October 19, 2021 – St. John’s, NL: Eastern Health and BD-Canada are pleased to announce the launch of their strategic partnership prior to this year’s innovation summit by formally naming Eastern Health as a BD innovation site for North America. This designation and partnership will ensure that Eastern Health is at the forefront of new technology while providing access to a live health-care environment for BD to test their products and services including medical devices, hardware, software and innovative procurement methods.
“We see this as a unique opportunity in support of providing improvements for our patients, clients, and their families. It is about identifying innovative solutions to positively impact on their health and quality of care,” said David Diamond, President and CEO of Eastern Health. “This partnership not only benefits Eastern Health, but the province as a whole, by delivering benefits to the patients, the economy and the future of innovative health-care development in Newfoundland and Labrador.”
The availability of a real-world environment in which to trial a potential health-care solution and to measure their impact on outcomes for health care is important for industry partners in Canada. As part of this partnership, Eastern Health will validate product performance under normal working conditions and put potential solutions through various unanticipated scenarios. Eastern Health and BD will be leaders in co-designing the next generation medical devices and solutions and, as a result, patients, clients, staff, and physicians of Eastern Health will have earlier access to innovative solutions.
The collaboration will facilitate value-based solutions aimed at workflow efficiencies, better clinical and economic outcomes, and an improved patient experience. As innovation partners, Eastern Health and BD will work together to develop a roadmap to address the province’s health-care innovation goals. A list of the programs and services that are under development are included in the backgrounder below.
“BD is proud to be one of Eastern Health’s innovation partners and we are thrilled to attend their innovation summit,” said Ivy Parks, President of BD-Canada. “Throughout our partnership, we have been working collaboratively to help support Eastern Health’s strategic priorities, while delivering outcomes that matter to patients. The innovation summit reinforces Eastern Health’s commitment to lead in the Canadian health innovation sector, and we are excited to innovate together, while co-creating solutions that will help us to fulfill our purpose of advancing the world of health™.”
Eastern Health is hosting its annual living lab health innovation summit on October 20 to 21, 2021. Dedicated to the intersection of research and innovation, the summit will include the sharing of recent ideas around research and innovation and examine the role that research plays in advancing health care.
“Newfoundland and Labrador has an extraordinary community of researchers and innovators whose research is enabling transformative innovations in health care here in the province,” said Ron Johnson, Vice-President, Innovation and Rural Health with Eastern Health. “The summit will highlight the work that is being done to advance research and innovation in health care with keynote speakers and presenters sharing how their research is generated in partnership with industry, health-care organizations, universities, and government.”
This partnership further highlights the vision that Eastern Health has articulated in its innovation strategy to work with industry partners in novel and innovative ways to bring value to patients, clients, the health system and the provincial economy. This partnership supports Eastern Health as a Living Lab which is building a culture of innovation and is stimulating innovative thinking and fostering research to improve health services and products. For more information, please visit the Research and Innovation section of Eastern Health’s website.
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About Eastern Health
Eastern Health is the largest, integrated health authority in Newfoundland and Labrador employing approximately 13,000 dedicated employees, over 700 medical staff, and is supported by approximately 2,000 volunteers, including members of numerous auxiliaries and fundraising foundations. With an annual budget of approximately $1.6 billion, the authority offers the full continuum of health and community services including public health, long-term care, community services, hospital care and unique provincial programs and services. Serving a population of over 300,000, Eastern Health’s geographic boundaries extend west from St. John’s to Port Blandford including all communities on the Avalon, Burin and Bonavista Peninsulas.
About BD
BD is one of the largest global medical technology companies in the world and is advancing the world of health by improving medical discovery, diagnostics and the delivery of care. The company supports the heroes on the frontlines of health care by developing innovative technology, services and solutions that help advance both clinical therapy for patients and clinical process for health care providers. BD and its 70,000 employees have a passion and commitment to help enhance the safety and efficiency of clinicians’ care delivery process, enable laboratory scientists to accurately detect disease and advance researchers’ capabilities to develop the next generation of diagnostics and therapeutics. BD has a presence in virtually every country and partners with organizations around the world to address some of the most challenging global health issues. By working in close collaboration with customers, BD can help enhance outcomes, lower costs, increase efficiencies, improve safety and expand access to health care. For more information on BD, please visit bd.com/en-ca or connect with us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/bd1/ and Twitter @BDandCo.