FACTS AND STATS

Canadian Digital Health Data Breaches: Time for Reform

Canadian health data experts and class action lawyers say that a data ransom payment, after a massive security breach that potentially involves 15 million patients' electronic records, raises profound questions about the vulnerability of digital health information systems and the need for better prevention guidelines.
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DIGITAL HEALTH

Sunnybrook Hospital to Test Innovative Device for Brain Disorders

There’s real hope for patients with brain disorders, including Alzheimer’s, brain cancer and ALS, thanks to a landmark $16.7-million grant that will speed up development of targeted treatments. Sunnybrook Hospital says the funds from the W. Garfield Weston Foundation will help create a new type of focused ultrasound device that can more efficiently bypass the blood-brain barrier in delivering treatments. The Toronto hospital will test the helmet-like device on three brain disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, breast cancer that has spread to the brain, and glioblastoma — the deadliest and most common brain tumour.
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WELL Health Launches "VirtualClinic+", A Comprehensive Telehealth Program Across Canada

WELL Health Technologies Corp., a company focused on consolidating and modernizing clinical and digital assets within the primary healthcare sector, is pleased to announce it has launched WELL Health VirtualClinic+, its telehealth service for Canadians. VirtualClinic+ is a digital health communications platform that connects patients to physicians through video, phone and secure messaging.
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MEDICAL GADGETS

Device Prints Scaffolds Inside Wounds to Replace Lost Tissue

Researchers at the University of Connecticut have developed a bioprinter that deposits a biocompatible fibrous scaffold directly where it is expected to remain. The technology is particularly beneficial for addressing volumetric muscle loss for which there aren’t good options these days. The approach doesn’t require any suturing to deposit the printable gel that serves as the matrix within which new cells can proliferate and grow. 
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FUJIFILM’s AI Colonic Polyp Detector Cleared in Europe

FUJIFILM is introducing a new technology that is capable of automatically detecting suspected polyps in real-time during colonoscopy exams. Called CAD EYE, it relies on FUJIFILM’s REiLI, an AI platform developed for medical applications. It can perform complex segmentation of 2D and 3D images, spot lesions, and is compatible with various imaging modalities.
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Adjustable Heart Valves Grow with Kids Hearts

A team of researchers from Harvard and Boston Children’s Hospital in the US have now developed an artificial valve that can be expanded, via a minimally invasive transcatheter procedure, to compensate for the growing lumen within which it sits. Such adjustment procedures are a lot easier on the patients and considerably cheaper to perform.
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GLOBAL WATERCOOLER  

Sheba Medical Center has VR Telehealth Tools Available for Quarantined Coronavirus-Exposed Patients

XRHealth has announced that it is working with Israel’s Sheba Medical Center to offer virtual reality (VR) telehealth services to patients exposed to coronavirus who are quarantined at the hospital, and to monitor their return home. The partnership will see the patients be provided with access to VR headsets equipped with the company’s extended reality technology solutions and data analysis, as well as apps that they can use to take virtual tours of various destinations.
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ImmunoPrecise Announces Artificial Intelligence Collaboration with EVQLV to Accelerate Vaccine and Antibody Discovery for SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus

The partnership with the New York-based artificial intelligence company will focus on high-throughput computational antibody design to derive novel leads from ImmunoPrecise's platforms and accelerate Coronavirus therapeutic antibody discovery and development.
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TRENDS

How Online Paperwork Could Contribute to Burnout Among Physicians

Twitter Can Be Used to Track Spread of Diseases Like COVID-19: Guelph Researchers

Researchers at the University of Guelph have developed a system to help track the spread of infectious diseases using Twitter, a framework they say has the potential to identify outbreaks faster than official monitoring agencies. The study, which tracked global outbreaks of avian flu, may be the first of its kind to use the social network as an early warning system for tracking diseases.
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WORTH NOTING

e-Health 2020, Vancouver, BC, May 31-June 3, 2020

For 20 years, the annual e-Health Conference and Tradeshow has created unique and valuable learning and networking opportunities for organizations and people working to make a difference in Canadian health through information and technology.
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The Digital Healthcare Show, London, UK, June 24-25, 2020

Explore cutting edge innovation and gain insight into current usage and future potential for emerging technologies. Hear from the digital leaders homegrown and beyond.
Click here for more information

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