Relentless RoundUp

24th Edition

November 14th is Sir Frederick Grant Banting’s birthday. A Canadian pharmacologist, orthopedist, field surgeon, trained midwife, Canada’s first professor of medical research and Nobel Prize winner. A bullied child in school who also had deep struggles with spelling which led to a litany of failed language courses.

Most Canadian children have learned about Banting’s scientific discovery in school, Insulin, that essential pancreatic hormone that regulates glucose in our bodies. I wish they also learned about his resilience.  

November 14th was selected as World Diabetes Day because it is Banting’s birthday. In 2007 the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution that designated today as World Diabetes Day underscoring the urgent need to pursue ‘multilateral efforts to promote and improve human health and provide access to treatment and health-care education.’ The resolution encouraged Member States to develop national policies for the prevention, treatment, and care of diabetes.

This resolution came 86 years after the original discovery of insulin in a lab at the University of Toronto, co-discovered by Banting and his student Charles Best, under the supervision of John Macleod.

This RoundUp is dedicated to amplifying the persistent need for prevention of Type 2 diabetes, management of life with both Type 1 & 2, and of course the outstanding need for a T1D cure.

Relentless RoundUp

23rd Edition

Well hello Autumn. I like the cut of your jib. This year as my favourite season blows in, I still feel buoyed by Canada’s showing at the summer Olympics. It was exhilarating to watch veterans to first timers secure podium positions. I love watching competition tactics, highs, lows, hugs, tears, environment challenges (I am speaking to you River Seine) and team dynamics. The similarities with venture capital investing are fascinating.

Watching Canada perform on the global stage has always been a delight for me, from sport to healthcare innovation. There are many parallels. Including how you find high performance athletes taking on roles in high performance finance firms. The discipline and focus required to compete at an international level has clear transferable skills to the world of investment such as venture capital. We are fortunate to have  such an individual on our team and she is heading into an extraordinary October as a competitive athlete.

Meet Isabella Bertold, the Concord Pacific Racing Women’s Team skipper for Canada’s first-ever campaign at the historic Puig Women’s America’s Cup.

Relentless RoundUp

22nd Edition

Witnessing the world actively engage in all that a lovely spring offers is invigorating. I am even cuing up a bike friendly meeting locations as I finally return to cycling following that wee multi-bone fracturing incident from a while back. If you have followed Relentless since inception, you will know we have always been staunch all-season advocates of active living and movement. ‘Mobility’ is a core investment focus for our health tech fund.

Relentless RoundUp

21st Edition

Tenderness. That is my word of choice for 2024.

I chose tenderness to ground me for the year ahead. Personally, and professionally.

Not as in ‘I feel pain when my abdomen is touched’, but the noun that is generally defined as a combination of love and kindness. It can also be known to encompass resilience, determination, insight, optimism, compassion, hope and empathy.

Tenderness for myself. Tenderness for others. In my work world, my play world, and all the overlapping Venn diagram bits in between. Apropos to share with my community as we close out heart health month.

February is Heart Month – Keep on Stepping

Have you embraced this year’s Heart Health Month with a little extra passion? 2024 is a leap year, we get one bonus day. Tomorrow! One extra day to act, take steps, refresh our step strategy. When was the last time you checked that little heart icon on your iPhone that automatically tracks your step count? Or are you a classic Fitbit or pedometer user? Or do you go for walking time? It really doesn’t matter which tool you use to motivate, just move. Simply putting one foot in front of the other can mean big steps forward for your heart health.

Relentless RoundUp - 20th Edition

Self-care. It has been top of mind as of late.

In September, my younger brother Billy spent 28 days in the trauma ICU.  I sat at his bedside most days. I held his hand, whispered words of encouragement to his deeply sedated being, and constantly repeated ‘You have been fixed. You are going to be okay.’ He heard me. He came back to us on Day 24. And yes, he is going to be okay.

Over the course of that soul crushing experience, one of Billy’s exceptional ICU nurses stopped me in my tracks when she asked me what I was doing to take care of myself. Me? What? It is amazing how quickly we can find ourselves slipping into non-compliance of our own health needs when focused on others. She nudged me to reflect. My personal tank was running on empty. She texted me later that night the following note:

RESET.

RESTART.

REFOCUS.

AS MANY TIMES AS YOU NEED TO, JUST DON’T QUIT.

So here is to the grand reset, as many times as we need to.

Relentless RoundUp - 19th Edition

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”)?

Relentless RoundUp - 18th Edition

We have smart insoles. Smart knees. Self-driven neurological assessments. 3D printed pancreatic tissue. Custom small batch manufacturing. Music as Medicine.

We have precision healthcare. We are monitoring remotely. We are changing behaviour.

We have true A.I. & M.L. We have software as a medical device (SaMD), recovery curves, new technology add on payments (NTAP), and a Breakthrough Designation hat trick.

We have more than 300 filed and/or issued patents. We have know-how.

We have Deloitte’s #1 Technology Fast 50 Company to Watch. We have a pair of Life Sciences BC winners for Medical/Digital Health Company of the year. We have a LSBC Growth Stage Life Sciences Company of the Year.

We have an Indigenous health collaboration.

We are directly delivering on SDG#3 (SDG 3.4 to be precise).

We have happiness metrics.

Relentless RoundUp - JPM23 Edition

Ah, January. A month that can be counted on to bring the blues to some, the intention to reset and refresh to others. It is also the month that, for the past three decades, marks the annual pilgrimage of healthcare investors, ventures, and operators as they descend on San Francisco, affectionately known for many years as “JP Morgan Week”.

For those in the finance and business building part of the healthcare industry, it is an opportunity to refresh connections with colleagues spread across the globe, to fine tune the skill of coordinating three breakfast meetings that don’t overlap, to meet entrepreneurs dedicated to innovation in healthcare, and with the help of the now infamous ‘Novateur mobile app’, secure invites to the hottest evening socials.

 It is an exhilarating and exhausting few days, but with practice in schedule optimization, typically translates to rewarding networking, competitive insights and priming of the pipeline for new investments – all true of my experience this year.

Relentless RoundUp - Autumn Notes Edition

As we transition into shorter days, darker evenings, and a whack of wet and chilly weather we most definitely need to identify our motivators for movement. For me, at this time of year I am always motivated to get outside and witness the leaves and light changing. Why do the vibrant autumn colours surrounding my childhood home touch my soul? Nostalgia? Comfort?

And then just to be certain that there is balance in the day, wicked winds and rain pummel the trees and we are now left with gorgeous piles of ruby and orange carpets for a lawn. Perfect bunches of leaves to kick, throw in the air or roll around in. Or rake.

I am jolted back to a sense of wonder when watching the neighbourhood kids play in the foliage – roll, run, jump, pitch, and play. What is the adult equivalent to such inspiration? What is your motivation to move?

Relentless RoundUp - Summer Edition

Health innovators have been unveiling the layers of possibilities for personalized care since the human genome was first sequenced. Beginning on October 1st, 1990, and completed in April 2003, the Human Genome Project gave us the ability, for the first time, to read nature’s complete genetic blueprint for building a human being. A patient. It took more than a dozen years!

Health investors, we are a patient people. We are innately patient, I believe, because we know that on the other side of discovery, long capital raising cycles, clinical failures, clinical triumph, the relentless pursuit of data insights, and a dedication to optimizing enabling technology for care, there will be improved health outcomes. That is a powerful motivating force.

Healthcare and life science investors – we are here for the long haul. We shall continue hunting for new tech – crushing cycle, frothy cycle, down cycle, up cycle.