“Imagine a world in which people, regardless of who they are or where they live, use state- of-the-art information and communications technologies (ICTs) with enthusiasm, proficiency and confidence, to achieve the highest possible levels of health and to help health systems make the most efficient use of available resources.” This was the thought that inspired a group of people from diverse backgrounds to join forces and create an environment from where to attempt to reach this elusive goal.

In 2000, the University Health Network (UHN) and the University of Toronto (U of T) jointly created the Program in eHealth Innovation, which under the leadership of Dr. Alex Jadad, its founding Director, a committed core support team and rapidly growing group of social scientists, engineers and health experts  led to a successful proposal to the Canada Foundation for Innovation to build the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation.

The Centre’s facilities, which have been enriched by contributions from multiple partners, include:
 

• A ‘Collaboratory’ (‘Collaboration-Laboratory’) where human, physical and virtual resources are available to develop four core functions: research and development, knowledge exchange, training of highly qualified personnel and research-based business development. The Centre includes physical space to support 60 innovators at any given time, and virtual tools that enable webcasting to 400 different locations, videoconferencing among 80 different sites and data collection from a practically unlimited number of people, through mobile phones, the Web or interactive television, anywhere in the world
• A ‘Health Usability Laboratory’, the first in Canada devoted to the study of eHealth innovations, it enables pre-testing and refinement of computer interfaces and applications, support research on human-machine interaction, and development of new methods to study eHealth innovations
• A ‘Multi-tasking Simulation Environment’, an area that could simulate one or more real-world health-related settings, allowing rigorous testing and rapid improvement of eHealth innovations before they are introduced into real environments. The simulation environment is equipped with high-capacity graphic workstations with supercomputing and server capabilities, data gathering equipment (cameras, video network processors, etc.), high-quality printing devices, complete hardware for the simulation of various modular environments, testing and observation rooms, and work stations.