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Is screening air travellers effective in containing a pandemic?

April 10, 2013
Susanne Staer
BlueDot

Toronto Star covers Khan’s new WHO paper on H1N1 outbreak

Dr. Kamran Khan, founder of BioDiaspora and an infectious disease physician and scientist at St. Michael’s Hospital, is among the experts studying the emergence of the H7N9 bird flu outbreak in China and the new coronavirus in the Middle East and Europe.

Global News National also covered this story on April 11, 2013. Watch Beatrice Politi and Carmen Chai‘s report, “Canadian scientists pioneer new formula in airport disease screening,” on the Global website.

The Toronto Star featured Khan’s research and BioDiaspora following the publication of his new paper in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization which assessed the impact of airport screenings in containing the 2009 H1N1 outbreak in Mexico.

Khan’s findings were covered in “Airport disease screening rarely worthwhile, Toronto study says,” by Helen Branswell.

BioDiaspora Founder: Travellers unlikely to bring H7N9 bird flu to Canada

April 9, 2013
Susanne Staer
BlueDot

Dr. Kamran Khan, founder of BioDiaspora and an infectious disease physician and scientist at St. Michael’s Hospital, is among the experts studying the emergence of the H7N9 bird flu outbreak in China.

Jennifer Yang interviewed Khan in today’s Toronto Star about the likelihood of the disease being easily transmitted from human to human or arriving in Canada, as SARS did in 2003.

Here’s an excerpt:

“This isn’t necessarily an event that poses a significant risk to Canada, at least based on all the current knowledge,” said Dr. Kamran Khan, an infectious disease specialist at St. Michael’s Hospital and founder of BioDiaspora, a program that predicts the potential spread of outbreaks. “Even if a case were to find its way into Canada, the likelihood of it spreading locally is quite low.”

BioDiaspora collects data on everything from air travel and weather to global distribution of disease-carrying insects and uses this data to forecast the potential spread of new diseases.

It has already performed a risk analysis of H7N9 for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which contacted Khan last Tuesday for help.

Dr. Kamran Khan, founder of BioDiaspora, among experts studying emergence of coronavirus

April 5, 2013
Susanne Staer
BlueDot

Health risk to Canadians is currently low

Dr. Kamran Khan, founder of BioDiaspora and an infectious disease physician and scientist at St. Michael’s Hospital, is among the experts studying the emergence of the coronavirus.

Carolyn Brown interviewed Khan for a recent CMAJ article on the viral outbreak, “New coronavirus with ‘pandemic potential’ sparks global surveillance efforts.”

National Post: How does Canada solve its commercialization conundrum?

Government has key role to play as early-stage technology adopter says CEO Raphael Hofstein

Dr. Raphael Hofstein, president and CEO of MaRS Innovation, was quoted in Mary Theresa Bitti‘s National Post article, “Commercialization Conundrum: Canada must turn ideas into social and economic value,” published April 3, 2013.

The article examines Canada’s worsening track record in realizing commercialization gains based on the country’s significant per-capita investment in R&D.

Here’s an excerpt:

While Canada punches above its weight class when it comes to generating ideas — witness countless academic journals showcasing Canadian research — as a country, we are experiencing a failure to launch when it comes to commercializing those ideas and getting them to market. The Jenkins panel report on innovation spelled it out quite clearly, “Too many of the big ideas [Canada] generates wind up generating wealth for others.” Canada ranks 14th out of 17 peer countries when it comes to innovation, even though on a per-capita basis, our $7-billion federal annual investment into research and development (R&D) is far more generous than other OECD nations. The result: Our global competitiveness continues to slide. According to the World Economic Forum, Canada has dropped to 14th place in 2012 from 10th in 2010.

What does MaRS Innovation’s funding extension mean for Toronto’s academic entrepreneurs?

Every six weeks, MaRS Innovation’s marketing and communications manager writes a guest post for the MaRS Discovery District blog profiling MI’s activities or one of our start-up companies. You can read the original post on the MaRS blog.

Created in 2008, MaRS Innovation (MI) bridges the chasm between the early-stage technologies emerging from its 16 member institutions and successful startup companies and licensable technologies.

By offering early-stage funding in tandem with hands-on management, business development, mentorship and intellectual property protection strategy, MI acts as a commercialization agent for its members and researchers.

Earlier this year, the Networks of Centres of Excellence of Canada awarded MI $14.95 million to continue its mandate as a Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR), matched by $25 million from membership fees and private sector investments.

So what does that success mean for MI’s ability to serve the needs of academic entrepreneurs based in Toronto?

Minuum closes on $60,000 crowdfunded stretch goal to build wearable development kit

Minuum's one-line QWERTY keyboard on a touch device — Minuum’s one-line QWERTY keyboard on a touch device leaves more screen space for content.

Whirlscape Inc.‘s Minuum keyboard has enjoyed the kind of launch that start-up founders dream about yet few achieve.

UPDATE: Whirlscape’s Minuum Project has now cleared its $60,000 fundraising target. Mobile Syrup wrote a follow-up article on the campaign with details about the Wearable Development Kit. Their technology also got a second spot on CTV News‘s Tech Tuesday report and was featured on Global TV’s The Morning Show.

The little keyboard for big fingers, which launched an Indiegogo campaign a week ago today to support the launch of its Android keyboard app and a wearable development kit, is currently less than $4,000 from its crowd-funded stretch goal of $60,000.

