Surrey Health and Technology District: Where Innovation Takes Centre Stage

“Our model for collaboration and innovation is not just a success—it's a blueprint for the future.” - Rowena Rizzotti, Surrey Health and Technology District

A dynamic force is reshaping the way creators and healthcare practitioners approach innovation in Surrey, B.C.. The Surrey Health and Technology District, a private sector-led complex, has emerged as a hub for collaboration, disruption, and ingenuity in the health and education sectors.

At the heart of its success is the district's ability to bridge the gap between private and public sectors. Rowena Rizzotti, one of the district’s original founders, emphasizes the importance of enabling innovation and creation simply by bringing people together who would never otherwise cross paths.

The district's spirit thrives on an environment that breaks free from traditional silos. The result is a pressure-cooker environment that welcomes everyone from small startups and thought leaders, to academics, researchers, and even unconventional contributors like gamers. The goal? To foster discussions that lead to disruptive solutions to some of health and societies most challenging problems. 

“We get both the right and the wrong people in the room, and we start creating a path towards a solution, and along the way we learn so much,” Rizzotti recently told Disruption.

For example, one of the district’s earliest success stories was born out of one such unlikely collaboration between gamers and surgeons. This diverse group, brought together by the district's environment, used gaming technology to develop VR tools for training clinicians in surgical interventions. This innovation is now making waves in over 200 hospitals across the US and Canada, Rizzotti notes. 

Central to the district's success is the creation of the Innovation Hub, a nucleus for their evolving ecosystem. This vibrant space has become a key catalyst for growth. What sets it apart is its accessibility, Rizzotti notes. By keeping the barriers low, the district attracts a variety of contributors. From casual techies to clinicians, scientists, and engineers, everyone is welcome, which paves the way for organic collaborations that have yielded groundbreaking outcomes.

The success of the district speaks for itself. Notably, at a time when vacancy rates were climbing in metro Vancouver, the district was attracting new businesses and entrepreneurs at an impressive rate. “Our model for collaboration and innovation is not just a success—it's a blueprint for the future,” says Rizzotti. By building an ecosystem that encourages diverse minds to come together, the district is proving that the right environment can accelerate the path towards disruptive solutions and inspire transformative change.