There was positive agreement amongst representatives from all sectors of Canada’s digital health care community when they met at the Ontario Ecosystem for Digital Health in Toronto on June 27th – the newest member of the International Connected Health Ecosystem Network.
Ontario is the largest province in Canada, representing almost 40 percent of nation’s 36 million citizens. The ecosystem was hosted by the Canadian Integrated Health Alliance (www.CIHAlliance.org) – a national membership-based not-for-profit organization. The Canadian Alliance provides a platform for healthcare organizations from government, academic medicine, and industry to connect and collaborate on key initiatives that will improve the quality of health and social care in Canada and around the world.
The Canadian Alliance’s instrument of change is the Ecosystem. Along with the Ecosystems established across Europe, the Ontario Ecosystem supports the development of innovative solutions to complex problems around mobile health, chronic diseases, active & healthy ageing, Internet of Things, wearables, personalised medicine, genomics, and Big Data.
Bleddyn Rees, Deputy Chair of the ECHAlliance and Taskforce Leader of the Digital Health Society (DHS) explored how this movement is relevant to Canadian connected health. The group discussion arising from his address examined how the Ontario ecosystem could use digital health care to support Active and Health Ageing and other patient centric opportunities.
Dorina Simeonov, Policy & Knowledge Mobilization Manager AGE WELL NCE Inc. demonstrated substantial development in combining research, industry partnerships and practical delivery systems in health and social care to serve the growing sector of senior citizens.
Michael Barton, Regional Director for Invest Northern Ireland spoke of the transnational business opportunities generated by the Canadian European Free Trade (CETA) agreement.
Dan Gordon is Chair Colleaga Ecosystem, IBM Canada. Colleaga is an open platform that provides healthcare professionals with the knowledge, connections, and tools to create transformative global change. Dan challenged the group with new ideas on how the Ontario ecosystem can help patients suffering from diabetes ulcers or those trapped in opioid addition.
We very much appreciated Roger Beharry Lall for his skillful moderating duties and to the Think Research team for their support and generous use of their facilities.
For more information about the Canadian Alliance, the Ontario Ecosystem and Market Access Programs contact Alex Szucs, CIHAlliance President at aszucs@bell.net.
More information about Ontario Ecosystem here.
