Health innovation accelerator launches at McMaster’s Waterloo Regional Campus

McMaster University’s Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, Waterloo Regional Campus (WRC), is delighted to announce the launch of MACcelerate at Communitech, a groundbreaking initiative aimed at creating an environment where medical professionals and aspiring practitioners collaborate with engineers and entrepreneurs to redefine the future of healthcare and enhance clinical outcomes.

The MACcelerate launch event on Oct. 3 brought together a diverse assembly of dignitaries from McMaster University, the University of Waterloo, government representatives, media, technology experts, entrepreneurs, WRC medical learners, faculty, and staff.

The event featured esteemed guest speakers and a panel discussion, culminating in the official unveiling of the MACcelerate space within the Communitech Hub. This ceremony concluded with a ribbon cutting ceremony in the presence of “CODI,” a robotic creation from Cobionix, co-founded by WRC medical learner Tim Lasswell from the class of 2022.

“MACcelerate is strategically located in the local ecosystem of innovation and commercialization,” said Margo Mountjoy, regional assistant dean of Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, Waterloo Regional Campus.

McMaster University’s Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, WRC, has long been an incubator for health research and innovation, focusing on areas such as health technology, mental health, and care for older adults. MACcelerate emerges as the convergence point for these fields, facilitating collaboration with entrepreneurial ventures, including those related to Big Data and Geriatric Models of Care, GeriMedRisk, One Room School House, and many more.

David Farrar, president and vice-chancellor of McMaster University, expressed his optimism during the official opening, stating, “MACcelerate will serve as a clinical bridge between McMaster’s cutting-edge biomedical research and the technological and entrepreneurial expertise at the University of Waterloo and Communitech. Most importantly, the innovations fostered through MACcelerate will yield tangible healthcare benefits and enhance clinical outcomes for patients in Ontario and around the world.”

The university is also home to distinguished figures in the health technology sphere, including Mohamed Alarakhia, WRC’s Digital Health and Innovation Lead, who spearheads the  eHealth Centre of Excellence. Additionally, KW SIM, founded by Eric To and Mei Chen, both of who completed their undergraduate and postgraduate medical education at WRC, has played a pivotal role in this landscape. Cobionix, co-founded by recent undergraduate medical learner Tim Lasswell, is a testament to the support extended by the McMaster Waterloo Regional Campus and Communitech, enabling the creation of a thriving medical robotics company during medical training.

Lasswell expressed his enthusiasm, stating, “With support from the McMaster Waterloo Regional Campus and Communitech, I co-founded a rapidly growing medical robotics company during my medical training. I am very excited to see that a formal partnership between McMaster and Communitech has now been established that will allow the McMaster Waterloo Regional Campus to be the premier location in Canada to propel medical innovation.”

For more information or to get involved with MACcelerate, please contact maccelerate@mcmaster.ca.