At the heart of Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services, the Living Lab powers bold, value-driven and patient-centred healthcare innovation.
In today’s dynamic healthcare landscape, innovation is the driving force behind meaningful change. At Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) Health Services, we’re turning challenges into opportunities, creating a healthcare ecosystem where solutions are developed, tested, and scaled to transform patient care.
As the sole health authority in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, serving over 545,000 residents, NL Health Services is uniquely positioned to lead healthcare innovation. This commitment is an organisational priority as outlined in our Strategic Plan (2024-26) and guided by the Health Accord NL, a ten-year health transformation for our province.
Our Living Lab, a user-centred space where public and private partnerships are actively forged to improve patient care, is at the heart of this innovative transformation. It provides an integrated, real-world testbed for healthcare innovators – from startups to global enterprises – to co-develop, test, and commercialise solutions that align with patient-centred, value-driven, and scalable principles.
Why work with us? Where innovation meets real-world needs
NL Health Services offers unparalleled advantages for innovators seeking to make a tangible impact:
Comprehensive reach: Our innovation testbed spans across every domain of the healthcare system, from acute and emergency care to community-based, long-term care, and tertiary care. With a focus on addressing the diverse needs of our population, NL Health Services supports individuals across all life stages – from prenatal and paediatric care to senior and palliative care. These services are delivered through a network of hospitals, clinics, and community programmes across Newfoundland and Labrador, ensuring accessible, patient-centred care for all.
End-to-end services: We provide a full suite of support, from human factors testing to commercialisation, ensuring your solution evolves seamlessly from minimum viable product to adoption.
Value-based healthcare focus: We ensure every innovation aligns with patient outcomes, cost efficiency, and sustainability.
Single payor advantage: As a single-payor system, NL Health Services offers a streamlined environment for piloting and scaling healthcare solutions across diverse settings.
At NL Health Services, we don’t just enable innovation; we ensure it delivers measurable impact.
Iterative processes designed for success: From minimum viable product (MVP) to commercialisation
Innovation at NL Health Services follows a carefully crafted process that ensures every project is rigorously assessed, efficiently managed, and strategically executed:
Intake: Through our intake form, we gather comprehensive information about companies interested in collaborating with our team. Companies are asked to provide details about their organisation and product, including a description of their innovation, the problem it addresses, and its proposed benefits to the healthcare system. Additionally, they are asked to outline their competitive advantage, the product’s current development stage, their team’s expertise in working with healthcare systems, and the specific services they seek from our innovation team. The form also captures emerging innovation trends by collecting information on the adoption level of the product and any funding grants or investments the company has received from investors or other funding organisations.
Needs analysis: Once the intake form is completed, the innovation team reviews the submission, and selected companies are invited to participate in a ‘Demo Day’. Held quarterly, these Demo Days provide companies with an opportunity to pitch their products and solutions to the innovation team and relevant interest holders within NL Health Services. Each solution is assessed using a comprehensive evaluation rubric following the demo.
Afterward, an Intake Huddle is conducted with the innovation team and organisational champions to complete a needs assessment. Based on this assessment, a decision is made on whether the project will proceed. Once finalised, the innovation team meets with the company to discuss the next steps.
Post-intake – initial scoping: Approved projects follow one of two pathways: testing an existing solution or co-developing a new one. Based on the assessment, projects either proceed, require further exploration, or are declined. For those moving forward, the next steps are determined through a structured process that includes defining the purpose and justification, setting goals and objectives, outlining the scope, and identifying key deliverables and interest holders.
Project initiation and planning: A dedicated project manager leads the initiative, ensuring alignment with NL Health Services’ priorities and a structured path forward. During the initiation and planning phases, the project team works closely with interest holders to define clear goals, outline key deliverables, and establish milestones to track progress. A Statement of Work (SoW) is developed to document project scope, roles, and success metrics, while risks, dependencies, and regulatory considerations – such as privacy, security, and legal compliance – are carefully assessed. Effective interest holder engagement is also a priority, ensuring clinicians, administrators, and external partners are aligned throughout the process.
