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IBM finds Innovation in Hamilton

IBM finds Innovation in Hamilton

IBM finds Innovation in Hamilton
May 19
02:57 2018

The Hamilton Health Sciences Innovation Exchange initiative, within the IBM Innovation Space in downtown Hamilton, gives entrepreneurs, researchers, academics, and healthcare practitioners access to an array of IBM Watson cognitive and analytics software, expertise in cloud computing and high- performance computing infrastructure, and a network of global collaborators.

It’s all designed to accelerate the development and commercialization of new healthcare innovations, building on Hamilton’s existing deep healthcare ecosystem.

HHS, with its cadre of more than 1,500 research staff and 15,000 healthcare employees across six facilities, provides practical industry expertise and a “real-world” test environment for innovation, says Gordon Alexander, healthcare industry technical leader with IBM.

The Hamilton hub – located in 7,000 square feet of open concept space at 1 King St. W – is the latest IBM Innovation Space in Canada, following locations in Toronto, Calgary and Markham. The Hamilton model is unique in that it focuses specifically on healthcare innovation.

“HHS is one of Canada’s top two research hospitals and is currently researching over 1,500 centres across 86 countries worldwide. HHS attracts more private sector investment in health research than any other Canadian hospital. Last year, those investments totaled over $300 million. The City of Hamilton is also among the top cities in Canada for health research innovation,” said Alexander.

The Innovation Exchange’s location in downtown Hamilton allows easy access to HHS hospitals, and for purposeful collisions and interactions among innovators, says Jim Magahey, IBM’s healthcare industry business lead.

“It also meant that we had great access to the excellent academic community supporting HHS as a teaching hospital, allowing us to engage and meet with healthcare professionals at McMaster University, Mohawk College and other supporting healthcare practitioners and incubators such as St. Joseph’s and McMaster Innovation Park (MIP).”

The core also offers plenty of retail, restaurant and transit amenities within a short walk. Hamilton offers attractive market rates and terms for office space and the city’s business community has been very welcoming, says Alexander.

“We’ve had a front-row seat to the revitalization going on downtown,” he said. “We have enjoyed the renaissance taking place in and around downtown Hamilton, leveraging the dining and the various community events that are available to our employees and collaborators.”

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Lloyd Stevens has been writing Canadian business news for over 20 years with articles appearing in Perspective which appears in The Globe & Mail and contributing to ThinkHamilton.blog and Creblurb.com

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