Community of Innovation Podcast

Linking health research and innovation can feel like mixing oil and water. While research lives in the realm of academia, innovation is often associated with business and the marketplace. Yet, closing the gap between these disciplines is critical for accelerating lifesaving aging and brain health solutions. In this rapid-fire discussion from CABHI’s What’s Next Canada Technology Panel, we’ll disco...

Our newest podcast episode kicks off an eight-part series that captures engaging conversations from CABHI’s 2020 What’s Next Canada conference – Canada’s premier event for networking, collaboration, and knowledge exchange. The conference featured speakers and thought leaders from around the world, including Jean Accius, Senior Vice President, Thought Leadership and International Affairs, AARP. In...

What is health and how can we access it? These are questions facing many Canadian communities as they deal with the challenges presented by COVID-19. In part three of our four-part COVID-19 mini-series, created in partnership with Baycrest@Home, we’ll learn about holistic health and wellness from an Indigenous perspective with Elder Ethel Starblanket-Dubois from the Starblanket Cree Nation, Dr. Ca...

This is part two of our four-part COVID-19 mini-series. American feminist writer Betty Friedan once said, “Aging is not lost youth, but a new stage of opportunity and strength.” On this week’s podcast episode, hosts Dr. Allison Sekuler and Dr. Rosanne Aleong talk to older adults who embody this message by finding creative ways to preserve their minds, bodies, and spirits during the pandemic. Joini...

There is no doubt COVID-19 has altered the world as we know it, leaving no corner of our lives untouched. Everything, from our healthcare system to our economy and social practices has been affected. Yet for many older adults, the pandemic has only heightened persisting challenges, such as social isolation. In part one of this three-part series, the Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation (CABH...

Technology has transformed our access to medical and health information, for good and ill. Web search results put serious researchers and clinicians on the same 'stage' as digital snake oil salesmen, all fighting for people's limited attention. Add to this the growing importance of preventing and managing chronic conditions such as dementia, and the need for health literacy has never been greater....

Innovators are constantly courting their local healthcare systems, trying to meet the needs of an aging population. They're constantly on the prowl, seeking acceptance and, ultimately, a long term relationship. But before achieving such wedded bliss, innovators face the arduous task of navigating the health innovation dating jungle. Healthcare innovators often find it impossible to get a date, let...

Yes, we're all sophisticated grownups, but like at any school playground, researchers and innovators are often at a loss as to how to connect. Do we have anything in common? Will we speak the same language? Most importantly, should we play freeze tag or four-square? On a more serious note, how do traditional academic and innovation ecosystems support and sustain authentic and productive relationsh...

Too often the discussion of aging is focused exclusively on loss. An aging society demands our active engagement to adapt and address new challenges and emerging opportunities. Mary Furlong compares aging to an emerging market, closer to a new nation opening its borders to trade. Today on the show we visit this new emerging marketplace with the help of two knowledgeable explorers: Mary Furlong, of...

To pivot or not to pivot, that is the question. In an agile and nimble innovation space, how do you “pivot like a boss” and change one or more components of your business model to take advantage of emergent opportunities, meet an unmet need, maximize your impact, or course correct when you’ve gone down the wrong path? Changing your business model – your value proposition, profit model, resource mo...

Welcome to Part 2 of our look at end user engagement. In Part 1, we heard from the CABHI experts on the basics of speaking with end users and customers when developing your innovation. In this episode we speak with two members of CABHI's Seniors Advisory Panel, and a team of innovators that worked with the panel on their CABHI-funded project. We ask hard hitting questions like, 'How'd that go for...

Engaging end users is considered mandatory or irrelevant, depending on the style of innovator you speak with. Should you co-design your product in order to ensure you're addressing a real need? Or should you squeeze into a black turtleneck and invent the future others cannot yet see? As we hear in this episode of our podcast, the answers aren't mutually exclusive. And one way or another, the world...

Your innovation is exciting, world changing, elegantly designed - but can you pay the rent? CABHI loves innovation, but the world doesn't have enough closets for all the great services and prototypes collecting dust because there wasn't a plan to pay for them. Financial sustainability is not easy, but the good news is that there isn't only one road to achieving it. Join us as we engage our special...

This episode we visit a topic very close to our hearts: implementation and sustainability. At CABHI, putting novel solutions into actual practice is at the heart of how we define innovation. The long and complicated path to sustainable implementation remains a profound barrier to healthcare innovation. We sat down with two esteemed experts (real ‘K Stars’, if you will!) in the field of Knowledge M...

Our first episode focuses on the Ethics of Innovation, and features insights from Roshan Guna (Baycrest’s Manager of Research Ethics & Participation) and Fidelma Serediuk (Baycrest’s Manager and Professional Practice Chief, Physiotherapy; Manager, Sam & Ida Ross Memory Clinic). Fidelma is the local lead for the multi-site Motiview project, which is engaging older adults (many with dementia...