Entrepreneurs say slow policies and weak procurement are limiting Canadians' access to aging and fertility technologies.
Canadian entrepreneurs in Raise the Festival argue that employers and politicians are blocking the adoption of health technologies aimed at creating families and aging gracefully.
“We don’t have 13 health care systems, we have 13 “hospital care” systems.
Industry leaders at two panels identified key barriers to funding, procurement, slow policymakers, lack of support from employers and lack of proactive assistance. They also shared potential solutions.
Soldering Mobility Founder and CEO Pooja Viswanathan noted that her startup, which makes blind-spot sensors for wheelchairs, had a “really tough time” getting funding in Canada, but had a much easier road south of the border.
“Even though we created innovations here, we had to go to the US like many other countries. [Canadian] medical technology [and] medical technology,” Viswanathan said. “It's really unfortunate because Canadians can't really take advantage of Canadian innovation.”
Fellow panelist Alex Michailidis, a professor at the University of Toronto who works with Age-Wellsaid that's why the aging tech network has focused most of its efforts on politics. Michailidis said Canadian politicians are saying “all the right things,” recognize that dealing with Canada's aging population is a big challenge and know technology can help.
But Michailidis compared the job to “pushing a large rock up a very large hill.” He argued that “Canada's performance has not been what it should be” on the outdated technology front compared to some other countries around the world.
Michailidis argued that the provincial jurisdiction of Canadian health care made policy change difficult. Despite this, he believes some provinces are doing a better job than others, singling out British Columbia and Alberta as positive leaders and Ontario as a laggard.
Internal procurement it's been a challenge for a long time in Canadian health technology, with critics citing a lack of transparency and risk aversion. Ontario was trying to improve in this regard.
Rhonda Zwingerman, co-founder and chief medical officer of the company Fertility of branchesThe company, which uses a combination of traditional clinics and technology to make fertility care more accessible, believes a more proactive approach could also unlock the potential of Canadian healthcare.
“We don’t have 13 health care systems, we have 13 ‘hospital care’ systems,” she said. “We're actually pretty good at responding to emergencies and emergencies, but we're really bad at actively keeping people healthy.”
Although Canada has universal health care, the birth rate is often beyond its capacity. This can be a problem given that conventional treatments such as in vitro fertilization are expensive and time-consuming. Sprout Family Co-founder and CEO Jackie Hanson sees this as an important role that companies have to play.
Hanson, whose startup is working to make fertility benefits more accessible by helping employers accept them through its digital platform, argues that Canadian businesses need to implement strong parental leave policies and provide workers with fertility insurance. She felt it was necessary for the business.
Hanson said many Canadian workers are still taking out large lines of credit and refinancing or selling their homes to cover the costs of fertility treatments. She also said these workers carry a “huge psychological burden” that can negatively impact their productivity and availability. The lack of such policies could also lead to top employees leaving companies when they start families, she said.
“Employers have a unique advantage—they can remove barriers, normalize communication, and improve education in ways that institutions and governments currently don’t do very well,” Hanson said.
Image courtesy of Elevate. Photo by Brandon Ferguson Media.
