Award recognizes innovation efforts

National group applauds accomplishments of AHS leader

Story by Greg Harris

An Alberta Health Services senior leader is being recognized for her work in helping spread innovation in healthcare.

Patty Wickson, Executive Director for Innovation, Evidence, Evaluation and Impact, has received the CAN Health Network 2023 West Local Leader Award. The CAN Health Network is a federally funded organization working to introduce more Canadian innovation into Canada’s healthcare system.

“CAN Health is proud to recognize Patty Wickson for her commitment to scaling Canadian innovation and improving healthcare across Alberta, and western Canada,” says Dr. Dante Morra, Chair, CAN Health Network.

“It is leaders like Patty who make a difference and help push CAN Health forward in achieving its vision to lead the new healthcare economy.”

This year’s awards were presented Oct. 18 at the CAN Health Network’s annual fall conference. The Network works with leading healthcare operators across the country to identify their biggest challenges and match them with Canadian-made technology solutions.

“It’s an honour to receive this award, but it really belongs to the entire Innovation and Business Intelligence team at AHS that has supported this work – the people that have led, have driven change and executed on our innovation projects,” Wickson says.

The efforts of many other departments, including the Strategic Clinical Networks, Zone Operations and the Contracting, Procurement and Supply Management team, are also key to helping AHS advance the adoption of innovation to improve care for Albertans.

One CAN Health project Alberta Health Services is currently leading involves the evaluation of a new innovative gel produced by a local Calgary company, NanoTess, to promote wound healing. That product, NanoSALV, is showing promising results to improve outcomes for Albertans, particularly in treating and accelerating the healing of pressure wounds. NanoTess received this year’s CAN Health Innovation Award.

CAN Health’s Local Leader Awards recognize network members who have played a paramount role in the development of the Network in their region, and who have demonstrated a commitment to scaling Canadian innovation within their health authorities.

“As a healthcare leader, my passion and purpose are to empower our people to be the best in all they do, to be a role model, live a culture and mindset of innovation, be an advocate for change, create excellence in our work and be brave through these challenging times,” says Wickson, who has worked in healthcare for 33 years, 19 of them at AHS.

She says it’s thanks to CAN Health funding that Alberta healthcare providers can learn about new innovations that can inform the future of care across AHS, and help open the doors for more Canadian companies to get their innovations into use. As well, AHS staff can learn from other health authorities across Canada who have tested other emerging innovations.

Through CAN Health, AHS was able to fund two innovation projects to date, enabling evaluation trials in clinical settings based on priority areas of focus.

“AHS can test these solutions into care and assess their value based on our Innovation Pipeline evidence framework,” Wickson says. “We appreciate this funding opportunity to improve outcomes, value for money and patient and provider experiences.”

Representatives from Ontario and Atlantic Canada also received CAN Health Local Leader awards this week. The CAN in CAN Health stands for Coordinated Accessible National. CAN Health was established in 2019. That same year, AHS joined the CAN Health West Edge network, which includes Vancouver Coastal, Fraser Health, and Saskatchewan and Manitoba health authorities.

AHS works collaboratively with Edge members in other provinces to network, share learnings, and mentor and support the development of these type of partnerships.