W21C Research and Innovation Centre | Annual Report 2020 - 2021

CONNECTION
COLLABORATION
COMMUNITY
W21C Research and
Innovation Centre
Annual Report
2020-2021

Contents
2 Message from the Directors
3 About W21C
4 Impact Metrics: Year in Numbers
5 Celebrating our Milestones
18 Thank you
Research Impact
CONNECTION: COVID-19 RESEARCH
Creating local and global partnerships to enhance safety for patients, providers,
and communities during the global pandemic
7 Global study investigates decontamination methods for medical masks
9 Researchers investigate drone delivery of medical supplies, equipment, treatments,
and diagnostic testing to remote First Nations communities during pandemic
12 Researchers explore health system preparedness in acute and primary care settings
12 University of Calgary drug discovery aims to reduce inflammation in COVID-19
patients: Metablok clinical trial
COLLABORATION: DIGITAL HEALTH RESEARCH
Supporting academics, clinicians, entrepreneurs, and industry to respond to changing
health system needs in a digital world
13 SPARK Calgary: A success story
14 Digital health platform aims to reduce antimicrobial resistance: Firstline
14 Software platform focuses on enhancing stroke treatment triage: StrokeSENS
COMMUNITY: HEALTH SYSTEMS IMPROVEMENT RESEARCH
Working together with patients, families, and providers to make care better
15 The Impact of COVID-19 on family caregivers for persons living with dementia
Message
from the Directors
You cannot truly test the foundations of something until
adversity hits, and there has never been a truer test than
during a global pandemic.
This past year has taught us so much. We have experienced
the isolation, fear of the unknown, changes in the rules
for how we live, and a completely new way of working.
In spite of these challenges, we were blown away by how
much our team and our partners continued to thrive in
this new world. They did what they do best—they came
together, found creative ways to connect, and figured out
how to adapt to keep our Centre moving forward.
Connection. Collaboration. Community.
Three words that describe the heart of W21C.
They inherently define the spirit of the people we work
with every day, people that drive W21C and health
systems research: our dedicated research staff, clinicians
and health-care providers, academics, entrepreneurs,
patients, and their families. Together, they continue to
explore new ways to keep us all safe during this global
health crisis.
and resilience of Alberta Health Services, where W21C
began in 2004, and who we continue to partner closely
with. And they highlight the work of our larger innovation
ecosystem partners provincially, nationally, and globally.
Through connection, collaboration, and community,
we identify care gaps, grow ideas, and break through
obstacles to help transform health systems.
On behalf of our team, we are excited to share this Annual
Report, which provides just a snapshot of some of our
incredible research achievements for this past year. The
partnerships highlighted in this report are the keystones
of our Centre. They will continue to help us shape our
research priorities, ensuring that new technology or
system innovations help the people they are supposed to
help, whenever and wherever they are needed.
Now more than ever, we recognize what a privilege it is
to be part of this amazing team, working every day to
make care better.
Jill de Grood, MA PMP (she/her)
Director, Development and Partnerships
Alex Baron, W21C
17 Alberta Health Services’ Assess, Treat, and Refer Coordination Centre They depict the strong networks we have built over the
years through the O’Brien Institute for Public Health
and are reflected in the University of Calgary’s Growth
through Focus campaign. They showcase the strength
Dr. Jaime Kaufman, PhD (she/her)
Director, Research and Innovation
1 W21C Research and Innovation Centre
Annual Report 2020–2021
2

About
W21C
Who we are
The W21C Research and Innovation Centre (W21C) is based in the University of Calgary’s
O’Brien Institute for Public Health, and the Calgary Zone of Alberta Health Services.
Impact Metrics:
Year in Numbers
April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021
42
University academic faculty
and/or alumni associated
with research projects
75
Connections with
companies to explore
research services
RESEARCH 60
Active
research projects
What we do
W21C aims to improve the health system by bringing new ideas, prototypes, and products
into health care for testing and evaluation. W21C’s interdisciplinary research team provides
evidence, feedback, and validation services.
32
Industry inquiries converted
to active research projects
6
Prototypes for
clinical evaluation
16
COVID-19
projects
Together we are making care better.
