Toronto Health Innovation Week provided a spirit of optimism for the newest innovations. Patients Included should be the default way of working in health innovation and improvement.
We selected four 1-minute video interviews to include here to capture the essence and optimism of Toronto Health Innovation Week. Read our reflections on the MEDEC MedTech conference.
Patients Included – MedTech Conference
“The economic impact of the work you do cannot be overstated. I am extraordinarily impressed with your ingenuity, said Steven Del Duca, Minister of Economic Development and Growth in his opening keynote. “This is just the start of Ontario’s Medtech story.”
Yvonne Felix shared her personal journey living with Stargardt disease. Watch her 1-minute video interview below. The Toronto technology company eSight was voted by TIME as one of the 25 best inventions of 2017 and winner of Techvibes award for Breakthrough Technology in 2018. The patient panel expertly moderated by Raj Malik, helped us appreciate the ripple effect on immediate caregivers and family members and the consequences of illness and medical device technologies.
“For the first time, I saw the face of my husband and my kids. I am needed, and my visual impairment doesn’t get in the way of that through the use of this optical technology,” described Yvonne Felix.
The charismatic Dr. Zayna Khayat, Future Strategist at Saint Elizabeth Healthcare, reminded us to look outside our borders when we seek improvements to our healthcare system. We often don’t need new parliamentary think tanks; we need to look at other countries and replicate their best practices. Dr. Khayat shared examples from The Netherlands, Sweden and UK. She reminded the MEDEC conference delegates that innovation is not the same thing as improvement. Sweden has already liberated its healthcare data. Here is what she had to say in a 1-minute soundbite.
Eight International Lessons for Canada
Here are 8 international lessons proposed by Dr. Khayat for Canada. You can find her slides on Twitter @ZaynaKhayat
- #PatientsIncluded
- Clinical Entrepreneurship
- Believe
- Shared reality
- Build capacity for innovation
- Honour your work: Good design
EgoEcosystem- Managed competition
“A framework process on how information feeds into decision-making is equally important as innovation, value and outcomes,” advised Anderson Chuck from Alberta Health Services.
It was poignant to hear a presentation for the International Consortium on Health Outcomes Measurement ICHOM by Alethse De La Torre. Watch her 1-minute video below. ICHOM’s What Matters Most eBook is one of our top 7 recommended reads.
Ms De La Torre’s comments that if we want to improve patient outcomes we need to engage those patient, and not evolve without them at the table echoed Dr Khayat’s point from The Netherlands about Patients Included and the title of this post.
Further evidence of the value of an open international collaboration comes from the impressive work of AdvaMed in the U.S. on the Framework for Comprehensive Assessment of Medical Technologies white paper with Deloitte.
“Health is an economic driver”, reminded William Charnetski, Ontario’s Chief Health Innovation Strategist.
IDEATHON – Innovating the Patient Experience
Nick Piperno from Hacking Health Toronto describes in 1-minute the premise for the IDEATHON at MaRS and what was achieved.
Toronto Health Innovation Week kicked off at MaRS Discovery District with a pertinent IDEATHON run by Hacking Health Toronto titled Innovating the Patient Experience. It is amazing what can happen by bringing together healthcare practitioners, technologists, researchers, entrepreneurs and persons with lived experience. It embodies the Patients Included philosophy.
“We are experts at doing pilots in Canada,” said Justin Riemer, Alberta Economic Development & Trade. “We need to spread and scale.”
The need to scale internationally is emphasized by Anthony Lacavera in his book How We Can Win and the ONE Expert Review Panel Report Building Global Winners.
5 takeaways from Toronto Health Innovation Week
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- Read Canada’s Economic Strategy Tables Health and Biosciences Interim Report
- Check our list of 7 essential reads recommended for Toronto Health Innovation Week
- Browse the 23 Standard Sets developed by ICHOM
- Refer to the Framework on Value of Medical Technologies white paper by AdvaMed & Deloitte
- Read our Lightning in a Bottle – What True North Means for Waterloo Region post
“There is change coming, get ready for that change with global and local players,” concluded MEDEC CEO Brian Lewis.
MEDEC represents Canada’s Medical Technology Companies with the aim of Advancing Healthcare Through Innovative Medical Technologies.