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Home > Strategic Initiatives > Digital Health
We are advancing digital health technologies to accelerate improvements in the quality and long-term sustainability of our health system and the health of Albertans.
Digital health aims to transform care delivery, empowering and equipping care providers and patients in their pursuit of improved health outcomes. Utilizing technologies like mobile applications, electronic medical records and artificial intelligence, digital health is increasing the efficacy of our care providers and establishing a more connected relationship between a patient and their care.
Alberta Innovates has identified digital health as one of its strategic priorities, an area of vast potential to accelerate growth, foster innovation and address some of today’s pressing issues. Digital and data-enabled technologies are driving the development of patient-focused and personalized clinical solutions, new models of care, and an acceleration of research into innovation. These digital solutions hold the potential of a healthier future for our province, improving the health and wellness of all Albertans and benefitting the quality and long-term sustainability of our healthcare system.
Whether it’s access to medical information in the palm of your hand, achieving faster and more accurate diagnoses that save lives, greater connectivity between providers to ensure the best care, revolutionizing how we train medical personnel, or even improving telemedicine options to grant our care system greater reach than ever before, digital health is the next frontier of improving health and healthcare systems in Alberta.
Evidence-based research is a key driver and foundation of health innovation and economic growth in Alberta.
The objective of the research is to enable the generation of health knowledge, evidence, and data to understand and support the application or implementation of a technology, intervention, or change in care. This is achieved through a systematic approach of asking or addressing a clinically relevant question or need, gathering information, designing methods for evaluation (including the design of new technologies), data analysis and interpretation, and knowledge dissemination (mobilization).
The role research plays in achieving our mission in Alberta is to enable and offer opportunities and support to early-stage researchers in academia and industry seeking to develop, evaluate, and commercialize digital or data-enabled health innovations in Alberta.
The Accelerating Innovations into CarE Concepts program serves to accelerate early-stage health research and innovation that demonstrates high commercial potential in priority areas of precision health.
This opportunity seeks to apply computational technologies or techniques to realize personalized health benefits in the following priority areas:
The LevMax-Health program leverages the strengths of partners and maximizes the benefits for Alberta. This opportunity seeks to leverage high-quality, Alberta-based applications from Tri-Agency competitions to advance digital health in Alberta.
This specific funding opportunity has four thematic areas for consideration:
Health & Life Sciences
Emerging Technology & Data Science, Environment, Health & Life Sciences
Director, Research - Health Innovation
Alberta is well-positioned to be the first citizen-centred health system in the world. To accomplish this, we must lean into technology that enables the development of new care models.
The Health System Transformation portfolio within the Health Business Unit at Alberta Innovates strives to catalyze digital-enabled care models to address key health system challenges within the province, with the goal of improving patient and provider experiences and delivering overall value to Alberta’s health system. Alberta is uniquely positioned to be the first citizen-centred health system in the world. Through the development of strategic partnerships and programs, the Health System Transformation team endeavours to play an integral role in driving and delivering this opportunity by enabling the utility, adoption, and scale of technologies that lead to the development of new care models.
By engaging with diverse stakeholders, including patients and family advisors, health system delivery partners, non-profits, and technology service providers, among others, the Health System Transformation team seeks to create platforms of collaboration that will leverage digital health technologies in diverse care settings to address priority health and wellness challenges within Alberta.
Director, Health System Transformation - Health Innovation
Senior Business Partner, Health System Transformation
The Health Talent initiative provides a platform for collaborative action to enhance the recruitment, development, and retention of highly skilled people who will increase provincial competitiveness in converting research and technological advances into improved health and economic outcomes for the province.
Director, Health Innovation Talent
We’re accelerating the pace of commercialization to ensure a sustainable and globally competitive health ecosystem with a robust innovation-driven economy and improved health outcomes. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are significant contributors to the Alberta economy. A vibrant health technology industry will contribute to diversifying Alberta’s economy. Additionally, health care costs in Alberta, nationally, and globally are exponentially rising with a growing aging population and longer life expectancy, challenging the sustainability of publicly funded health delivery. New innovations are needed in the health sector to drive system efficiency, reduce disease burden and generate economic returns and healthy well-being for Albertans.
Our goal is to accelerate new innovations to market, attract external investments, and grow the life sciences industry as a viable job creator and source of economic prosperity in Alberta.
Emerging technologies, particularly digital and data-enabled technologies, are enabling the development of patient-focused clinical solutions, new models of care, digital therapeutics and an acceleration of research into innovation that will form the future foundation of a more affordable, accessible and high-quality health system for all Albertans. Alberta Innovates supports the advancement and commercialization of emerging health technology with the goal of simultaneously delivering economic value to Alberta and health impact at home and abroad.
Read more about our support for Health Tech Commercialization.
Director, Commercialization (Health Innovation)
The Health Innovation team is striving to strengthen economic competitiveness and enhance the well-being of people living in Alberta by building cultivating a health innovation ecosystem that excels at converting research and technology into sustainable human–centered care. This is a big task for any one organization, but luckily, we are not alone. Alberta Innovates is seeking to partner with like-minded organizations in Alberta to co-develop and co-deliver infrastructure, tools, and resources to cultivate a health innovation ecosystem in Alberta. These partnerships will help Alberta’s innovators overcome hurdles associated with their innovation journey.
The Health Innovation team is currently partnered with dozens of like-minded organizations across the province to deliver the infrastructure, tools, and resources to achieve our mission. Partnerships are expected to be of high additive value to Alberta’s health innovation ecosystem.
Executive Director, Health Innovation
Sectors: Health & Life Sciences
Initiative description: A provincial initiative that brings together researchers, healthcare providers, patients, and industry to support the advancement of clinical health research in Alberta.
Sectors: Agriculture & Forestry, Emerging Technology & Data Science
Initiative description: The Alberta Scaleup and Growth Accelerator Program helps entrepreneurs bridge the scaleup gap, take their business to new heights and go global.