Health Innovation: Positioning Canadian Health Innovations for Success

Join the Dunin-Deshpande Queen’s Innovation Centre (DDQIC) in collaboration with Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC) & St. Lawrence Collage as part of the Health Innovation Kingston (HI YGK) Initiative for a special Ignition Café focused on health innovation.

Ignition Café is Kingston’s go-to monthly meet-up for entrepreneurship and innovation. At this special Café, we will have speakers followed by networking for innovators, entrepreneurs, investors, and experts from across Kingston’s healthcare and health innovation community. Here you can share ideas, make valuable connections and be part of a vibrant community of like-minded individuals.

Opening the evening, Nicole Mittmann will speak to Health Technology Assessment in Canada – the role of CADTH in recommending public funding. Gary Ryan will follow, focusing on making the Canadian Health Care Market Friendlier to Canadian Health Technology Companies.

Before presentations start at 5:40 pm, we will provide the opportunity for local health innovation companies to showcase their technologies and ventures. If you would like to apply to have a display table at the event, please submit the following form by April 2nd: https://queensu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9MiAMfB9SzJ3Qt8

Outcomes from this session include:

• Hear from keynote speakers about the data and evidence required to have your technology considered for use in healthcare setting,

• Learn the process for technology to be funded for a pilot, and

• Understand how to match your technology and innovations to real-world challenges in the healthcare system.

About the Experts:

Nicole Mittmann, of the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH) Chief Scientist and Vice-President of Evidence Standards – In her Chief Scientist role, Mittmann is responsible for ensuring that CADTH actively learns, ensures rigour and quality, mobilizes evidence, and links science to strategy. In her Evidence Standards role, Mittmann leads CADTH’s shared science groups, including Health Economics, Research Information Services, Scientific Affairs, Publishing, Early Scientific Advice, and Real-World Evidence teams.

In her academic capacity, Mittmann holds an MSc and Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Toronto. She holds a faculty position as an assistant professor at the University of Toronto in the Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology; and is cross-appointed to the Institute for Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation. She is also an associate scientist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Canada. Mittmann has conducted and collaborated on notable research in the areas of economic evaluations, outcomes research, and drug/patient safety. Research methodologies include the examination of large databases, economic methodologies, and decision analysis.

Gary Ryan, Executive Lead for the CAN Health Network – He is currently the Executive Lead for the CAN Health Network with its Lead Office at Trillium Health Partners. The Network is a pan-Canadian healthcare network focused on finding and scaling Canada’s most promising healthcare companies. Prior to this current position, Gary was the Chief Innovation Officer at Southlake Regional Health Centre from 2013 until his retirement from Southlake in 2018. In that role, he led Southlake’s Research/Innovation Department in finding and testing new healthcare technologies at CreateItNow, Southlake’s healthcare incubator.

Prior to that role Gary previously held a range of positions at Southlake including Chief Operating Officer (COO), Vice President of Acute Services, and Director of Paramedical Services. Gary also held other positions including Corporate Secretary to the Board of Southlake Residential Care Village and CEO and President of Stevenson Memorial Hospital in Alliston, Ontario. Gary graduated from McGill University with a Bachelor of Science in Physiology in 1979, and in 1982, obtained a Master of Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Toronto. In 2001, he completed a Master of Business Administration from the University of Toronto.

About Health Innovation Kingston (HI YGK):

As part of a FedDev Ontario investment in the City of Kingston in partnership with Queen’s University, St. Lawrence College, Kingston Health Sciences Centre, and Kingston Economic Development Corporation, the project, called HI YGK, has brought some of the region’s most notable post-secondary and health care institutions together to position Kingston as a place to develop, test, and commercialize innovative solutions for the health sector. This collaboration is leveraging three technology development labs to support local R&D needs and establish new business advisory supports to help entrepreneurs and SMEs commercialize health innovations and scale up their companies.