Health Futures

A Velocity health-tech startup focused on improving health-care communication has announced an exciting new partnership with Grand River Hospital (GRH) to address communication challenges within the hospital’s Renal Program. This collaboration — a pre-commercialization project spanning three months — will leverage MedInclude’s artificial intelligence (AI) platform to enhance patient engagement and streamline interactions between health-care providers and patients. 

Agenek, a pioneering biotech company at Velocity, University of Waterloo’s startup incubator, unveiled a new RNA-based test that provides an unprecedented level of precision in recommending skincare products to consumers.

The skincare test offered by Agenek will provide people with a real-time biological snapshot of the needs of their skin and help them make educated choices, save time and money, and achieve better skin health.

Most older adults prefer to age in their homes and stay active in their communities. For many, malnutrition will derail those plans due to involuntary weight loss, micronutrient deficiencies and frailty. These conditions don’t just impact quality of life, they frequently necessitate a transition to living in a long-term care facility.  

The next time you need to take a prescription drug, taking it might be as easy as putting on a contact lens, thanks to a new discovery made by University of Waterloo researchers.

Following an extensive search process, the University of Waterloo, St. Mary’s General Hospital and Grand River Hospital are pleased to announce Danina Kapetanovic as the first Vice President, Innovation and Chief Health Innovation Officer, starting on January 13, 2025.

Karim S. Karim (BASc '99, PhD '03) is the associate vice-president of Commercialization and Entrepreneurship at the University of Waterloo and a professor of electrical and computer engineering. With a distinguished career that includes co-founding the Waterloo medical imaging spin-off KA Imaging, Karim highlights the University’s impact and vision behind its Innovation Arena.

On November 14, the University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Environment and Waterloo Climate Institute co-hosted Walking the Path of Hope: Climate Anxiety and the Healing Forest, a thought-provoking event that explored the intersections of climate change, Indigenous healing, reconciliation and Land Back. 

Twelve University of Waterloo researchers have been named on the annual Highly Cited Researchers™ 2024 list from Clarivate. The list identifies individual researchers and scientists who have demonstrated significant and broad influence in their fields of research.  

Researchers named on the Highly Cited Researchers™ list are those whose publications rank in the top 1 per cent of citations from an international and wide-ranging network of citing authors.  

For Global Entrepreneurship Week, we’re spotlighting some incredible University of Waterloo entrepreneurs making a difference for humanity and our world.