Agenda

Welcome to the National Health-Tech Innovation Conference

Dr. Matthew Bromwich Director, Core Innovation

What’s preventing us from scaling beyond pilots?

Dr. Shawn Mondoux Physician, McMaster Professor

Pilots are where good ideas die.  Procurement is a rare feat for digital technologies in Canada.  There exists a system fix, and incremental business tactics, that can bring us to deeper innovation and more procurement.  We only have time for radical candor — come and hear about my own and the journey of my colleagues through the procurement landscape.

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

Jerome Valero Director, InnovateUHN

Rachael Ritchie Director, Innovation – Vancouver Coastal Health

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.

Commitment Phase

We revisit and revise our views: what did we get wrong, what was a surprise, what is still confusing, what else has been missed, have we reached a point where we can commit?

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.

What’s coming up

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

Glynda Rees Program Lead Digital Health, BCIT

Wednesday PM Reception, Dinner and lookahead to Thursday programming.

Welcome to Thursday morning

Glynda Rees Program Lead Digital Health, BCIT

Wendy Hurlburt President & CEO, Life Sciences BC

Housekeeping

Leveraged Funding

Maria Pacella Managing Partner, Pender Ventures

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

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.

Commitment Phase

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

Why national coordination will get us different results

Dr. Matthew Bromwich Director, Core Innovation

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.

Welcome to Thursday afternoon

Dr. Harvey Hawes Founder, LHS Labs

Housekeeping

Operationalizing our ideas in a Canadian way, eh?

Dr. Dante Morra Founder & Chair, CAN Health Network

Dr. Morra will highlight more open, risk-tolerant, and agile ways that our healthcare system can buy Canadian innovation. What changes are needed for us to operationalize this.

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

Three 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.
Business – David Helliwell
R+D, Academia – Dr Steven Ryan
Healthcare Mgrs – HJ Jardine

Barriers to making procurement work

Kumanan Wilson CEO, Bruyere Research Institute. CSO, CanImmunize

Wiliam Hall

Dov Klein Life Sciences & Healthcare partner, Deloitte

Dr. Steve Reynolds Executive Lead, AIM Institute

Lessons learned about procurement challenges and propose actionable strategies for improvement. How do we lessen risk aversion and intellectual property concerns in order to embrace innovation? How do we build organizational procedures (incentives and updated procurement processes) and establish institutional supports like safe spaces and sandboxes?

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.

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.

Next Steps

Dr. Matthew Bromwich Director, Core Innovation

Glynda Rees Program Lead Digital Health, BCIT

Dr. Harvey Hawes Founder, LHS Labs

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

Wendy Hurlburt President & CEO, Life Sciences BC

Important dates to save, Blueprints, Interim Meetings, Significant projects