MaRS

About Mensante Corporation Mensante Corporation (www.feelingbetternow.com) is a privately owned Canadian corporation, founded in 2003. The Toronto-based company developed FeelingBetterNow(R) with the assistance of leading Canadian and American psychiatrists, psychologists, family physicians, a mental health economist, and work place mental health-care experts. FeelingBetterNow(R) is a valuable benefit for many, including insurance companies, employers, government agencies, professional associations, family physicians, patients and their families.

About MaRS MaRS (www.marsdd.com) is a non-profit innovation centre connecting science, technology and social entrepreneurs with business skills, networks and capital to stimulate innovation and accelerate the creation and growth of successful Canadian enterprises.

Mensante named one of Top 10 Healthcare Companies to Watch

“MaRS Innovation is a unique global initiative … to strengthen commercialization output,” says Dr. Hofstein.

Leading MaRS Innovation is a wonderful opportunity to do something remarkable.” Dr. Hofstein

Meetup (www.meetup.com) Meetup.com network makes it easy for anyone to organize a local group or find one already meeting up face-to-face. Free for individuals to create an account, join a group, or attend events. Organizers choose from three pricing plans, starting at $12/month for 12 months (a single $72 charge).

Web 2.0 training sessions for organizations, non-profits and social purpose ventures Conversations with keynotes and panel discussions hosted by community partners like Mobile Monday @MaRS, Toronto Net Tuesday and Wired Wednesday Immersion sessions that “prepare your mind” for innovative thought

Net Change video message from Don Tapscott:

Net Change story

“The Skills Exchange”:

profound innovation and social change

Bill White, a member of MaRS’ Board of Directors at our evening “Fireside Chat”

Net Change Art Show:

The challenge we faced was how do we increase awareness

We looked at how with a simple web cam or flip camera we could share the strongest messages that people needed to hear.

most important social media tools can be email and a blog.

tools are important for four reasons. They leverage existing investments of time and resources They allow orgs to add multimedia to existing communication channels eg. newsletters They enable easier sharing than existing tools They are sustainable

Social media strategy needs to be adopted by the whole organisation not just by someone who is technically savvy.

The technology – invented by Mount Sinai scientists Dr. Ian Rogers and Dr. Robert Casper – offers a proprietary method to create multi-potent stem cells (MPSCs) from human umbilical cord blood.

With MaRS Innovation's participation, we are optimistic we will succeed."

Our partnership with MaRS Innovation on developing methods for using stem cells for diseases such as diabetes will allow us to work towards advancing care for these critical conditions." With the launch of this first exciting opportunity, MaRS Innovation has embarked on a journey to transform the Toronto-based research enterprise into a successful commercialization cluster.

MaRS Innovation is building its own internal infrastructure to support intellectual property and market due diligence to identify the most promising commercial opportunities. MaRS Innovation is dedicated to converting the outstanding science of its member institutions into products and services, making a significant contribution to Canada’s future economic outlook and the quality of life for Canadians and others around the world

“We are deeply committed to creating a powerful engine for commercialization that brings together an experienced team to identify and validate market opportunities, develop technologies to market requirements and build the linkages that will advance the exceptional research of all of our institutional members,” added Dr. Hofstein. “We look forward to announcing additional technologies to add to our pipeline over the next several weeks.”

This is one of many new commercilization ventures that will be initiated by MaRS Innovation, our partner in commercialization of research with 13 other academic institutions across the Greater Toronto Area,” said Paul Young, U of T’s Vice-President, Research. “We at U of T are delighted that this innovation from Dr. Lee will be taken to the marketplace to the benefit of society and the economy of Ontario and Canada.” 

With the launch of this second commercial opportunity, MaRS Innovation will continue to aggregate the exceptional science of its institutional members by being a one-stop commercialization centre for industry, entrepreneurs and investors. MaRS Innovation is expediting the transformation of the Toronto-based research into a powerful commercialization engine. 

“MaRS Innovation is deeply committed to facilitating strategic research collaborations with industry partners, strengthening the innovation capacity of Canadian industry through adoption of new technologies, and launching a new generation of robust, high-growth Canadian companies that will become global market leaders,” added Dr. Hofstein. “We look forward to working closely with all of our institutional members and to continue to jointly announce exciting commercial opportunities.”

MaRS Innovation is dedicated to bringing brilliant discoveries to market by converting the outstanding science of its member institutions into outstanding economic results for Canada and the world.

Another example of public, private and university collaboration is the MaRS discovery district, a nonprofit innovation center that brings together biotech researchers, VCs, and social entrepreneurs in the same part of downtown Toronto with several research hospitals. 

