For those who aren’t familiar with THIW, there are parties but no films getting their world premieres. The comparison I’m making in the title is to the fact THIW is becoming a must-attend week-long event, with so much going on from morning to night, that serious THIW-goers may one year need to block their work calendars and spend their days exclusively hopping from one THIW event to another all week long – much like serious film lovers do during TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival).
In only its second year, Toronto Health Innovation Week (THIW) has been breaking records:
| THIW 2017 | THIW 2018* | |
| Number of events | 27 | 39 |
| Number of participants | 2,000 | 4,500 final numbers (updated May 2, 2018) |
| Number of international attendees | N/A | Estimated 250 |
| Number of international trade delegations | 3 | 9 |
| New results from 2018 | – 50% of the events were free
– THIW expanded beyond Toronto – to Brampton, North York and London, Ontario – Women’s Industry Event – Hackathon |
*At the time of writing, some data were still being collected and the final day of events was still to come.
I also have a suspicion THIW will grow to become a destination event for international groups looking to learn, partner, invest and promote themselves. More than it already is, I mean. I’m aware that THIW 2018 welcomed large groups from the Netherlands and Spain, but there were others.
It was impossible to attend all the conferences, investor events, panels, receptions, medtech, digital tech, start-up and corporate events, and more, but Twitter (#THIW) will give you a flavour for the week. I recommend that you scroll through the tweets or pick a few tweeters to follow for their “coverage.”
I attended a few events and found the networking was great and the quality of the speakers was high. The week kicked-off with the Impact Health Summit where I learned about LAB150, a partnership between MaRS Innovation and Evotec AG. LAB150 was launched to shorten the drug discovery timeline and to give promising start-ups (from MaRS Innovation’s pipeline) the infrastructure and drug discovery expertise (care of Evotec) to succeed. LAB150’s first project – drugs to treat a rare skin disease – is underway.
As I don’t follow the digital health space, I was amazed to learn about all the advances and applications that are currently being used to support patients, healthcare practitioners and healthcare-systems. From Molly, the virtual nurse, to bedding that monitors the person sleeping, to a virtual reality game that takes the tears and fear out of childhood vaccinations, it was an eye-opening day for me.
I liked hearing about the digital health technology so much, I went back for more the next day. Mount Sinai Hospital hosted healthBOT 2018. Chatbots. Wow. I think CCRM needs one.
Speaking of CCRM, we also hosted a free event for the public. It was called “Bringing Immunotherapies to Ontario” and focused on the big price tag and many complex technical challenges we need to address to bring immunotherapies – a revolutionary therapy that mobilizes the body’s own cells against cancer – to patients here in Canada. It featured:
- Michael May, PhD, President & CEO, CCRM (Moderator)
- Donna Wall, MD, Section Head – Blood and Marrow Transplant/Cell Therapy Program, Division of Haematology/Oncology, The Hospital for Sick Children
- Justin Shakespeare, Executive Director, Oncology Business Unit, Amgen
- Patrick Bedford, Senior Manager, Clinical Translation and Regulatory Affairs, CCRM
- Aaron Dulgar-Tulloch, PhD, Director of Bridge@CCRM, GE Healthcare Cell Therapy
If you are interested in this topic, please watch the video below.
The University of Toronto had its own day where it featured some of the exciting innovations coming from its community. There were two themes: wearables and robotics; and, advancing cell-based therapies and tissue-based technologies. (CCRM was tweeting from the afternoon panel discussion. If you’d like a sense of what took place, find @CCRM_ca on Twitter and scroll down to tweets from April 12.) The day wrapped with a technology/start-up showcase to highlight the best health and life sciences companies emerging from the Toronto ecosystem. You can read about the event here.
It was a busy and educational four days (for me) and I would have attended more events if my schedule allowed. Congratulations to MaRS and TO Health! for this great initiative and all the organizations that hosted events. Next year, I’ll be taking the week off. Maybe they’ll start serving popcorn.
Stacey Johnson
Latest posts by Stacey Johnson (see all)
- Right Turn: #pinksocks, diabetes news and other ramblings - June 24, 2025
- Right Turn: Some takeaways from Advanced Therapies Week 2025 - January 31, 2025
- Right Turn: The top 10 most-read blog posts in 2024 - January 2, 2025
Comments