Last month, we hosted the annual Medventions Toronto Innovation Day(MTID) with 137 in-person attendees convening at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre (Sunnybrook). This event was a great opportunity for aspiring innovators to learn, network, and connect with prominent leaders from the image-guided therapy sector, some of whom were Medventions program alumni themselves.
This year’s theme was, ‘Image-Guided Therapy, Digital Health and AI in Medicine’ – see the full event agenda here. The event was opened by Dr. Andy Smith, CEO of Sunnybrook, and Dr. Kullervo Hynynen, Co-Executive Director of INOVAIT and VP of Research and Innovation at Sunnybrook, with a conference overview provided by Dr. Bradley Strauss, co-founder of the Medventions program.
The first session covered precision medicine digitization and AI in healthcare, beginning with an engaging keynote from Dr. Bill Hunter, CEO of Canary Medical. Bill drew on his deep knowledge and experience of commercializing medical devices to make the case that smart implants with embedded sensors would soon disrupt “dumb” implants lacking data collection capabilities. He then demonstrated how the sensors in Canary Medical’s Canutrio Te, a smart knee replacement implant, enabled the use of AI to predict patient trajectory and made earlier personalized patient interventions possible.
Following Bill’s presentation, INOVAIT’s Co-Executive Director, Raphael Ronen delivered a compelling presentation on the untapped potential of the image-guided therapy sector in Canada. Drawing from INOVAIT’s newest report, Unlocking Medtech’s Potential: Canada’s Strategic Advantages in Image-Guided Therapy & AI, Raphael outlined the Canadian industry advantages through insights gathered from interviews with founders and executives from 30 Canadian IGT companies.
The final speaker of the morning session was Louis Laflamme, who revealed many of the important teachings he gained from growing OpSens as its CEO, from their first entry into medical technology with fiber optic guidewires for assessing coronary arteries, to their successful acquisition in 2023 by Boston-based, Haemonetics.
The MTID’s second session explored ventures in image-guided therapeutics and healthcare AI. The keynote speaker of the second session was Maurice Ferré, CEO of Insightec. He began his talk with Carol Klein’s heartwarming story about how Insightec’s focused ultrasound technology transformed her life. Carol had long-suffered from essential tremor (ET), a debilitating condition. With their revolutionary focused ultrasound technology, they ameliorated her ET symptoms, profoundly impacting her quality of life.
Learn more about Carol’s life-changing experience with Insightec in the video below:
Maurice emphasized Insightec’s mission to transform invasive procedures to image-guided non-invasive ones leveraging focused ultrasound, neuroablation, and neuromodulation to treat a wide range of neurological conditions including Parkinson’s Disease, Neuropathic Pain, Epilepsy, OCD and more.
Maurice’s keynote address was followed by a presentation by Sanjana Basu of Radical Ventures, who provided attendees with the investor’s perspective, covering emerging trends and focuses for investors in healthcare AI.
The second session of the MTID was rounded out by Dr. Alex Bilbily, radiologist, co-founder, and co-CEO of 16 Bit. Alex described the 16 Bit journey, from identifying an opportunity to leverage AI in radiology and the creation and deployment of Rho, a technology which opportunistically screens for low bone density from routinely acquired x-rays. Today, Rho is experiencing high-growth market adoption in Canada and beyond.
Following a brief lunch, attendees jumped right back in and began the third and final session of the day, which focused on nurturing the next generation of medtech talent. The session began with a fireside chat between Dr. James Wall of Intuitive Medical and Dr. Abubaker Khalifa of Moonrise Medical. Previously, James served as the Director of the Stanford Biodesign Innovation Fellowship—an inspiration for the Medventions Program. Abubaker is a Stanford Biodesign Innovation alum and has led numerous early-stage medtech projects over the years. The two spoke in depth about medtech innovation, entrepreneurship, and education.
Following the fireside chat, audience members learned more about the Medventions Atlantic program from Eilidh Lindsay-Sinclair who is the Business Development Manager at the Nova Scotia Health Innovation Hub where she manages the program.
The final session of the MTID wrapped up with five Medventions alumni gathering to form a panel to discuss their experiences and outcomes from attending the Medventions program. Facilitated by Medventions co-founder, Dr. Brian Courtney, panelists included: Zaid Atto, Katelyn So, Joel Moktar, Oksana Chunitska, and Kelly MacInnis.
The eventful day wrapped with an awards ceremony and networking reception. The award ceremony recognized three exceptional clinical mentors from the Medventions program. Clinical mentorship is a vital component of the Medventions program. It provides invaluable support to emerging leaders as they navigate the complexities of medical technology design and development in a clinical setting. The clinical mentorship awardees that were honoured at the event were Dr. Cari Whyne, Dr. Gary Yau, and Dr. Bradley Strauss. These outstanding clinical mentors not only imparted their vast knowledge onto fellows but have also ignited a unique creativity and resiliency among our fellows.
