In 2022, then IMS students Kayvan Aflaki and Serena Peck wanted to create an enriching, hands-on competitive learning experience to challenge graduate students to solve real-world healthcare problems. So, with seed funding from the Jay Keystone Award for Innovation in Scientific Communication and with the support of faculty advisor Dr. Pascal Tyrrell, they developed the successful Healthcare Innovation Challenge (HIC).
In this unique initiative teams of IMS and other UofT students utilize their creativity and critical thinking skills to solve a real-world healthcare challenge question. In the first stage students compete through a written proposal. The top five scoring teams advance to the final competition where they pitch their solution to the audience and expert judges.
This year we're excited to announce that we're launching the HIC as an official IMS event. We've partnered with Raw Talk Podcast who will be leading the panel portion of the live event.