NATE & MaRS Collaborating

The National Association for Trusted Exchange (NATE) http://nate-trust.org and MaRS Discovery District in Toronto www.marsdd.com have announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The plan is to collaborate on projects that accelerate access to personal use of healthcare data by patients in the U.S. and Canada. The collaboration will involve projects and initiatives related to health data liberation.

NATE is looking for common solutions to optimize the exchange of health information for greater gains in adoption and outcomes. Emerging from the Western States Consortium, in a pilot project supported by ONC, NATE was established as a not-for-profit organization in May 2013.

MaRS Discovery District is one of the world’s largest urban innovation hubs encouraging entrepreneurial thinking through education programs and events, and helps to launch start-ups. MaRS supports over 1,000 ventures that employ more than 5,000 people. In the last three years, MaRS ventures have raised $1.3 billion in capital and earned $640 million revenue.

To support the collaboration, MaRS Data Catalyst and partners are developing “MyHealth”, which is a gateway between consumer facing solutions and public/private health information custodians. MyHealth aims to empower citizens through a more complete view of their health and support fitness, diet, disease prevention, and management.

There are four key areas of activity at MaRS and NATE that include engagement and advocacy, providing health IT access and exchange of methodologies and tools, identifying policy and legal aspects of privacy, security, and content unique to Canada, U.S and other global jurisdictions, and developing effective business models and processes.

For more information, email Meryt McGindley at NATE meryt.mcgindley@nate-trust.org or Joe Greenwood at jgreenwood@marsdd.com.