Current Projects
Current Projects are initiatives actively incubated and supported at OpenLab. Through collaboration with partners, users, and communities, OpenLab helps these projects grow, iterate, and build impact while they are still shaping their long-term direction.
Naturally occurring retirement communities (NORCs) are regular residential buildings that have become home to a high density of older adults. The NORC Innovation Centre is a first-of-its-kind centre advancing new models of social connection and accessible care for older adults living in NORCs.
In this series of handbooks, we tap into the expertise of people with lived experience to come up with practical advice, life hacks and ways to gracefully negotiate society’s big institutions.
Prescribing Virtual Reality (VRx) is a suite of projects that design and evaluate therapeutic VR-interventions for diverse and challenging populations (patients, caregivers, providers), from community to acute care.
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HealthWise (app) or William (AI assistant) is a project with the aim to create a clinically safe health assistant for improving outcomes for patients with chronic diseases.
ORN is a mobile app connecting people who use drugs alone with peers who can respond to overdose alerts with naloxone. It takes the concept of a safe consumption site virtual.
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Graduated Projects
Graduated Projects started at OpenLab but have grown into independent initiatives, now thriving under our partners or external teams. They carry forward the impact of their original ideas, proving that innovation can scale beyond the studio.
The Local is an award-winning online magazine and among the first Registered Journalism Organizations in Canada. It began as a hyper-local storytelling project at OpenLab in 2017 and, in 2019, The Local spun off as an independent non-profit.​​
The period of transition from hospital is a vulnerable time for patients. It is important to clearly communicate information that patients need to know when they leave hospital. PODS is a simple tool and set of process changes to improve the hospital transition experience for patients codesigned with patients, caregivers, and providers.
​The Friendly Neighbour Hotline was a volunteer-driven program to support low-income seniors with food access during the COVID-19 pandemic.​​​​​
AFIB is the most frequently encountered arrhythmia, the incidence of which is increasing as the population ages. The AFIB Innovation Program redesigns the system and process of care for atrial fibrillation (AFIB) to improve patients' quality of life and the sustainability of the healthcare system from the Emergency room to the Family Doctor's office.