Health Innovation Forum

WELCOME TO THE FRONT LINES OF CHANGE!

Health Innovation Forum is a multi-year program that aims to promote health care innovations within and beyond the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC). The MUHC's Institute for Strategic Analysis and Innovation (ISAI) has partnered with Parkhurst Publishing, a leading Canadian medical publishing company, to explore ideas, technologies and practices that can raise the bar on health system performance. The goal is to bring stakeholders in the health field together to explore approaches that respond to current needs and consider the full range of possibilities available for the future.

Key components include:

  • Round tables to discuss key developments in health care with front-line providers
  • Annual consensus-building conferences to examine fundamental issues
  • Publication of the Health Innovation Report to disseminate proceedings of events, commissioned papers and case studies

Health Innovation Forum is independently funded. Financial support is solicited from government and private sector stakeholders as well as through specific bequests to the MUHC Foundation.

Steering Committee

  • Bernard Lord, Scholar-in-residence, McGill University Health Centre's Institute for Strategic Analysis and Innovation; President and CEO, Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association
  • The Honourable Arthur Porter, P.C. MD, Director General and CEO, McGill University Health Centre

  • Susan Usher, Director, Health Policy Division, Parkhurst Publishing Ltd.
  • Harris Poulis, General Counsel and Director of Legal Affairs, McGill University Health Centre 

  • Helen Antoniou, Associate Director General, Public Affairs and Strategic Planning, McGill University Health Centre
  • Christos Kritsidimas, Special Advisor, Office of the Director General and CEO, McGill University Health Centre
  • Robert Babczak, Special Projects Coordinator, Executive Office, McGill University Health Centre

See McGill University Health Centre press release.

About the McGill University Health Centre and ISAI

The McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) is a comprehensive academic health institution with an international reputation for excellence in clinical programs, research and teaching. The MUHC is a merger of six teaching hospitals affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University — the Montreal Children's, Montreal General, Royal Victoria, and Montreal Neurological hospitals, as well as the Montreal Chest Institute and the Lachine General Hospital. Building on the tradition of medical leadership of the founding hospitals, the goal of the MUHC is to provide patient care based on the most advanced knowledge in the health care field, and to contribute to the development of new knowledge.

ISAI was created to allow the MUHC to play a leadership role in health policy development. Its first two programs are a scholar-in-residence program and the Health Innovation Forum. Mr. Bernard Lord, former premier of New Brunswick joined ISAI as first scholar-in-residence in 2007. The Institute aims to assume a significant role in framing and evaluating public policy, and help clarify the ground rules on which health care will evolve in the coming years.

About Parkhurst

Parkhurst Publishing is a Montreal-based medical publisher with a 25-year history producing high-quality, broadly read medical magazines. Their three physician publications, Doctor’s Review, Parkhurst Exchange and National Review of Medicine, reach over 40,000 doctors across the country. A fourth, Oncology Exchange, is published for cancer specialists. Parkhurst also produces a range of publication for patients living with demanding diseases. Parkhurst's Health Policy Division has been involved for the past 12 years in bringing stakeholder together to examine aspects of Canada’s health care system for academic and government organizations as well as healthcare companies.

MUHC-ISAI Partners’ Advisory Council

MUHC-ISAI activities in 2009 have been supported by a select group of companies, including GE Healthcare, McKesson Canada, Merck Frosst Canada, Pfizer Canada, and TELUS Health Solutions, which are developing some of the programmes and products that will help shape the future of health care.

  • McKesson Canada

    Founded more than 100 years ago, McKesson Canada is the leading provider of logistics as well as information products and services within the Canadian health care marketplace. McKesson Canada carries more than 35,000 products, in 17 distribution centres, and provides logistics and distribution to more than 800 manufacturers — delivering their products to 6,300 retail pharmacies, 1,350 hospitals, long-term care centres, clinics and institutions throughout Canada. Beyond pharmaceutical distribution, McKesson Canada has provided automation services for 2,500 retail pharmacies; and is also active in hospital automation solutions, dispensing more than 100 million doses each year. The company also provides a full range of services to Canadian manufacturers and health care providers, contributing to the quality and safety of care for Canadians.

  • TELUS Health Solutions

    TELUS Health Solutions is transforming the way information is used in health care from provider to home with innovative and collaborative information and communication technology solutions that enable new patient-centric models of care, enhanced decision-making at the point of care, more effective chronic disease management and improved clinical outcomes. Telus’ industry-leading solutions enable health care organizations across the continuum of care to drive better health decisions, increase health system capacity and capability, foster prevention and knowledge and turn information into understanding.

  • Merck Frosst Canada Ltd.

    Merck Frosst is committed to discovering and providing innovative products and services that improve the quality of life for Canadians. We work to achieve this goal by partnering with researchers, health care professionals, patients and others to discover and develop new medicines and to improve access to the latest treatments that contribute to better health and better patient care in Canada. Merck Frosst is dedicated to closing the care gap, that is, the difference between best possible care as studied from clinical trials and usual care practiced in the population at large.

    Merck Frosst invests more than $110 million in research and development alone annually and employs more than 200 of the world’s leading scientific personnel at the Merck Frosst Centre for Therapeutic Research, one of the largest biomedical research facilities in Canada, located in Montreal.

  • Pfizer Canada Inc.

    Pfizer Inc. is the world’s leading pharmaceutical company. Pfizer invests more than $7 billion annually to discover and develop life-saving and life-enhancing medications for humans and animals. Pfizer Canada is a leader in Canadian healthcare research, investing more than $137 million in research and development activities, contributions and partnerships in 2008. The company has invested more than $1 billion in R&D since 2000. Pfizer Canada is also working to strengthen connections between academia and the commercial world to fast-track the commercialization of promising research. In the past year, it has invested over $15 million in four public-private partnership projects arising out of the new Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research. Pfizer Canada’s commitment to helping Canadians live happier, healthier and longer lives extends beyond medication. To learn more about Pfizer Canada’s more than medication philosophy and programs, visit www.morethanmedication.ca.

  • GE Healthcare

    GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. GE’s broad expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies, performance improvement and performance solutions services help its customers to deliver better care to more people around the world at a lower cost. In addition, GE partners with health care leaders, striving to leverage the global policy change necessary to implement a successful shift to sustainable health care systems.

    GE’s “healthymagination” vision for the future sees continual innovation focused on reducing costs, increasing access and improving the quality and efficiency of health care around the world. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit the website at http://www.gehealthcare.com.

    GE Healthcare Performance Solutions provides a range of solutions to help healthcare providers worldwide achieve real results and take organizational performance to the next level. Solutions include implementing best practice management and leadership systems, designing new facilities for Lean workflow, enhancing the patient experience, implementing workflow management and visualization technologies, and maximizing the performance of assets and other resources.