators which photograph the growing embryo every 10 minutes. AI software uses deep learning to study the images and identify key factors associated with an ongoing pregnancy.   Virtus Health were the first Australian IVF provider to introduce AI-powered embryo selection in 2019, and our embryologists use it to enhance their decision to score and identify the best embryo for transfer. This is just another example of Virtus being at the forefront of fertility research and treatment, continually investing in innovation to enhance outcomes for our patients and help them grow their families. 📖 To read the full study, click here 👉 https://lnkd.in/g_Pt7mv6 📺 To watch the 9News report, click here 👉 https://lnkd.in/gNrvEbQT #VirtusHealth #FertilityResearch #AIEmbryoSelection #IVFSuccess  

World Embryology Day, 25 July, is a day to recognise our embryology teams across the globe and celebrate how far IVF has come. Without the work in the laboratory, IVF couldn't exist. We are proud and grateful to have teams of world-class embryologists across Virtus. Professor David Gardner, AM, FAA is an embryologist who has been there from the beginning, and pioneered IVF as we know it today. Who better to reflect on IVF; looking back on 40 years of progress and the scientific breakthroughs which have transformed IVF practice. To all embryologists all over the world - thank you!

Understanding what support employers can provide to their employees who go through infertility is a complicated landscape. We have partnered with FW (Future Women) to help leading HR professionals learn how they can support employees as they navigate their fertility journeys. Join Jamila Rizvi, FW’s Deputy Managing Director, in conversation with Fertility Specialist, Dr Manny Mangat from IVF Australia and Suzi Hullick, Westpac's Group Head of Diversity Equity & Inclusion, as they discuss fertility policy and fertility leave in workplaces in 2024. 📅 Wednesday, 26 June 2024 🕐 1:30pm (AEST) 👉 Register here: https://lnkd.in/g8et4ff5 If you're unable to attend live, we encourage you to still register - all registrants will be sent the recording after the session.

Always a proud moment to see our team members sharing knowledge! IVF Australia’s Dale Goss has played a pivotal role in the development of AI to help sperm selection in the IVF laboratory. He spoke at the Aspire conference, on behalf of the research team, about the technology and its potential to help male infertility patients. Another step towards helping more people become parents!

Melbourne IVF Medical Director, Dr Fleur Cattrall is a passionate advocate of digital transformation in healthcare. This week she joined the digital health festival to discuss sexual wellness, how views of sexual wellness have evolved and the opportunities that open up through innovation and digitisation. 👏 Congratulations, Fleur! Fantastic to see you as a leading voice in the healthcare sector.

More than 12 months in the making! IVF Australia has officially opened its new purpose-built fertility clinic on Bond Street, in Sydney's CBD. This bespoke clinic is fit with state-of-the-art technology, cutting edge facilities and equipped with world-class fertility specialists. From doctor consultations, blood and ultrasound monitoring, as well as an andrology laboratory on site, patients will be able to have the majority of their fertility treatment out of this beautifully designed and newly constructed clinic. Day surgery procedures can be undertaken at one of our day hospitals in Alexandria, Greenwich or Westmead. Photographed are Dr Frank Quinn, IVFAustralia Medical Director, Dr Manny Mangat, Fertility Specialist and Clinical Director of Sydney CBD Clinic, and Leah Gabolinscy, Managing Director, who were there to officially cut the ribbon to celebrate the clinic opening. A huge congratulations to the IVFA team for their meticulous work in bringing this facility to life - their vision has been realised with a truly special space. 📍 Level 6, 20 Bond Street, Sydney

Azoospermia is the most severe form of male infertility and affects 10-20% of infertile men. New research is investigating if artificial intelligence can improve efficiency and efficacy of sperm searches in azoospermic samples. This study holds the potential to forge new ground in the IVF laboratory, applying machine learning to reduce time to identify and isolate sperm from surgical sperm samples from hours to minutes, thus increasing success rates from these treatments. A collaboration between IVF Australia, NeoGenix Biosciences pty ltd and University of Technology Sydney, our hats go off to the research team - you are true innovators! Dale Goss, Steven Vasilescu, Phillip Vasilescu, Simon Cooke, Shannon Hee Kyung Kim, Prof Gavin Sacks, and Prof David Gardner, AM, FAA The results of this study were published in Reproductive BioMedicine Online. Read the paper here: https://lnkd.in/gB_us395