Our core values
W21C endeavours to create and maintain a positive and productive balance between
learning, working, and living. We promote:
10
Technology
innovation evaluations
13
Highly qualified
personnel trained
24
On-going clinical trials
(11 activated)
Integrity and
Honesty
To take responsibility for
our own actions while
expecting the same of
others we interact with.
Research and Service
Excellence
To go above and beyond
and to pursue excellence in
everything we do.
Collaboration
To believe in the power of
working together to find
solutions to challenging
problems.
Privacy and Confidentiality
To protect the
confidentiality of the
information and data that
has been entrusted to us.
Respect
To treat all individuals
with respect, compassion,
fairness, and dignity.
Work-Life Balance
and Wellness
To encourage and empower
individuals to adopt a
work-life model that
reflects the needs of their
unique personal situations
while enabling maximum
productivity.
NOTEWORTHY
Launch of
SPARK Calgary
New in-house
lab collection service
Top recruiting site
for two international studies
ENGAGEMENT
368
Undergraduate and
graduate students
participating
in educational
opportunities (class
tours, presentations,
and summer
studentships)
415
Attendees at virtual events
focused on entrepreneurship
and health-care solutions
FOLLOWER GROWTH RATE
29%
44%
5%
123% increase in engagement
15,000
unique website visitors
with international reach
3 W21C Research and Innovation Centre Annual Report 2020–2021 4

Celebrating our Milestones
For over 17 years (2004–2021) W21C has been at the heart of health services research, working with
academics, entrepreneurs, governments, non-profits, and companies to bring new ideas into health
care. Highlights in research, education, collaboration, and entrepreneurship include:
2004
Opening of the Ward of the
21st Century, a redesigned
Unit 36 in the Special
Services Building of the
Foothills Medical Centre.
Located within the Calgary
Health Region (now part of
Alberta Health Services),
this “Living Laboratory”
was the first of its kind
in Canada.
2008
South Health Campus:
W21C Human Factors
researchers teamed up
with Calgary Health Region
to conduct simulations
evaluating the proposed
designs of four rooms
before construction.
Recommendations provided
informed the final design of
900 rooms.
Vocera Device Evaluation:
This hands-free wireless
communication solution
was tested by W21C (with
nursing staff) when it
was first implemented
within the Calgary Health
Region. Research found
the device improved work
efficiency, communication,
and continuity of patient
care. Vocera is now used in
hospitals across Alberta
and internationally.
2009
Opening of the W21C
Research and Innovation
Centre and the shift to
being part of the University
of Calgary.
2011
ASL Mobile Eye: W21C was
one of the first research
teams to explore eye
movements in health-care
settings using the Applied
Science Laboratories (ASL)
Mobile Eye. This tetherless
eye-tracking system,
designed to be worn by
research participants, helps
to capture and record
where health-care providers
are looking during clinical
procedures, while they
interact with different
health-care technologies.
2012
Launch of the W21C
Summer Student Program,
which provides hands-on
research opportunities,
education sessions, and
mentorship. To date,
69 undergraduate and
graduate students have
participated in the program.
The beginning of local
and global health care
innovation academy
event platforms (W21C
Innovation Academy
and Global Healthcare
Innovation Academy). These
international partnership
events support innovation
in health care with scalable
impact. W21C has hosted
nine events within this
platform.
2013
Alberta Ambulance
Design: This study,
conducted by W21C and
AHS Emergency Medical
Services, evaluated how
the design of ambulances
impacted paramedics’
ability to provide care
during patient transport.
Results continue to inform
improvements to the rear
patient compartment
of Alberta ambulances,
greatly improving safety for
patients and paramedics.
2015
XSENSOR’s ForeSite
PT System: W21C
conducted an independent
randomized controlled
trial with XSENSOR’s
pressure monitoring
system (a mattress overlay
for a hospital bed) to
assess if the technology
aids in reducing pressure
experienced by patients.
Pressure injury treatment
costs Canadian hospitals
more than $1 million
each year. Prior to
this clinical trial, W21C
worked with XSENSOR
from initial concept
to prototype creation,
and commercialization;
conducting focus groups,
heuristic evaluations,
usability, and clinical testing.
