Canada’s medical community steps up to support innovation

‘Powerful’ partnership drives ideas

Many entrepreneurs are driven by the need to create, by fame and by profitability. Others, though, are driven by the impact their innovation will have. That bodes well for the medical industry, and it’s why there’s so much activity in the sector in Canada right now.

“Culturally, the Canadian medical space is willing to engage and to partner and is not as jaded by this tech evolution that hasn’t really delivered in the past several decades in (the medical) sector,” says Jay Shah, director of the University of Waterloo’s Velocity entrepreneurship program, home to the largest free startup incubator in the world. “That partnership is critical for any medical innovation to move forward. It can’t be created in a vacuum. Entrepreneurs here feel empowered and supported and the industry is receptive. That combination is really powerful.”

Here’s a sampling of some of the latest Canadian-made health care innovations: headphones and specialized game-play software. Results are backed up to a secure web portal so it’s easy to archive, manage and view audiograms and patient information from any web browser. Monthly fee for hardware, software and cloud-based management services starts at $200.

Being portable, Shoebox reduces hearing-test wait times as well as travel time, particularly for those in remote areas. Medical students across Canada are currently testing schoolchildren for early detection of hearing loss.

Dr. Bromwich founded Clearwater in 2007 but because of his busy practice could only devote nights and weekends to R&D, clinical validation studies and compliance issues. When Weider joined in 2013, he added software developers and marketers and raised $2 million. The Ottawa-based company has customers across North America, Africa and Asia, though 80 per cent of its business is in the U.S.

Last year saw triple-digit growth in revenue and unit sales; the success prompted the team to seek more money. Its newly acquired $6 million in Series A funding will be used to attract more customers in hospitals, clinics and industrial workplaces, particularly in Europe. They expect to double their staff head count within two years.

“Hearing loss is the world’s No. 1 disability,” says Weider. “One-third of people over 65 and two-thirds over 80 will be exposed to hearing loss. That’s over 640 million people worldwide. It’s really an underserved market.” the problems of hands-on health care. Only half of his patients actually require a physical exam for him to make a proper diagnosis and provide treatment. Yet they come, and wait hours to see him.

It’s this frustration that has Belchetz now alternating between his weekend scrubs and a weekday desk job. He’s CEO of Maple (getmaple.ca), a 24/7 online pay-per-use platform connecting patients to licensed physicians in minutes. For $49 per call (or $359 for unlimited annual use), patients in Ontario can log in to Maple’s secure web portal and instantly access a pool of doctors who diagnose illnesses, provide sick notes and prescribe medication. Consultation is by instant message, voice or live twoway video. The first doctor to pick up the request takes the case and earns the fee. Maple takes a small cut of the action.

Belchetz co-founded the Toronto-based company with his friends, CTO Stuart Starr and COO Roxana Zaman. They hired developers, built the platform and secured startup money from a private corporation and physician investors, the latter especially important to ensure “the owners have the right motivations for good care,” says Belchetz. The service will launch across Canada by the end of the year. An app is in the works.

“Fifty-three per cent of workplace absences to see a doctor can be avoided with a telemedicine solution,” says Belchetz.

With just 640 or so dermatologists serving more than 35 million Canadians, it can take months to get an appointment. For those with a suspicious mole or lesion, it’s an anxious wait.

MedX Health Corp. (medexhealth.com) is hoping to ease the pain. Unlike traditional dermoscopy used by most dermatologists that examines the skin surface and requires biopsy for deeper inspection, MedX’s non-invasive SIAscopy skin assessment tool uses light to penetrate up to two millimetres below the skin surface to detect potential melanoma. The image is scanned to a computer, then securely transmitted to one of three Canadian dermatologists on MedX’s current roster, who reviews the scan and provides the patient with next steps within 72 hours

It’s being rolled out to medical clinics at Loblaw stores in six Ontario cities and will expand to other provinces. It’s also at Air Canada’s medical facility at Toronto Pearson International Airport to test pilots and flight crews, who are at an increased risk of skin cancer due to UVA radiation penetrating aircraft windows.

“Early stage melanoma (patients have) a 95 per cent survival rate and (it) costs the health care system very little — it’s a simple cut to take it out,” says MedX senior vice-president Mike Druhan. “But Stage 4 melanoma is a $300,000 to $400,000 cost to the health care system and life expectancy is 10 per cent. The goal is to get screened early and capture it early.”

The SIAscopy technology was developed at Cambridge University in the mid-2000s (“It was the size of a small fridge!” says Druhan). MedX purchased it in 2011 and secured $1.5 million through investors. It went through several product redesigns at its Mississauga, Ont. facility to get it down to a PC-based handheld. Thanks to the technology’s European origins, the team snagged contracts with more than 200 pharmacy and clinic locations in Norway, Sweden and the U.K. The goal is to go national across Canada by the end of the year.