2021 Digital Health Executive of the Year: David Helliwell

David Helliwell, Executive Director – Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Thrive Health

There have been many ‘healthcare heroes’ throughout the past 20+ months: one of them is David Helliwell.

Since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, David has had the foresight to identify the gaps in digital health needs for Canadians. At the very beginning, David advanced Thrive Health’s partnerships with Health Canada and the BC Ministry of Health to develop the Canada and BC COVID-19 Apps and Self-Assessment Tools, which together helped more than 14 million Canadians navigate the pandemic with updated protocol information, stats, and next steps according to an individual’s symptoms or situational risk – the apps and tools were efficiently developed within a few weeks in March 2020 to immediately provide Canadians with the information they needed to keep themselves safe.

David’s involvement in the health technology space has been significant, as shown by the 14 million individuals that use the Thrive platform to manage their COVID-19 response. As the leader behind this innovative application, David is recognized and respected as a “healthcare hero” by many people. As a result of this leadership, over 2000 organizations across Canada are using Thrive Health software to manage their users’ healthcare journeys, demonstrating David’s strategic vision to support businesses and Canada’s opening economy. David is considered by many to be a thought-leader in the COVID-19 tech and Canadian digital health space, as evidenced by the countless organizations, such as Life Sciences BC, BC Tech Association, and HIMSS, that have invited him to speak at national events and on panels. His guidance has engaged leaders at all levels, including local, provincial and federal, in ensuring that Canadians had access to important health information at the peak of the pandemic, and that they had digital solutions they could trust when they were ready to get back to work and school.

As a result of this leadership, over 2000 organizations across Canada are using Thrive Health software to manage their users’ healthcare journeys, demonstrating David’s strategic vision to support businesses and Canada’s opening economy. David is highly deserving of this recognition from Digital Health Canada, for guiding Thrive Health to our leading position in the healthtech landscape where we find ourselves today.

Learn more about the Digital Health Canada Awards here.