Working with Weeneebayko Area Health Authority to Transform Care

Working with Weeneebayko Area Health Authority to Transform Care

It took Gloria Stoney five days to get medivaced from her home in Peawanuck to Toronto General Hospital this October when she started experiencing serious cardiac symptoms. She returned home at the end of November.

A new 5-year agreement with Weeneebayko Area Health Authority will support the cardiovascular needs of James and Hudson Bay communities with a focus on direct care and remote management, so that patients like Gloria can access high-quality care close to home.

New study: Simplifying the pediatric cardiac care journey through digital innovation 

New study: Simplifying the pediatric cardiac care journey through digital innovation 

A team of researchers led by TRANSFORM HF’s Dr. Sahr Wali are exploring how digital tools can support pediatric cardiac care management.

Their study began by exploring clinicians’ views on the use of a digital therapeutic program to support pediatric cardiac care. Through semi-structured interviews with clinicians at SickKids, the team identified key themes to guide the development of a digital therapeutic intervention to empower adolescents with heart disease in their own care. These findings have been published in PLOS Digital Health.

Is it Time for an Entrepreneurship Vibe Check?

Is it Time for an Entrepreneurship Vibe Check?

Megh Rathod is a PhD Candidate in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto. He’s passionate about advancing medicine and quality of care through device innovation, and is currently working on developing a skin-tone invariant pulse oximeter in the form of a wearable.

Megh wanted to explore career paths and test his perceptions of entrepreneurship, so he applied to ECHO Discovery – a foundational education program that explores ideation, research translation, and entrepreneurship for cardiovascular health. Here’s what Megh had to say about his experience…

ECHO Discovery 2023 Pitch Competition & Google Health Fireside Chat

ECHO Discovery 2023 Pitch Competition & Google Health Fireside Chat

Watch four teams from our inaugural 2023 ECHO Discovery cohort pitch their novel innovative cardiovascular health solutions to judges Craig Simmons, Darshan Brahmbhatt, Julie Vizza, and Sumaiyah Rehman for a chance to win $500!

While the judges deliberate, hear from global leader in digital health technology, Jacqueline Shreibati. Dr. Shreibati discusses how she pivoted her trajectory and leveraged her diverse skillset to make real-world impact – inspirational words on the importance of finding your value, being persistent, and navigating rejection!

Drumroll please… Panorama Health (Kathryn Howe, Tenzin Yangzom, Sophie Sigfstead, Ruilin Wu, Nathan Holwell) was awarded $500 for a conversational AI app for smoking cessation! Congrats to Cardio Fi (Anat Usatinsky, Samantha Unger, John Darwin Namata, Vaswani Kumar Lukka, Tina Sokhanvar), Podiascale (Mohammed Rashidul Anwar, Rayhaan Bassawon, Jonathun Wu), and PressurePal (Daniel Davoudpour, Elizabeth Karvasarki, Amanda Mac, Megh Rathod) on their strong pitches as well.

Designing for Equity: New Grant Advances Digital Innovation for Equitable Heart Failure Care

Designing for Equity: New Grant Advances Digital Innovation for Equitable Heart Failure Care

Breaking news: TRANSFORM HF has been awarded a $1.65 million 6-year NSERC Collaborative Research and Training Experience grant to train the next generation of digital health innovators to design for equity!

Translating Cardiovascular Remote Diagnostic and Monitoring Technologies for Equitable Healthcare, or CaRDM Eq, will be delivered by a multidisciplinary team led by Dr. Azadeh Yadollahi.

Together with this diverse team and 30+ collaborators, we will ensure the next innovations in digital health have equity at their core – from ideation, to design, to implementation.

ECHO Discovery Fireside Chat: Medly Therapeutics

ECHO Discovery Fireside Chat: Medly Therapeutics

In December 2022, Dr. Heather Ross and Dr. Joseph Cafazzo were named University Health Network’s Inventors of the Year in recognition of their development and commercialization of Medly– a remote heart failure care tool powered by software and AI. As part of #ECHODiscovery’s Fireside Chat speaker series, Heather and Joe joined us to talk all things Medly – from what’s required for a successful collaboration to what’s in store for the future of Medly Therapeutics as it spreads, scales, and integrates new features.

Playing the Future of Digital Health by Ear

Playing the Future of Digital Health by Ear

When it comes to digital innovation, Alex Mariakakis and his team are all ears! Meet our 2023 Seed Grant recipient, who’s aiming to make blood pressure monitoring more accessible using earbuds.

Earbuds have the potential to remove the cost of blood pressure cuffs, increase the ease of at-home monitoring, and could even out-perform smartwatches! Alex views earbuds as one of the next big platforms – not just for blood pressure monitoring, but for digital health in general.