Last fall, Health City’s CEO Reg Joseph spoke to Business in Edmonton about the new health economy and Health City’s mandate of achieving economic development through health innovation: On what makes Edmonton Canada’s Health City: “It was very clear that there are a number of strengths and assets in the health arena in this jurisdiction. In many cases, they are world-renowned, yet they are not having the impact that one would think for the caliber of those assets in terms of economic development. Health City was founded through a combination of need and the background, assets and capabilities Edmonton already has to drive these areas forward.” The specific areas Health City is focusing on: “There is a lot of change in terms of innovation, new technology and new tools that are looking at better ways of practicing, preventing and managing chronic disease,” Joseph explains. “These are key areas that will fuel the next health economy. We have significant strengths in those areas and we think there is a great opportunity to marry those capabilities with this impetus to change how we look at health. We want to prove them here and then export them around the world.” Health City’s first big project and partnership: “Hitachi is partnering with local companies to build a data engine that will let us look at disparate datasets,” explains Joseph. “We will draw new evidence and intelligence at how to look at health problems in a new way. That engine will be the platform and then we are going to layer on top of that a bunch of projects that are key to this region.” Reg’s plans for Health City going forward: “We have a number of key problems that have been identified in the field,” he says. “Now, what we want to do is put together innovation consortiums to help solve those problems. By doing that, we are going to tie in innovation and technology.” Click here to read the full article.