Local tech company growing in B.C. and Alberta

A Penticton software company has scored a major health tech contract.

Big Bear Software was awarded the contract for the Integrated Management Platform to Accelerate Clinical Trials, otherwise known as IMPACT, working with Innovate Calgary at the Life Sciences Innovation Hub at the University of Calgary.

Keith MacIntyre, CEO of Big Bear, describes IMPACT as a management system to help health tech developers to navigate Health Canada, U.S. FDA and EU regulatory processes.

“It’s kind of like a wizard to help guide companies. It’s different whether you have a medical device, a drug or a piece of software. We help get them to the right places in the regulations,” said MacIntyre. “The idea is to get products to market quicker without being stuck in the regulatory process.”

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It’s a way of both supporting innovation and helping teams collaborate and organize.

The IMPACT Venture Navigators work with the venture to design, support, execute, and report on their clinical trials, including connecting the venture with a principal investigator.

“Our medical division has been growing, working with QHR technologies earlier in the year, building a medical product for a local company, and we’re in discussions with other Healthtech companies,” said Amy Fink, COO, Big Bear Software.

Big Bear Software was also a silver sponsor at the Future of Health Cancer Care forum on Oct. 18 in Kelowna, where they hoped to apply cross-industry software expertise to make purposeful change.

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As a company, Big Bear has been growing steadily.

“We have almost 15 people now. And we’re finding a bit of a niche in the healthcare industry as well as innovation and government,” said MacIntyre. “It’s nice to see that governments are looking towards small and innovative companies.”