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.

Collaborating Coast-to-Coast for Health Equity

Collaborating Coast-to-Coast for Health Equity

By supporting members of the TRANSFORM HF community in the development of new projects, our Collaboration Starter Grants aim to advance our mission of digital innovation for equitable heart failure care.

Another key objective of these grants is to foster new research partnerships and expand our network – something Dr. Jay Shaw has been able to do on a national scale through his pan-Canadian policy analysis of virtual care technologies.

University Health Network and Boehringer Ingelheim Canada partner to impact patients lives and help a healthcare system under strain

University Health Network and Boehringer Ingelheim Canada partner to impact patients lives and help a healthcare system under strain

The Ontario healthcare system is under strain, still recovering from the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic. The University Health Network (UHN) and Boehringer Ingelheim (Canada) Ltd. have partnered to address a critical need of heart failure patients.

The objective of the partnership is to expand patient reach of UHN’s successful Medly Program— an innovative, digital therapeutic solution that delivers the benefits of specialized clinical heart failure management at home while improving quality of life and reducing hospitalizations.

New U of T Program Offers Foundational Cardiovascular Health Entrepreneurship Training

New U of T Program Offers Foundational Cardiovascular Health Entrepreneurship Training

Learning about entrepreneurship is an ongoing process that should start with a program like ECHO Discovery.

Together, the Translational Biology & Engineering Program and TRANSFORM HF designed ECHO Discovery to introduce trainees to the world of ideation, research translation, and entrepreneurship.

ECHO Discovery provides an advantage to trainees who choose to pursue either a start-up or career in industry, health care, or government.

On the Land Indigenous Education Program: May 2022

On the Land Indigenous Education Program: May 2022

TRANSFORM HF members had the opportunity to participate in the On the Land Indigenous Education Program led by Dr. Angela Mashford-Pringle In May 2022.

Participants explored culturally-safe, strengths-based, and healing-informed clinical and research practices through hands-on, land-based learning.

TRANSFORM HF is very grateful to Dr. Angela Mashford-Pringle, her team, and the Elders and Cultural Knowledge Keepers and Helpers who made On the Land such an impactful experience.