Joule announces 2020 Innovation grant recipients

12 recipients to share $500,000 to develop or scale up projects to improve access to care, innovate and sustain the health care system and improve physician health and wellness

OTTAWA, ON, Jan. 14, 2021 /CNW/ - Joule, a Canadian Medical Association (CMA) subsidiary, today announced the 12 recipients of its 2020 Innovation grant program. The physicians and medical learners from across the country will share $500,000 in funding to develop or expand their respective projects.

Access to care:

    --  Dr. Alika Lafontaine - An anesthesiologist in Grande Prairie, Alberta,
        Dr. Lafontaine implemented SafeSpace Networks, an anonymous reporting
        and learning platform that empowers marginalized patients to navigate
        health systems, supported by other patients, providers and stakeholders.
        The $100,000 grant will support SafeSpace's development and will be used
        to grow its social network of users and approved stakeholders.
    --  Dr. Gregory Schmidt - A recent graduate in internal medicine in
        Vancouver, Dr. Schmidt created Bodo Health, a software startup and
        virtual clinic that offers in-home speech, language and voice services.
        The $50,000 grant will allow Bodo Health to build tools for virtual
        post-stroke and neuro-rehab speech services.

Physician health and wellness:

    --  Dr. Jordan Vollrath - A full-time locum family physician in Alberta, Dr.
        Vollrath developed Cherry Health, a smartphone app that functions as a
        centralized database to link physicians and clinics together to solve
        locum-matching problems. The $100,000 grant will support Cherry Health's
        profile among physicians and support the implementation of additional
        user functionality.
    --  Dr. Mohamed Alarakhia - A family physician in Kitchener-Waterloo and a
        leader in the field of eHealth, Dr. Alarakhia created "Bernie", an
        automated solution to help physicians and their staff reduce the number
        of manual tasks related to clinical information management they have to
        perform. The $50,000 grant will support the development to upgrade the
        solution to effectively manage and follow-up on lab test results.

Health care solutions:

    --  Tingting Yan - A medical student at the University of Toronto, Ms. Yan
        co-founded SeroTracker.com, an international dashboard that synthesizes
        evidence from serological (antibody) testing to map disease spread
        beyond case counts. The $50,000 grant will allow the SeroTracker team to
        develop novel artificial intelligence technology to more quickly
        identify, clean, aggregate and analyze data.
    --  Dr. Jennifer Hensel - A psychiatrist at the Health Sciences Centre and
        Crisis Response Centre in Winnipeg, Dr. Hensel and her team developed a
        virtual mental health ward where admitted patients have access to
        assessment and support from their homes. The $30,000 grant will help
        develop the virtual model and discover its potential to scale across
        Canada and beyond.

Sustainable health care:

    --  Dr. Melissa Lem - A Vancouver-based family physician and clinical
        assistant professor at UBC, Dr. Lem created PaRx, Canada's first
        national, evidence-based nature prescription program. The app pairs
        patients with a nature experience with the aim of reducing their stress,
        anxiety and depression. The $50,000 grant will allow Dr. Lem to scale
        PaRx across Canada, build the web application, develop and implement a
        climate points system and create a CPD-accredited online module.
    --  Dr. Simon Berthelot - An emergency medicine specialist and researcher at
        the pediatric academic hospital of the CHU de Québec-Université Laval,
        Dr. Berthelot has created Med-LCA, an app to help reduce the pollution
        generated by hospitals by teaching them how to complete their own life
        cycle assessments (LCAs) - analyses of the ecological footprint of each
        health care activity. The $30,000 grant will support the completion of
        the LCAs necessary to establish a representative sample of the care
        activities performed in our health care system.

Emerging physician innovators:

    --  Brandon Spink - A second-year medical student at the University of
        Saskatchewan who created the Nexagon, a protective neck brace designed
        to prevent concussions by focusing on one of the key causes -- whiplash
        injuries, which can result in a rapid rotation of the head and neck. The
        $10,000 grant will be used to support the development and manufacturing
        of the Nexagon.
    --  Stuti Tanya - A second-year medical student at Memorial University of
        Newfoundland, Ms. Tanya co-created Rhythm, an ophthalmic triage and
        referral software, to help primary care providers arrive at a more
        accurate diagnosis for referral purposes and to more accurately estimate
        the urgency of referrals. The $10,000 grant will support the development
        of the next phases of Rhythm.
    --  Dr. Jovi Wong - An ophthalmology resident at the University of Toronto,
        Dr. Wong created Retinographer, an inexpensive smartphone-based
        fundoscope that can take an image of the back surface of the eye and
        detect major retinal diseases, allowing front-line workers to screen
        patients in their own communities before sending to a specialist. The
        $10,000 grant will enable Dr. Wong and her team to build a prototype and
        collect a data set of smartphone fundus images to develop the artificial
        intelligence model.
    --  Dr. Abhiram Cherukupalli - A family medicine resident at the University
        of British Columbia, Dr. Cherukupalli has created Tractus Medical, a
        device that can be operated by a single physician and offer consistent
        fixed traction throughout the entire treatment and casting process of
        wrist fractures. The $10,000 grant will help him and his team further
        develop Tractus into a marketable device.

Since 2016, the Joule Innovation grant program has supported physician-led innovation for CMA members. 2020 marks the fifth and final year the innovation grants will be offered. Moving forward, all granting programs in support of the profession, the health care system and communities will be undertaken through the CMA Foundation, the hub for CMA's strategic granting.

SOURCE Joule