Health Innovation Roundup

The Health Innovation Roundup, sponsored by Health Cities, is written and published weekly by Taproot Edmonton to bring you the latest news and events in research, technology, companies and people changing health for the better in Edmonton.

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Here are some highlights from this week’s Health Innovation Roundup:

Headlines

• Biopharma company GSK has boosted its chair in virology at the University of Alberta by $1.5 million, bringing to the total in funding to almost $6 million. The endowment will help the Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology continue to recruit top scientists to pursue breakthroughs in antivirals, vaccines, and drugs. “Long-term and beneficial relationships with industry partners such as GSK are critically important to building the infrastructure and the people that we need in an expanding biotech industry to create jobs and keep attracting top-notch people,” the institute’s Lorne Tyrrell told Folio.
• Health Cities shared the video from A New Lens on Health and Prevention, a panel discussion on Feb. 9 that relaunched its breakfast series. Dr. Kate Storey, Dr. Karen Lee, Gary St. Amand, and Tricia Smith discussed the social determinants of health.
• Chris Carvalho, who leads the Health Cities Health Tech Home Program, will participate in a Digital Health Canada discussion about enabling older adults through technology on March 8.
• Startup TNT has posted videos of the top 20 pitch nights for its upcoming investment summit in life sciences.
• The deadline to apply for the startup pitch event at Inventures is Feb. 24. The categories are the metaverse, future of work, ag/food tech, health innovation, and cleantech.
• Cory Janssen of AltaML will join Nic Beique of Helcim at InterGen’s Wine Wednesday in Calgary on March 15. They’ll speak to business leaders, educators, and health practitioners about AI’s impact in light of tools such as ChatGPT, Google’s BARD, and such.
• A Hepion Pharmaceuticals presentation featuring its work to develop target therapies for liver disease was featured on the Nasdaq tower at Times Square in New York City.
• The University Hospital Foundation’s Festival of Trees raised $2.07 million, the second-highest amount in the festival’s history. The funds will be invested towards the new, state-of-the-art Neurological Rehabilitation Innovation Centre at the University of Alberta Hospital.
• Postmedia showcased the house that’s up for grabs in the Mighty Millions lottery, an annual fundraiser for the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation. “The money (from this edition) will be going to specialized equipment and research,” said Mike House, president and CEO of the foundation. “We have a number of clinical trials to discover cures and test medicines that lead the breakthroughs in children’s health.”

Events

• Feb. 16, 4pm: Health Innovators’ Meetup: Get To Know Your Investors at Enterprise Square
• Feb. 21, 12pm: AI Meetup: Tackling healthcare projects using federated learning from Amii
• Feb. 21, 12pm: Virtual Lunch ‘n’ Learn with BioTalent Canada
• Feb. 23: The University Hospital Foundation’s Heart Pledge Day on up! 99.3
• Feb. 23, 12pm: Digitizing & Automating Mental Health Treatment, presented by Lenica Research Group
• Feb. 23, 7pm: Accessing Continuing Care in Alberta, presented by the Early Onset Dementia Alberta Foundation
• Until Feb. 28: The Maz Move-A-Thon for the University Hospital Foundation
• March 8, 12pm: Enabling older adults through technology: an Alberta case study from Digital Health Canada
• March 10-12: 2023 Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Conference at the Matrix Hotel
• March 23: Life Sciences Investment Summit Finale in Calgary

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