Grant: Foundation Grant

Design Of Technology; Ethics; Health Technology; Healthcare System Challenges; Impact Investing; Information Technology; Innovation Policy; Qualitative Research; Social Entrepreneurship

<html> <body> <p> <strong>Direction of the program.</strong> Emerging health technologies require complex skills to operate, often lead to inequity in access and their development is increasingly capital-intensive. Our goal is to conduct programmatic research on the design, financing and commercialization of Responsible Innovation in Health (RIH). Responsible innovations are affordable, relevant and foster the sustainability of healthcare systems by addressing its key challenges, which include responding to the needs of a growing elderly population, supporting chronically ill patients and tackling health disparities. Our research streams rely on advanced qualitative methods to examine: 1) the design of RIH; 2) the emergence and contribution of RIH; and 3) the institutionalization of RIH. Through our KT Lab, we will set up a cooperative online environment to support the production of knowledge syntheses, provide access to a multi-user qualitative database and enable the prototyping and administration of multimedia-based elicitation tools (e.g., using videos and online deliberation).</p> <p> <strong>Expertise and collaborations.</strong> This Foundation Scheme builds on the Leader&rsquo;s Canada Research Chair program (2005-2015) through which she conducted increasingly more complex and innovative research. This included clarifying from a health policy standpoint the impact of business models, capital investment and economic policy on technology design processes in academic spin-offs. Since 1998, her team acquired a strong command of the usability, social and ethical issues of various technologies (telemedicine, mobile dialysis units, high-tech homecare, screening tests). This Foundation Scheme mobilizes scholars across Canada, the United States, France, the United Kingdom and Brazil and catalyzes research at the interface of health services research, medicine, engineering, design, ethics, sociology, economics and public policy. To support this Foundation Scheme, the Leader was awarded a University of Montreal Chair that provides seed money for 3 years.</p> <p> <br> <strong>Mentoring and training activities.</strong> Responsible innovation was the recent focus of high-level policy and academic meetings in the UK, the Netherlands, Brazil and Germany. Both the European Horizon 2020 Program and the American NSF developed funding streams in this area. Building on this momentum, we will establish a high-caliber knowledge production hub that provokes international synergies with talented investigators, graduate students and postdocs. We will exchange knowledge across disciplines and with key stakeholders across the country, including health research organizations, clinical leaders, policymakers and the medical device industry.</p> <p> <br> <strong>Expected knowledge advancement.</strong> Our integrated research streams will clarify why, how and in what context RIH can contribute to healthcare sustainability. Scholarship in this area is warranted when one considers the capital-intensive nature of R&amp;D and how high-tech services make &ldquo;choosing wisely&rdquo; steadily more difficult. This Foundation Scheme is of strategic importance to CIHR, policymakers, entrepreneurs and investors. It can profoundly benefit patients and healthcare providers because it will evidence alternative ways of designing, financing and commercializing technologies. Outcomes include establishing a vibrant community of clinical leaders, technology developers and policymakers skilled and capable of contributing to the scaling up of RIH.</p> </body> </html>