Reflecting on a year of protecting and creating the future

2019 marks the 2nd year since I joined SE Health (Saint Elizabeth Healthcare) and we created the Futures team. We were adamant that as the "innovation" unit of a 110 year old Canadian healthcare social enterprise, we would not use the word innovation since it is too much of a buzzword in healthcare these days. Rather, we would focus our efforts on designing, testing and scaling next practices and business models, instead of laboring to use innovation to optimize the current state.

This year we built momentum on our pipeline of different futures we are co-creating in home care and housing options for aging adults. We also broadened and deepened our network of partners, while continuing to sharpen our methods & capabilities as a team.

Some highlights from 2019 that I am so proud to have been part of:

• We launched the Hope Initiative with AMS Healthcare and many partners; it is a multi-year, multi-neighbourhood test of a much better model of nurse-led home care, inspired by the Dutch Buurtzorg model. To lead this work, we welcome two new rockstars to the SE Futures team: Tori Edgar (fearless program manager), and H.O.P.E. nurse coach Andrea Carter (nursing is her superpower, what's your's?).
• We codesigned and initiated field testing of two different voice + AI-enabled client interfaces with aging adults in the home setting. This work is with tech partners at X2AI and Memotext, with helpful financial support from the Centre for Aging and Brain Health Innovation
• We finished writing a book called The Future of Aging, with our partners at Idea Couture. The launch date is set for Feb 2020. We can't wait to share it with the world, and help our staff and partners design their services, products and policies for where society is going as it ages. 
• We partnered with several hospitals and other health organizations across Canada to form the CANHealth Network of like-minded adopters of emerging made-in-Canada health technologies, with support from the Federal government's FedDev funding program.
• We launched Wiser Advisors - a pool of ready and trained aging adults and caregivers to work side by side with us on our Futures team projects.
• We gave >100 public talks, of which almost half were outside of Ontario or international; we influenced >27,100 people via our talks & events.
• We published or were featured in >80 reports, articles, blogs, podcasts, videos and other media presence, including 3 TV appearances.
• We hosted >40 internal or external events, including an Empowered Home Care Summit, 4 quarterly SE Futures Book clubs and 23 open innovation breakfasts with our community. Through these events we convened >690 peer shift disturbers in the local health innovation ecosystem.
• We hosted 4 graduate-level interns (including 2 from the Netherlands!), and commissioned 3 student teams from U. Toronto and Ryerson U. to help advance our work.
• We said bye to two of our core team heroes - Mary Lou Ackerman headed over to SE Health's new Digital Transformation office; Erik Landriault headed to Geneva in the fall to work with the World Health Organization.

As we approach 2020 we are excited to see some of our work move from testing to spread and scale. We remain grounded in our 7 working principles, elegantly etched into wood at our end of year team retreat at the Toronto Tool Library.  I'll write a blog on our team's working principles in my next posting in the new year!