Brain program seeks partners, funding available

TORONTO – The Canadian Centre for Aging and Brain Health Innovation (CC-ABHI) invites interested seniors’ care and other health service organizations to submit an Expression of Interest to act as a trial partner site as part of its Industry Innovation Partnership Program (i2p2).

Trial partners will have an opportunity to gain early access to new innovative solutions in the aging and brain health sector for testing and validation!

CC-ABHI enables global innovators with promising solutions in the field of aging and brain health to collaborate with leading seniors’ care organizations across North America. As a solution accelerator, CC-ABHI purposefully guides pilot testing towards mobilizing knowledge for adoption and solution procurement.

Pilot projects aim to provide definitive evidence regarding a product or service’s ability to improve client outcomes and create efficiencies in the healthcare system. Products should show promising scalability for wider system implementation and impact.

Trial partners must be a seniors’ care or other health service organization in Canada, or a network partner of CC-ABHI in the United States. At least one of the project participants, either the applicant company or the trial partner site, must be located in Canada.

I2P2 bridges the gap between companies with innovative solutions, and seniors’ care institutions interested in evaluating new approaches to key challenges.

The program supports the testing of mature-stage products and services in real-life clinical and home environments. Companies can apply for up to $600,000 (CAD) from CC-ABHI to support up to 50% of eligible project costs. Funding will be provided directly to trial partners to administer and oversee the pilot. All projects must be completed within a 6 to 18 month period. Funding can go towards such costs as:

• Backfilling clinical staff on the pilot test unit
• Hiring a project manager
• Relevant training, consulting costs
• Technology resources

In 2016-17, CC-ABHI’s programs addressed the following care priorities for older adults living with cognitive impairment:

1. Reducing unnecessary emergency department visits.
2. Preventing falls or mitigating injury due to falls.
3. Providing better management of complex health conditions at home.
4. Improving brain health and cognitive fitness (also for non-impaired older adults).

Solution providers submitted Expressions of Interest on December 9, 2016. These submissions were then evaluated by a panel of external subject matter experts, with a shortlist of the most promising proposals was finalized January 6, 2017. A sub-set of companies who have been shortlisted are seeking trial partner sites through a brokering process managed by CC-ABHI.

Full program details and the original call to companies can be found here: http://www.ccabhi.com/i2p2-call/