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. Sign up to get the full edition delivered directly to your inbox. Use the code HEALTHCITY & you’ll get 10% off the first year. Here are some highlights from this week’s Health Innovation Roundup: Headlines True Angle Medical has been issued a United States patent for “systems and methods for diagnosis and treatment of swallowing disorders.” Ceapro announced the publication of findings from a collaborative research project with the University of Alberta illustrating the potential of its Pressurized Gas eXpanded (PGX) technology to turn brown algae into a substance it can use as a delivery mechanism for therapeutics or cosmetics. CEO Gilles Gagnon said the study illustrates “the untold potential of the PGX Technology” to help Ceapro generate new products and expand into a high-end life sciences company. Click & Push Accessibility Inc. and the University of Alberta’s Rehabilitation Robotics Lab are working on a mobile app called The Atlas to map out barriers to getting around the city due to construction or other impediments to people getting around the city by wheelchair, by bike, or on foot. Techlifetoday examined how the Centre for Advanced Medical Simulations (CAMS) is going to put a $1.27 million grant from Alberta Innovates to work to support the development of health-care innovations. “This funding enables us to open CAMS to innovators developing new and critical health technologies,” said NAIT president and CEO Laura Jo Gunter. “It gives future health-care providers the tools they need to create better health outcomes for Alberta.” Researchers at the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine are exploring whether transcranial direct current stimulation, which delivers a low current through the scalp to stimulate the brain, could improve focus, memory, and other cognitive matters. Health Cities published a piece on the role nurses play in driving innovation in health care, noting the crucial role nurses played in the Home Health Monitoring project in central Alberta and the Remote Diagnostic Imaging project using Medo.AI’s ultrasound technology. The Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) took a look at Russ Greiner’s work on increasing trust in diagnoses arrived at through medical AI systems. “When we’re talking to a doctor, they give us a story, an explanation: what they think and why,” the Canada CIFAR AI Chair at Amii said. “And we’re much less trusting of computers not explaining things than we are of people.” Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation has partnered with a team of scientists from the University of Waterloo to find and develop therapeutics and drugs for the treatment and prevention of coronaviruses. “By working closely and facilitating similar partnerships in drug research for infectious diseases, we are developing a highly qualified personnel workforce that is skilled and ready in vaccine drug development now and for future pandemic scenarios,” said API CEO Andrew MacIsaac. The Health Innovation Hub shared a recap of its first meetup, which featured a panel discussion with Andrew MacIsaac of API, Tim Murphy of Alberta Innovates, and Gail Powley of Technology Alberta on the power of community and what it means for health innovation. The PrescribeIT e-prescribing service will be rolled out to 26 Medicentres throughout Alberta after a successful pilot in Lethbridge in 2019. It allows doctors and other prescribers to send prescriptions and renewals electronically to the pharmacy of the patient’s choice. May 17-18: Canada’s Medtech Conference May 19, 5:30pm: YEG Startup Community Awards May 24-27: Amii’s AI Week May 31, 8am: Towards Patient-Specific Treatment: Medical Applications of Machine Learning June 1-3: Inventures conference in Calgary and online June 2, 7pm: Psychedelics: past, present, and future from the University of Alberta Neuroscience Graduate Student Association June 7, 4pm: Virtual Expedition: The Rise and Fall of Diabetes presented by the University Hospital Foundation June 16, 18, and 19: Shining a Light for the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital June 20-21: Alberta Transplant Institute Research Day Have a suggestion for a future edition? Send it to hello@taprootedmonton.ca for consideration. Become a “Roundup Cultivator” and sponsor Taproot Edmonton to help them chronicle health innovation in Edmonton. Learn more