The company was featured on CTV News on Mar. 24, 2013. The CTV video story and photos of CEO Will Walmsley and CTO Xavier Snelgrove are available on CTV’s website.

Minuum to end battle between mobile screen space and virtual keyboards

Start-up launches Indiegogo campaign to change future of mobile typing

Minuum keyboard on an Android phone — The Minuum keyboard: “the little keyboard for big fingers.” Designed by Whirlscape Inc., this one-dimensional, tiny keyboard frees up mobile screen space while allowing fast, accurate typing.

TORONTO, March 18, 2013 — Whirlscape Inc., a Canadian tech start-up, has developed Minuum, “the little keyboard for big fingers.”

Updated: The company has now cleared its $60,000 stretch goal to build a wearable development kit. Read the Mobile Syrup follow-up story.

Minuum’s crowdfunding campaign was covered by the Financial Post, CBC News, CTV News, the Toronto Star and Metro Morning (radio interview). They also did a second spot on CTV News‘s Tech Tuesday report and were featured on Global TV’s The Morning Show.

The story was also picked up by Fast Company, Mashable, CNET, TechCrunch, TechCrunch Japan, TechVibes, Huffington Post, Toronto Standard, BlogTO and Mobile Syrup.

Minuum is a tiny, one-dimensional keyboard that frees up mobile screen space while allowing fast, accurate typing. Its specialized, patent-protected auto-correction algorithm corrects highly imprecise typing.

This algorithm, based on the touchscreen and wearable device research of company founders, Will Walmsley (researcher) and Khai Truong (associate professor) at the University of Toronto, configures the difference between what you type and what you mean, in real time, getting it right even if you miss every single letter.

Crowdmark’s grading software featured in EdSurge

March 18, 2013
Susanne Staer
Crowdmark

Exam pain is not limited to students, notes Tony Wan of EdSurge in his profile of UTEST start-up company, Crowdmark.

The article, “Crowdmark Lends a Helping Hand with Handwritten Assessments: How one savvy professor is scaling human grading capabilities for handwritten responses” appeared Mar. 17, 2013.

Here’s an excerpt:

Dr. James Colliander, co-founder and CEO of Crowdmark. Photo courtesy of Denise Grant. Used with permission.

James Colliander, a Professor Mathematics at the University of Toronto, knew this pain all too well. As a grader for the 2011 Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge, he and a team of volunteers had to deal with 70,000 pages of hand-written responses, a “tremendously inefficient, logistical nightmare” that involved paper shuffling and moving boxes of exams.

That’s when he started working on a way to scale human assessment capabilities. In April 2011, Colliander joined UTEST (University of Toronto Early Stage Technology), an incubator launched by the University of Toronto and MaRS Innovation, to work on his solution, Crowdmark.

ScarX Therapeutics featured on cover of Bioworld Today

“More than 240 million surgeries are performed worldwide each year, yet there is no approved product on the market to prevent the dermal scarring that can frequently occur,” writes Jennifer Boggs, managing editor of BioWorld Today in her cover story on ScarX Therapeutics.

The article, “ScarX Finds New Uses for Old Drug in Dermal Scarring,” appeared in the New Co section and focuses on the MaRS Innovation-Hospital for Sick Children start-up company.

Here’s an excerpt:

“ScarX Therapeutics, a 2012 Toronto-based start-up, is looking to introduce a topical anti-scarring product onto the market — a product that can be administered by the patient — to prevent scarring following surgical procedures.

U of T med students participate in mass medical simulation exercise

OtoSim Night revolutionizes how students learn to identify ear pathologies

On Feb. 13, 2013, almost 100 second-year University of Toronto (U of T) medical students participated in an optional, intensive, one-hour otoscopy workshop using the OtoSim™ — a training and simulation system that is radically changing the way students in Canada and around the world learn this poorly-acquired medical skill.

And, if you want to use simulation technology to change the way medical professionals are taught, ear disease is a good place to start.

Additional photos from this event are posted on OtoSim Inc.’s Flickr account. A longer version of the OtoSim Night at U of T video is also available on the company’s YouTube channel.

“Historically, otoscopy simulation involved looking at an image of an eardrum on a piece of film at the end of a rubber ear,” said Dr. Andrew Sinclair, CEO of OtoSim Inc. “OtoSim™ has a digital image bank that is orders of magnitude more extensive. The instructor can electronically point to areas within the image and confirm that the student sees the pathology of interest. Diagnostic accuracy goes up enormously.”

Is screening air travellers effective in containing a pandemic?

Toronto Star covers Khan’s new WHO paper on H1N1 outbreak

BioDiaspora Founder: Travellers unlikely to bring H7N9 bird flu to Canada

National Post: How does Canada solve its commercialization conundrum?

Government has key role to play as early-stage technology adopter says CEO Raphael Hofstein

What does MaRS Innovation’s funding extension mean for Toronto’s academic entrepreneurs?

Minuum closes on $60,000 crowdfunded stretch goal to build wearable development kit

Minuum to end battle between mobile screen space and virtual keyboards

Crowdmark’s grading software featured in EdSurge

ScarX Therapeutics featured on cover of Bioworld Today

U of T med students participate in mass medical simulation exercise

OtoSim Night revolutionizes how students learn to identify ear pathologies

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