Agenda

Welcome to the National Health-Tech Innovation Conference

Dr. Matthew Bromwich Director, Core Innovation

What are the key issues at key steps that hold us back?

Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets. What design aspects of our system (Funding, Training, Policy Systems and Regulatory environment) are preventing innovation?

Actively shifting Healthcare’s attitude toward adoption

Alison Evans President and CEO, Research Canada

Dr. Stephen Ryan Co-founder, PolyUnity

Blake Daly Health Innovation Lead

Let’s dissect the controllable obstacles to innovation: cultural barriers, funding limitations, and procurement complexities. We’ll explore strategic ways to overcome these obstacles, either by educating those who erect them, declaring known risks to be mitigated, or securing commitment on quicker turnaround times. Healthcare adoption becomes more attainable when these are prioritized.

What are the key issues at key steps that hold us back – Redux

We revisit and revise our views: what did you get wrong, what was a surprise, what is still confusing, what else has been missed.

Summarizing Canada’s Innovation Crisis

Dr. Harvey Hawes Founder, LHS Labs

This session gathers the points voiced during the afternoon’s open discussions, pointing out how Canada’s innovation ecosystem perpetually stifles commercial solutions. It recounts participants’ ideas for how the system can change so innovative, homegrown products are actively adopted by healthcare institutions.

How do we make a pot of money bigger…and smarter?

We will delve into concrete strategies for overcoming the “Valley of Death” in startup funding, addressing the need to optimize existing funder selection processes for smaller-scale ventures. This session will explore how to equip startups to meet evolving funding criteria, ultimately creating a more effective mechanism for funding innovation.

Getting to nationally-coordinated funding solutions

Frederic Boulanger Advisor, Angel Investor

Bibaswan Ghoshal Senior Director Technology Adoption, OBIO

Ashleigh Kennedy Founder, Neurovine

Moazam Khan Director, Velocity

We will discuss what significantly increased investment from investors, government, and philanthropists makes possible. This talk debates the structure and thesis of a coordinated national funding solution. Participants will consider potential target areas, the strategic role of each of the funders, and how to effectively promote this approach to colleagues.

Why national coordination will get us different results

Recapping what was heard this morning from Venture Capital/Venture Philanthropy/Foundations, this will distill how a national strategy improves health-tech funding. This will also depict at a high-level of how it would work in tandem with other programs, like Canhealth network.

How can procurement be made better, from where you sit?

These breakout sessions will provide targeted forums for Healthcare Managers, Business Leaders, and R&D Technologists to brainstorm actionable improvements to procurement processes from their unique perspectives. Participants will collaboratively develop strategies to enhance procurement, addressing the specific challenges and opportunities within their respective fields.

Successes and challenges

Andre Picard Health Columnist at The Globe and Mail

André is a seasoned health columnist at The Globe and Mail, where he has been a staff writer since 1987, and the author of six books. He will speak on innovation and procurement-issues that impact the health of Canadians.

Barriers to making procurement work

Kumanan Wilson CEO, Bruyere Research Institute. CSO, CanImmunize

Wiliam Hall

We will consolidate lessons learned about procurement challenges and propose actionable strategies for improvement. This session will focus on cultivating a culture that embraces innovation by addressing risk aversion and intellectual property concerns, while also building organizational procedures, such as incentives and updated procurement processes, and establishing institutional supports like safe spaces and sandboxes.

Creating an Environment for Innovative Procurement

David Helliwell Co-Founder & Executive Board Chair, Thrive Health

This recaps the shared vision we have created for health care innovation and strategies that extend to hospitals, governments, funders/foundations and national collaborators. We will close by translating that vision into actionable requests and collaborative frameworks to drive systemic change in procurement.

What future we have agreed to build and how to talk about it

Dr. Matthew Bromwich Director, Core Innovation

What future we have agreed we are building and how do we talk about it inside the walls of Health care institutions, VC firms, Foundations, Ecosystem Supporters, Startups, Regional and National Governments.