Improving outcomes and reducing costs:
An Ivey report focuses on global role of Canada’s medical device industry
Medical devices play an important role in improving treatment outcomes, replacing surgeries with less invasive procedures, accelerating patient recovery and reducing length of hospital stays. For all of these reasons, medical devices contribute significantly to reducing health system costs and enabling the sustainability of Canada’s health system. This is important since the Canadian government spent $135.1 billion on our publicly funded healthcare system  in 2010 alone. That works out to $3,959 for every citizen or 8.2% of our total gross domestic product (GDP). But Canada's medical device industry not only has the capacity to make a significant difference at home, it also has the opportunity to become a global leader in device innovation and production.  More >

Breakthrough stimulants for cancer vacines
Dalton Pharma Services, a privately owned Canadian pharmaceutical services provider to leading pharmaceutical companies, today announced that it has entered into a Manufacturing Services Agreement with Oncovir Inc. Oncovir is a specialty pharmaceutical company based in Washington DC, dedicated to the development of nucleic-acid-based clinical therapies for cancer, infectious, immune, and degenerative disorders. More>

Productivity:
Innovation think-think makes recommendations
As we all know, there has been a lot of discussion lately about Canada’s track record on innovation and productivity. By now, most of us have heard that the Conference Board of Canada’s latest report gave Canada a failling grade on innovation. We’re 14^th among 17 peer countries in the OECD. More>

HTX scores global first:
GE pathology imaging centre
As we all know, there has been a lot of discussion lately about Canada’s track record on innovation and productivity. By now, most of us have heard that the Conference Board of Canada’s latest report gave Canada a failling grade on innovation. We’re 14^th among 17 peer countries in the OECD.TORONTO, Jan. 26 /CNW/ - HTX announced today an agreement to establish GE's first global Pathology Imaging Centre of Excellence in Toronto, Ontario. GE Healthcare and its digital pathology joint venture, Omnyx™, will invest $7.75M along with a $2.25M grant from the Health Technology Exchange (HTX).  Planned collaborative research and development (R&D) partnerships will bring an additional $7.2M, for a total investment of $17.2M over the next 3 years. More>

Canadian breakthrough in cytometry:
Entrepreneurial success story
As science advances, mankind progresses from understanding simple processes to grasping complex biological systems. In doing this, researchers keep searching for new ways to see as much as possible. When it comes to molecular biology, one of the best tools available to science has been a discipline known as “flow cytometry”. More>

Electronic hospital reports improve patient care:
Barrie hospital leads the way with digital patient records
Barrie's Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH) is now electronically sending 2,500 patient reports per week to physicians at the Barrie and Community Family Health Team (BCFHT). The reports are sent directly into the patient's Electronic Medical Record (EMR) at the BCFHT. More>

Canada's innovation adoption deficit
Health care in Canada has a huge impact on the economy. It is a sector of the economy, however, that does not embrace innovation and change the way other industries do. I believe there are two fundamental problems that are challenging the sustainability of our health care system. First, there is a serious innovation adoption deficit. We are simply not turning new ideas to deliver health more effectively and efficiently into practice fast enough. More>