HEALTHI: Bridging Medical Technology Start-ups and Clinical Environments
By Paras Dhaliwal, Innovation & Partnerships Analyst
Healthcare innovation can feel like a buzzword until you see it in action. That was my experience when I first joined the Innovation & Partnerships team at The Research Institute of St. Joe’s Hamilton. My name is Paras Dhaliwal and as someone with a business background who recently joined the team, I was eager to contribute — but it wasn’t until I saw the HEALTHI program in motion that I truly understood how innovation and healthcare go hand in hand.
I didn’t know much about HEALTHI, just that it sounded like another acronym (and yes, it is one) but I quickly realized it’s much more than that. HEALTHI is a funding program that acts as a bridge between health tech start-ups and the real-world challenges of clinical care.
What is HEALTHI?
HEALTHI stands for the Hamilton Ecosystem to Accelerate and Leverage Trials of Health Innovation. Founded in 2021, it’s a partnership between Innovation Factory and the Synapse Life Science Consortium, funded by the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP). Through HEALTHI, start-ups get structured support to validate their technologies, while our internal teams get an early look at innovations that could improve care, reduce friction, or solve real clinical problems.
At the same time, HEALTHI gives St. Joe’s staff a front-row seat to promising technologies that could solve meaningful problems. It’s a two-way street that makes sure innovation is happening with the health care system, not just around it.
Through HEALTHI, The Research Institute of St. Joe’s has collaborated with over 46 companies from its initial start in 2021.
HEALTHI in Action
HEALTHIs aren’t about passive validation – they’re about real-time learning.
“You don’t get that level of feedback and trust from most clients. HEALTHI gave us our day in court and it paid off,” said Carl Schubert, CEO of Biocache. “It’s like paying your tuition. You recognize this is leading to something bigger.”
Biocache leveraged their HEALTHI funding to move from pre-proof-of-concept to a full procurement agreement, creating a case study that now anchors their provincial sales efforts.
In other cases, the impact of a HEALTHI is in validating a start-up’s market fit.
Michael Becker, co-founder and CEO of Technology Trace, noted, “We came with a commercially ready solution…The HEALTHI application was our way to discover if there’s value within the hospital for tracking utilization. That insight shifted our entire strategic vision.”
The Innovation & Partnerships team (left to right):
Niloofar Heidarinejad, Mackensey Bacon, and Paras Dhaliwal.
These aren’t abstract wins. They represent direct translation of feedback into funding, validation into contracts, and collaboration into commercial growth – outcomes that have tangible effects on Hamilton’s health care sector.
The Atrium at McMaster Innovation Park is home to numerous start-ups and accelerators, including Innovation Factory and St. Joe’s innovation satellite office.
Looking Ahead
As the Innovation & Partnerships team at St Joe’s welcomes the next wave of projects, HEALTHI continues to evolve in response to the needs of both innovators and clinical teams.
It’s not innovation for its own sake, but for better care, smarter systems, and a stronger Canadian health-tech ecosystem.
To learn more about Innovation & Partnerships at St. Joe’s, visit our website.
