The battle against COVID-19 has been bolstered by a health-care innovation developed by an Edmonton startup. The University Health Network in Toronto has adopted the Aerosol Containment Tent developed by the company MACH32 as way to protect health-care workers during aerosol-generating medical procedures. By creating a negative pressure zone around a patient's head and shoulders, the containment tent can remove almost all the aerosols and respiratory droplets which could spread the COVID-19 virus in less than nine seconds. This gives front-line health staff another measure of safety when performing common medical airway procedures like intubation, extubation, BiPAP and CPAP. Support for entrepreneurs Founded by local Edmonton entrepreneurs Dr. Marc Curial and Chris Terriff, P.Eng., the idea for the Aerosol Containment Tent was rapidly designed and developed to protect health-care workers from infectious aerosols. Alberta Innovates is proud to have played a role in the success MACH32 is having with this life-saving product. "We first met with them in 2019 to discuss a couple of medical devices they were designing and developing," says Rick Davidson, a Technology Development Advisor in the Entrepreneurial Investments area of Alberta Innovates. "We provided a micro voucher for a patent on one of their devices, and connected them to others in the innovation space - TEC Edmonton for their mentorship program, Health City for their connections in the health space, IRAP and ISC, Glenrose Hospital and across Alberta Innovates for further linkages," Davidson says. "They pivoted to the Aerosol Containment Tent COVID project in 2020 and clearly were successful in developing and getting the device approved by Health Canada in quick order." Read MACH32's full news release here. See a MACH32 -produced video of Dr. Marc Curial speaking about the Aerosol Containment Tent.