NEWMARKET, Ont. – CreateIT Now, a full-fledged business incubator, has opened its doors on the grounds of Southlake Regional Health Centre. CreateIT Now was launched in partnership with the Town of Newmarket, ventureLAB, Seneca College, York University and York Region. The organization aims to foster innovation in the healthcare sector while serving as a catalyst for a health technology business cluster in Newmarket.

Clients and entrepreneurs get business advice, access to work space, meeting rooms and most importantly – access to the hospital; a key differentiator when it comes to economic development of the region.

According to Southlake, in Ontario, as many as 90 percent of healthcare startups fail in large part because they can’t break through the barrier of access to the healthcare system while developing their products. CreateIT Now at Southlake, however, offers clients access to a clinically advanced, full-service hospital in which to test new products and get advice from those working on the front lines of healthcare.

“CreateIT Now is a model for hospitals of the future,” said Dr. Dave Williams (pictured), president and CEO of Southlake Regional Health Centre. “Fostering healthcare technology is a catalyst to a more sustainable healthcare system. By working collaboratively with startups we can play a role in shaping the technology to best benefit our patients and the healthcare sector, while also creating opportunities for Canadian companies to attract investment, create jobs, and bridge the innovation gap.”

The incubator is currently working with entrepreneurs eager to evaluate the effectiveness of their ideas and see if their product can solve some of the challenges of our complex healthcare system, including:

•  SterileCare is developing a solution to help reduce the incidence of hospital-acquired infections, improving the quality of patient care and lowering the incidence of preventable loss-of-life.
•  Inedio is a user-friendly patient workflow and data management solution founded by Southlake’s own Dr. Sylvain Plante, an interventional cardiologist. Pro TeamWorks 3.0 helps physicians, nurses and clerks stay organized and improve work efficiency by reducing data collection redundancy. Although it is designed for the catheterization lab environment, it can be adapted to other areas of cardiovascular medicine.
•  Synchronicity in Motion, a tech startup of UOIT, is working to commercialize the Artemis research of Dr. Carolyn MacGregor. Artemis – a big data analytics platform – can analyze various streams of physiological data from patients with multiple conditions. It can also be used for earlier onset detection and greater understanding of changes to health.
•  MedlinxMD is a secure social network designed to help doctors, nurses and support staff to communicate, collaborate and provide better care to patients. It combines integrated patient information with mobile collaboration tools in a single and secure platform.
•  “The opening of CreateIT Now represents an unprecedented opportunity for entrepreneurs looking to gain access to hospital clinicians and staff in an effort to validate and successfully commercialize their products and services,” said Jeremy Laurin, president and CEO of ventureLAB.