Toronto’s MaRS Discovery District announced the launch of Innovation Partnership: Procurement by Co-Design, a program designed to accelerate the development of technological breakthroughs by Ontario’s health ventures and facilitate their procurement within the Ontario public health system.
The initiative will allow healthcare service providers the opportunity to participate in the development of technology tailor-made to address the particular problems they face while complying with the Broader Public Sector (BPS) procurement guidelines.
“Health technology breakthroughs could play an important role in modernizing our aging healthcare system and creating innovative approaches to procurement can accelerate the adoption of those technologies,” said Zayna Khayat, lead of health systems innovation at MaRS Discovery District and executive sponsor of the program. “This partnership will help to reform how we harness new technology in order to better meet the needs and expectations of patients in Ontario.”
The Ontario government has invested $995,000 to support this project as part of the province’s OntarioBuys initiative, which is working to strengthen innovation and efficiency practices in the province’s health and education sectors.
“Ontario is proud to be home to a robust and thriving medical technology sector,” said Ontario Minister of Government and Consumer Services, Marie-France Lalonde. “Our province is the third-largest hub for biotechnology and the fourth-largest biomedical research centre in North America. Our government supports collaborative medical innovators, whose work leads to employment opportunities for thousands of people, opens up new opportunities in the global marketplace for our home-grown companies and helps people across our province receive the highest modern standards of patient care.”
Publicly-funded healthcare organizations are invited to submit a challenge brief to Ontario health ventures. The challenges will be posted online by September 13, inviting ventures to compete for grants up to $25,000 testing and evaluation, and acquiring solutions that pass the test.