Health Futures

Artificial intelligence has made protein design lightning fast, creating digital blueprints for cures to some of the most life-limiting ailments. While this means we now have thousands of new potential therapeutics, for these cures to be realized the designs need to be synthesized and validated in a laboratory environment, which can take a considerable amount of time.

Unzila Shahzad, a University of Waterloo co-op student, recently wrote and published her own children’s book following a work term at SickKids Hospital. Shahzad’s book, Haseeb and Teddy: From Magic Boots to Magical Feet, adds a touch of magic to empower children with clubfoot while shedding light on the congenital condition. Clubfoot is present at birth which causes an infant’s foot to turn inward or downward because of a shortened Achilles tendon.  

Robotics company Cobionix has raised a $2.8 million seed round to deploy its commercial robotics system Codi, an industry-first tele-robotic medical imaging tool.

The company, which is part of the University of Waterloo’s Velocity incubator, hopes that Codi will increase access to diagnostic imaging services and save healthcare costs by reducing procedure time, ultimately improving patient care.

Several wildfires in the Canadian province of Quebec have caused hazy skies and sent air quality plunging in parts of Ontario and the northeastern United States. The most harmful air pollutant worldwide is fine particular matter, with the biggest natural source of this pollutant being wildfires.

One of the challenges in treating burn victims is the frequency of dressing changes, which can be extremely painful.

To bring relief to this and other problems, University of Waterloo researchers have created a new type of wound dressing material using advanced polymers. This new dressing could enhance the healing process for burn patients and have potential applications for drug delivery in cancer treatment as well as in the cosmetic industry.

While most aspects of care quality in long-term care homes did not differ in the first year of the pandemic from pre-pandemic levels, a new study shows that the use of antipsychotic drugs increased in all provinces.

The study analyzed health system performance reports provided by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) over three years: two before the pandemic and the first year of COVID-19. The reports are based on more than half a million resident assessments completed in Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia.

Grand River Hospital Foundation’s Care Never Stops Week (from May 23 to May 28) featured a Health Innovation Challenge in partnership with the University of Waterloo’s Velocity Incubator, a free public talk with Tomi Poutanen, CEO and Co-founder of artificial intelligence-driven health company Signal 1, and a grand finale Rally for Health, with a free public concert. 

MedInclude is a new web platform which makes medical information more accessible for patients. The tool transcribes doctor’s notes in lay terms in real time and makes them available in a patient’s mother-tongue so they can more easily understand and take part in their medical care and decisions.

Seun Adetunji, a student of the Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology program at the University of Waterloo is the founder of MedInclude. Her goal with the company is to make medical information more accessible for patients.

Waterloo student-founded company Safi – from the Swahili word for “pure” or “safe” – is a startup with an ambitious mission. They want to empower East African farmers to pasteurize milk cheaply and easily, with the ultimate goal of ending milk-transmitted disease. Today, Safi’s founders are working with governments, presenting at international conferences and preparing for a 300-unit test rollout in Rwanda. Two years ago, however, Safi was just an idea.