An innovative project that aims to see heart patients receive care in the comfort of their own home instead of as an inpatient at Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC) was a big winner at the Discovery Den event on November 13!
Discovery Den, run by the University Hospitals Kingston Foundation, is similar to the popular TV show Dragons’ Den but with innovative health-care ideas instead of business proposals.
Three groups of KHSC health-care professionals pitched their ideas to a panel of five judges and a live audience at the University Club on Stuart Street, with Dr. Aws Almufleh and Nurse Practitioner Sam Gouett being awarded the most money—$40,000.
They are working on a program that saves stable heart failure patients from lengthy hospital stays by having them receive care at home. A community based health-care worker would visit the patient to provide care and a virtual call with the cardiologist at KHSC to make sure the patient is healing properly. Similar projects have been successfully implemented in the U.S. and U.K., but this would be the first at this scale in Ontario.
“I'm speechless. This is incredible. I can think of many patients who would want this treatment option, it is so refreshing to be able to offer this now,” says Dr. Almufleh after his team was awarded $40,000.
Over the next few months, Dr. Almufleh and his colleagues will begin training so that they're ready to kick start the project. The goal is to enroll 50 patients within two years, which will save the health-care system more than $200,000.
Dr. Stephanie Sibley and Dr. David Maslove received $30,000 to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) program that predicts if a patient is at risk of the dangerous heart rhythm disturbance called Atrial Fibrillation (or Afib). New advances in AI present opportunities to create monitoring systems that turn a patient’s data into actionable feedback, enabling medical staff to anticipate the onset of Afib so that preventive measures can be taken.
Dr. Sibley and Dr. Maslove have been working on this project for 10 years, developing and testing the right algorithm to detect Afib. The Discovery Den seed money with help pay for the software and hardware needed to start a pilot project.
“We’re thrilled,” says Dr. Sibley. “This is enough money to get the ball rolling and start a trial. This is a system that has never really been implemented in real time and so it's going to have to be refined and tweaked. I'm hopeful that in a very short time we'll be able to start seeing results and we'll be able to come back next year and update everybody about the project.”
A third presentation, by Patient Safety, QI & Innovation Lead Travis Wing, earned $10,000 towards video and audio equipment for a Virtual Patient Observation (VPO) program.
The project would see an expansion of the VPO pilot program by installing additional monitoring equipment in patient rooms in the Medicine Program. A VPO attendant monitors patients at risk for a ham event with live audio and video equipment installed in patients’ rooms. They can interact with patients directly and alert staff to intervene. VPO allows one employee to efficiently observe multiple patients at one time, across multiple inpatient units.
"By installing additional monitoring equipment across the Medicine Program, we can increase the capacity of the VPO program and, ultimately, provide greater access to patient accident prevention resources,” Travis says.
The five Discovery Den judges—Greg Brown (Park Place Financial), Jacqui Collier (Tamarack Homes), Barry Gordon (Gordon's Downsizing and Estate Services), Sideshow (WOW FM radio host), and Tommy Hunter (Tommy’s restaurant)—were impressed with all presentations.
“The judges think everyone was brilliant. They touched on different areas but they were all centred on one key thing – improving patient care,” says judge Jacqui Collier. “We love that we have brilliant people right here in Kingston who are constantly coming up with innovative solutions to health-care problems.”
Discovery Den initially received more than 25 applications to improve patient care. KHSC senior leaders helped select the top three proposals that were presented in front of the live audience.
The grant money for Discovery Den came from an innovation fund set up by KHSC physicians in 2016.
Do you want to support health-care innovation? Visit the UHKF donor website and select “UHKF Innovation Fund” from the Fund Allocation drop- down menu at the bottom of the page.