Now, more than ever, both business and society recognize the need for real, disruptive innovations to update our health care processes. The pandemic has revealed just how far global systems - including Canada’s - are from the rapidly changing world of science. It’s becoming clear that technology and automation provide an immeasurable opportunity to improve on outdated medical procedures and patient environments. That’s why it should come as no surprise that many investors are seeking to back digital health and MedTech innovations. Enter Jayiesh (Jay) Singh and the team at Able Innovations. Before a pandemic would reprioritize healthcare on a global scale, Jay was already leveraging his engineering background to make “technology for good”, and it all started with a game-changing new idea that perfectly combines an overdue upgrade to both patient care and health care worker job health. Able Innovations’ ALTA Platform™ automates lateral transfers of supine hospital patients.
Where transfers are usually made with three to four health care providers, this technology allows the transfer of patients using only a single operator. The mechanism, leveraging technology only made possible in the last 10 years, seeks to reduce contact between patient and health care workers, limiting risk of infection spread, the burden of time and manpower needed, and the amount of health care worker accidents and injuries.
Beyond this, the ALTA Platform™ turns the clunky-yet-crucial method of patient transfer into a streamlined process that ensures patient dignity during an otherwise uncomfortable process. On track to set the new gold standard in patient handling, Able Innovations has leveraged hardware to modernize and improve patient health and safety, as well as the health and safety of health care workers in hospitals in an elegant win-win situation.
Just in time for COVID-19
For health care workers, this piece of technology couldn’t be coming at a better time. With COVID-19 still very much a global emergency, much of the incredible burden of care is placed squarely on the shoulders of hospital health care professionals. Many hospital nurses are now caring for multiple patients, and in dire need of something that can alleviate the toll - both physical and temporal - of the job. Limiting the amount of human resources needed to perform transfers increases frontline workers’ safety and gives them back precious time resources while simultaneously reducing some of the physical labour involved to make supine transfers. Particularly today, that small amount of relief adds up to crucial repayment of time and energy back to the health care workers who need it the most.
Reducing infection, accidents, and injury
Reducing infections has become a key priority for every industry in some capacity, whether office or factory, but nowhere more so than hospitals. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, there were more than 220,000 health care associated infections each year in Canada resulting in up to 12,000 unnecessary deaths. In a COVID-19 world, that number is astronomically higher and of even stronger concern. Bringing down the number of personnel needed to physically make a comfortable transfer from 3 to 1 greatly lessens the physical contact and risk for both health care worker and patient alike. Not only does this reduction in health care workers physically present reduce infection rates, but it also brings down the likelihood of accident and injury in a very physically-demanding role.
Health care workers are the first line of defence against injury and disease and often the first to feel the effects of the risk. The automation that the ALTA Platform™ offers shrinks the margin for error and therefore the risk of accidents and injury of health care workers on the job.
Traditional methods for supine patient transfers are outdated and undignified for the patient, and require an enormous amount of personal contact between patient and health care worker. With their new hardware, the team at Able Innovations have found a way to place an indelible mark on an industry seeking innovative solutions to complicated problems.
Creating valuable opportunities for startups and scaleups
ventureLAB’s Capital Investment Program has been the catalyst for creating valuable opportunities and ensuring long-term success for startups and scaleups alike. MedTech Demo Day, held on July 15, 2021, showcased companies who participate in the program, assisting in securing strategic investment by connecting chosen startups and scaleups directly with aligned angel or seed stage investors. Able Innovations, among 7 other innovative MedTech titans, presented creative solutions to some of health care’s most pressing problems. The wide range of exceptionally promising innovations in medical technology included presentations from Eno, Mesosil, Cardio-Phoenix, Sirona.tv, Micromensio, Sparrow Acoustics, Neurovine. Their product innovations ranged from non-invasive AI-powered technology to provide better early detection of heart disease, all the way to accessible technology for improved concussion recovery. These cutting-edge technologies represent the best of the hardware and MedTech innovation space in Canada, making possible better medical experiences of tomorrow.
Leveraging new technology to fix old problems
Like Able Innovations, whose hardware has the potential to significantly improve the lives of patients and health care workers alike, ventureLAB’s MedTech Demo Day participants reinforced that solutions to improve health care delivery, patient experience, and health care worker environments are found in innovative hardware technologies coming out of Canada. ventureLAB is dedicated to providing the needed support to turn these ideas into tangible realities and propel these concepts into the marketplace.
About ventureLAB’s Capital Investment Program
ventureLAB’s Capital Investment Program is tailor-made for companies who are ready to pursue angel or seed-stage rounds of investment. ventureLAB guides participants through an intensive program focusing on elevating pitches, connecting with aligned investors, and developing long-term capital strategies. To become a part of the program, join ventureLAB today.
