Nurses, engineers work on healthcare problem-solving

CALGARY – The goal of developing more accessible technology in healthcare has united two University of Calgary faculties toward achieving a common objective. Dr. Linda Duffett-Leger (pictured on left), an associate professor in the Faculty of Nursing, is collaborating with Dr. Mohammad Moshirpour (pictured on right), an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Software Engineering, on new healthcare solutions.

“We are looking at nursing and healthcare, as well as the different processes they have and, ultimately, we are looking for areas where technology can be used to enhance those practices,” said Dr. Moshirpour.

The partners’ diverse expertise and collaboration have led to the contribution of multiple funded projects (see below), with an overarching goal of developing user-friendly and cost-effective technological healthcare interventions.

“Our main focus is on how we can use technologies to deliver services in a way that democratizes the healthcare system, levelling the playing field so more people have access to those services in a cost-efficient way,” said Duffett-Leger, PhD, who recently received the ASTech award in Social Innovation (Technology Alberta), a first for UCalgary Nursing.

Duffett-Leger and Moshirpour work alongside a strong team on several projects in collaboration with the Brenda Strafford Foundation long-term care facilities and the O’Brien Institute’s Brenda Strafford Centre on Aging in Calgary. This team consists of nursing postdoctorate fellows, software engineering graduate trainees and other highly qualified personnel.

One of the projects, which was initiated pre-COVID-19 pandemic, focuses on using wearable technology to mitigate back injury among nurses. “We have a healthcare human resources crisis, worsened by the pandemic,” said Duffett-Leger. The wearable tech aims to keep nurses healthy and productive.

Another innovative project they’re working on is creating an immersive experience for people with dementia, and their families and caregivers. This is guided by “reminiscence therapy,” which taps into long-term memories by focusing on short-term memories.

“There’s evidence in the research that shows, if we are able to tap into those long-term memories using old pictures or music, or anything that would stimulate those old memories, it reduces the symptoms of dementia,” said Duffett-Leger.

Both researchers provide experiential and team-based learning opportunities for their students. They received a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) grant through the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning to merge two applications. The aptly named Ignitingale platform provides a virtual environment for students from nursing and engineering to come together and create digital health solutions.

“We need to provide them with that experiential learning opportunity. That was one of the limitations we recognized during the pandemic: we don’t have a lot of tools to do this If people aren’t in the same classrooms,” said Moshirpour.

Last spring, Duffett-Leger and Moshirpour organized a meeting of graduate students from nursing and Schulich for a transdisciplinary hackathon, where they worked on finding potential solutions to real-world healthcare problems. One project worked on software to improve communication between emergency medical services and emergency triage nurses. Another devised an app to help reduce the occurrence of pressure ulcers by tracking and scheduling patients’ position changes.

The hackathon was well received as it provided students an opportunity to work in an interdisciplinary environment to develop digital healthcare solutions. Duffett-Leger and Moshirpour plan to offer it again to their students in the winter term.

“We see a lot of commonalities between nursing and engineering, being very applied sciences and complementary sciences; we learn very much in the same way,” says Duffett-Leger. “The highlight for our students was having the opportunity to work together to create technological solutions for the healthcare system.”

Adds Moshirpour: “I would argue that the research and learning opportunities go even further than simple job opportunities. This opens a lot of space and opportunity for innovation. This is a unique transdisciplinary training ecosystem where students are getting unique hands-on, real-world application.”

Duffett-Leger and Moshirpour have assembled a team of nurses and software engineers focused on the co-design and development of digital health solutions for real-world application. The following are a few of their federal and locally funded projects:

• Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) operating grant (COVID-19: Rapid Response to Mental Health): Develop user-friendly, secure and scalable web and mobile-based applications, in collaboration with Alberta Health Services (Maternal Newborn Child & Youth Strategic Clinical Network) and community organizations, to deliver two in-home/in-clinic parenting interventions virtually to vulnerable families (VID-KIDS Virtual and ATTACH Virtual), currently being deployed in Alberta
• VPR Catalyst, Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute Seedling, and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Development grants: Develop an AI-enabled tool (EQUIP), in collaboration with researchers at the University of Washington, to automate decision support for clinicians re: quality of parent-child interactions, to be deployed via VID-KIDS/ATTACH virtual platforms and stand-alone mobile application
• Alberta Labour and Immigration Supporting Psychological Health in First Responders grant: Build on the virtual platform (developed through CIHR-funded research) to tailor a virtual group-based psycho-educational program for first responders at risk for post-traumatic stress injury and their spouses; integration of learning-management system (asynchronous learning) and wearable technology (mobile applications for smartwatch and smartphone) to gather biometric (stress) data and unique data visualizations enabling users to monitor/manage personal stress levels
• Faculty of Nursing and Brenda Strafford Foundation funding: Develop virtual reality intervention for people with dementia and their family caregivers, guided by reminiscence therapy, to reduce the negative psychological and behavioural symptoms of dementia, through partnership with the Brenda Strafford Centre on Aging embedded in the O’Brien Institute for Public Health.

Source: Sumaya Bernier, University of Calgary