Advancing community-focused healthcare innovation
Waterloo MedTech (WMT) aims to establish Waterloo Region as a global leader in collaborative, community-focused healthcare innovation.
How are we doing this? We worked with community stakeholders to develop the Healthcare Innovation Acceleration Plan (HIAP) to boost our local medtech and healthcare ecosystem!
Healthcare Innovation Acceleration Plan (HIAP)
Sparking bright ideas into brilliant innovations!
The Healthcare Innovation Acceleration Plan (HIAP) is a strategic roadmap to guide the development of healthcare innovation.
By bringing together accelerators, incubators, universities, colleges, and community healthcare organizations, the HIAP aims to implement a community-centred approach to advance innovation of healthcare technology.
The journey to innovation unfolds in four stages: from brainstorming big ideas, to nurturing them, getting them off the ground, and making them huge successes.
We focus on the ideation stage to nurture and validate new ideas, and help innovators navigate their way through the complex healthcare system and in the development and growth of their inventions
Waterloo MedTech:
Fueling Innovation Through Education
We help innovators and entrepreneurs navigate the complex healthcare landscape, while also helping clinicians boost their understanding of technology and how it can be integrated into healthcare practices.
Conferences
We host conferences so that the MedTech community can unite and discuss key topics and strategies to supercharge innovation
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 bring you courses that dive into important topics like AI, privacy and security, medical device regulation, and connected health.
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Seminars
We facilitate seminars to inspire communication and collaboration with healthcare providers in our community.
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Become part of an ecosystem of healthcare visionaries.
Our Guiding Principles
Communication
Let's talk more to promote medtech innovation in our community and enhance our awesome heatlhcare ecosystem.
Cooperation
We encourage teamwork between hospitals, clinicians, incubators, accelerators, universities, colleges and other supporting organizations.
Collaboration
We're all about bringing the players of our ecosystem together to foster innovation and speed up healthcare breakthroughs.
Leadership
The Waterloo MedTech founders and directors are an impressive team celebrated for their extensive leadership and experience in both industry and community healthcare ventures.
With a passion for innovation health tech and starting up, they're deeply committed to making a difference in our community!
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.
Have a question?
Contact us today.