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Three small Canadian businesses have been named top innovators by Rogers Cable Communications and PROFIT Magazine for creating unique products that are helping their industries move forward.

This year's winners include iMD Health, a Toronto firm that created an interactive terminal to improve communication between doctors and their patients;  Mad Rock Marine Solutions Inc. in St. John's Nfld. for building a new life boat safety hook; and VitaSound Audio Inc. in Concord Ont., for redesigning a more effective hearing aid.

The Innovations@Work Award program, now in its second year, honours forward-thinking small businesses with fewer than 20 employees for innovative approaches to products, services and business management.

Companies with fewer than 20 workers make up 70 per cent of all Canadian businesses, and are the unsung heroes of the Canadian economy, said Elizabeth Williams, director of acquisition marketing for Rogers Cable Communications in Toronto.

She said businesses with fewer than 50 employees contribute 26 per cent of Canada's gross domestic product (GDP), and are the "backbone of the Canadian economy."   

As the economic turmoil continues, startups are among those most affected, as many new products are being financed on a handful of high-interest credit cards, Williams noted.

"These business owners are truly driven by passion and their successes need to be talked about and celebrated."

This year, she said, the panel received around 90 "serious" submissions for the award.   

Winners were picked based on how creative their product or service is, it's potential for being successfully commercialized, the company's tenure, and whether the product stands out as a truly new way of doing something.

Hooked on safety

A new lifeboat safety hook, which aims to reduce injuries related to marine safety drills, was designed by Mad Rock Marine Solutions.

"Lifeboat safety is one issue you don't really think about and most people don't even believe a lifeboat could kill you, but it's a big problem in the marine industry," Williams said.

An estimated 1,200 lifeboat accidents between 1990 and 2002 have killed around 600 people.

A safety regulation requires that lifeboat safety hooks be capable of opening before they hit the water to make landing possible during windy conditions, said Dean Pelley, president and CEO of Mad Rock.

As hooks are designed with this safety regulation in mind, if not reset properly after a drill, they tend to pop open unexpectedly, causing the boat to fall 80 to 90 metres into the water.  

Mad Rock's answer to this problem is a fail-closed hook, called the RocLoc, which has an additional safety mechanism to help keep the lock shut, if it is not reset properly.

Jumping into the field was risky for a small company – comprised of engineers – having to face a lot of big players.

But success has been extraordinary and explosive. Since the product launch in 2006, Mad Rock has seen revenues grow by 1,800 per cent.

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