ASET Technology Alberta Summer 2020 - 16

MiiCARE founder and CEO Kelvin Summoogum (right) created miiCARE
to give elderly users a way to stay safe and independent.

During the pandemic, the IEI team moved in another direction,
supporting other innovations reviews related to COVID-19.
Wickson's team provided evidence on various technologies
to support COVID solutions. These technological reviews
focused on contact tracing, surveillance, call centre support,
testing, remote monitoring, pandemic ventilators and other
healthcare innovations. Temperature scanning technology
is one such innovation that's recently been introduced into
the public sphere.
"We looked at what was the best technology for temperature
scanning, and we helped support some evidence reviews to
provide government and Alberta Health to make a decision
on what technology to purchase," Wickson says. "Alberta
Health ended up procuring a technology that's implemented
in the airports now, that scans the public in the airport if they
have a temperature, and if they are detected, then they can
be addressed and assessed in a separate way."
Wickson's team additionally looked at contact tracing
technology, which works to keep track of individuals
who've tested positive and notify those they'd contacted
with physically. This could then slow the viral spread and
encourage distancing.
"We also provided evidence to inform the selection of a remote
monitoring technology," Wickson says. "This would allow AHS to
be able to assess and monitor clients that were COVID-positive
in their homes, to keep them home and safe, keep our healthcare
providers safe and add remote monitoring technology to the
virtual hospital programs in Edmonton and Calgary."
Despite the shelving of AI during the pandemic, the IEI
team will continue exploring the technology in the future,
mining non-identifiable data (data that can't be linked back
to a patient's identity) through AHS' developing collective

16 | SUMMER 2020 | TECHNOLOGY ALBERTA

clinical information system, dubbed "Connect Care."
According to a release from AHS, this system "will house all
AHS medical records, prescriptions and care history at AHS
facilities, right down to AHS doctor's notes."
Wickson notes that in general, there has been a trend of
acceleration in healthcare innovations since the pandemic
began. "COVID itself allowed us to implement technology
and digital solutions in a rapid way to address a common
problem that we faced in the healthcare system," she says.
Tim Murphy, vice president of health at Alberta Innovates,
has noticed this pattern as well. "During COVID-19, we are
seeing many initiatives launched in a day or two, projects
that used to take a year or more to get organized," Murphy
says. "In terms of virtual care, physicians and health care
providers are embracing innovative models of care and
workflow as a result of the pandemic."
Murphy has seen these changes first-hand. "I know our
organization transitioned to a digital environment overnight,
when COVID-19 hit in March 2020," he says.
Another change Murphy has noticed from this overnight
digitization is that the healthcare system, previously less
affected by remote business implementation than other
fields like commerce, very quickly had to catch up because
of social distancing. This necessity was doubled, given the
reason the changes happened in the first place is a disease
outbreak that puts significant strain on medical systems.
Murphy, however, does not see this push to adapt as a
negative outcome. He believes now that members of the
public and healthcare providers have interacted with this
form of healthcare, going back to more physical practices
will not hold much appeal.
https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/info/cis.aspx
ASET Technology Alberta Summer 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ASET Technology Alberta Summer 2020
