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Complacency put the U.S. health bill at risk

The number of Canadians purchasing smartphones may be rising, but an overwhelming number of Canadians continue to use their mobile devices for the most basic functions - texting and taking pictures, according to Delvinia Dig, a quarterly report on the digital behaviours and attitudes of Canadian consumers.

Julia Moulden, reporter for The Huffington Post attended and interviewed Tom Rand, MaRS Cleantech Advisor at Rand's book launch event. Rand has written a book about clean technologies that he feels can change to 100% renewables called "Kick The Fossil Fuel Habit: 10 Clean Technologies to Save Our World."

The Wall Street Journal reports on a highlight at the LeWeb conference in Paris: MaRS client and Canadian start-up, InteraXon's thought-controlled computing technology. Ben Rooney writes, "One of the most (no pun intended) thought-provoking presentations at the recent LeWeb conference in Paris was that by Ariel Garten, CEO of Toronto-based Interaxon."

A new IDC report, "Ten Canadian Digital Media Companies To Watch: Toronto," profiles ten promising digital media start-ups based in Toronto. Seven of the ten are MaRS clients! BitStrips, InGamer, Nulayer, PushLife, Shiny Ads, Verold and Visibli are among the companies featured as "innovating and excelling" in the digital media sector in Toronto.

The Village Gamer reports on the Ontario digital media delegation of companies and venture capital investors heading to New York City next week, organized by MaRS. Delegate companies will present at the prestigious OnMedia NYC 2011 conference, a two-and-a-half day executive gathering on Jan. 31 - Feb. 2, 2011.

Last month Techvibes attended Venture NORTH 2011 in New York along with an impressive list of Canadian companies in life sciences, ICT and cleantech. One of those companies was MaRS client, Skymeter, a company that can track and measure vehicle movement remotely. TechVibes reports on Skymeter.

MaRS Discovery District announced  substantial funding support from the Rockefeller Foundation and the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation will be made available for the Centre for Impact Investing, to be housed at MaRS. As stated by Toronto Star reporter, John Terauds, "impact investing weighs the social goals and benefits of an investment alongside financial returns, usually over a long term."

As Government of Canada's quarterly publication on venture capital (VC), this site provides current information on Canada's VC industry and tracks trends in investment activity. It also reports on VC-related research and examines technology clusters where VC investment takes place.

This document provides the latest available internationally comparable data on patents. The patent indicators presented are designed to reflect recent trends in innovative activities across a wide range of OECD member and non-member countries.

"CBOC provides information on Canadian economic trends, public policy, and organizational performance. Three important subject matters covered are: Economic Performance Trends: Forecast indicators, Historical indicators, Custom services, Conference information, Dictionaries, and a link to the Canadian Tourism Research Institute. More specifically, the Economic forecast indicators focus on Canadian, Provincial, Metropolitan, and Industrial outlooks, as well as at U.S. forecasts."

From University of North Carolina (Charlotte)'s J.Murrey Atkins Library comes VIBES (Virtual International Business & Economic Sources), a portal with more than 3,500 current links to free English Internet resources on international business and economic information. On VIBES one can find Comprehensive, Regional, or National information on world countries. Links to Patents, Emerging Markets, Economic Country Information, statistics, and other websites can also be found, as well as full-text research reports and tables and graphs.

"The United States spends more on health care-related research and development than any other country. In 2003, it was estimated that the Federal government alone spent over $26 billion. Pharmaceutical companies, device manufacturers and other private companies invested over $10 billion more. At its best, the American health care system is capable of delivering care unsurpassed anywhere else in the world. Yet, a 1999 Institute of Medicine study estimated that as many as 98,000 Americans die each year from hospital related medical errors. A recent study by the Rand Corporation (a non-profit think tank) concluded that less than 50 percent of encounters with doctors and hospitals resulted in optimal, evidence-based treatment. Studies show that as many as 42 million Americans - almost 15 percent of the population - lack health care insurance. Surveys reveal that patients do not feel they have adequate information about their conditions, and that their experience with health care ranks below that of most other sectors, in fact below that of the post office. In the aggregate, the country is spending nearly $2 trillion on health care, and yet the nation's health care system does not meet acceptable thresholds for safety, quality, access or cost. In 2005, VHA Health Foundation's board of directors sought to better understand the reasons behind this paradox. The foundation commissioned Larry Keeley and his associates at Doblin Inc. to apply the rigorous analytical methods that are used in their evaluation of other American industries and companies. The project set out to discover when, where and how innovation was taking place in health care. It also sought to identify organizations that were developing model innovation processes, and to explore where opportunities for successful innovation might lay."

The Regional FactBase contains a wealth of information about the Toronto Region; its resourceful institutions, booming industries, and all-round prominence on the international stage. Data files, fact sheets, reports, links and other resources are available for you to view and download. TRRA welcomes questions or comments about any of the materials in the Regional FactBase.

An in-depth review of the private equity market in Canada. This fifth installment in the series, produced in conjunction with McKinsey & Company, provides a fact-based perspective of the key trends shaping the Canadian private equity market Volume 1: produced by Goodman and Carr LLP, provides an in-depth review of key market facts. It describes the main characteristics of Canada's private equity market, the preferences of its participants, and the market activity over the past year.

A Netherlands publication, Ode's claim to fame is profiling interesting individuals and innovators before they are known globally (such as Patch Adams and Deepak Chopra) and making alternative media mainstream. Since 1995, Ode's goal has been to promote social, economic, and environmental ideas that change the world for the better. Available in Dutch and English, Ode publishes novel ideas, profiles interesting individuals that are making a change today, makes for a great social networking tool, and reports on people, culture, science and health, responsible business, and environment.

CVCA - Canada's venture capital & private equity association's press release Nov. 10, 2009. Activity in Canada's venture capital (VC) market continued to fall in the third quarter of 2009, according to the industry's statistical report released today by the CVCA-Canada's Venture Capital & Private Equity Association and research partner Thomson Reuters.

Lyndsay Duncombe, reporter from The National is covering Winnipeg's testing of a GPS device for parking payments." Nov 25, 2009

Can the private sector and market-based models play a bigger role in the traditional turf of charities and government, tackling issues like youth unemployment and childhood obesity?