IDEATION

is key.

2023 Ideation Key Program

The Challenge:

Develop an Idea

Build a Prototype

Pitch your Idea

Mission:

Move a healthcare problem from idea to a demonstrable prototype with commercial potential, that aims to improve the lives of those living with chronic conditions.

Objective:

Develop early-stage, validated and tested ideas to save time, mitigate downstream risks, and yield better startup teams for funders or incubator programs.

Vision:

Better Thinkers. Better Ideas. Healthier World.

PICK A STREAM

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CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE

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PICK A STREAM ⋆ CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE ⋆

BRING YOUR OWN PROJECT

Do you have a project or an idea that could improve the lives of others? Or are you interested in learning how to ideate?
Here’s your chance to learn how to move your idea from current state to desired state using our evidence-based framework, the Ideation Key.
CARDIOLOGY

Interested in cardiovascular health ideation and research translation? Set your course for entrepreneurship with ECHO Discovery.
In partnership with ECHO Discovery, a program funded and organized by the Translational Biology & Engineering Program (TBEP) and TRANSFORM HF.
SPINAL CORD INJURY

Are you interested in advancing innovation to benefit people living with SCI?
Connect with world-class team of SCI experts, mentors and people with lived experience to move your idea from bench to the marketplace. In partnership with the Praxis Spinal Cord Institute.

Learn how to ideate via the Ideation Key, an evidence-based framework created to guide you and take out some of the guess work.

Work with a designated mentor for the duration of the program.
Learn from a diverse and disciplinary group of mentors, key opinion leaders  and individuals with lived experience.
Make meaningful connections and join other highly qualified healthcare professionals.

Get introduced to early-stage ideation and knowledge translation through experiential training.

Support a culture of research translation whilst igniting startup formation.
Learn practical skills and tools such as project management, stakeholder maps, and more.
Meet your future colleagues, collaborators and funders.

Move a healthcare idea from concept to prototype.  

I would highly recommend this collaborative mentorship program to any colleague or friend looking to expand their project, prototype, or just to learn ideation! The wealth of knowledge and resources available make this program a truly rewarding experience and one that can lead to newfound partnerships and avenues for success.

Our team is now at the start of a new adventure - we are at the very early stages of commercialization! We levelled up, and with each new level comes a new set of challenges. I’m equally nervous and excited but not worried - we have our Ideation Clinic mentors by our side as we navigate these uncharted territories. For that, I feel very grateful.

From mutual appreciation of different backgrounds and perspectives, problem finding and solving, up to grasping what actually means ideating and shaping the future of healthcare (even through just a "dent in the universe"). I feel like I am now able to look at research and innovation in general in a new light: less naive and more purpose driven. This is all thanks our experts and mentors, who shared with us their all-round vision on research, business and lived-experience.

I have said this so many times, but Ateeya Manzoor completely changed my perception in one 50 minutes meeting with her sincerity. This journey is truly a lesson learnt, and it would've ended totally differently if not for that meeting. THANK YOU. I am forever impacted and look forward to working in health innovation.

Ateeya Manzoor and Dr. Joseph Ferenbok both provided exemplary and invaluable mentorship throughout the Ideation Key Program. Ateeya Manzoor was an asset to our team and made herself available to share her knowledge, expertise, and advice related to her experience advising professionals on moving early-stage ideas from ideation to intervention. Dr. Joseph Ferenbok’s continuous support and belief in our team and our project provided us with a morale-boost at the end of each and every session. Ateeya Manzoor and Dr. Joseph Ferenbok work together to provide an exhaustive, comprehensive, and exceptionally valuable mentorship experience for their mentees.

Jessica Jenkins, CEO SpecificDx

2022 Demo Day Award Recipient

Sami Aftab Abdul, CEO M.E.R.C.I.

2022 Demo Day Finalist

Orianna Min, Co-Founder PHANES

2022 Demo Day Finalist

Siobhan Wilson, Co-Founder SpecifixDx

2022 Demo Day Finalist

Alessandro De Maio, Founder My Body, My Place

2022 Demo Day Finalist

Important DATES.

