1:10 pm – 1:30 pm
Dr. Pavel Antiperovitch
London Health Sciences Centre
Digital health has reached the forefront of medical research in the midst of the current pandemic crisis and reduced access to healthcare in Canada.
This is recognized as a global issue by the WHO, and digital health solutions are currently being implemented around the world. Digital health systems have been shown to improve patient engagement, increase access to care, reduce emergency department visits and empower community healthcare providers to manage chronic diseases.
Compared to other developed nations, Canada is falling behind in digital health implementation, however it will inevitably become an essential component of our future healthcare system.
1:30 pm – 1:50 pm
Dr. Ratika Parkash
Dalhousie University
VIRTUES (Virtual Integrated Reliable Transformative User-Driven E-Health System) is a CANet-developed, cloud-based, secured, virtual care platform.
VIRTUES CIED (Cardiac Implantable Electronic Devices) is being utilized in 8 provinces across Canada allowing patients to receive specialized CIED care at home in their own community. VIRTUES CIED enables the application of virtual CIED patient management and aims to significantly reduce the need for in-person routine visits to specialized clinics, especially in rural and remote regions of Canada.
1:50 pm – 2:10 pm
Sina Safabakhsh
University of British Columbia
Implantable cardiac monitors (ICMs) are small devices placed subcutaneously that can monitor cardiac rhythms for prolonged periods approaching nearly 3 years.
They can be used for the detection of sporadic and brief arrhythmias carrying important diagnostic information which may be hard to detect with more routine investigations such as Holter monitoring. However, there is a lack of evidence to support their inclusion in current clinical guidelines and therefore they are not routinely used clinically.
This talk will showcase recent data describing the use of novel ICMs in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and will discuss this pilot study as an example of how ICMs can be used to risk-stratify patients with HCM. It will also extend the discussion to a broader use of ICMs for other potential clinical uses.
2:10 pm – 2:30 pm
Dr. Michael McGillion
McMaster University
Sara Ross-Howe
Cloud DX
Dr. Mike McGillion is Associate Professor and Assistant Dean, Research, in the School of Nursing at McMaster. He is a McMaster University Scholar scientist at the Population Health Research Institute. His program of research focuses on virtual care and remote automated monitoring of patients after surgery.
Sara Ross-Howe is the Head of Research and Development at Cloud DX and is passionate about driving clinical innovation through the creation of proprietary sensor technologies and advanced data science. She has a BASc, MASc, and is a PhD (Candidate) in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo. Her research explores biomedical signal processing and machine learning to build predictive models to identify patient deterioration and adverse clinical events.
As the science and practice of virtual care evolves, clinicians and researchers can benefit from an understanding of devices capable of monitoring multiple biophysical parameters (eg, oxygen saturation, heart rate) continuously and simultaneously. Called “continuous multiparameter remote automated monitoring” (CM-RAM) devices, they have the potential to revolutionize virtual patient care. Through seamless integration of multiple biophysical signals, CM-RAM technologies can allow for the acquisition of high-volume big data for the development of algorithms to facilitate early detection of negative changes in patient health status and timely clinician response. This talk will review key principles, architecture, and components of CM-RAM technologies, including work to date and strategic priorities for advancing the science and practice of CM-RAM.
2:30 pm – 2:50 pm
Brianna Davies
University of British Columbia
A discussion on practical, digital solutions for facilitating research, including online consenting platforms, smartphone apps, and the use of wearables for data collection.
2:50 pm – 3:10 pm
Dr. Mary Runte
University of Lethbridge
– Chair, CANet Patient Advisory Committee
– published extensively in the fields of workplace accommodation and policy
Tigana Runte
University of British Columbia
Focus groups and interviews of patients across Canada revealed profound and prolonged life impacts as patients navigate the journey towards receiving a diagnosis and undergoing treatment for cardiac arrhythmias. These findings, validated in a survey of diagnosed A-fib patients, have implications for digital care delivery to address the barriers faced in accessing care and to help mitigate the psycho-social and employment challenges faced by patients.
3:10 pm – 3:30 pm
Dr. Alexandra King
University of Saskatchewan
Dr. Malcolm King
University of Saskatchewan
A brief overview of Indigenous peoples in Canada and their approaches to health and wellness. The principles of self-determination, eptuapmumk (Two-eyed Seeing) and Indigenous data sovereignty, and their importance in moving forward and achieving wellness in this digital age will be discussed. Indigenous peoples have shown great resilience while maintaining their connections with land and culture. We continue to adapt and adopt in the face of colonization, globalization and climate change. Moving forward, Indigenous peoples will seek the best that digital health has to offer, while maintaining that which defines them – Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing.
3:30 pm – 3:50 pm
Matthew Douma
University of Alberta
This presentation will discuss the care needs of families during the cardiac arrest of a loved one. The presentation will describe the full participation of persons with lived experience of cardiac arrest (as survivors and as family members of survivors/non-survivors) in research, and important descriptions of how cardiac arrest care can be made family-centred.
