Tuesday, April 8, 2014

R+T Park Watch Magazine Examines Healthcare Advancements

Very proud (I think it is one of my favourite issues to date) of the April issue of WATCH Magazine, the brand journalism vehicle for the University of Waterloo's David Johnston Research + Technology Park.  This issue focuses on healthcare innovation.  I have to admit, when one thinks about Waterloo's technology and engineering community, healthcare is not often top of mine.  However in writing this issue, I learned a great deal about our local healthcare innovation community.

In this issue I interviews Dr. Susan Elliott, Dean of Applied Health Sciences for the University of Waterloo.  Applied Health Sciences specializes in illness and injury prevention and well being through the lifespan at work and at leisure.  A great deal of AHS's research is devoted to understanding the aging process - a topic that resonated deeply with me as the daughter of aging parents.

Sticking with the University of Waterloo, I also had a great chat with Bill McIllroy, Chair of the Department of Kinesiology for the University of Waterloo, on the new research and innovation centre being established within R+T Park.  The centre will allow University researchers to directly collaborate across disciplines, and apply their knowledge to individuals in the community in need.

Traversing into start up land, I spend some time with the founders of Intellijoint Surgical (formerly Avenir Medical) a start up I work with as the in house communications advisor at the Accelerator Centre.  These three mechatronic grads have created a medical device to help orthopaedic surgeons improve joint replacement patient outcomes, and recently were granted their Canadian Medical Device Certification.  Awesome guys. Awesome technology.

Finally I chatted with Steve VanDokkumburg, from Agfa Healthcare about the future of visual healthcare. Agfa Healthcare, a leading provider of integrated IT solutions and state of the art diagnostic imaging solutions for hospitals and healthcare centres, is spearheading the clinical imaging charge from its global center of excellence located in the R+T Park.

You can read the issue for yourself here http://www.rtparkwatch.com/

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