Health Innovation Challenge wrap up

The Health Innovation Challenge has now closed and we’ve got lots of work to do reviewing the incredible entries we received.

If you haven’t been following, in September we challenged students to find innovative policies or practices in Canadian health care and tell us about them for a chance to win $1,000 and a potential internship with the Health Council of Canada.

Students prepared entries of up to 2,500 words, answering one of these two questions:

How are innovations in public policy having a positive impact on health care in Canada or abroad? Describe a ground-breaking public policy initiative that is changing practices, outcomes or perceptions of health care.

How are new practices having a positive impact on the delivery of health care in Canada or abroad? Describe leading edge research, technology or processes that are changing practices or outcomes of health care.

We are impressed not only with the calibre of the entries, but of the sheer volume of them, and so we want to share a few early results from the Challenge.

• Number of students who entered: 223
• Number of entries submitted (individual and team): 154
• Biggest turnout from one school: 84, from St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia
• Received entries from: Nova Scotia, Alberta, New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba, B.C., Saskatchewan, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador.

                                                           

We received entries on a wide variety of health practices and policies. Some recurring themes were: safe-injection sites, HPV vaccines, Aboriginal health, poverty reduction, wait times, technology in health care, and obesity initiatives.  

We were especially impressed by students who added to their entries by crafting a blog post, or a video to support their message (hopefully we will get a chance to share some of these on this blog).

We will be announcing the shortlist on February 15, 2012, and after our panel of experts have reviewed the list we will announce the winners on March 26, 2012. Good luck to all the contestants, and thank you to each and every professor who either encouraged students to enter or who used the Challenge as a class assignment.  

Key Words: Health Innovation Challenge, Innovative Practices, Student Contest