Using a high-tech prescription and a new round of cash infusions, Edmonton hopes to strike gold in a growing global e-health market.
Fictional futuristic devices such as Star Trek’s medical tricorder or Dick Tracy’s two-way wrist TV, are giving way to modern technological breakthroughs that will allow for the placement of vital medical sensors in a package that looks no different than today’s typical wristwatch.
Buoyed by $500,000 from Alberta Innovation and Science, along with additional funding expected to be announced shortly from Western Economic Diversification Canada, the Wireless Wearable Physiological Monitors (WWPM) project, initially conceptualized by the University of Alberta, is on track to start medical trials later this year.
WWPM will use this leading-edge sensor technology to provide information about a wearer’s physical state, such as blood pressure, pulse and respiration. This data will be continuously collected and stored, allowing health-care providers to monitor vital signs while the wearer goes about normal activities. In addition to providing invaluable information about a patient’s ongoing condition, the data could identify trigger signals and prevent a health emergency.
The project’s overall objectives are to improve acute care followup, long-term care, home health care and wellness management.
The production model of the initial device, once manufactured, will become a completely unobtrusive medical instrument.
“As far as you or the rest of the world is concerned, you’re just wearing a watch, any watch,” said James Miller, WWPM’s co-principal investigator and integrator, who is also an electrical and computer engineering professor at the U of A.
“The government of Alberta is committed to finding ways to commercialize innovative technology here in the province.” said Victor Doerksen, Alberta’s minister of innovation and science, in announcing the $500,000 contribution last week while in Chiba, Japan. “That’s why we are excited to be a part of the second phase of the WWPM project.”
“This is a great example of industry, academia and government working in partnership to build a technology product that has the potential to positively impact lives in Canada and around the world,” added Doerksen, MLA for Red Deer South.
The agreement between Seiko Instruments of Japan, Edmonton’s Capital Health Authority, the U of A and the provincial government builds on the original project launched in 2002. At that time, Al Gourley, WWPM’s chief commercialization officer, said the market for technologically advanced e-health devices could be worth at least $100 million annually by 2008.
The project combines Edmonton’s medical knowledge by bringing together companies including Dev Studios Inc., Eleven Engineering Inc., TRLabs and Viewtrak Technologies Inc., and adding the clout of Seiko and Sony – marking the first time these two multi-nationals have worked together.
Seiko is a source for equipment such as the wearable watches, while Sony spinoff MI Laboratories brings highly developed sensor technology to the table.
Gourley said in an earlier interview that Seiko and Sony are involved in the project because health care is a market that has caught their attention.
He added that their background, combined with Edmonton’s health care expertise, will work well together.
Part of that expertise is Edmonton’s emerging nanotechnology cluster, which could play a future role as evolving monitoring devices require smaller and smaller sensors.
The creation of a $120-million National Institute for Nanotechnology at the U of A also helped to convince Seiko to join the medical technology project, said Gourley.
While initial plans were to include a cattle demonstration site at the Alberta Research Council’s veterinary facility in Vegreville, that part of the project is now on the backburner.
The pilot program intended to monitor cattle’s body temperature in a bid to improve productivity and profit margins for cattle producers and feedlot operators.
“Some work has been done, primarily by our partners in Japan,” said Miller.
“But we’re not sure if there’s a market for that at the moment,” said Miller. “The price point people in the cattle industry are keen on for deploying it is actually very low, hence it’s hard to convince people that we should invest our resources in that direction.”
But for human trials, it’s full steam ahead.
“Capital Health is looking at a number of innovative electronic ways to do the work we do, and this could very well be a piece of that,” said Marguerite Rowe, the medical authority’s chief operating officer for community care, rehabilitation and mental health.
“We’re obviously very excited about this leading-edge venture and think it will make a difference (to) how we deliver health care by supporting quality and improving efficiency.”
So far, Capital Health has had significant input into the process by providing clinical and technical expertise in the development of the sensors. The health authority has also assisted in defining applications and potential target groups; defining how the sensors would change work methods; and identifying the economic benefits of this new technology. Further, Capital Health will play a major role in managing the clinical trials in conjunction with WWPM and the University of Alberta.
If all goes according to plan, trials will begin this fall. WWPM intends to start a small production run of the devices this spring. At the same time, the consortium will seek to obtain the prerequisite government clearances and certifications for the device, a process that could take six months.
Expectations are that the trials will be completed by early 2005. If successful, the project will then enter its commercialization phase, which includes incorporation and entering the global marketplace.
At that stage, it is likely that all key participants will become equity holders in the new organization, which would be based in Edmonton.
The city’s major role in the project is being attributed to Masako Miyazaki, WWPM’s principal investigator and integrator.
Miyazaki’s ties to Japan and work at the University of Alberta were key to getting Seiko and MI Laboratories to join the project, insiders said.
Almost five years ago, Miyazaki envisioned using technology to bring about a healthier future and improved health-care services. With all the technological advances and electronic devices out there, she thought there had to be a way they could be adapted to improve health care.
“One of the things I discovered was that hospitalized patients are well cared for, but we need more support for them when they leave the hospital and return home,” she said earlier. “In addition, maintaining our health is increasingly important as our population ages and we don’t get an owner’s manual with our bodies when we’re born.
“This e-health project will benefit many people, including persons suffering from chronic diseases and seniors living at home, particularly people living in remote areas or experiencing mobility problems,” she added.
