NEW. the Centre for the Advancement of Health Innovations

OTTAWA, March 17 /CNW Telbec/ - The Conference Board of Canada and the Canadian Health Industries Partnership (CHIP) have reached an agreement to jointly create the Centre for the Advancement of Health Innovations (CAHI).

The new centre will build on the resources, talent, and commitment of the Conference Board and CHIP to make Canada a world leader in the development and commercialization of health innovations.CAHI will adopt a global perspective in identifying and exploring the applicability of best practices to Canada and Canadian industries. To this end, the centre will have an International Advisory Panel chaired by Henry Friesen, founding president of the Canadian Institute of Health Research and founder of CHIP. This panel will be made up of world leaders in health innovation who bring with them a vast wealth of experience and knowledge. The inaugural meeting of this policy centre will take place on March 31-April 1, 2008 in Toronto.

The co-chairs are Dr. Calvin Stiller, Chair of Genome Canada and Mark Lievonen, President of Sanofi Pasteur Limited and Chair of CHIP.

The Conference Board of Canada (CBoC) is widely recognized as Canada's foremost independent, not-for-profit research organization specializing in economic trends, public policy, and organizational performance.

The Canadian Health Industries Partnership (CHIP) is a legally constituted not-for-profit organization that provides a forum to enable governments, academia, and leaders of Canada's industrial health innovation sector to collaborate in exchanging perspectives, discussing and developing recommended strategy directions and policy options on health innovation.