I wrote this op-ed for a doctor involved in the creation of Innovation Boulevard in Surrey, B.C., to generate interest in an SFU-sponsored event at which the doctor was appearing. It turned out that he preferred to focus on different aspects of the event, so a different version of it appeared in the Vancouver Sun. To protect his privacy, I have tried to remove identifiers.
Innovation Boulevard continues to shock us with the possible
A year and a half ago, Surrey announced an ambitious goal: to construct, support and nurture a bustling and productive hub for health technologies. It would involve scientists, clinicians, businesses, developers and universities working together in one concentrated square mile between Simon Fraser University (SFU) and Surrey Memorial Hospital (SMH). It wouldn’t just come up with products and technologies to improve patient care and ease the increasing burdens on our health care system –- it would benefit Surrey, B.C. and Canada economically.
As the xxx at the forward-thinking SFU, I was one of those leading the charge to establish “Innovation Boulevard.” The Boulevard would include Technology Test-beds (TTb), a network of inter-connected laboratories with a “translational” research focus, meaning that the technologies would be ready for use in patient care. We would develop, advance and commercialize cost-effective technology to enhance patient outcomes. The City of Surrey’s vital perspective and can-do attitude had infused leaders at SFU, Fraser Health and the Surrey Memorial Foundation with a deep sense of possibility.
I knew that forging partnerships in health science innovation was the way forward, because I’d been party to such a productive “cluster” in xxx. There are technology clusters around the world, Silicon Valley in California and the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto being just two. I also knew that the federal government, tired of seeing Canada dazzle the world in neuroscience technology research, then fade out when it came to developing usable products and tools, was losing interest in funding probes that only resulted in published papers. At the same time, about 80 percent of BC’s life science companies were focused on health technologies, with research and development needs that weren’t being met in Canada. We needed to help ensure that their efforts to develop businesses that addressed and solved pressing medical and health issues would result in sellable products.
As both a doctor and an xxx whose inventions include a xxx, I knew the old way of doing things was outmoded. Intense stimulation was required. Partnerships between the numerous players in the world of health science technologies would be just the ticket, and where better than in a city with a keen eye on the future and a determination to be stubbornly inclusive, like Surrey?
SFU, the City of Surrey, Fraser Health and the Surrey Memorial Foundation formed a grass roots partnership in January, 2013. Then we approached the University of British Columbia (UBC), the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) and Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU), key health sector leaders at the B.C. Cancer Agency, B.C. Children’s Hospital and U.B.C. Hospital, regional leaders in engineering, physics, neuroscience, psychology, computer science, medicine, independent living technologies, and digital health computing, relevant businesses ranging from multinationals to care-home companies, and the support sector – the not-for-profits and key funders. This core group formed one of the most unique and successful partnerships I think the province of B.C. has seen.
Innovation Boulevard’s focus is on achieving health technology innovations in the arenas of medical, bio-pharm and digital health that impact health care and independent living now – not somewhere down the road. At the same time as the techniques, products and approaches that emerge from these collaborative efforts are touching people’s lives, they are buoying the economy, creating jobs and improving the skills of the people inventing, creating, supplying and applying them. They’re intended to ease the increasing demands on the system, allowing for better, quicker care.
One collaboration between surgeons, medical educators, hospitals and Conquer Mobile, a Vancouver company specializing in secure custom mobile apps, has resulted in a validated simulation app that can be used in the operating room, has been sold to the largest association of perioperative nurses in the U.S., and directly benefits Kwantlen’s nursing students.
Meanwhile, Innovation Boulevard’s Digital Health Hub (DHH), located at the SFU Surrey Campus within the School of Computing Science, provides medical solutions for integrated, cost-effective access to specialized mobile technologies that help diagnose and manage human diseases. Working with MetaOptima Technology, Inc., DHH was able to take its first product to market: the MoleScope, a complete telemedicine solution for the prevention and detection of skin cancer. Another partnership with Retirement Concepts Innovation Centre, whose technological innovations target seniors’ mobility and care, involves teledermatology. It uses software to monitor wounds on people living in long-term care facilities.
Fast forward to October, 2014. The City of Surrey is now a leader in the field of neurotechnologies. Innovation Boulevard has attracted an astonishing 45 businesses, including Philips Healthcare (neuroimaging applications development), TELUS Health (digital health), BioLytical (infectious disease point-of-care diagnostics), and MobiSafe (wheelchair airbags). Our successful formula has attracted attention internationally, with Israel’s Be’ersheva Gav Yam Advanced Technologies Park expressing interest in the model and the renowned Israel Center for Medical Simulation (MSR) planning joint projects with our partners.
Collisions create energy -- that’s true of the colliding ideas found everywhere along Innovation Boulevard, too. Best of all, people are saying, “Well, Innovation Boulevard has done it, so maybe we can do it, too.”