2017
Patient Portal Survey:
This Alberta-wide
study examined public
perceptions regarding
the use of online patient
health portals to access,
manage, and share health
information. The results
were shared with provincial
decision-making bodies to
inform decisions for online
health platforms in Alberta.
W21C receives the
Societal Impact Award
from the ASTech Foundation.
WiTAT Technology
Evaluation: This noninvasive
thermometer
allows for the continuous
monitoring of a patient’s
core body temperature. This
flagship project proved the
efficacy of the device and
involved a collaboration
between W21C, University
of Calgary’s Department
of Electrical and Software
Engineering (the developers
of the device), and the
Intensive Care Unit at
Foothills Medical Centre.
Physician Wellness: This
foundational study in the
Lancet, highlighted that
the health and wellness of
physicians is vital to the
delivery of high-quality
care. This study led to 15
years of further research
understanding the science
of physician wellness and
the eventual launch of Well
Doc Alberta in 2019.
The Duke and Duchess
of Cambridge visit W21C
as part of their national
Canadian tour (the only
university site they visited
in Western Canada).
Electronic Transfer of
Care Tool: W21C partnered
with AHS to develop and
test this web-based tool,
which provides a complete
summary of a patient’s
hospital stay to community
health-care providers. The
clinical trial resulted in a
tool that is now used in all
Calgary adult acute care
facilities. It has also been
modified for applications in
intensive care and surgery.
Garden Loft Laneway
House: W21C partnered with
the University of Calgary’s
School of Architecture,
Planning and Landscape to
evaluate the prototype of a
laneway home and assistive
in-home technologies to
support aging-in-place. This
cutting-edge design aims
to help people live in the
community longer, easing
the burden on the health
system and community.
2020
SPARK Calgary program
launches within W21C
to support digital health
entrepreneurs (first
Canadian site for the
global SPARK network).
5 W21C Research and Innovation Centre
Annual Report 2020–2021
6

CONNECTION
In addition to publishing in
the peer reviewed journal
Infection Control & Hospital
Epidemiology, the DeMaND
study was included in a
December 2020 interim
guidance report to the WHO
on rational use of PPE for
Riley Brandt, University of Calgary
COVID-19 and considerations
during severe shortages.
The Calgary study team
was featured in a January
UCalgary News story that
was picked up by CBC News,
CBC Radio-Canada, and
Hospital News. A UCalgary
‘In the Know’ video featuring
Global study investigates decontamination
methods for medical masks
International research collaboration could help alleviate
shortages of personal protective equipment
JULIA MACGREGOR, W21C
Riley Brandt, University of Calgary
Dr. Heyne and discussing the
decontamination methods has
received over 350 views.
Personal protective equipment
(PPE) is just as the name makes
clear: personal. Like your toothbrush,
you wouldn’t remove and share
your mask or face covering with
your colleague. But if masks can
be decontaminated effectively and
then reused, you might. This practice
would help combat future global
supply shortages.
Researchers at the University
of Calgary were part of the
Development of Methods for Mask
and N95 Decontamination (DeMaND)
study. This international multicentre
study evaluated low-cost
decontamination methods to maintain
mask integrity and performance for
health-care workers at the frontline.
Masks, including N95 respirators, were
put through two decontamination
processes that are accessible for lowto
middle income countries: dry heat
and photodynamic inactivation—
an antimicrobial process where
the mask is sprayed with a nontoxic
solution of methylene blue
and then exposed to light, which
creates reactive oxygen species
that kill the virus responsible for
COVID-19. Study results showed
that the photodynamic inactivation
method is effective in killing three
coronaviruses, including SARS-
CoV-2, while still maintaining
mask integrity after five cycles of
decontamination. These results were
published in Infection Control &
Hospital Epidemiology.
“The decontamination methods
we evaluated are low cost, easy
to perform, and can be applied
anywhere,” says Dr. Belinda Heyne,
PhD, professor in the Faculty of
Science and co-principal investigator
of the Calgary study team. “We have
demonstrated that photodynamic
inactivation is effective in killing
the virus and could now be used to
decontaminate masks for safe reuse
in any global setting.”