Call for Applications
Applications Close
Notification of Acceptance
Orientation
Bi-Weekly Workshops
Mentorship Week 1
Demo Day Submissions Due
Demo Day Top 5 Announcement
Mentorship Week 2
Demo Day

Program Outline

How to implement innovation and how to make it's assessment easier and more efficient. A look at generating evidence for implementation, scaling and diffusion of innovations.
A look at different types of pitches, the elements of a good pitch and how to prepare for a successful pitch.
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This lecture-style introduction reviews the goals, tools and approaches of the Ideation Key as the framework for helping learners develop, refine and prototype health innovation-related products, services, and interventions.
The fundamentals of starting an innovation project. Learners will look at place as context and project domain, people as beneficiaries, partners and collaborators, and purpose as a way to establish personal and project goals.
Understanding the contexts, behaviours and needs in which the subjects of interventions exert agency. Significant for strategically mobilizing knowledge or developing interventions that are strikingly central for uptake and buy in.
Exploring how translating science differs significantly from discovery science. Understanding the landscape through Environmental Scans, Market Analysis and patent searches. using tools to understand the environment, resources and requirements for successful innovations.
A look at where good ideas come from and how ideation moves beyond brainstorming by supporting an iterative approach to systematically evaluating and restructuring conceptual prototypes. How a dominant design emerges, that can be validated to fulfill the person-centric needs.
A look at the importance of iterating quickly and often; checking in with key stakeholders and beneficiaries; and understanding the regulatory landscape in which a prototype lives.

FAQs

The Ideation Key Program is an experiential learning program that helps you better understand how to innovate.
In the program, you will learn how to ideate and refine a healthcare idea or concept. Will are assigned and will meet with a designator mentor who will support you in your process.
When you are ready, you may submit your idea for evaluation. The Top Five concepts will get a chance to pitch their ideas to a team of judges on Demo Day to potentially access further funding, support and recognition.
Anyone in healthcare or those with lived experience with a desire to learn how to ideate or those with an early-stage idea for a health intervention to improve the lives of others.
ECHO STREAM:
Fourth-year undergraduate students and graduate students enrolled in a Canadian university as well as post-doctoral and clinical fellows affiliated with the Toronto Academic Health Science Network (TAHSN). It is designed for those interested in exploring research translation and entrepreneurship within the cardiovascular health sector.
PRAXIS STREAM & BRING YOUR OWN PROJECT STREAM:
Open to clinicians, clinician scientists, engineers, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, all other healthcare professionals, and individuals with lived experience.
No ideas, startup, or previous experience necessary! 
Neither are required. What is required is a desire to learn, an open mind, and a commitment to the process.
In this program you will:
- learn how to refine and prototype your own idea or contribute to an idea
- tackle a meaningful healthcare related ingenuity gap
- get expert mentorship from key opinion leaders, people with lived experience, researchers and clinicians
- learn to better remote collaboration and creative problem-solving skills
- get access to resources and skills from across Canada
Please see Important Dates.
We are closing applications at 30 learners per stream for 2023. Apply now!
The workshops are held bi-weekly on Mondays from 4:00 - 6:00pm EST / 1:00 - 3:00pm PST.
For the full program outline with dates, please see Program Outline.
The Workshops are held virtually on Zoom Events.
Once you have been successfully accepted into the Program, you will receive a Welcome Package which includes an Onboarding Guide and calendar invites and links to each Workshop.
Attendance to all workshops is mandatory in order to yield a successful early-stage project.
In case of an emergency, we require 24 hours notice and a catch up session with one of our Team members.
Our Instructors, Mentors and Team give you 100% to guide you. We require the same of you.

Ideation is an iterative process of generating, developing, and testing ideas. Ideation comprises all stages of a thought cycle, from innovation, to development, to actualization.
The Ideation Key is an evidence-based framework developed to systematically forge, translate and prototype the application of knowledge into practice, products, services, policies or protocols for health innovation.