It has been a spring season jam packed with watching sports with Dad. From hockey playoffs and multiple weekend Jays’ series on TV, to driving to the local ballpark on Tuesday night for a new season of t-ball. A former softball coach for the village where I grew up, my 82-year-old Dad (Lloyd) experiences pure joy watching children conquering the whiff of the t-ball post.
Simple pleasures. With my dad.
Are you aware of the research on Passive Sports Engagement (“PSE”)?
Now, as an amateur athlete my entire life, I always prioritize and advocate for activity-based engagement, moving the body and promoting the benefits of active living, at all ages. HOWEVER, I tripped across some research that noted a growing body of evidence that both attending live sporting events, as well as watching sports on TV improves subjective wellbeing and decreases feelings of loneliness. In other words, PSE can translate to significant mental health benefit. In the same publication, the author went on to address the current limitations of the research, such as the narrow focus on baseball and racket sports, single dimensions of subjective wellbeing (oh dear, it only applied to positive life satisfaction and improved happiness), as well as a focus on subgroups in the population (limited to college students and older adults).
I call that a win. Older adults are likely to be less lonely and happier watching baseball – on TV or in person. From personal experience, compounded with an educated guess, those positive subjective wellbeing scores are probably amplified when watching sports with friends or family. Just a guess.
Could this be the summer to include the seniors in your life with your passive sports engagement ?
A Season Opener
Kicking off the professional awards season, it was announced in April that Dr Breanne Everett is to be honoured with the inaugural ‘Young Innovator Award’ and will be inducted later this year into the Alberta Business Hall of Fame. Breanne, the CEO, and Founder of portfolio company Orpyx Medical, is the first recipient of the new award recognizing the achievements of business leaders under 40. Congratulations Breanne!
A Portfolio Double – 7th Annual MedTech Breakthrough Awards
Thrive Health and Canary Medical received international recognition for excellence in healthcare innovation.
(1) Thrive Health – named the winner for the “Best Patient Relationship Management Solution”.
(2) Canary Medical – named the winner of the “Healthcare Analytics Innovation Award” for their work on Canary™ Recovery Curves™. For more details on these new clinical care tools developed by the Canary team click here: https://bit.ly/42n7H79
A Pair of Thrive Home Runs
Two Thrivers were recognized with two Digital Health Canada 2022 awards at the end of May.
Co-Founder & Executive Chair, David Helliwell was awarded Community Care Leader of the Year. Yeah David!! Dr Mark Nazemi, Thrive Health Senior Manager, Clinical Solutions and Innovation, was recognized as one of Digital Health Canada’s top Clinical Innovators of the Year for his leadership in advancing the use of digital health in clinical practice, resulting in improved provider and patient experience. Yeah Mark!!
After investing in Thrive Health less than three months ago, Team Relentless is thrilled to see the recognition and continued momentum. With our fund’s investment focus on both preventive disease as well as chronic disease management (a market projected to reach US$16B by 2030), Thrive’s patient-centric, digital health & wellness solutions as a service platform has been the ideal addition to round out Fund I’s portfolio. Navigating complex care journey’s for both acute and chronic conditions, empowering patients, a dedication to physical and mental wellness solutions (including the monitoring of happiness), and a commitment to preventive healthcare strikes the ideal chord for us.
Seventh Inning Stretch
Take a peek at the recording of this webinar, “How to Trigger Happy Hormones in a Digital World”. Thrive Health’s Ashley Snape, Head of People and Culture hosted Cheyanne D’Souza, Integra Health registered psychotherapist, as well as John Helliwell and Dr. Lara Aknin, co-editors of the 2023 World Happiness Report for this online event where they shared fresh strategies for healthy happiness.
Quick Hits from the Relentless Portfolio
· June 6th – Orpyx Medical announced expansion of their collaboration with Siksika Health Services with the launch of a second pilot program aimed at improving foot health with the prevention of diabetic foot ulcers among Siksika Nation members living with type 2 diabetes.
· May 17th & 19th – Aspect Biosystems presented multiple posters at the annual American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy highlighting the development of Aspect’s bio-printed liver tissue platform. Aspect is creating bio-printed tissue therapeutics for currently incurable disease that include genetic and acquired liver disease. The liver program is in addition to the multi-billion-dollar diabetes and obesity programs partnered with Novo Nordisk.
· May 8th – VitaminLab announced the close of a strategic financing that included a first-time investment from DSM Venturing, the corporate venture arm of Royal DSM – a global, purpose-led, science-based company active in nutrition, health, and sustainable living. New funding will accelerate growth of their personalized supplementation offerings. There is also a short window remaining to participate in a second closing. Ping me if interested.
· May 9th – Published in Forbes, Lucid Co-Founder & CTO, Aaron Labbe crafted an article, “Making Intelligent Noise: AI in the Music Industry”. As an award-winning artist and engineer, Aaron shares insightful perspective from his personal experience about the intersection between music and AI. “Before my days as a CTO at my music-health-AI startup, I worked as a professional audio engineer and producer and became obsessed with the most important stakeholder in the music industry: the listener. I spent hundreds of hours fixating on mixes to make sure they sounded as good as possible, ensuring the listener had the optimal experience.” We are grateful that Aaron is now applying his passion and talents in music production to the care of individuals suffering from a variety of neurocognitive challenges, including seniors with dementia.
· April 26th – Modality.ai announced acceptance of two abstracts for presentation at the July 2023 World Parkinson Congress in Barcelona. Quite the honour. Their work on assessing patients’ Parkinson’s Disease progression has been done in collaboration with Purdue University and UCSF.
Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Linked Fun Facts
(1) For seven years, in his youth, Canary Medical’s Co-Founder & CEO, Dr Bill Hunter worked for the Blue Jays organization! A self-described ‘gopher’, his duties ranged from grounds crew to time as a PR assistant. All of this at Exhibition Stadium (i.e., before the SkyDome was constructed).
(2) Also, during the Exhibition Stadium era, yours truly, sang the national anthems for the Jays, in back-to-back years when the organization hosted “Ingersoll Day”. Fortunately, these experiences also occurred prior to the digital media era.
Wishing everyone a fabulous launch to the summer season; may it be filled with activity and happy holidaying. And as a gentle reminder, consider reaching out to all the individuals in your orbit who may be living on their own. Perhaps catch a game together? Helping to alleviate the loneliness of others isn’t that tough to do.