W21C’s Human Factors team was
the only study site to perform
user acceptance testing of the
masks with frontline health-care
providers. They conducted visual
checks, comfort assessments, and
took participants through a survey
to gather perceptions on how the
decontaminated mask would affect
their ability to perform work, and the
efficacy, safety, and trustworthiness
of the mask.
W21C was also a key player in
bringing the DeMaND study
to Alberta by securing study
partnerships and collaborators from
the University of Alberta, AHS, and
the University of Calgary’s Faculty of
Science. The DeMaND global research
consortium totalled involvement from
13 organizations, universities, and
laboratories, including the World Health
Organization (WHO) and Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
“In partnership with members of the
global consortium, we are providing
recommendations for countries and
settings who may not necessarily
have access to sufficient PPE or
limited decontamination facilities,”
says Dr. John Conly, MD, professor
in the Cumming School of Medicine
and co-principal investigator of the
Calgary study team.
This global research was supported
by Open Philanthropy, and the
Alberta study sites were supported
with funding from Innovation,
Impact and Evidence, Alberta
Health Services. The Calgary study
was led by Dr. Belinda Heyne, PhD,
Faculty of Science, and Dr. John
Conly, MD, W21C Research and
Innovation Centre.
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Annual Report 2020–2021 | CONNECTION
8

CONNECTION
Researchers
investigate drone
delivery of medical
supplies, equipment,
treatments, and
diagnostic testing to
remote First Nations
communities during
pandemic
Riley Brandt, University of Calgary
KELLY JOHNSTON, CUMMING SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
Leah Hennel, Alberta Health Services
COVID-19 has stressed an already
overburdened health-care system and
its resources. In the face of a global
pandemic, having rapid access to
supplies such as personal protective
equipment (PPE), diagnostic
equipment, and testing kits provides
a greater ability to prevent, detect,
and respond to COVID-19 outbreaks.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV),
commonly referred to as drones,
may prove to be a valuable tool for
health-care services and remote
communities in the battle against
pandemics like COVID-19.
Researchers at W21C, the Southern
Alberta Institute of Technology
(SAIT), AHS, and Alberta Precision
Laboratories (APL) have partnered
with the Stoney Nakoda Nations
(SNN) to deliver medical equipment
and test kits for COVID-19 to
remote areas, and to connect
these communities to laboratories
more quickly using these remotely
piloted aircraft.
Testing for COVID-19 is one of the
most effective tools against helping
to limit its spread. Many remote
communities in Canada do not have
easy access to testing centres and
medical supplies to support rapid
testing and containment. Drones are
a way to help respond to that need.
“Our reserve in Morley has multiple
access points; however, our satellite
reserves in Eden Valley and Big Horn
are remote and a delivery system
using drones could play a critical
role in the health and safety of our
communities,” says Ryan Robb, CEO
of the Stoney Tribal Administration.
“Like many remote Canadian
communities, weather can play a key
role, for example depending on the
time of the year, ice roads and floods
can create access barriers.”
“In many areas of Canada, drones
must be guided and monitored with
the assistance of line of sight,” says
Wade Hawkins, lead researcher
at SAIT’s Centre for Innovation
and Research in Unmanned
Systems (CIRUS) and co-principal
investigator on the project. “With
this partnership, we are working
with Transport Canada to gain
approval to move beyond visual
line of sight, enabling us to fly from
a lab or health centre directly to a
remote community.”
Over the past year, researchers
conducted several successful test
runs in remote SNN communities
beyond visual line of site for the
delivery of PPE and COVID-19 test
kits. The samples were brought
back to the provincial lab and were
able to survive with no degrading
of the specimen. They were also
non-infectious and posed no risk to
the public.
Additionally, Dr. Andrew Kirkpatrick,
MD, a trauma surgeon at the
Foothills Medical Centre, worked
with the team to deliver a portable
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Annual Report 2020–2021 | CONNECTION
10

CONNECTION
Researchers explore
health system
preparedness in
acute and primary
care settings
REACHING
NEW
HEIGHTS
Over the past year, the study
was published in two peerreviewed
research journals.
