Healthcare Innovation Acceleration Plan (HIAP)
The Healthcare Innovation Acceleration Plan (HIAP) serves as a strategic roadmap to encourage healthcare innovation.
By fostering collaboration among Waterloo Region's accelerators, incubators, academic institutions, and community healthcare organizations, the HIAP strives to implement a community-centred approach to advance innovation of healthcare technologies.
The innovation journey consists of four stages: ideation, incubation, start-up and scale-up.
We focus on the ideation phase to validate ideas and act as a concierge to expedite the development and growth of innovators across the healthcare continuum.
Waterloo MedTech: Fueling Innovation Through Education
We guide innovators and entrepreneurs through the complexities of the healthcare landscape, while also helping clinicians enhance their understanding of technology and its integration into healthcare practices.
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Conferences
We host annual conferences that bring the MedTech community together and discuss key topics and strategies to move innovation forward.
Building a Successful MedTech Infrastructure 2019
Canadian MedTech: What's Holding Us Back 2018
Breaking Through Barriers 2017 -
Partnerships
We partner with National Institute of Health Informatics (NIHI) to deliver courses in important topics such as AI, privacy and security, medical device quality and connected health. -
Seminars
We facilitate seminars to build communication and collaboration with healthcare providers in our community.
Become part of an ecosystem of healthcare visionaries.
Leadership
The Waterloo MedTech founders and directors are an impressive team celebrated for their extensive leadership and experience in both industry and community healthcare endeavours.
They possess a deep-seated commitment to innovation, health technology, and entrepreneurship.
Don Cowan
International multi-award winning scientist and researcher; Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Director of the Computer Systems Group, and Founding Chairman of the Computer Science Department at the University of Waterloo.
Shirley Fenton
30+ years experience in business development, information technology, and health IT; VP, National Institutes of Health Informatics; Research Associate, Computer Systems Group, University of Waterloo
Garry Bezruki
Former CIO for the City of Waterloo; recognized leader in IT with 30+ years diverse experience; start-up mentor and executive advisor for Smart Cities / Smart Government.
Mark Whaley
Co-founder of multiple successful start-ups nationally and internationally; Mark's community leadership led the transformation of Waterloo into an intelligent city globally.
Brian Vartian
7+ years as a physician; a strong advocate for the adoption of innovation within the healthcare ecosystem; former family medicine practitioner; currently Chief of Anesthesia at Groves Memorial Community Hospital.
Laurie Lafleur
20+ years of experience in MedTech and Health Informatics innovation; leader and mentor in health IT design, development, and commercialization; guides digital transformation strategies for healthcare organizations nationally and internationally.
Stef Dietrich
20+ years experience building strong brands and go-to-market strategies for healthcare start-up, scale-up and established medical device and information technology organizations including successful Waterloo companies, Mitra Imaging and Client Outlook.
Christie Eby
20+ years of experience in the Medical Devices industry in Canada, with a focus on Quality & Regulatory, process excellence and digital transformation. A senior manager in 2 successful MedTech startups in Waterloo, Client Outlook and Intellijoint Surgical, with early career at Mitra Imaging.
