June 5, 2014

The AdvancingHealth Program, managed by Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE), is designed to bolster innovation in Ontario’s public healthcare sector by matching healthcare needs with innovative products and services through partnerships between public healthcare organizations, companies and academic institutions.  The aim is to advance healthcare innovation directed to improved health outcomes, enhanced patient experience and efficient use of resources through investments in collaborative demonstration projects that show clear potential for scaling-up to the system-level and establish a strong case for adoption. 

The overall objectives of the program are to:

• Enable the public healthcare sector to accelerate the adoption of emerging technologies and process improvements;
• Engage the public healthcare community to demonstrate innovative products and services that produce better patient care, patient outcomes, patient safety and reduce costs; and,
• Identify and bridge barriers to realize sustainable and long-term adoption of innovations/technologies in the public healthcare sector.

The program will facilitate connections between Ontario-based hospitals and public healthcare institutions and companies to pilot early market engagement and demonstrate innovative products and technologies in a healthcare setting, matching needs with innovative solutions. Two partnering forums will take place to bring together potential collaborators to work on demonstration projects that tackle healthcare challenges in key focus areas.  The theme of the first partnering forum will focus on Information Communication Technologies (ICT) / Mobile Applications and how they impact: (1) Acute Care, (2) Community Care, or (3) Mental Health.

Qualified Projects:

• Demonstrate close collaboration between Ontario-based hospitals and/or public healthcare organizations and companies and leverage academic expertise
• Demonstrate a good return on investment for the public healthcare sector
• Proposed demonstration will provide a competitive advantage or other significant benefits
• Proposed innovation/technology has been validated and can provide sufficient data to warrant a pilot scale project and has the necessary approvals if required
• Following a successful pilot, the innovation/technology will be moved into the market
• Innovation/technology is best in class and will lead to a globally competitive business and market opportunity
• Innovation/technology has  a demonstrated benefit to the Ontario public healthcare sector, leading to adoption of novel, newly adapted or adopted processes, products or services

Project Activities:

• Innovation/technology demonstration and implementation  in a hospital and/or public healthcare organization; and,
• HQP training and development opportunities on demonstration projects. Students may be supported through the academic voucher add-on
• Activities that are outside the scope of this program include pre-market evidence development and evaluation of medical technologies, as well as harmonization of health technology evaluations into a single, pre-market evidence-based evaluation process

How Funding Works

• Up to $250,000 from OCE per demonstration project
• Up to 10 demonstration projects will be funded in total
• 1:1 matching required on direct project costs (combination of cash and in-kind; minimum 25% cash from the parties involved in the project;  preference given to projects with strong cash contributions)
• Funds will support eligible demonstration project costs at both the company and the public healthcare organization based on a reimbursement model
• Applicants have the option to access up to two academic vouchers per demonstration project to support academic researchers and students to work on the demonstration project and/or to assist with adoption.
  • Each academic voucher is valued at $50,000 (no match required)

- See more at: http://www.oce-ontario.org/programs/commercialization-programs/advancinghealth/how-it-works#sthash.mW03S3pl.dpuf