NEWS RELEASE EDMONTON, ALBERTA, May 17, 2022 – Alberta Innovates is investing over $4.5 million in eight early-stage health research projects focusing on personalized (i.e., precision) health and wellness. The Accelerating Innovations into CarE (AICE) Concepts program aims to enable health innovators to apply digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and mobile apps to solve urgent health challenges related to disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment as well as advance their commercialization journey. Digital health-based approaches offer to shorten the time to impact on an individuals’ health, empower citizens, and reduce healthcare expenditures. These eight projects will add to eleven previously awarded projects totalling more than $10 million dollars invested in the AICE Concepts program. Project examples include rapid and remote heart ultrasounds, automated methods for stroke prevention, easier and more accurate bladder cancer diagnosis, a virtual wellness platform for pregnant women, a 3D approach to diagnosing periodontal (gum) disease and more. “The world is witnessing increasing benefits that digital solutions offer to empower citizens and improve health outcomes. Alberta is taking bold steps with strategic digital health investments to ensure we are globally competitive in securing health and economic benefits for our province.” Sunil Rajput, PhD, Director of Research, Health Innovation Visit the AICE program on the Alberta Innovates website to learn more. Results from the 2022 competition: Lead Applicant AICE Stream Project Title Contact Award Amount Aravind Ganesh, MD, UCalgary AICE-Concepts Automated Remote Image-guided Diagnosis and Risk Stratification of Carotid Disease for Stroke prevention Website $600,000 Jacob Jaremko, MD, PhD, UAlberta AICE-Concepts Basic echo: point-of-care ultrasound assessment of cardiac function using artificial intelligence Website $591,000 John Lewis, PhD, UAlberta AICE-Concepts An Integrated Extracellular Vesicle Biomarker and Machine Learning Approach to Diagnosing Bladder Cancer Website $600,000 Joon Lee, PhD, UCalgary AICE-Concepts Leveraging Artificial Intelligence and the APPROACH Registry to Transform Coronary Artery Disease Patient Care Website $600,000 Kara Nerenberg, MD, UCalgary AICE-Concepts IMPROVE-Virtual HEALTH (Healthy Eating and Active Living through Technology @ Home) For MOMS Website $572,185 Lawrence Le, PhD, UAlberta AICE-Concepts Intraoral Ultrasound Fusion of Dento-Periodontal Complex for Diagnosis of Periodontal Diseases and Personalized Treatment Website $600,000 Puneeta Tandon, MD, UAlberta AICE-Concepts The creation of a home-based digital solution to diagnose functional decline and inform tailored lifestyle prescriptions for patients with catabolism-prone chronic diseases Website $598,394 Richard Fahlman, PhD, UAlberta AICE-Concepts Rapid Testing for Myasthenia Gravis Website $340,85