Collaborative Innovation in Hamilton with IBM

This month, IBM’s Collaborative Innovation Centre – Healthcare, Hamilton is hosting us at their temporary space on the 14th floor of Commerce Place right at the centre of the city. Last year, IBM Canada and Hamilton Health Sciences announced plans to establish a new centre focused on healthcare innovation. The centre will give area healthcare providers, researchers, innovators and entrepreneurs advanced technology tools and expertise to improve healthcare outcomes and put Hamilton on the map as a hub for healthcare innovation in Canada.

In short: IBM has come to town. Now we can get an early look at what they are up to!

We have some great speakers to talk about what’s happening

IBM Collaborative Innovation Centre: Gordon Alexander from IBM will introduce the Collaborative Innovation Centre and explain what they are working to accomplish with healthcare innovation in Hamilton. He will also cover IBM’s current capabilities and directions in healthcare including cognitive systems such as IBM Watson and the formation of a new business division IBM Watson Health. Finally Gordon will also discuss how the are looking to engage Hamilton innovators & entrepreneurs through leveraging the Ontario Centres of Excellence and the IBM Innovation Incubator Project.

Hamilton Early Warning Score (HEWS): Jackie Crews from HHS will review a recent project with IBM to dramatically reduce the number of Code Blue events in the hospital. This is what has been achieved with the electronic Hamilton Early Warning Score (HEWS). HHS has implemented the digital HEWS on its inpatient wards and Emergency Departments and seen significant improvement in critical care response and outcomes. Come and hear how Hamilton Health Sciences and IBM are advancing patient care by turning data into actionable insights, dramatically improving care delivery.

More about our speakers:

Gordon Alexander is the Healthcare Industry Technical Leader for the IBM Collaborative Innovation Centre – Healthcare in Hamilton. He is a Senior IT Architect with 28 years of experience in the IT industry. Gordon has been with IBM Canada for over 18 years, and prior to that, for 10 years with the IT departments of The Co-operators Insurance and Canada Trust Financial Services. As an enterprise architect with a focus on the discipline of integration, Gordon is focused on the end-to-end design of solutions which enable applications, data, networks, and systems to work together. Gordon helps clients understand, assess, and transform their IT environment to leverage new and emerging technologies such as Cloud, Cognitive, Big Data, Analytics, and Mobile to name a few.

Jackie Crews is the Manager, Applications in Health Information Technology Services (HITS). Jackie has worked at Hamilton Health Sciences for more than 20 years. She began her career as an Applications Specialist at the Hamilton General Hospital, then worked in outpatient clinics for a number of years, then moved back to an Applications Specialist role at St. Mary’s General Hospital in Kitchener. Today Jackie is Manager of Applications and eHealth Solutions for HITS and is responsible for leading a team of application support analysts, clinical informatics specialists, and web application developers to meet the information systems needs of the organization from a support, integration, and development perspective.