For physicians
Adopt it, or build it. Either way, start here.
Most physicians aren't trying to start a company. They want to know what is worth their time, use it without adding to the workload, and get back to patients. A smaller group has hit a problem in practice that no product solves, and wants to help build the answer. Neither group has a clear route today. There's one here for each.
CORE Innovation supports two kinds of physicians: those who adopt tools built by others, and those who build their own. There is a distinct pathway for each.
What the gap costs
Physicians are already paying for this gap.
Canadian physicians lose close to 20 million hours a year to unnecessary paperwork. That is up more than a million hours in two years, and it is worth 55.6 million patient visits. Three-quarters say it hurts their job satisfaction. Six in ten say it is damaging their mental health. Physicians in distress are 1.4 times more likely to cut their clinical hours.1415
The cost, in the profession's own numbers
20M
Hours Canadian physicians lose each year to unnecessary paperwork
55.6M
Patient visits that lost time could have covered
60%
Physicians who say paperwork is damaging their mental health
1.4×
More likely a physician in distress cuts clinical hours
The tools that could give that time back are often built without physicians in the room. They do not fit how you actually work, they add to the paperwork they were meant to cut, and hospitals struggle to take them up. Building something better is just as hard. Hours spent on a new idea are hours away from patients, and they cost you income. Every institution sets its own rules on who owns the idea. And when Canadian funding runs out, foreign investors step in and take the patents, the licensing revenue and the jobs with them.1617
Some physicians have the idea. Others need it. The route between them is what's missing.
Two pathways
Find the one that fits how you actually work.
You don't have to pick a side for good. Start with the problem in front of you this month.
Track 1 · Where most physicians are
Learn and adopt
You want to stay current and use good tools well, without turning it into a second job.
A national route to adopt, so you don't have to vet, source or navigate procurement alone. You get time back for patients instead of paperwork.
Plain-language briefings
What is actually changing in AI and digital health, without the hype and without a vendor in the room.
Criteria you can rely on
Shared tests for safety, value, workflow fit and privacy, so you are not checking a vendor's claim alone.
Peers who have already done it
Physicians who adopted a tool in a practice like yours, including what did not work.
Low commitment
Attend one session, follow a series, or advise a team. No standing evening commitment.
You'll land on our adoption bridge: tools already proven in care settings like yours, matched to a problem you name, with funding and support to put them to use.
Track 2 · For the smaller group ready to build
Build
You've hit a problem in practice that no product solves, and you want to help build the answer.
A route from first idea to hospital adoption, built around a working clinician's schedule, so a good idea doesn't stay stuck in one person's head.
A real product team
Designers, engineers and commercialization people who do the work you don't have evenings for.
Proof the problem is real
Clinical and market validation before you spend years building the wrong thing.
A route through regulation and funding
The regulatory path and the funding path, mapped by people who have walked both.
Built where care happens
Developed with the clinicians and hospitals who would have to adopt it, so it is built to be adopted.
You'll land on our pre-revenue bridge, built for clinicians, researchers and teams, whether or not you've ever called yourself a founder.
Why here
We work from inside the health system.
CORE Innovation is an independent not-for-profit that operates from inside the health system. That means we can put a proven tool in front of you with the evidence procurement teams need, and test a new idea with the clinicians who would use it before anyone spends a year building it.
Common questions
What physicians ask us.
- How do I commercialize a medical device idea as a physician?
- Begin by confirming the clinical problem is real, before development starts. The Build track provides a product team, regulatory strategy and a route to funding, so development proceeds without requiring you to leave practice. Most physician inventors do not become full-time founders.
- See the Build track →
- What support exists for physician entrepreneurs in Canada?
- Support is limited and uneven. Time spent on a startup comes out of clinical hours and income, intellectual property rules vary by institution, and domestic funding often ends before a product reaches market, with foreign investment then acquiring the resulting patents. CORE Innovation is an independent not-for-profit working inside the health system to cover that gap.
- See the Build track →
- How do I bring a new tool into my practice?
- The Learn and Adopt track provides technology already validated in comparable care settings, matched to a problem you identify. It includes shared evaluation criteria for safety, privacy and workflow fit, funding toward deployment, and support through implementation, so you do not run procurement or assess vendor claims on your own.
- See the Learn and Adopt track →
- Who owns the intellectual property if I invent something at work?
- That depends on your institution. Canada has no national standard, so hospitals, universities and research institutes each set their own policy, and the terms differ. Confirming ownership is one of the first steps we take with a physician inventor, before development begins.
- See the Build track →
Not sure which one you are?
Most physicians are on both sides at once. Tell us the problem you're trying to solve and we'll point you to the right one.