Infonaut Inc. chief executive officer Niall Wallace and his partner, chief operating officer Matt McPherson, both former IT consultants for the Ontario government, created the company after helping to craft some of the recommendations that resulted from the SARS outbreak of 2003. They understood the value of visually represented, real-time infection data, and left government to set up Infonaut to develop that technology.

Infonaut has created three software products that turn infection information into maps. All are being tested in pilot projects and will soon be marketed commercially.

One, called Infection Watch Live, is now taking data gathered at 14 hospital emergency rooms in eastern Ontario and using it to create publicly accessible maps that show exactly where in the region cases of influenza and gastrointestinal diseases are active.

This complex mapping can help monitor and stop the spread of C. difficile and other superbugs.

The third product, called Regional Watch Live, generates maps and reports for regional health professionals by merging lab test results with a range of other information.

INFONAUT INC

Make sure to present straightforward information about how the company's products might help mitigate an outbreak in the future, but do not exaggerate promises. Be upfront about the state of pilot tests, the timelines to get the software to market, and how much funding will be needed to go to full commercialization. Use respected third-party partners to endorse the products, a move that will give the company more credibility. If there are privacy concerns, spell them out and detail how they are being addressed.

Infonaut should ensure that its message is understated and that the company is not an "ambulance chaser," Mr. Lute said

But the company does need to give straightforward information about how its products might help mitigate an outbreak in the future, and not exaggerate its promises, she said. In particular, it needs to be upfront about the state of its pilot tests and include details of when full versions of its products will be available. It also must explain how much funding they will need to get there, Ms. Wilcox said.

With Infonaut, there seems to be no question that there is a public gain, he said. "If it is just an opportunistic attempt to cash in on the misfortune of others, that tends to play badly. Where a company has something that can be tied to the public interest, such as in this case ... it is very low-risk."

He suggests that Infonaut make good use of its pilot test partners, such as the counties in eastern Ontario that are testing the Infection Watch Live system.

the company should forestall any concerns over privacy issues by spelling out how it ensures data on individuals are kept confidential.

There's nothing wrong with using the current concerns over H1N1 flu to gain exposure, as long as Infonaut is careful about taking a calm and respectful tone to its marketing and publicity.

On the other hand, it will clearly create an opportunity if Infonaut can increase its profile, "which helps it to get its story out, which helps it to get investors, which helps it to grow.

The problem Build a market for a unique infection mapping system without appearing to exploit the flu outbreak The plan: Use a subtle approach and be upfront with the state of development of the software products The payoff: Higher awareness among potential customers and an expanded market

"To make failure a learning experience, first you have to celebrate it by acknowledging in a very positive way, the person who tried something and failed. You can't hide it under a table," says Plant. "You've got to develop a system that both rewards for the attempt as well as the success. Frequently, we don't do that and that sends a bad message. The act of punishing people makes them want to stop innovating."

We also need to build more accountability into failure, according to Plant who says that when failures are detrimental to the economy, we can't pretend that nothing happened. "Right now, some people are being rewarded for absolutely hideous failures, such as in the banking system," says Plant, who is also a Chartered Management Accountant. "Part of the problem is accounting which does a very poor job of measuring risk. Never leave anything up to the accountants!"

According to Plant, there's a different risk tolerance in smaller companies versus big ones, although he doesn't see a real difference by industry. Whether a company tolerates or accepts risk depends largely on the nature of the company. "The more established companies probably don't tolerate failure as well so they don't actually incubate a culture of risk," says Plant. "Larger companies do a lot of things to make sure they don't fail. Smaller ones tend to favour risk because it's the only way they can get ahead. And if you're doing things that haven't been done before, then you're going to fail again and again."

"You have to allow people to fail in this economy," says Plant. "It's failure that leads to productivity gain and innovation."

"You need a culture that allows failure for success because without it, people become anti-failure," says Charles Plant. "Trying different things is the act of innovation. If you fail 14 times, hopefully you're going to succeed on the 15th try. Without failure, we're not going to be driving and growing the economy."

Innovation is the result of taking big leaps,

Innovation is the result of taking big leaps, but failure is often the downside of taking those leaps.

resented by the Social Innovation Generation team at MaRS (SiG@MaRS), Net Change Week will tap into the potential that exists when new methods of communicating, organizing and mobilizing are brought to bear on chronic social issues. ”

resented by the Social Innovation Generation team at MaRS (SiG@MaRS), Net Change Week will tap into the potential that exists when new methods of communicating, organizing and mobilizing are brought to bear on chronic social issues. ”

next month in Toronto, “a week-long event designed to explore how social technology can bolster social change