Priority Health Innovation Challenge

In Canadian healthcare, there is no shortage of innovation and creativity focused on achieving lasting improvement in patient experience, health outcomes, work life of providers and value-for-money. Our challenge is to spread proven innovations in shared priority areas¹ further across the country. The first step to achieve this is to identify promising innovations and innovators.

Working with supporting healthcare organizations, the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement ran the Priority Health Innovation Challenge to identify and grow promising innovations in two shared priorities: access to mental health and addictions services, and home and community care.

Thirty-three teams participated in the Priority Health Innovation Challenge with new or existing innovation projects addressing one of the two priority areas that respond to the healthcare needs of people living in Canada. CFHI supported these innovators to increase the potential impact of their innovations opportunities to receive financial awards to support long-term success, learning opportunities and resources.

The Priority Health Innovation Challenge ran from April 2019 until November 2020. To stay up to date on new CFHI opportunities, subscribe to receive our newsletter.

Congratulations to Overall Challenge Award Winners

As part of the Priority Health Innovation Challenge, CFHI ran a series of challenges. The final challenge asked teams to demonstrate overall how they contributed to improving access to care in mental health and addictions and home and community care.

$60,000 Overall Challenge Winner

• Family Navigation Project: Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

$30,000 Runner Up Winners 

• Enhanced Home Living Supports Program: Alberta Health Services Edmonton Zone
• Prioritizing Health through Acute Stabilization and Transition: Joseph Brant Hospital
• Navigator Program: CHEO Family Navigation

$10,000 Booster Award Winners

• E-Peer Support Initiative: Body Brave & Eating Disorders Nova Scotia
• Case Collaborative Model: Calgary Foothills Primary Care Network
• Care for the Caregiver: CBI Home Health

How the Priority Health Innovation Challenge contributed to better healthcare in Canada

The Priority Health Innovation Challenge aimed to benefit more people by identifying and supporting novel approaches that increase access to care. Teams participated with innovation projects addressing at least one of the following common indicator(s) related to the relevant shared priority area.

Mental Health and Addictions Common Indicators

• Wait times for community mental health services
• Early intervention for youth aged 10 to 25
• Awareness and/or successful navigation of mental health and addiction services
• Rates of repeat emergency department and/or urgent care centre visits for a mental health or addiction issue.
• Hospitalization rates for problematic substance use
• Rates of self-injury, including suicide

Home and Community Care Health Common Indicators

• Wait times for home care services, referral to services
• Alternative level of care, length of stay for inpatients requiring home care services
• Home care services helped the patient stay at home
• Caregiver distress
• Inappropriate move to long-term care
• Death at home/not in hospital

Priority Health teams submit baseline and ongoing outcome data that reflect the relevant common indicators and the number of patients reached. This data contributes to developing an understanding of innovations that have potential for spread and scale.

The Teams

Innovations in access to home and community care

Innovations in access to mental health and addictions services

Judges

Priority Health Innovation Challenge Judges

Webinars

As part of the Priority Health Innovation Challenge, we hosted a series of webinars with healthcare improvement experts including experts in mental health and addictions services, and home and community care. 

Previous webinars 

Recordings of past webinars are available, including:

• Celebrating Success and Maintaining Momentum
• Healthcare Innovation: Improving Access to Care, One Innovation at a Time with Priority Health Innovation Challenge teams
• Improving Access to Care: The Big Picture with Jenny Lineker (Program Lead, Emerging Issues, Canadian Institute for Health Information), Seanna McMartin (Program Lead, Indicator Research and Development, Canadian Institute for Health Information) and Amy Porath (Director, Research, Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction)
• Rapid Innovation: Lessons from a Crisis with Dr. Jaason Geerts (Manager, Leadership and Partnership Development, Canadian College of Health Leaders) and Kathleen McQueen (Provincial Leader, CBI Health Group)
• Using Data for Improvement with Dr. Rylan Egan (Assistant Professor, Tenure-Track, Queens University) held May 2020.
• Innovations in Mental Health and Addiction Services with Saima Awan (Clinical Operations and Business Analytics, Dana Farber Cancer Institute) and Eftyhia Helis (Knowledge Mobilization Officer, CADTH) held in December 2019
• Health Innovation: The Evolution of Patient Partnership with Julie Drury (Strategic Lead, Patient Partnerships, CFHI) held in November 2019

Supporting Organizations

The Priority Health Innovation Challenge is supported by the following leading healthcare organizations from across the country.