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

• University of Alberta engineering professor Edmond Lou has added electronics and AI software to a portable ultrasound device to detect scoliosis in adolescents without an X-ray. It renders a three-dimensional image and is about one-quarter the price of traditional ultrasound systems with 3D position sensors. Lou, who co-founded a spinoff called DenSonics Imaging that uses ultrasound in orthodontics, told Folio he intends to launch a company for the scoliosis technology once he gets funding and a U.S. patent.
• The Centre for Advanced Medical Simulation (CAMS) at NAIT recapped its fall activities and events, including testing for PulmVita, which is developing a nasal cannula device to improve delivery for patients using portable oxygen.
• The Glenrose Rehab Research Innovation and Technology (GRRIT) Hub helps emerging health-technology companies develop innovative products by paying the wages of engineering students to work for them. The program has helped companies like Calgary’s Bowhead, which makes adaptive off-road bikes for people with spinal cord injuries, and worked with Edmonton’s Karma Machining and Manufacturing Service to develop an exercise device for hands, arms, and wrists. About 60 students have been placed so far.
• Surgeon-scientist Dr. Adam Kinnaird, an assistant professor at the University of Alberta, is leading an Edmonton-based clinical trial to more precisely detect prostate cancer, so that treatment is more targeted than removing the whole prostate or treating the whole area with radiation. “Just like with breast cancer, where we used to remove the whole breast with a radical mastectomy, but now lumpectomies are performed so just the tumour is removed … the theory is that we should be able to do this with prostate cancer,” he told Postmedia.
• An international collaboration between the University of Alberta and Griffith University in Australia has launched the first phase of human clinical trials for a vaccine against streptococcus A at the Li Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute. “We as an institution are innovating constantly. Our own investigations are deriving new ideas to treat diseases, new vaccines,” Lawrence Richer told Folio. “It struck me — why would we ask our investigators to go somewhere else to do these trials?”
• University of Alberta researchers Ming Chan, Christine Webber, and Douglas Zochodne spoke to Folio about their efforts to help more people recover from nerve injuries or illness. Surgery, electrical stimulation, and drug discovery are all part of the mix.
• Virtual overdose monitoring can reduce the risk of death from opioids and other substances by offering timely and anonymous access to care, indicates a piece published in the Canadian Medical Association. “Evidence, including pilot data from the National Overdose Response Service, suggests that virtual overdose monitoring services have promise as an adjunct to supervised consumption services in the continuum of care for people who use substances,” writes co-author Monty Ghosh, an internist and addiction specialist at the University of Alberta.
• Emerging Health Leaders Edmonton has kicked off its 2022-23 mentorship program. The organization brings together professionals from various areas of the health sector to “develop leadership skills in order to facilitate strategic thinking and health system innovation.”
• An anonymous guest at the University Hospital Foundation’s Festival of Trees fundraiser donated $1 million in matching funds for the Neurological Rehabilitation Innovation Centre at the University of Alberta Hospital.

• Events

• Dec. 1, 6pm: Startup TNT Happy Hour at Northern Chicken
• Until Dec. 2: Leading in Learning Forum, presented by Alberta Innovates
• Dec. 9, 1pm: Online information session for rural founders for the Alberta Innovates Revenue Accelerator powered by GrowthX
• Dec. 12, 12pm: How to File a Patent That Will Bring Value to Your Business with The IP Link
• Dec. 12, 1pm: TELUS Community Safety & Wellness Accelerator Information Session
• Dec. 14, 5pm: BioEconomy Guild: TrustBIX & Embassy of Canada to Poland

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