Other top accomplishments
include 661 website and
social media content
downloads and 197 social
media posts—more than
300% and 600% of target
key performance indicators
(KPI) respectively. This
Leah Hennel, Alberta Health Services
With the onset of the COVID-19
pandemic, acute and primary care
centres around the world needed
to make rapid changes to clinical
practices and policies to make
sure health-care providers and
patients were kept safe. In Alberta,
researchers from W21C and the
University of Calgary’s School of
Public Policy were on the ground on
March 12, 2020, working alongside
incident management teams and
frontline clinicians as these new
health system changes were being
rolled out across the province. The
interdisciplinary team-bringing
clinical, human factors, and social
science expertise together-observed,
documented, and interviewed
frontline health-care providers and
incident management teams to
understand how these policies were
formed, transmitted, interpreted, and
implemented. Through this research,
the study team provided real-time
feedback and support to primary
and acute care teams to improve
practices and safety in clinical
settings. This included support to
develop an Infection Prevention
and Control (IPC) Community of
Practice—a community of primary
care clinicians focused on identifying
and adapting IPC protocols for their
clinics in Calgary and across Alberta.
Three papers from the study team’s
portfolio of work were published in
BMJ Global Health, PLOS One, and
BMJ Simulation and Technology
Enhanced Learning.
This research, supported by the
Canadian Institutes of Health
Research COVID rapid response fund,
was led by Dr. Myles Leslie, PhD,
School of Public Policy, and
Dr. John Conly, MD, W21C Research
and Innovation Centre.
project was featured in a
July 2020 UCalgary News
article and UCalgary video
that attracted external
news coverage by the
Calgary Herald, CTV via The
Canadian Press, and CBC in
the following months.
ultrasound unit and is investigating
its potential for further applications.
“With this device, and access to a
smartphone, with connectivity, a
person can be guided remotely by
an expert medical professional to
perform an ultrasound on themselves
or to have someone at the scene
perform it on them,” says Kirkpatrick.
“We’ve confirmed this system can
be used to check for evidence of
COVID-19 in the lungs, and I can see it
being utilized for many other medical
emergencies, from diagnosing broken
bones to ruptured spleens.”
Researchers are now in the final
stages of testing and refining the
Standard Operating Procedures
(SOP) or the drones beyond
visual line of site in locations with
different terrain, environmental
conditions, and distances. SAIT
will also be delivering flight school
training for youth at SNN, with the
goal of building the capacity for
the local communities to administer
and coordinate future flights.
If this Calgary drone delivery
initiative proves effective, Conly says
the project could grow into a tool
used nationally and even globally to
respond to medical emergencies in
remote and isolated areas.
This research is supported by TransAlta Corporation, the World Health
Organization (WHO), an anonymous donor, and the Nickle Family Foundation.
The research is led by co-principal investigators: Dr. John Conly, MD, and
Dr. Barry Baylis, MD, W21C Research and Innovation Centre, Dr. Andrew
Kirkpatrick, MD, AHS, and Wade Hawkins, SAIT.
University of Calgary drug discovery aims to
reduce inflammation in COVID-19 patients:
Metablok clinical trial
Sometimes a discovery made several
years ago can find a new purpose.
Metablok, a drug discovered
and developed by University of
Calgary researchers in the Arnie
Charbonneau and Snyder Institutes,
was originally created to reduce
inflammation in the lungs and liver.
Now the drug has found a new
possible application to help prevent
organ damage and acute kidney
injury in hospitalized COVID-19
patients. The company, Arch
Biopartners, received federal funding
to support the development of the
drug commercially for COVID-19
applications, with an international
multi-centre clinical trial of 60
patients. Dr. Alain Tremblay, MD,
professor in the Cumming School of
Medicine and principal investigator
for the Calgary study site, was
supported by W21C’s clinical trials
team for participant monitoring
and follow-up after the drug had
been administered. The results
from this study will inform the next
phase of clinical trials with a larger
number of participants to ensure it
is safe and effective, with the goal
of commercializing the drug and
adopting it into clinical practice.
