On the 19th of January, 2022, the Dunin-Deshpande Queen’s Innovation Centre (DDQIC) convened students and community members from the KFLA region, including entrepreneurs, innovators, and healthcare leaders. Together, we explored challenges and opportunities, provided education about rural health and identified where there is room to pilot innovations across the region.
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The main objectives of this session were to:
- Launch DDQIC's Health Innovation Program, focusing on the rural aspect;
- Socialize KFLA health innovation priorities & challenges;
- Identify additional or complementary community resources and organizations that could help with the identified innovation priority theme areas;
- Outline how to help entrepreneurs understand what it takes to bring innovations into a rural community; and
- Identify how to funnel rural problem statements into the local ecosystem of healthcare innovation.
In the weeks leading up to the panel, the DDQIC met and discussed the rural health challenges and opportunities both independently with each of the panellists, and as a group. These conversations provided the basis for the pre-formed questions during the panel event. The panellists were then asked 4 questions based on the prior discussions they had with the DDQIC team in the weeks leading up to the panel.
The panel was split into three sections. The event began with introductions of each of the speakers, and asked two primary questions: How do you define rural? and How do you define health? These questions illustrated each of the unique perspectives the panellists brought to rural health. Following these two primary questions, each panellist had the opportunity to elaborate on the primary challenges they recognize in rural health. The panellists were then asked four pre-set questions to help illustrate key problem areas in rural health. Lastly, the moderator invited participants to both ask questions and provide their insights on the panel discussion.