Patients Included | Toronto Health Innovation

Posted on By John Gregory
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Toronto Health Innovation Week provided a spirit of optimism for the newest innovations. Patients Included should be the default way of working in health innovation and improvement.

We selected four 1-minute video interviews to include here to capture the essence and optimism of Toronto Health Innovation Week. Read our reflections on the MEDEC MedTech conference.

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Lightning in a bottle | What True North means for Waterloo Region

Posted on By John Gregory
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ONE may not be a familiar acronym to many, explaining why the expert review panel suggests renaming it as Innovation Ontario. Here we explore the intersection of the strands of tech debate and activities in the Toronto-Kitchener-Waterloo corridor. There is a spirit of optimism with Toronto Health Innovation Week, True North and Velocity 10-year anniversary, yet both the Building Global Winners report and the poignant book How We Can Win point squarely to the paramount need to gain global reach.

Steven Woods, Senior Director Engineering at Google Canada described “What we have, up here in the North, is lightning in a bottle.” He said that Google “recognized there was something special happening up here – the entrepreneurialism, the quality of higher education and the loyalty of the talented engineers who just want to do good work.” In the 2015 Global Startup Ecosystem ranking the newly combined Toronto-Waterloo corridor entity ranked 16th. The Region of Waterloo tech sector employes 30,000 people.

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Charity Spotlight – Médecins Sans Frontières

Posted on By John Gregory
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Neutral and Impartial. How Humanitarian principles help Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders deliver emergency medical care in conflict zones. How much do you know about their 9-5 job?

It is clear why Médecins Sans Frontières was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for their humanitarian work in 1999. That award helped fund partnerships to lower the impact of HIV/Aids, malaria and other tropical diseases. Here we explore not only the medical and humanitarian work they do but how they help give a voice to those in desperate need through MSF Pulse, Dispatches or social media.

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How to get started with your small business blog

Posted on By John Gregory
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We have all read blogs and wondered whether we could do that. But, if the concept of starting your small business blog terrifies you then here are some simple ways to get started.

Learn the experience of small business owners at the Waterloo Regional Small Business Centre – Blogging Made Easy workshop. Then download the four simple exercises to practice yourself.

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Charity Spotlight – The True Athlete Project

Posted on By John Gregory
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Around the World, many of us have been watching the tally of Winter Olympic medals. But what does it take to get there? The path is not easy, and athletes rarely receive the support, care, and training they crave.

Sport can be a powerful transformative force for good. Here we explore the underlying philosophy and successes of The True Athlete Project. The organizational is truly international with world-class caliber mentors, advisory board, and team.

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New podcast – Episode 1 – Charity Spotlight podcast

Posted on By John Gregory
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Welcome to episode 1 of our new podcast. Why you ask. Why not I counter. The 50 Charity Spotlight blog features so far have led to some inspiring conversations, and we are so in awe of the incredible work done by so many charities. This new podcast series allows us to delve back into some of those charities again to hear an update.

We start close to home with the Coldest Night of the Year Walk across Canada. Listen to my wonderful interview with Scott Brush from Ray of Hope and Brian Carney from Blue Sea Philanthropy. This interview is much more than just talking about the upcoming event. We learn much more about the fundamental issues they are others are facing and how an unexpected family of charities supporting one another has evolved.

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2017 Recommended Reads

Posted on By John Gregory
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The average CEO reads 60 books a year. Astonishing. We managed half of that, plus podcasts, papers, and blogs. Read may be too literal, after all, listening to audio books or podcasts can be just as valuable in consuming a broad spectrum of perspectives.

These 9 books had an impact on our thinking in 2017. Find out why we consider reading them a valuable use of your time.

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Charity Spotlight – Lindsay Leg Club Foundation

Posted on By John Gregory
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Leg Clubs help to reduce social isolation while enabling leg ulcers to heal quicker. Our health is vitally important to us, but sometimes maintaining it is a struggle notes the Lindsay Leg Club Foundation (LLCF) team.

I have been fortunate enough to witness first hand the tremendous value these Leg Clubs bring to local communities. Here we explore why the LLCF service delivery model is a beacon for patient-centred care.

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