Execution and monitoring: The project moves into implementation, where solutions are deployed with continuous oversight to ensure they align with established goals and deliverables. Progress is actively monitored, allowing for adjustments as needed to optimise outcomes and maintain project momentum.
Implementation science pathway: The Living Lab conducts translational research to gather robust data and evidence that support informed decision-making on the practical application, impact, and value of solutions. This evidence ensures alignment with patient outcomes, system efficiency, and broader healthcare goals, guiding the successful integration of innovations.
Commercialisation – Value-based procurement: Successful solutions are scaled locally, nationally, and internationally, ensuring broader adoption across healthcare systems. Commercialisation pathways, including value-based procurement (VBP), are explored to align costs with measurable outcomes, supporting sustainable and impactful healthcare innovation.
Integration – Change management: Solutions are integrated seamlessly and efficiently across diverse healthcare settings by aligning innovations with existing workflows and interest holder priorities. To support adoption, teams and end-users receive comprehensive education and targeted training that drive engagement and successful implementation. After deployment, progress is continuously monitored, barriers are addressed, and strategies are adapted to ensure long-term impact, scalability, and operational excellence.
Real-world data and real-world evidence: Real-world data (RWD) and real-world evidence (RWE) are captured to assess the effectiveness, impact, and scalability of solutions implemented within the healthcare system. This data-driven approach supports evidence-based decision-making, ensuring that innovations align with patient outcomes, system efficiency, and long-term sustainability.
Scale: Successful solutions are expanded and scaled across multiple domains within the healthcare system, ensuring widespread impact. Innovations that prove effective at the provincial level are strategically scaled to national and international healthcare markets, driving broader adoption and sustainability.
Our process is designed to transform promising innovative products into impactful solutions that are ready to scale and succeed.
The Living Lab full suite of services: Supporting every stage of your innovation journey
At NL Health Services, we provide innovators with a comprehensive suite of services that ensure success at every stage:
Collaborative development
We work closely with innovators to co-build new solutions that address unmet healthcare needs. This involves designing, developing, and refining breakthrough technologies that do not yet exist, ensuring they align with real-world challenges and healthcare priorities.
Currently, we are engaged in two collaborative development projects. One of which is focused on creating a managed service and software solution that centralises and streamlines the co-ordination of post-acute care discharge services and equipment. This innovation aims to help patients transition home sooner, improve health outcomes, and free up clinical capacity within the healthcare system.
Research
NL Health Services offers a comprehensive suite of research services, spanning from pre-clinical testing to clinical trials, ensuring that healthcare innovations are rigorously assessed and optimised for real-world implementation.
Pre-clinical testing includes human factors testing, which ensures innovations align with user needs and safety standards, supporting regulatory approvals and early-stage development.
Clinical testing involves a range of studies to evaluate healthcare solutions, including usability studies to assess workflow integration, acceptability studies to determine how well the innovation is received by the target population, feasibility studies to evaluate practical implementation in healthcare settings, and effectiveness trials to measure impact, outcomes, and overall value.
NL Health Services’ innovation team has managed 17 completed or ongoing research projects since 2019, addressing key healthcare challenges through diverse initiatives. These include:
Seamlessly integrating IV medication delivery to improve efficiency and patient safety.
Expanding antibiotic usage visibility to enhance drug surveillance and antimicrobial stewardship.
Enhancing patient engagement through bedside technology.
Assessing the use of intact fish skin for tissue regeneration in complex wound care.
Evaluating remote monitoring for patients with congestive heart failure to enable care from home.
Developing a clinically validated algorithm for diabetic retinopathy risk assessment.
Testing a mobile application that transforms a smartphone into a stethoscope.
Implementing an AI-powered texting platform to improve communication between surgeons and patients.
Through these research initiatives, the Living Lab continues to drive evidence-based healthcare innovation, ensuring that new solutions are safe, effective, and scalable.