11 W21C Research and Innovation Centre
Annual Report 2020–2021 | CONNECTION
12

COLLABORATION
SPARK Calgary:
A success story
Translating academic digital health innovations into clinical practice
Often great innovations can get stuck in the research
phase and do not make it out of the lab and into the
hands of those who need it. Launched in April 2020 and
led by Dr. Scott Kraft, MD, W21C Research and Innovation
Centre, SPARK Calgary helps academic researchers,
post-doctoral scholars, and students with digital health
innovations bridge that gap, increasing potential for
these important ideas and discoveries to make it into
clinical practice to benefit patients and the community.
These digital health innovations include products such as
mobile applications for patients, monitoring or diagnostic
2
cohorts
launched
15
project presentations to
industry advisors
SPARK CALGARY
YEAR AT A GLANCE
technologies, and data visualization software.
SPARK Calgary is part of the SPARK Global network.
Initiated in 2006 at Stanford University, SPARK Global is
comprised of more than 60 academic institutions across
six continents. W21C is the first and only Canadian site.
In its first year, SPARK Calgary supported 11 digital health
project teams with group mentorship from industry
experts, educational seminars for product and business
development, project management support, and in-kind
W21C research services.
$40K
in Alberta Innovates
and Calgary
Innovation Coalition
funding for the
SPARK program
12
education sessions to
297
attendees
Digital health platform aims to reduce
antimicrobial resistance: Firstline
Since the discovery of penicillin in
1928, antibiotics have become a
foundation for modern medicine,
and continue to significantly improve
our lives. However, years of overuse
are causing increasing rates of
antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
around the world. A digital clinical
decision support platform created
by Canadian company Firstline
Clinical, was developed to combat
and prevent the overuse of broadspectrum
antibiotics. Their goal is
to become the worldwide digital
steward to increase adherence to
prescription guidelines and reduce
AMR. W21C worked with Firstline
to conduct a heuristic evaluation
of their iOS and Android-based
smart phone application (SApp),
as well as the web-based content
management system (CMS). More
recently, Firstline has been working
with W21C to customize and launch
the application globally, and it is
currently being used across Canada,
the United States, Europe, Southeast
Asia, and Africa. In Canada, the app
is servicing over 400,000 healthcare
providers, with nearly 300,000
uses to date within AHS alone. The
platform is customizable to local
health guidelines and continues to be
quickly updated to include relevant
COVID-19 support pages. In 2020,
Firstline and their partners received
over $4 million from Canada’s Digital
Technology Supercluster to build
a global knowledge network for
infectious diseases, and to develop a
software solution for researchers to
harness COVID-related genomic and
clinical data. New versions are now
being developed for the WHO as well
as for use by veterinarians—creating
impact in both human
and animal health.
11
teams
with over
50
Including students, PhD
candidates, post-docs, faculty
Affiliated with or alumni
of 8 academic institutions
Spanning 9 university faculties
22
industry advisors
from across Canada
(BC, Alberta, Ontario)
team members
supported
PARTNERSHIPS
Innovate Calgary
Platform Calgary
Venture Mentoring
Service of Alberta
(VMSA)
Life Sciences
Innovation Hub
INITIATED AND CHAIR FOR
SPARK AMERICAS
Members = SPARK Stanford, Wyoming,
Mexico, Colorado, Cleveland Clinic
Aim to provide opportunities for team
members and advisors to connect across sites
Share best practices on SPARK
Collaborate on educational programming
$30k
in funding secured by
teams since joining
SPARK Calgary
335
people engaged
through public
outreach events
Software platform focuses on
enhancing stroke treatment triage:
StrokeSENS
In Canada, stroke is the third
leading cause of death and the
leading cause of adult disability.
Every year, there are over 50,000
new strokes in our country—
approximately one stroke every 10
minutes. In 1993, neurologist Dr.
