Canada’s Rising Stars in Global Health

Round 2 Grantees

Through a rigorous peer review process, fifteen innovators’ proposals were announced on
February 9, 2012, each receiving a grant of $100,000. If their ideas are robust, effective, and proven, the innovators will be eligible for an additional scale–up grant of up to $1 million for each proposal.

Each grantee has created a two-minute video to explain his or her proposal, please click on the link below to watch their video.

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Jan Andrysek (Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital)
A novel artificial knee joint for lower-limb amputations: a functional and affordable technology for low- and middle-income countries

Artificial limbs are a matter of necessity for people with lower-limb amputations. However, due to a lack of affordable and functional technologies, there is a large unmet need in low and middle income countries. With key research partners around the world, we are developing affordable mobility technologies to reduce disability…video

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Lu Chen (University of Toronto)
Portable Cell Analyzer for Global Health/HIV Monitoring

CD4 T cell counts are an essential part of monitoring the progression and treatment of HIV patients; a service that is unavailable in most resource poor regions in the world. Canadian and African researchers are partnering to test low cost point-of-care HIV monitoring devices, which are purpose-built to be rugged, reliable and cost effective…video

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Karim Damji (University of Alberta)
Preventing and Treating Avoidable Blindness from Glaucoma in Sub-Saharan Africa

Sustainable glaucoma care via a 4-point plan: Glaucoma awareness programs, Early detection & treatment including rural areas with telemedicine, Build expert human resources using unique educational models and Create centres of excellence (enabling environment) for subspecialty practice. This enhances access to quality & cost-effective care…video

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Helen Dimaras (University Health Network)
Saving Lives: Cancer Pathology in Africa

To improve cancer cure in Africa by bringing timely, accurate, pathological evaluation of extent of tumor invasion, that will empower the treating medical team to best therapies, using a centralized, comprehensive digital pathology lab connected through the Internet to remote clinics…video

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Ophira Ginsburg (Women’s College Research Institute)
Mobile Health Solutions for Breast Cancer Case-Finding, Referral, and Navigation in Rural Bangladesh

In rural Bangladesh most women do not seek care for breast cancer until it is too late. We will develop & test novel mobile phone tools for female Community Health Workers (CHWs) to case-find, refer, and encourage women to attend our breast centre; CHWs will learn new marketable skills which will make the system sustainable…video

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Karim S. Karim (University of Waterloo)
TB_View 1000: Low cost digital X-ray for tuberculosis screening

Much of the developing world has no access to basic screening technology for tuberculosis, a disease that affects a third of the world’s population and was responsible for 1.7 million deaths in 2009. We are going to build a $1000 digital X-ray detector to accurately and rapidly detect tuberculosis (TB) in these underserved populations…video

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Walter Karlen (University of British Columbia)
The Camera Oximeter – Pulse Oximetry Embedded on a Mobile Phone for the Diagnosis of Pneumonia

The Camera Oximeter will be a novel, ultra-low cost pulse oximeter that uses the built-in camera of a mobile phone to measure oxygen saturation, heart rate and respiratory rate. Software will include an advisory system for the diagnosis and treatment of respiratory diseases (pneumonia) in remote areas & community hospitals of low income countries…video

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Richard Lester (University of British Columbia)
WelTel: Moving Evidence to Action for Patient-Centred mHealth

We were the first to show (in a clinical trial) that using low-cost cell phone technology can improve HIV/AIDS treatment outcomes in a resource-limited setting. Our Grand Challenge is to develop this landmark research project into a broadly sustainable mHealth service using innovative business models…video

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Xinyu Liu (McGill University)
A Low-Cost, Paper-Based Diagnostic Device for Point-of-Care Immunoassays in Resource-Limited Settings

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is one of the most widely used tests for detecting and measuring disease markers; however, its current format is not suitable for use in the developing world. This project will develop a low-cost, paper-based diagnostic device that will enable rapid and sensitive ELISA in resource-limited settings…video

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Dave Richard (Laval University)
Plant virus based nanoparticles as an adjuvant for the development of an efficient and low cost vaccine against malaria

Despite years of intensive efforts using conventional approaches to vaccine design, there is currently no effective vaccine against malaria therefore new approaches are crucial. Our idea is to use NANOPARTICLES derived from papaya mosaic virus (PapMV-NP) as an adjuvant to develop a novel MALARIA VACCINE that would be safe, efficacious and low cost…video

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Abdullah Saleh (University of Alberta & Innovative Canadians for Change)
The Kibera Medical Record Initiative

The Kibera Medical Record Initiative (KMRI) seeks to develop and implement a standardized patient medical record system to link and consolidate healthcare services in one of Africa’s largest slums; facilitating access to medical treatment, while evaluating community health and epidemiological trends in the setting of a mapped out environment….video

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Michael Serpe (University of Alberta)
Point-of-Care Technology for the Diagnosis of Multiple Diseases: A Solution to the Disease Overtreatment Problem

Development of point-of-care disease diagnostic devices capable of identifying multiple biomarkers for a single disease. This device will be cost effective, and easy to use by people with minimal/no training in environments with minimal/no infrastructure, and will address disease overtreatment ultimately preventing unnecessary deaths…video

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Aman Ullah (University of Alberta)
Filters from poultry feathers for removal of arsenic from contaminated drinking water in developing countries

According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, inorganic arsenic is the most toxic form, and has been classified as group 1 carcinogenic to humans. The aim of this project is to prepare cost-effective, reusable and biodegradable filters from poultry feathers and use them for the removal of arsenic from contaminated drinking water…video

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Cedric Yansouni (Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre)
Filling the Gap: A Low-Cost, Non-Invasive Test for Visceral Leishmaniasis

Better tests are urgently needed for visceral leishmaniasis (VL), which causes more deaths per year than any parasitic disease except malaria. We propose a unique non-invasive test that (i) addresses key gaps in current diagnostic capabilities and (ii) has the potential to be scaled-up using an electricity-free platform…video

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Mohammed Zourob (Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique)
Electricity-free device for infectious disease diagnosis in poor resource settings

The need for rapid, sensitive and reliable pathogen detection is key for safe and effective treatment against infectious diseases. We propose to develop a highly sensitive, low-cost, hand-held electricity-free device for rapid infectious pathogen detection in various samples, which can be easily operated in under-resourced settings….video

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