Adrian Schauer, founder and CEO of AlayaCare, is one of three healthtech executives honoured with the award of Top Digital Health Executive for 2023. Schauer shared tha award with Timothy R. Murphy, the vice president of health with Alberta Innovates; and Kevin Jones, senior vice president, Canada, Strata Health Solutions.
Digital Health Canada gave out the awards at the e-Health 2023 Conference and Tradeshow held in Toronto May 28 – 30. E-Health is co-hosted by Canada Health Infoway, Canadian Institute for Health Information, and Digital Health Canada.
“This award validates our mission and commitment to transforming home-based care.”
Digital Health Canada annually offers awards in six categories: Digital Health Executive of the Year; Digital Health Leader of the Year; Clinical Innovator of the Year; Community Care Leader of the Year; Emerging Leader of the Year; and StartUp Innovator of the Year; along with the Steven Huesing Scholarship.
The Digital Health Executive award is peer reviewed and recognizes three individual executives whose outstanding contributions in 2022 have helped advance digital health or virtual health in Canada in both the public and private sectors.
Founded in 2014, AlayaCare provides an end-to-end platform for home and community healthcare providers. The startup’s artificial intelligence (AI)-powered software offers scheduling, reporting, clinical documentation, billing, a care worker mobile app, and dedicated portals for patients, family members, and care workers.
In recent months, however, AlayaCare has faced the same, tough market headwinds that have impacted Canadian startups, and in August 2022 laid off nearly 14 percent of its workforce, or some 80 employees.
Following its $225 million CAD Series D raise in 2021, Alayacare began an expansion into the United States with the acquisition of Pennsylvania-based Delta Health Technologies.
“This award validates and reinforces our mission and commitment to transforming home-based care, helping more Canadians receive care in the place they call home,” said Schauer. “We create better technology for better outcomes.”
Other winners for the evening included:
Digital Health Leader of the Year
Michael Tatto, executive director Digital Health Strategy and Enterprise Architecture, Provincial Health Services Authority
Dr. Manal Kleib, associate professor, University of Alberta
Dr. Fred Melindy, director, eDOCSNL
Clinical Innovator of the Year:
Dr. Mark Nazemi, senior manager, Clinical Solutions & Innovation, Thrive Health
Dr. Mohamed Alarakhia, managing director, eHealth Centre of Excellence
Dr. Abigail Ortiz, staff psychiatrist, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)
Care Leader of the Year:
Wendy Wilson, project manager – Digital Health, TransForm Shared Health Organization
David Helliwell, co-founder & executive chair, Thrive Health
Emerging Leader of the Year:
Nancy Nguyen, project manager, Outpatient Digital Experience Project, Providence Health Care
Dr. Tarun Katapally, Canada Research Chair in Digital Health for Equity, Western University
Mobeen Lalani, account executive, Locke Bio
Start-up Innovator of the Year:
Ahad Bandealy, chief digital officer, founder of Get A-Head Powered by Keel Mind
Jason Daly, CTO, GoAutomate Inc
Oren Sebag, CEO, Avvy Health
The Steven Huesing Scholarship:
Nadia Green, University of Alberta
Ahmad Haroon Syed, University of Regina
The Steven Huesing Scholarship honours the contributions the founding president of Digital Health Canada made to the industry. The scholarship was established in 1999 to reflect the spirit, dedication and innovation the founding president brought to the field of health informatics.