How the COVID-19 pandemic “spurs innovation” in Canada and around the world

“If you look at everything that has been eradicated, viruses, pandemics, everything revolves around innovation, whether medical or physical. This is what has moved our world forward and put us in a position as we can live the life we ​​now have to make, “said Foster.

“Without innovation, we would still be living in the dark ages.”

Jason Kindrachuk, Associate Professor in the University of Manitoba and Canada Research Chair in Emerging Viruses, says that the pandemic brings people from different fields together and that’s a good thing.

“What we have is a crisis that leads to the fusion of different disciplines to find very quick solutions to very complex problems,” he said.

Here are some of the ways individuals and businesses are tackling these complex issues.

Delegate tasks

In response to a need in Alberta, medical students from the University of Calgary were involved in contacting people who came in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.

This means that public health officials are able to identify sick people, get medical care, and help people take steps to protect others.

The assistance of these medical students has quadrupled the province’s ability to conduct contact tracing.

Other countries that have done so, including South Korea, Japan and Singapore, have been able to slow the spread in their communities.

Alberta pharmacists are also paid to test COVID-19.

Kindrachuk says jurisdictions should do more to exploit communities that are already equipped to perform tests and research to reduce the backlog in returning test results to people.

“It just doesn’t make sense not to do it,” he said.

Personal protective equipment manufacturing

Masks, gowns and other personal protective equipment are rare all over the world, so some people take care of this need.

Dr. Tarek Loubani, an emergency physician from London, Ontario, uses equipment from his charity of medical supplies to make 3D printed face shields from plastic, Mylar and elastic for his colleagues at Canada.

Hundreds can be printed at a time.

The shield covers the entire face, protecting the nose and eyes from droplets that may contain the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

According to Kindrachuk, personal protective equipment such as face shields is “critically important”.

“We need to care about our healthcare workers, be they doctors, respirators, nurses or even janitorial staff, safe from anything that could potentially infect them.”

Other companies are working to fill this need.

Change sales management to meet needs

Bauer, the hockey equipment manufacturing company, is changing its business model to meet the needs of medical equipment.

The government has given the green light to manufacture full-use single-use masks for medical personnel and first responders.

Bauer is also developing visors that can be cleaned, disinfected and reused.

Dyson also talks about switching from vacuum cleaners to fans.

The UK government has ordered 10,000 ventilators from the company to help cope with the growing number of patients with COVID-19.

And Canada Goose, well known for its expensive but warm coats, makes scrubs and gowns for hospitals in light of shortages.

“This is what we need right now,” says Foster.

Invest in research

A Saskatoon laboratory has been researching and trying to find a coronavirus vaccine for almost 40 years, but has just received $ 23 million from the federal government.

The University of Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization – International Vaccine Center (VIDO-InterVac) started as a veterinary laboratory in 1975.

It has evolved to the point of developing a vaccine against the coronavirus for human use.

Kindrachuk, who has spent time researching at the VIDO-InterVac laboratory, says it makes sense to invest in people who have experience working in the field during a crisis like this.

“I think it helps to put money into a system, to examine everything that could be built on it and hopefully to help us prepare for the future,” he said.

Pooling of technical resources

A disease research organization based at the St. Louis School of Medicine at the University of Washington is asking people to share their unused computing power to help fight COVID-19.

Folding @ home is a distributed computer project for disease research. Volunteers contribute their unused computing power to help find potential treatments for various diseases, including the new coronavirus.

It brings together “citizen scientists” who volunteer to run protein dynamics simulations on their computers when they are idling. From there, the data help scientists better understand complex biology and offer new opportunities for developing therapies.

According to Kindrachuk, necessity is indeed the mother of invention.

“Ultimately, [COVID-19] stimulates innovation, “said Kindrachuk.

“What we see very quickly is this impulse to bring together different really smart and talented people who normally wouldn’t work together, coming together to find really smart solutions.”