Theme of the day: Canadian Medtech Goes Mainstream?

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre presents the Sunnybrook Medventions Innovation Day (formerly, Schulich Innovation Research Day).

Canada’s healthcare sector is a major source of spending for federal and provincial governments; however, it is also an important driver of economic growth. The healthcare and medical devices sectors contribute to Canada’s wealth by improving health outcomes and creating jobs.

The medtech sector in Canada boasts an impressive and steadily growing diversity of companies in terms of size, focus, product and maturity level. While there remain some challenging commercialization and innovation roadblocks, Canadian innovators are most likely to benefit from new partnerships and collaboration models, forthcoming investments, and enhanced regulatory, reimbursement and harmonization processes.

This year’s innovation day will provide discussions on these crucial enablers, shedding light on how Canada is progressively adapting for innovation in the medical technology space. The day will help Canadian innovators harness resources they need to move their research through all stages of development to commercialization and growth.

Session 1: Global & Industry Perspectives

Canadian medtech innovators are highly trained, have access to world-class R&D resources, and are equipped to tap into international medtech markets. This session will provide discussions on the global medtech innovation ecosystem and will present case studies for Canadian medtech success stories in key areas including digital health/big data and medical imaging.

Session 2: The Government’s Role in Accelerating Innovation

This session will present the federal and provincial efforts to invest in an environment that promotes innovation and builds on the talent and creativity of Canadians.

Session 3: The Academic-Industry Interface

The afternoon session will provide discussions on the open environment that supports collaboration between business and research in Canada. Brilliant researchers can conceive life-changing innovations but these may never reach consumers if they aren't successfully commercialized. Canada tackles this challenge head-on by encouraging its academic community to work closely with industry to help commercialize research and grow successful businesses.

Special speakers to look forward to include:

Peter Fitzgerald, Director of the Centre for Cardiovascular Technology at Stanford University

Armen Bakirtzian, CEO, and Co-Founder, Intellijoint Surgical

Sachin Aggarwal, CEO, Think Research Inc.

Harindra Wijeysundera, Senior scientist & Cardiologist, Sunnybrook, VP, Medical Devices and Clinical Interventions, CADTH

Robert Mitchell, President, Emeritus, Endologix

Ken Spears, Vice President and General Manager, Boston Scientific, Canada

Larry Smith, Adjunct Associate Professor; Director of the Problem Lab, University of Waterloo

Laura Conquergood, Director, Operations, Baylis Medical

The agenda will be out soon!

Registration

The event is open to industry, academia, clinicians, scientists, and students interested in medical devices innovation and commercialization.

Attendance is free but space is limited. Registration is required.

Any questions can be directed to Jean Rookwood at jean.rookwood@sri.utoronto.ca