Canadian startup Incluzia Inc. has won the 2024 AGE-WELL National Impact Challenge: Solutions for Healthy Aging for its evaluation tool that identifies safety risks, generates data-driven recommendations and facilitates collaboration to make a person's home safer and more accessible.

In making the winning pitch, Marnie Courage, Founder and CEO of Incluzia Inc., said the ultimate goal of the MyHomeFX product is to help older adults, people with disabilities and their care providers make informed decisions about whether to modify their home to make it safer and more accessible or move to a new home to meet their needs. She noted the product is also designed to improve health care service delivery efficiencies and cost savings by reducing falls-related hospitalizations, discharge delays and premature admissions to long-term care.

"In my 20 years of clinical experience as an occupational therapist (OT) working with older adults, people with disabilities and their caregivers, I have seen firsthand the effects of people living in unsafe and inaccessible homes," said Courage. An OT clinic owner, she pointed to inefficiencies with traditional OT home assessments typically done with pen and paper, a fillable form or spreadsheet, taking hours of manual reporting time – none of which facilitates robust data collection, she said.

Courage validated her frustrations in a joint research study with the University of Manitoba by surveying 164 OTs from across Canada about the current methods used for home assessments. She reported that the survey results overwhelmingly confirm the need and desire for the MyHomeFX solution.

Said Courage, "Like many entrepreneurs, I launched my startup, built a team of experts, and through research collaborations, I developed the solution to the problems I wanted to solve."

There are two versions of MyHomeFX.

MyHomeFX is a free online screening tool for older adults, people with disabilities and their caregivers. It identifies health and home safety risks early and offers data-driven recommendations to increase safety and accessibility at home.

MyHomeFX Pro is a subscription-based digital health assessment and home evaluation tool for health care professionals. It includes more than 40 health and performance areas of assessment and has a dynamic home evaluation component with features including room measurements, floor plan sketching and photo annotations. It offers health care professionals evidence-based care plan intervention options.

"This tool connects health care and housing," shared Courage, based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. "One of the challenges right now is that the construction business is nothing like the health care business. They have two different languages. With this solution, we can generate a health care report and redact personal health information for the health care professional to communicate useful information to construction specialists or renovators. It works as a conduit between these two industries to have better outcomes for clients."

Examples of home modifications that may result from an evaluation include changes to the main entrance (e.g., landscaped zero-step entrance or a ramp), adding a bathroom to the main floor, or bathroom adaptions (e.g., grab bars, no-step showers).

Courage explained that the $25,000 cash prize from the AGE-WELL National Impact Challenge will help build team capacity, test the business plan, and execute the marketing strategy to hopefully bring MyHomeFX and MyHomeFX Pro to market in late spring 2025. Incluzia Inc. will begin working with the University of Manitoba on acceptance and usability testing, and a pilot will follow in settings within the Manitoba health care system. Courage and her team will also focus on connecting with Indigenous groups to make MyHomeFX a culturally safer option by seeking feedback and making the necessary adjustments before it goes to market.

Courage said, "I am deeply honoured and absolutely thrilled to have won AGE-WELL's 2024 National Impact Challenge. The other pitches were amazing, so being recognized within that calibre of tech entrepreneurs is really humbling."

One of Canada's most exciting startup competitions, this year's AGE-WELL National Impact Challenge was held at the AGE-WELL Annual Conference in Edmonton, Alberta, to recognize top startups and support entrepreneurship in Canada's AgeTech sector.

Four finalists participated in this year's pitch event, showcasing how their technology-based solution can support healthy aging.

"All four finalists presented pitches that demonstrate the dynamic energy and innovative thinking behind current and emerging products to support healthy aging," said Dr. Alex Mihailidis, Scientific Director and CEO of AGE-WELL, Canada's technology and aging network. "Our pitch competition underscores the talent depth in Canada's AgeTech sector, which is leading huge technological advances and bringing real solutions to the market that make a difference in the lives of older adults and caregivers."

The runner-up prize of $5,000 went to Fallyx Inc., developers of a wearable, clip-on sensor for fall monitoring. It leverages machine learning to detect falls using location and motion data.

The People's Choice Award garnered hundreds of online votes, and Thriving.ai Inc. came out on top. Thriving.ai has created a digital platform uniting remote care, AI, wearables and the Internet of Things (IoT) to streamline care for older adults and those with chronic conditions.

The 2024 AGE-WELL National Impact Challenge was generously supported by returning key sponsor, the Ontario Brain Institute (OBI), with additional support from the Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation (CABHI) and Smart & Biggar.