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Great ideas, wonderful products, but little money to bring them to market ... it's an age-old problem and currently one that confronts many small Canadian tech vendors with innovative offerings targeting the healthcare industry.

From a tech perspective, the Canadian healthcare sector is making great strides, quickly adopting systems that improve the efficiency of health workers and boost patient knowledge, a study from analyst firm IDC Canada in Toronto says.

The report profiles 10 Canadian healthcare product vendors deemed “worth watching.” On average, these small companies have about 25 employees.

Many of the products arm patients with the information and help they need to care for themselves.

Such self-care, besides benefiting the patient usually has a broader positive impact. It cuts wait times, and reduces costs, says Krista Napier, ICT innovation analyst at IDC, who authored the report.

“Until recently investment in ICT has been fairly modest” at Canadian healthcare locations, she says. “We see symptoms of that every day in doctor and nurse shortages, hospital infections, and the growing volume of patient data that's not being acted on.”

But the tide is turning, and that's evident from the tremendous advances made by healthcare outfits such as at Atlantic Health Sciences Corp.

Atlantic Health is the largest multi-facility hospital in New Brunswick. It has been working over the past four years with Saint John-based AnyWare Group (AWG) to develop a Web portal to help manage patients with chronic diseases in their own homes.

AWG is on Napier's top 10 “companies to watch” list.

The service provider's portal product connects patients with healthcare workers through a role-oriented access management infrastructure that keeps private data secure. It has been tested by the hospital on 70 diabetes patients who require remote care.

Patients communicate and track blood sugar levels, diet, activity level, and have the ability to ask questions directly to a healthcare worker through the portal, says Jill BartonMacPhee, administrative director of clinical programs at Atlantic Health.

“We have one 87-year-old patient who's been managed on the system for four weeks,” she says. “When he developed an ulcer on his leg, we told him to come in. But he says that he's 87 and he doesn't have to come in if he doesn't feel like it.”

So instead, the octogenarian diabetic e-mailed pictures of his ulcer to his nurse. The nurse coached him on a Web portal about how to care for it, and the ulcer healed without any complications.

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