OBIO launches first Early Adopter Health Network in Ontario

TORONTO, March 11, 2020 – The Ontario Bioscience Innovation Organization (OBIO®), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing health technology innovation and commercialization in Ontario, announce today’s launch of the province’s first-of-its-kind Early Adopter Health Network (EAHN).

The EAHN is a network of health organizations that get leading-edge technologies into the health system. Through this network, novel technologies that have been vetted and assessed for their readiness to be adopted and scaled will be evaluated, disseminated and procured.  With seven technologies engaged and the first four projects underway, the EAHN represents the full range of health care institutions across the province such as community and academic hospitals, and long-term and acute care facilities, including Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket and West Park Healthcare Centre, a specialized rehabilitation and complex care hospital, in Toronto.

The technologies assessed need to address challenges ranging from healthcare operations, disease/patient management, or improvements in diagnosis or treatment. Examples of technologies currently being evaluated include an AI-driven tool that analyzes speech to detect signs of dementia and mental illness, and an AI platform that allows pathologists to quickly compare results against a large database of previously analyzed slides to confidently reach a faster, more accurate diagnosis.

“Canada has a reputation for breakthroughs in medical technology and has the opportunity to realize both the health and economic benefits that health science innovators within our own country can offer,” says Gail Garland, president and CEO of OBIO. “Cutting-edge health-science technologies not only lead to improved patient care but can help solve current challenges in Ontario’s healthcare system such as long waits and overcrowding, which is particularly relevant now as we face a potential pandemic with COVID-19.”

Driven by OBIO’s unique capacity to pair commercial-ready technologies with clinical end-users who want to deliver improved care at any health institution, the goal for the EAHN is to become early adopters of homegrown medical technology and help streamline the procurement process. Through a collaborative and comprehensive approach, they address both the “push” and “pull” factors of what industry has developed and what burdened hospitals are trying to address . This allows the EAHN to catalyze change, delivering improved patient care more efficiently while opening the door to a new health-care economy that benefits Canadians and Canadian companies alike.

OBIO has undertaken years of consultation with industry and the health system to develop EAHN. Health science companies and health care organizations who want to be a part of EAHN should send proposals or requests for more information to OBIO at info@obio.ca.

About OBIO

OBIO®, founded in 2009, is a not-for-profit, membership-based innovation organization engaged in strategy, programming, policy development and advocacy to further the commercialization of human health technologies positioning Canada as a leader in the international marketplace. OBIO advances this goal through collaborative partnerships with industry, the investment community, academia, the health system and government.

Full release on Business Wire: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200311005363/en