Commercialisation support
NL Health Services facilitates the scaling of healthcare innovations within its own system and across diverse healthcare settings, with the potential for Canadian and international expansion. Currently, the innovation team is managing over 20 commercialisation projects, supporting solutions that enhance efficiency, accessibility, and healthcare delivery. Examples include:
Leveraging a drug pricing and rebate management solution to make healthcare more affordable and efficient.
Strengthening supply chain resilience through 3D printing innovations.
Reducing specialist wait times by using online platforms that connect primary care providers directly with specialists.
Assessing the usability of a wearable ultrasound patch that provides real-time hemodynamic assessment.
Expanding a managed software and service solution to streamline co-ordination of services and equipment, ultimately reducing alternate level of care (ALC) bed days and improving patient flow through the health system.
Through these commercialisation efforts, NL Health Services is driving the adoption and scalability of healthcare innovations, ensuring that transformative solutions reach patients and providers efficiently.
Our Living Lab ensures that every innovation aligns with patient-centred care, value-based healthcare principles, and the need for scalable, sustainable solutions.
Partnerships: Driving innovation together
At NL Health Services, we collaborate closely with key players in the local Newfoundland and Labrador ecosystem, including academic partners and local startup incubators and accelerators, to foster innovation and drive healthcare advancements. Regionally, we are proud to be an Edge in Atlantic Canada for the CAN Health Network – a national partnership that paves the way for Canadian companies to scale their solutions across the country and beyond. On the international front, NL Health Services has established partnerships with leading organisations in Iceland, Norway, Ireland, and Finland, further expanding our reach and enhancing our ability to find innovative solutions to healthcare challenges through global collaboration.
NL Health Services was the recipient of the 2024 CAN Health Edge of the Year award. The Edge of the Year is awarded to the healthcare organisation that consistently engages and participates in CAN Health initiatives. This award recognises the Edge’s commitment to scaling Canadian innovation.
Solutions for the future: Addressing the most pressing challenges in healthcare
Our innovative efforts are strategically focused on solving key challenges in healthcare, improving efficiency, accessibility, and patient outcomes while optimising system-wide resources.
One of our top priorities is enhancing patient flow and access to care, ensuring that healthcare services are delivered efficiently to reduce delays and bottlenecks. This goes hand in hand with reducing specialist wait times by implementing technology-driven platforms that connect specialists directly with primary care providers and patients, preventing unnecessary or non-urgent appointments. Similarly, we are testing solutions to expedite diagnostic imaging and surgical procedures, aiming to eliminate backlogs and prevent future delays in care.
Ensuring patient safety and quality of care is also critical, particularly in preventing hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). We are introducing innovative infection control measures that help mitigate risks in hospital settings. At the same time, we are addressing rising chronic disease rates by exploring new technologies and early intervention strategies to enhance prevention, diagnosis, and management, reducing the long-term burden on the healthcare system.
To strengthen the healthcare workforce, we are tackling staffing shortages and provider gaps by optimising workflows, developing solutions that ease administrative burdens, and preventing burnout. This also ties into our efforts to streamline redundant software systems, ensuring a more cohesive and efficient digital infrastructure that enhances clinical operations. Additionally, digital transformation remains a key focus, leveraging advanced technologies to improve both care delivery and patient engagement, particularly for those in rural and remote areas, where virtual care solutions help bridge accessibility gaps.
Finally, we are working to expand youth mental health services, ensuring that young people and their families have better access to essential supports, breaking down barriers that prevent timely intervention and care.
Through these targeted initiatives, NL Health Services is shaping the future of healthcare – creating a more efficient, connected, and patient-centred system that meets the evolving needs of communities at every level.
Why NL Health Services?
At NL Health Services, we don’t just solve problems; we transform healthcare and redefine what’s possible. With our Living Lab and value-driven approach, we’re building a healthcare system that sets the standard for innovation – locally, nationally, and globally. Whether you’re developing a new solution or refining an existing one, NL Health Services is your partner for innovation with impact.
Contact us today!
Fill out our intake form.
Contact us at innovation@nlhealthservices.ca
Please note, this article will also appear in the 22nd edition of our quarterly publication.
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