On December 1, the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal welcomed the co-founder and President and CEO of Dialogue, Cherif Habib.
Before an audience of almost 200 at the Palais des congrès de Montréal, Mr. Habib presented his path to entrepreneurship, explained Dialogue’s business model, and addressed the impact of telemedicine on access to health care and the outlook for this industry.
For Cherif Habib, entrepreneurship is a driver of integration. Growing up in a family of entrepreneurs from Egypt, early on he realized that employee well-being is essential to business success. This realization was behind the creation of Dialogue, which is taking advantage of the city’s world-class status in medicine and health to develop an integrated, multidisciplinary health platform.
“Dialogue democratizes access to health care.”
Dialogue focuses on the accessibility of health care and complementarity with the public system by empowering employers. Every day, 2,500 consultations are made possible on the Dialogue platform, accessible to around 15% of the Canadian population. Each consultation represents savings of $50 for the public health care system.
According to Mr. Habib, the greatest challenge to collectively tackle in health care is the issue of mental health. He pointed out that employers are increasingly aware of the impact of the pandemic on their employees’ psychological health. He also added that the health care system has shown its limitations, which is why Dialogue’s role has been even more important in the current context.
“Access to care is the challenge for the next decade.”
For Mr. Habib, the strength of the entrepreneurial ecosystem lies in solidarity. He added that businesses that succeed must be able to give back by supporting younger generations, underrepresented groups, and young entrepreneurs. He believes that by engaging with these groups, we can have a positive impact on the next generation and that Montréal can continue to attract great talent.
“Montréal’s entrepreneurial future has never been so promising, particularly in health care.”
Mr. Habib remarked that the time has come to kick the city’s entrepreneurial ecosystem into high gear. To do this, he says it is essential to facilitate and simplify regulatory processes. He added that every effort needs to be made to encourage the creation of businesses and convince them to stay in Québec once they are successful.