The Hamilton life sciences ecosystem is a great place for entrepreneurs to start, grow, and expand their businesses. With grants, programs, and partnerships that connect innovators with top research institutions, Innovation Factory is a conduit to help turn research into products and bring your solution to market.
Innovation Factory’s HEALTHI (Hamilton Ecosystem to Accelerate and Leverage Trials of Health Innovation) program, connects health innovators with leading research institutions such as Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) and the Research Institute of St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton (RISJH), fostering collaborations that enable start-ups to refine their products, navigate healthcare protocols, and advance their commercialization efforts.
“The insights we gained from these collaborations will guide our company further in product development and ensure we are focused on alignment with actual clinical needs,” shared Carl Schubert, Founder and CEO of BioCache Lab Solutions on his company’s HEALTHI collaboration with RISJH.
For BioCache Lab Solutions, which offers innovative storage solutions for institutions looking to manage medical specimens, the partnership not only provided invaluable direction on their product but also laid the groundwork for a contract to integrate BioCache’s storage technology at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton.
Offered by Innovation Factory and supported in part by funding from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP), the HEALTHI program is delivered with the goal to help companies get set up for success. The faster they can take their research from lab to market, the faster Canadians can experience the advancing healthcare technologies that can improve the overall patient wellness and experience.
For many companies, HEALTHI is a critical early step in understanding whether their products are ready to progress toward market readiness. The program helps start-ups leverage up to $15,000 in non-dilutive funding to work with research partners, offering a strategic advantage in addressing gaps and refining their solutions.
Sydney Robinson, Co-founder and CEO of Vessl Prosthetics, described her team’s experience as transformational. Vessl, which developed the Isoform Socket technology to improve prosthetic fit and comfort, collaborated with RISJH to observe surgeries and engage stakeholders. “The HEALTHI collaboration contributed significantly to the development, evaluation, and commercialization efforts of Vessl Prosthetics,” Robinson shared. “Observing the gait lab and surgeries provided valuable insights into surgical techniques and patient outcomes. This knowledge was crucial for developing new technologies and protocols that could improve the effectiveness of our prosthetic devices in real-world settings.”
The program also revealed opportunities for Vessl to pivot. “HEALTHI helped us uncover gaps which were critical to understand early in our journey,” Robinson said. “It’s allowed us to reframe our strategy and accelerate bringing our technology to the people who need it most.”
The HEALTHI program has also opened doors to follow-on funding, a significant milestone indicating the confidence in the start-ups’ solutions as a result of leveraging the program.
Azar Azad, Co-Founder, and CEO of A.I. VALI, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) medical device company that uses artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to accurately detect early stages of diseases like cancer, completed a HEALTHI project with the HHS. It led to a follow-on partnership worth over $300,000.
“The HEALTHI project enabled us to collaborate with the Centre for Data Science and Digital Health (CREATE) at HHS and develop an automated de-identification process on our AIDREA platform. This functionality will be used to support the data processing for a machine learning project,” shared Azad.
For Technology Trace, a medtech startup with an Internet of Things (IoT) tracking system for portable medical asset management, the HEALTHI project led to a three-phase study with St. Joseph’s Healthcare, and a confirmed Early Adopter Health Network (EAHN) project valued at about $450,000.
Michael Becker, Founder and CEO of Technology Trace, adds, “Our team took all the insights from the clinical perspective and leveraged that feedback to deeply understand the needs of clinicians and operational staff at St. Joseph’s and their patients. This feedback was key in setting us up for future projects with the hospital.”
Since its announcement in 2021, Innovation Factory’s HEALTHI program has supported 53 companies that have fully completed or have committed to the program. Of the 53 projects, 17 companies have continued on with conducting a funded collaborative project with research or academic institutions. From product development testing to conducting trials and more, these companies have leveraged about $5.7 million in follow-on funding.
That’s not all, 14 of the 53 companies funded are expected to conduct collaborative projects with hospital, research, and academic partners, generating $1.6 million in additional follow-on funding. In total, the program has helped generate about $7.5 million of economic impact. For every dollar spent, the program has delivered a return of 630%, which could rise to approximately 800% as more projects are completed.
The HEALTHI program is an example of how partnerships between start-ups and research institutions can drive innovation while boosting economic return. By providing start-ups with access to funding, mentorship, and world-class expertise, the program helps transform groundbreaking ideas into tangible healthcare solutions that benefit patients across Canada.
Interested in learning how you can leverage the HEALTHI program? Connect with us to learn more.
