Healthcare Innovation Challenge Winners 2026
On March 26, five outstanding finalist teams took the stage for the Healthcare Innovation Challenge 2026: Improving Rural & Remote Healthcare in Canada.
This year's competition invited more than thirty teams to explore one central question: How can AI be leveraged to address critical challenges in rural healthcare?
Participants first submitted written proposals outlining their creative, tech‑driven solutions. The top‑scoring teams advanced to the final round, where they competed for $5,000 in prizes and access to iCube’s Ideation Lab program.
In front of a live audience, each team delivered a dynamic five‑minute pitch and responded to questions from our panel of expert judges. After thoughtful deliberation, the winners were announced:
First Place
ROOTED: Smart AI-Powered Limb Viability Assessment and Guided Escalation
Muhammad Ansar, Hansika Dhari, Linette Penney and Vedant Shukla
Second Place
TRATA: Intelligent Pre-Arrival Data Integration
Sunny Baek, Polina Lekhnitskaia, Kat Savel and Noah Spina
Third Place
ClearSite: A Mobile App Empowering Patients to Monitor Their Surgical Sites
Luke Aprile, Adam Levitan, Buster Milne and Edward Wang
People's Choice Award
EduCareAI: An LLM for Improving Equity of Indigenous Healthcare in Rural Communities
Andy Liu, Simonne Rauch, Charlotte Sulek and Claire Zanin
Congratulations to the award winners and all the participants for their ingenuity and hard work!
Many thanks to our panelists and judges Dr. Jeff Golisky, Dr. Keith Pardee, Serena Peck and Dr. Pascal Tyrrell for participating and sharing their insight and expertise.
To find out more, visit the Healthcare Innovation Challenge website.
