Questions about the program?
CONTACT Johan Chen, Project Manager, Knowledge Mobilization
CABHI’s Discover and Adopt (D+A) program helps healthcare and community-based organizations (e.g., long-term care homes, hospitals, home healthcare organizations, etc.) build their skills and receptivity to adopt innovation.
Organizations face many barriers to sourcing, testing, and adopting innovations (e.g., products, programs, or services) that can improve the quality of care and quality of life of those they serve.
The D+A program supports organizations with funding and training to build the skills and capacity required to introduce, implement, and sustain innovations in their own settings.
If you are an innovator with a solution that can target any of the pain points below.
Apply now by completing this intake form by 5pm EST October 24, 2025.
We are seeking a solution that enhances engagement, education, and independent leisure opportunities for those with cognitive and physical limitations.
The solution should be easy to use, safe, interactive, customizable, integrable, and accessible for older adults and care partners at the bedside, fostering a supportive environment.
A2 - Improving Monitoring of Care and Health Status in Homecare
We are seeking a solution to help identify and monitor current and emerging care and health status in homecare settings.
The solution should be cost-effective, reliable, AI based, monitor physical, mental, and social statuses.
B1 - Improving Staff Well-Being and Retention
We are seeking a solution to improve and enhance staff well-being and retention by reducing burnout, turnover, and improving morale.
The solution should foster a healthy, supportive, and sustainable workplace culture.
B2 - Reducing Administrative Burden In Care Planning and Delivery
We are seeking a solution that reduces administrative burden of multidisciplinary staff to allow staff to access resident insights across different clinical settings, including long-term care, home, care, and physicians.
The solution should be AI-based, easy to use, minimize administrative burden, ensure privacy, support a focused, proactive, data-informed care planning.
B3 - Enhancing and Promoting Medication Management Autonomy in Homecare
We are seeking a solution to promote the autonomy of medication management in homecare clients.
The solution should enhance medication management, improve home visit efficiencies, and ideally be remote during mornings and evenings to allow staff to spend more time on complex cases.
B4 - Enhancing Care Coordination and Planning
We are seeking a solution that enhances care coordination, planning, information sharing, and patient transfer process shared across multiple stakeholders and entities.
The solution should meet privacy and consent requirements, be easy to use, have an integrated approach, and be accessible by multiple organizations and entities; including an alternate level of care program.
C1 - Preventing and Reducing Falls In Senior Care Settings
We are seeking a solution to assist point of care staff in the notification and prevention of falls.
The solution should ideally provide real-time alerts and notifications and inform workflows and tracking procedures to enhance falls prevention, overall safety and well-being of residents.
C2 - Enhancing Activities of Daily Living Support
We are seeking a solution that enhances ADL support related to transfers, walking, and propelling for residents in long-term care, including those with complex needs.
The solution should be cost-effective, adaptable, and enhance quality of life while being safe and easy to use.
C3 - Enhancing Real-Time Translation for Improved Communication
We are seeking a solution that provides real-time translation to improve communication between staff and residents in LTC or assisted living environments, including those with diverse communication needs.
The solution should improve engagement, bridge language barriers between residents, staff, and families; enhancing care delivery, interaction, and overall well-being.
C4 - Improving Cognitive Functioning Assessment of LTC Residents
We are seeking a solution to assess cognitive functioning accurately and reliably in long-term care residents.
The solution should provide reliable information to staff, and proven to provide accurate screening results, enabling staff to take appropriate action based on the assessed levels resulting in enhanced overall care quality.
D1 - Enhancing Living Environment Approach in LTC
We are seeking a solution to improve resident living approach and model in long-term care.
The solution should address change resistance, promote cultural transformation, clinical training, and improve resident well-being and staff engagement and skills.
D2 - Providing Competence Assessment of Core Skills needed for LTC Staff
We are seeking a solution to enhance assessment of LTC staff core skills, including IPAC, person-centredness, PHIPA, etc. These assessments will then inform next steps in education or training.
The solution should be able to assess competence, provide personalized training according to individual needs and abilities. It should also be cost-effective, sustainable, and scalable.
