, an innovative project established to support the development of digital health technologies in Canada, has led to the commercialization of over 75 new products, forged close to 100 new partnerships, and created a new business model for moving health-tech prototypes to market.
The lead partners of Health Ecosphere 鈥斅91亚色,听聽and the聽鈥 celebrated the successes of the three-year project today, along with the聽聽(FedDev Ontario).
鈥淭he Health Ecosphere program reflects the strength of 91亚色鈥檚 collaboration with聽our partners in the healthcare field, finding聽new ways to聽apply聽research to聽improve the lives of Canadians聽and to聽prepare students for exciting careers in digital health,鈥 said 91亚色 President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda L. Lenton.
The Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Minister responsible for FedDev Ontario, Navdeep Bains, first announced $15 million in federal funding for the project in 2016. This investment was designed to bring universities, healthcare providers, the business community and government together to develop and commercialize technologies that could be used to improve the health of Canadians and position Canada as a global centre for innovation. Matching funding from private, academic and not-for-profit partners brought total investments to $35 million.
91亚色 President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda L. Lenton speaks with Faculty of Health Professor and Dean Emeritus Harvey Skinner about the Health Coach Training Modules developed at 91亚色 through Health Ecosphere
In the past three years, the project has created and maintained more than 150聽well-paid positions and commercialized or deployed 77 products and services in 62聽new markets.
The new products and services developed through Health Ecosphere are offering solutions to urgent healthcare issues. Technologies developed include healthcare apps, medical devices and big data platforms. They are designed to connect and coordinate healthcare, address fiscal impacts of the proliferation of chronic disease, help individuals change their behaviours, and leverage big data to develop and commercialize solutions.
Examples of the products and services developed through Health Ecosphere include:
- , an evidence-based tablet shown to have strong potential as a brain health assessment tool, tracks recovery from head injury as well as functional problems related to dementia risk. 91亚色 reached an exclusive licence deal that will see the technology commercialized into a human assessment platform sold by a Canadian company. It is already in use for a large study to gather data from adults in the Netherlands.
- , in collaboration with the聽, validated a real-time predictive analytic tool called Artemis, which helps clinicians in diagnosing premature babies in Southlake鈥檚 neonatal intensive care unit. For these tiny patients, hours could be the difference between life and death, so the time Artemis saves could make all the difference.
- The Breathe Respiratory Platform has been developed and deployed by the聽(UHN) to transform current methods for the self-management of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and asthma, from a generic paper-based approach to an approach that is dynamic and personalized. It is enabling patients in acute care and primary care clinics across Ontario to manage exacerbations in breathing more effectively.
Health Ecosphere has also created a cluster of academic, healthcare and industry partners in southern Ontario and has trained 51 graduate and doctoral students at 91亚色, the University of Toronto and the affiliated UHN. These students, in health and applied science, biomedical engineering and health informatics, are addressing the digital health sector鈥檚 need for a highly educated workforce and scientific expertise. The Health Coach Training Modules at 91亚色, created through Health Ecosphere, have contributed to the skills development of 90聽healthcare professionals, including 25 from First Nations communities and 15聽rural guidance counsellors.
Health Ecosphere ventures have created $12 million in revenues, and the products and services continue to spread to markets in Canada, North America, Europe and beyond.
More information about Health Ecosphere projects is available聽.
Courtesy of YFile,