OTTAWA – Joule, the Canadian Medical Association’s newest company, has announced the five recipients of its 2017 Innovation grants. This year’s grant recipients were selected by a panel of 12 Joule Innovation Council members, focusing on degree of disruption, healthcare benefits, scalability and relevance. The funds totaling $150,000 are allocated in three categories: Early-Stage Initiatives, Later-Stage Initiatives and Social Initiative.

“The promise of innovation is realized when a great idea meets the right support and opportunities,” says Lindee David (pictured), Joule CEO. “Joule makes it easier for physicians to spark ideas into reality so that they can help foster important health changes like system improvements and improved patient care.”

Early Stage Initiatives recipients:

• Dr. Wey Leong, a surgical oncologist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto will receive a $25,000-grant to develop ReFilx, a biodegradable scaffold to aid in the regeneration of soft tissue which will reduce the rates of re-operation and mastectomy therefore improving the quality of life for breast cancer surgery patients and reduce the need for further surgeries. The product will solve an unmet clinical need that affects millions of women annually worldwide.
• Dr. Eitan Prisman, a surgical oncologist and clinical assistant professor at the Department of Surgery at the University of British Columbia will receive $25,000 to develop Virtual Preoperative Reconstruction (ViPRE) Platform. ViPRE is a streamlined, low cost, in-house tool for preoperative surgical planning and creation of 3-D printed surgical cutting guides.

Later-Stage Initiatives:

• Dr. Denis Vincent, an Edmonton-based physician, striving to make referrals simpler though a new tool called ezReferral. ezReferral is a powerful cloud-based, secure medical referral management tool keeping all parties on the same page: family doctor, specialist and patient. Dr. Vincent will use this $50,000 grant to ensure consistency and simplicity when referring a patient to a specialist.
• Dr. John Pacey, a vascular surgeon from Vancouver, will receive $25,000 to further develop the Pacey Cuff, a urethral control device for post prostatectomy. The Pacey Cuff provides confident self-control without any discomfort for those who have urinary sphincter incompetence. It allows for the resumption of normal life activities with minimal use of expensive pads and no use of adult diapers.

Social Initiative:

• Dr. Dennis DiValentino, incoming President of the Hamilton Academy of Medicine and Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at McMaster University, will receive $25,000 to help provide care to marginalized individuals. Using mobile tele-medical units, care can be delivered to individuals with serious mental illnesses, addiction issues and elderly patients who are immobile and do not have a caregiver.