D3 - Enhancing Care Staff Skills to Recognize Elder Abuse
We are seeking a solution that enables staff to step directly into the lived experiences of residents with dementia to build empathy and understanding.
The solution should be immersive, feature virtual reality environments to simulate scenarios, have compassionate approaches, and help reduce harm to older adults.
D4 - Improving Hydration for Residents in LTC
We are seeking a solution to improve safe and adequate hydration for residents in long-term care, including those with dementia or swallowing difficulties.
The solution should be safe for staff and residents, decrease staff workload, while providing a comfortable experience to residents.
E1 – Enhancing Inpatient Rehabilitation Physical Activity
We are seeking a solution to enhance monitoring and improve motivation of patients' physical activity during inpatient rehabilitation through gamification.
The solution should motivate patients, keep patients engaged, and encourage independence.
Please Note:
Intake forms will take approximately 20 minutes to complete and can be completed in English or French.
A “solution” can be a product, program, or service, and is not limited to technological products.
We welcome all innovators to apply, but due to high volume of applicants, only select innovators will be contacted by the host organization to move forward in the selection process.
Questions about the program?
CONTACT Johan Chen, Project Manager, Knowledge Mobilization
“Our team from the Perley Health Centre of Excellence in Frailty-Informed Care™ really benefitted from the structured approach of the D+A program; it helped us establish a common language and ensured we arrived at the implementation stage in a timely manner. With the ongoing support from CABHI, a core team was established from the outset, which promoted a sense of ownership and enhanced accountability. It really helped us build capacity across our organization. The D+A program is also unique in that it supports the sustainability and long-term impacts of technology implementation through its’ funding model. We look forward to measuring and sharing the impact of our project and our continued collaboration with CABHI.”
Danielle Sinden
BSc., BPHE, MA
Director, Centre of Excellence and Research Operations at Perley Health
“We found the resources really helpful for us to be intentional about planning and thinking through the processes that would be required to execute any implementation. The program also allowed for connections to groups that we normally would not otherwise have interacted with. The allocation of funds seemed to be based on our willingness to change and foster growth vs funding a specific program. It allows for organizations to be selected for priorities that align with our own needs as opposed to other models where it is a specific program implementation that is to be funded. We really appreciated those aspects of the program and are very excited to be a part of it.”
Jackie Song
RD, MSc
Interim Manager of Practice Innovation and Change at Unity Health Toronto
“The CABHI D+A program is important and unique for our healthcare organization. The program offers the flexibility for us to identify our clinical pain points that we think are important to our patients and what our patients think are important. The program provides coaching and guidance in how to assess the innovation appropriately. The program brings innovators with solutions to our organization, which I think is amazing. We had 8 innovators to evaluate, which prior to the program, we knew very little about. I think that this process brings together innovators and healthcare providers in a very helpful and constructive way that supports potential implementation process of innovation at Hamilton Health Sciences.”
George Ioannidis
BPE, MSc, PhD
Associate Professor of Medicine (Division of Geriatrics and Rheumatology) at McMaster University and Deputy Director of the Geras Centre for Aging Research at Hamilton Health Sciences
“I think that the D+A program is a fantastically unique program. Not only does it provide funding which means we can have dedicated resources allocated to the innovation project, but also provides education and coaching on adopting innovation. That includes everything from how you engage stakeholders at the beginning of the process, how to dig deep and understand what the problem is that you’re dealing with from all different perspectives of your stakeholders to, at the very end, how to assess the impact of the innovation that you’ve adopted. For example, how do you identify unintended consequences? And how do you produce your business case including your ROI that you would present to your organization?”
Lora Bruyn Martin
MASc
Innovation Specialist at Schlegel Villages
“Bruyère Health is delighted to be part of CABHI’s D+A program. The program has brought together like-mind organizations that are striving to use practical innovations to better serve their clients and to increase their innovation capacity through CABHI’s education and training sessions. We are just beginning to see the fruits of what a shared innovation journey can result in for Bruyère Health and I look forward to sharing those fruits with healthcare organizations across the country and beyond.”
Blake Daly
MBA, Manager of Innovation, Bruyère Health