In this its 10th Anniversary year, AGE-WELL Canada’s technology & aging network, for an 8th time last week held their National Impact Challengepitch competition for start-ups and SME’s in Canada’s AgeTech sector. It was a bit of déjà vu when I learned that the 2025 winner was Root & Seed.
Back in 2023 Root & Seed – a digital platform combined with a card game element designed to enable intergenerational family conversations to collect, preserve and celebrate stories and traditions – was also the winner in one of two categories awarding Community-based entries under the banner “Bold Innovations for Living”.
Over the years this pitch competition has taken different approaches, and in that year the event was a collaboration between AGE-WELL and SE Health(a main sponsor this year). I recall being part of that in 2023, voting for Root & Seed the winner in a separate People’s Choice Award in that same category.
As I’ve commented before, I miss the early days of this pitch competition when there was more of an advance opportunity to participate as a citizen which was a great marketing and general public education exercise. In 2018, AGE-WELL invited people Canada-wide to vote for our favourite innovation from 60 entrants featured in video pitches on a National Impact Voting Site.
In all, this had a fun game-show feel to it with great audience engagement. You could comment as well as vote right on-line. Surely AGE-WELL has the capacity to return to that?
While AGE-WELL has done a bang up job as a leader in the AgeTech space over the last decade, perhaps the next phase could be to find more direct ways to reach audiences apart from the insider research and industry community, as I think everyday people still have a slim understanding of AgeTech. Meanwhile today, to help in some small part, let me give you a look back at all those winners on the list of previous National Impact Challenge events.
The 2024 winner was Winnipeg-basedIncluzia which draws a direct connection between health and housing with its tech solutions to advance accessible housing outcomes for older adults and people with disabilities. Looking at their story on the latest website, Marnie Courage and her team have created a solid, easy to understand set of assessment tools designed by and for Occupational Therapists to develop care plans and home modifications in home environments.
In addition to Root & Seed, the 2023 winner in the Start-up category was Vancouver-based UVXInc. developers of a device called Zener, a sensor technology which uses a human-safe form of UV light that detects and inactivates pathogens,disinfects air and surfaces in occupied spaces such as care homes and hospitals without disrupting operations. Since 2023 it appears Co-founders Saimir Sulaj & Kunal Sethi are quietly making inroads across the country.
Of the five finalists in 2022 it was PragmaClinbased in St.John’s and now in Maine. Offering a digital assessment tool that allows clinicians to remotely monitor the condition of patients with neurological diseases, in this case Parkinson’s, the software system PRIMS collects data using body-tracking cameras, not body sensors. I recall the pitch by Co-founder Bronwyn Bridges and it became my pick based on her story of co-working with Gord Genge, who lives with Parkinson’s.
In 2021 the National Impact Challenge was part of AgeTech Innovation Week an on line only event as I recall. The winner Hyivy Healthlike the 2022 winner focused on a specific issue, in this case pelvic health for women. A very compelling story as told by its Founder/CEO Rachel Bartholomew and if you look at both Hyivy and PragmaClin you should note that they cross the realms of AgeTech & HealthTech. These health issues can present at any point in the life course.
Prior to 2021 the format for this pitch competition was much different. In 2019 & 2020 there were multiple winners in regional competitions across Canada, each one addressing a range of specific medical conditions, assistive devices for supporting mobility issues or wearables monitoring of overall health conditions. While there are other areas where AgeTech has its function, here again all these examples demonstrate the interconnectivity of AgeTech & HealthTech. Now the list of winners from those early years 2019-2020:
TochtechSleepsense bed sensor, non-wearable device for monitoring the overnight health of older adults. Able InnovationsALTA Platform, robotic patient bed transfer platform. True Angle MedicalMobili-T system for older adults with swallowing difficulties (dysphagia). NovalteEmitto smart home control system for people with mobility challenges. Bisep device that supports a person in their move from wheelchair to walker. Walk-Well Universe (now PhysioBiometrics) Heel2Toe wearable device to assess and train people to walk with a proper gait.
Last but not least the winner of the 2018 initial National Impact Challenge was Marlena Books a dementia-friendly digital reading platform. Unfortunately since its win in 2018, the website and social media sites are no longer active so the link above takes will take you to the original announcement. Rachel Thompson the founder is now National Director of Development at the Huntington Society of Canada.
