The Connected Health & Wellbeing Cluster officially launched its South Chapter at a regional event bringing together stakeholders from digital health, life sciences, MedTech, healthcare, academia and enterprise supports across the South and South-East.
Held at SETU Arena, the event was opened by Larry Breen, CEO and Founder of Santegic, who welcomed attendees and highlighted the importance of strong regional collaboration to support innovation in connected health and wellbeing.
Regional collaboration
“The South Chapter is about creating practical, regional pathways for connected health innovation to move into real-world deployment,” said Larry Breen. “By connecting industry, clinicians, researchers and the health system locally, we can reduce the gap between pilots and impact and support solutions that are grounded in real clinical need.”
SETU and the South Chapter
Dr James O'Sullivan, Head of Innovation and Commercialisation at South East Technological University, introduced the Cluster and outlined its purpose and ambitions. He noted that connected health and wellbeing is a highly collaborative space, requiring strong partnerships between technology, healthcare, research and industry to address complex challenges.
Dr O’Sullivan outlined the Cluster’s aims to increase collaboration, improve productivity, drive innovation and support internationalisation, while also highlighting SETU’s role in supporting applied research, co-creation and the translation of innovation into real-world impact. He noted that the South Chapter creates a clear pathway for businesses to engage with SETU through collaborative research, innovation partnerships, and access to expertise and postgraduate talent.
A national platform
National context was provided by Breanndán Casey, National Lead of the Connected Health & Wellbeing Cluster, who spoke about the evolution, funding and operation of the Cluster, and the role of regional chapters in delivering national impact. He emphasised the importance of trust, collaboration and shared purpose in building a sustainable connected health ecosystem, noting that the Cluster is designed to support co-opetition— where organisations collaborate on shared challenges while continuing to compete commercially. He highlighted that this model enables faster learning, reduced duplication and stronger collective impact, while ensuring innovation remains grounded in real health system needs.
“The Cluster is designed as a national platform, strengthened further today by this regionally led chapter,” said Breanndán Casey. “The South Chapter plays a critical role in aligning regional strengths with national priorities, enabling collaboration, shared learning and real-world deployment of connected health solutions.”
This was followed by Stephen Rooney, who shared insights into how the Engineering the South East Cluster supports regional collaboration.
From innovation to impact
A panel discussion titled From Innovation to Impact: Connected Health and Digital Care in the South was moderated by Clare Harney of Santegic, with contributions from Dr Niall O'Reilly, Dr Tanya Mulcahy and Thomas Coleman, CEO and Co-Founder of Zendra Health and Chairperson of the Cluster. Discussion focused on creating patient impact, strengthening links between industry and clinicians, and how companies can work together more effectively across the sector.
The event concluded with an interactive workshop to help shape the vision and priorities of the South Chapter, followed by closing remarks from Larry Breen and Breanndán Casey outlining next steps for the growing regional network.
Get involved
Organisations interested in engaging with or joining the Connected Health & Wellbeing Cluster South Chapter can find out more and register their interest at www.chwcluster.ie.