By Cecely Roy
The Coordinated Accessible National (CAN) Health Network recently announced five prestigious awards recognizing Canada’s leading health care organizations and companies at their 2nd Annual General Meeting. Awards were given in the following categories; Network, Edge of the Year, Company of the Year, Disruptor, and Procurement Awards. The virtual AGM was hosted and sponsored by Deloitte Canada.
“Today, we honoured the finest health care organizations and companies within our Network for their accomplishments in transforming health care in Canada,” said Dr. Dante Morra, Chair and Lead of the CAN Health Network. “We brought together over 200 leaders in the health care, technology, and business space to discuss the future of health care in Canada, and how our Network can continue to empower Canadian innovators and leverage winning domestic companies to secure Canada’s prosperity.”
The CAN Health Network is a federally-funded integrated market which reduces barriers to procurement so health-tech companies can quickly and easily bring their innovations to the healthcare sector. It serves as a platform for companies to provide solutions to meet the needs of Canadians and our healthcare organizations.
The awards are an opportunity to recognize what can be accomplished when you create a warm, receptive environment for Canadian technology and to honour significant achievements in innovation across the health care sector over the past year, against the backdrop of a global pandemic.
Awards were granted to the following recipients:
Precision ADM and Shared Health in Manitoba received CAN Health’s ‘Network Award’, the highest honour, recognizing the Edge and Company who leveraged the full scope of the Network and demonstrated considerable growth and success. They introduced North America’s first, 1st grade reusable N95 respirator – Precision AIR – and helped solve a Canada-wide shortage of PPE at the height of the pandemic.
CANImmunize received the ‘Company of the Year Award,’ recognizing the company that has achieved outstanding results throughout their CAN Health commercialization project’s lifecycle and beyond. The Ottawa-based company worked with fellow National Capital Regional health operator, Bruyère, to develop Canada’s first-ever, easy-to-use system to manage staff immunization records. Following the success of the project, the CANImmunize solution was procured by the Government of Nova Scotia for their COVID-19 vaccine roll out.
Bruyère received the ‘Disruptor of the Year Award’ as the Edge or Company who has continued to embody CAN Health’s mission of breaking down barriers and enabling Canadian companies to introduce and scale innovative solutions to improve patient care and operational function. Bruyère is a thought leader in health care and actively works to challenge the status quo in the sector.
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre received the ‘Edge of the Year’ Award for consistently engaging and participating in CAN Health initiatives at all levels of the organization. Sunnybrook introduced multiple made-in-Canada solutions, including two transformative projects with Moleculight and Precision BioMonitoring. The world-class institution is now working with MOLLI Surgical to improve breast conservation surgery.
The ‘National Procurement Award’ was awarded to Horizon Health Network for leading Canada’s first-ever national health care Request for Proposal (RFP), and CMaRS for achieving one of the highest levels of success as a company through CAN Health’s model by adapting their solution to meet the needs of health operators. Horizon lead the national RFP process, with the CMaRS accreditation solution successfully procured by multiple health operators, across multiple jurisdiction.
For more information on these and other CAN Health Network commercialization projects visit: https://canhealthnetwork.ca/commercialization-projects/.
The Annual General Meeting had an impressive lineup of industry experts and health care influencers in attendance, including remarks from former Governor General, David Johnston and Team Canada’s gold medal-winning captain, Christine Sinclair. The 3-hour virtual experience marked CAN Health’s second year driving innovation and helping Canadian companies scale to their full potential by enabling health care organizations to work directly with companies on real-world issues and challenges, facilitating transformative solutions.
The CAN Health Network is a Canada-first approach to technology adoption. It helps break down barriers to scaling in the health care system and provides an environment for companies to scale to their full potential. Currently operating in Ontario, Western and Atlantic Canada, the CAN Health Network plans to expand into Quebec and the North. To learn more about the CAN Health Network, visit canhealthnetwork.ca.
Cecely Roy is the Senior Communications Advisor CAN Health Network.
