Improving patient care

Three research projects that will increase patient safety and reduce the length of hospital stays have received funding from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency’s Atlantic Innovation Fund (AIF). The funding is intended to bring medical devices created in the lab to market for commercial use. It will also enable less invasive procedures, reduce costs in the health care sector and could ultimately replace the need for MRI and CT scans and for knee and hip replacements.

Announced Sunday, March 20, by ACOA Minister Peter MacKay, the projects are a collaboration between Capital Health and Dalhousie University, pairing their medical science and medical application capabilities to develop technologies intended for the market, that will improve health care efficiency. All three projects involve extensive collaboration with researchers and clinicians from Dalhousie Medical School and Capital Health.

Led by Capital Health in collaboration with Dalhousie, two of the projects will see researchers focus on the development of new high-resolution diagnostic imaging devices to improve the understanding of diagnosis and treatment of hearing disorders and to conduct research on imaging neurons in the retina. The projects will receive approximately $4.2 million from the AIF fund over a five-year period.

Ear and eye imaging

“Strong support for such innovations validates the concept of inter-professional collaborative research teams which are the foundation of Discovery and Innovations for Health,” says Dr Raymond LeBlanc, professor of Ophthalmology in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at Dalhousie and vice president of Learning Research and Innovation at Capital Health. “Focused on patient safety and improved care, our research teams are world leading in many exciting areas.”

The ‘ear imaging research project’ will look to create a higher-resolution image that will improve diagnostic precision, resulting in more accurate diagnoses, less invasive techniques, and better approaches to understanding and treating ear disorders. The newly-developed imaging device will replace conventional tests such as MRI and CT Scans.

The ‘imaging of retinal neurons research project’ will improve the way ophthalmologists assess and treat major eye diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma.

Bone augmentation

The third research project, led by Dalhousie in collaboration with Capital Health, will develop minimally invasive systems for bone augmentation through the development of new biomaterials. Combined with new surgical devices and protocols, these procedures will lead to reduced recovery times and risk of infection. One of the many benefits this will create is in the entirely new market of salvaging implants, proposed to avoid full hip and knee implant replacement with minimally invasive injection of bone cement. This project will receive approximately $1.7 million from the AIF fund over a five-year period.

“There is tremendous potential for the commercialization of medical devices within our innovative research community,” says Stephen Hartlen, assistant vice president (industry relations) and executive director, Industry Liaison and Innovation Office, Dalhousie. “These are strong examples of the type of interdisciplinary collaborations required to move research to market and grow the Nova Scotia economy.”

These research projects are a collaborative effort of the Discovery and Innovation for Health group, consisting of Capital Health, Dalhousie University, the IWK Health Centre, and the National Research Council Canada. They are examples of the commitment from Dalhousie, Capital Health and all of their partners to taking science from the lab and quickly moving it to the market, where patients can benefit from this work.