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.

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

• Among the finalists for the 33rd annual ASTech Awards are Avtar Mandaher of Sarcomere Dynamics Inc., a St. Albert company that is working on a near-human robotic hand; insect biotechnology company Future Fields; and Reagan Bartel, director of health for the Metis Nation of Alberta. The awards will be presented at NAIT on Nov. 4.
• Jalene Anderson-Baron of Future Fields, Ron Mills of Northernmost Medical Devices, and Ron Wai of Mint Health + Drugs are among the members of the Mayor’s Advisory Council on Business Growth and Opportunities, launched by Amarjeet Sohi to help “build and feed a vibrant, inclusive and prosperous business ecosystem in Edmonton.”
• Among the health-related honorees on Edify’s Top 40 under 40 list are Dr. Nicholas Avdimiretz, a pediatric respirologist at the Stollery Children’s Hospital; Garima Khatri, a clinical social worker in Covenant Health’s community geriatric psychiatry program; associate professor and entrepreneur Hollis Lai of MGHL Partners; Dr. Grace Lam, a pulmonologist at the University of Alberta; Dr. Miral Mehta of Stellar Integrated Eye Care; Dr. Shazma Mithani, an emergency physician at the Royal Alexandra Hospital and Stollery Children’s Hospital; Jeff Vela of Summerside Children’s and Sport Physiotherapy; and Morrel Wax, director of philanthropy at the Royal Alexandra Hospital. They will be celebrated at an event on Nov. 8.
• Cory Janssen of AltaML and Susannah Pierce of Shell Canada co-authored an op-ed urging Alberta to focus on three areas in which it has unique competitive advantages, one of which is health. “Alberta is an emerging leader in developing medical advancements, interventions and supports to enable people to live long, healthy lives,” they wrote. “Imagine if we grew our budding asset base and expertise to develop and export solutions for issues such as chronic diseases, mental health, or long health-care wait times.” Janssen and Pierce co-chaired the Business Council of Alberta’s Define the Decade task force.
• DiveThru, which started as a journaling app, is planning to open DiveThru Studio in early 2023. The physical location will be “connecting young people with therapy, with community and with themselves,” founder Sophie Gray said on LinkedIn.
• DrugBank is among the companies to make the Best Workplaces for Inclusion list compiled by Great Place to Work.
• Linglong Kong of the University of Alberta has been named a Canada CIFAR Chair in AI and will be working with the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii), applying statistics in a way that makes AI more reliable and more responsible. “Linglong is an accomplished researcher whose interest in quantile regression and robust statistics forms the core of his work in deep learning and distributional reinforcement learning — building on the significant expertise already present in Alberta,” Amii CEO Cam Linke told Folio.
• Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) has rebranded AI Week as Upper Bound and has set the dates for next year’s conference for May 23 to 26.
• The Children’s Ability Fund has donated $866,000 to Alberta Health Services to purchase specialized equipment and increase access to communication tools, education, and support, especially in rural and remote areas of northern Alberta.
• The Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation has been named one of the grant recipients of the City of Edmonton’s anti-racism grants program. The Foundation plans to use the $25,000 grant to support the Indigenous Cultural Partnership between the Lois Hole Hospital for Women and Indigenous-led organizations in Edmonton.
• Events

• Nov. 4, 4pm: ASTech Awards 2022 at the NAIT Productivity and Innovation Centre
• Nov. 10, 4pm: Health Innovators’ Meetup: Get to Know Your Investors at Enterprise Square
• Nov. 15, 9am: Medicine and Dentistry presents Dean’s Lecture Series: Partnering with Indigenous Peoples for the Development of Indigenous Health Content
• Nov. 17, 4:30pm: Startup TNT Investment Summit VI Finale
• Nov. 19, 10am: ELIXR Simulation: Virtual Reality Day at MacEwan University
• Nov. 22, 12pm: AI Meetup on building AI-based models for healthcare
• Nov. 24: Rainforest Summit at the Edmonton Convention Centre
• Nov. 29-30: Plug and Play Alberta Expo Day in Banff
• Nov. 29-Dec. 2: Leading in Learning Forum, presented by Alberta Innovates

Become a “Roundup Cultivator” and sponsor Taproot Edmonton to help them chronicle health innovation in Edmonton. Learn more