Teams of collaborating students from York’s Schulich School of Business and the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) will present innovative health-care solutions to better serve aging Canadians during the annual Sanofi Pasteur Healthcare Venture Challenge Wednesday.
The students are from Schulich’s MBA specialization in Health Industry Management and OCAD’s Master of Design in Strategic Foresight & Innovation program. The event will take place April 23, from 8am to 1pm, at ZoomerPlex at Liberty Village, 64 Jefferson Ave., Toronto.
Student teams will deliver six-minute pitches on their ideas to improve the delivery of health-care services during the “Boomer Life to Zoomer Life: Redesigning Healthcare for our Coming of Age” event. It is produced in partnership by Schulich, OCAD, VentureLab and MaRS. ZoomerMedia is a co-sponsor of the event.
Competitors will be questioned for a further six minutes by a panel, made up of Jeannette Wang, SVP professional affairs and services, Shoppers Drug Mart; Susan Eng, vice-president for advocacy at the Canadian Association of Retired Persons; Grant Tipler, head of life sciences and health services at RBC; and Wendy Campbell, active retiree and author of Creative Forces blog. One team will be awarded the Panel’s Pick trophy. A Citizens’ Choice award will also be presented to the venture that attracts the most mock funds “investment” from guests at the event.
Teams will address six themes: transportation, care for caregivers, prevention and wellness, navigating the health-care system, aging in place, and technologies for prediction and prevention. Each team has been supervised by Schulich and OCAD professors and has received virtual support from expert practitioners, including geriatric specialists, engineers and IT specialists.
Dr. Samir Sinha, a director of geriatrics at Mount Sinai Hospital and provincial lead, Ontario’s Seniors Strategy, will deliver the morning’s opening keynote address on “Impact of aging trends on the Canadian Healthcare System”.
At noon, broadcaster and host for the day Mary Lou Finlay and Brenda Zimmerman, director of Schulich’s Health Industry Management Program, will lead a panel discussion with Sinha; Ilse Treurnicht, CEO of MaRS Discovery District; Jeremy Laurin, president and CEO of VentureLAB; and OCAD professors Helen Kerr and Kate Sellen.
For more information, contact Professor Brenda Zimmerman, director, Health Industry Management Program at the Schulich School of Business, at bzimmerman@schulich.yorku.ca, or Rachel Azagury, director of marketing at VentureLab, at razagury@venturelab.ca.