Camilo Gomez coined a fundamental
rule of stroke treatment, ‘time is
brain.’ This rule still holds today,
meaning that quick identification
and accurate imaging interpretation
are essential at front-line hospitals
for the successful treatment of
strokes. StrokeSENS, created by
Circle Neurovascular Imaging Inc.,
was designed specifically for this
purpose. This software platform,
developed by expert physicians,
acts as a clinical decision support
tool for non-stroke physicians in a
variety of urban and rural locations.
W21C was approached by Circle
Neurovascular Imaging Inc. to
perform a heuristic evaluation with
design experts to help them enhance
the overall usability of their platform.
In the future, they hope to integrate
StrokeSENS into the clinical pathway
for stroke care. This tool could be
used to enhance patient triage,
providing information on key stroke
indicators (aspects) and enabling the
physicians to understand whether
a patient should go to a specialized
acute stroke care centre for
treatment (e.g., the Foothills Medical
Centre), or if they can be cared for in
other health-care facilities.
ADDITIONAL W21C
DIGITAL HEALTH
STATS
$1,925,254
in external grants and
industry sponsored
funding from 2018-2021
28 digital health
projects supported
Health Innovation
Platform Partnership’s
Stage 1 Grant
Launch of SPARK
Calgary program
13
W21C Research and Innovation Centre
Annual Report 2020–2021 | COLLABORATION
14

COMMUNITY
Sheena Bates is a fulltime
family caregiver
at home for her
husband, Paul, who
lives with dementia.
Daniel Gaetano is a
full-time caregiver
for his wife, Janet.
Janet is living with
dementia and resides
in a long-term
care facility.
This research was
featured in a March
2021 UCalgary News
story that was then
picked up by the
Calgary Herald and
Calgary Sun, creating
further awareness
about the needs of
family caregivers in
Alberta.
The Impact of COVID-19 on family
caregivers for persons living with dementia
Research highlights system gaps and family needs during COVID-19
JULIA MACGREGOR, W21C
The pandemic has tested our resolve,
posing restrictions on who we can
see, what we can do, and where
we can go. For family caregivers to
people living with dementia at home,
in long-term care or supportive living
facilities, the pandemic has not only
isolated them, but the critical care
resources and social support systems
they rely on have also been cut or
dramatically reconfigured. This lack
of support has continued throughout
multiple waves of the virus in Alberta.
Dr. Gwen McGhan, PhD, Faculty of
Nursing, and Dr. Deirdre McCaughey,
PhD, Cumming School of Medicine,
with support from the W21C
Research and Innovation Centre,
conducted a survey during the height
of Alberta’s COVID-19 restrictions.
Researchers heard from more
than 200 Calgary area residents
who look after people living with
dementia. Results of the initial study
highlighted the burden of COVID-19
policies and public health restrictions
on caregivers and their inability to
support their loved ones.
“Being a family caregiver is an unpaid
and often unsupported role, but an
essential role, nonetheless,” says
McGhan, who is a registered nurse
and principal investigator of the study.
“Family caregivers provide physical,
emotional, and financial support
to a parent, spouse, neighbour or
friend, and help them with essential
everyday tasks they may not be able
complete by themselves.”
Family caregivers Sheena Bates
and Daniel Gaetano have partnered
with these University of Calgary
researchers to generate awareness
of these challenges and provide
policy recommendations for future
emergency planning.
Sheena Bates is a full-time family
caregiver at home for her husband,
Paul, who lives with dementia, and
the role is complex. “You always
have to be on the ball, you are
responsible,” says Bates. “You need
to still respect their independence
as much as you can. I keep reading
and trying to learn more to help
us and other people in the same
position. It can be tough.”
Bates has been providing full-time
care for Paul at home since 2017,
assisting him with tasks such as
dressing, showering, shaving, and
toileting. Before the pandemic, Paul
attended adult day programs, and
together they would participate
in conversation cafes and other
meetings for family caregivers and
their partners. They also received a
few hours of respite care each week.
COVID-19 halted all these supports.
“Paul’s needs increased, at least
partly because of no social contact,
and that all falls on you,” says
Bates. “We couldn’t see other
family members or friends for some
months; it was very isolating.”
Daniel Gaetano has been a full-time
family caregiver for his wife, Janet,
since 2015, who is now in a long-term
care facility. Before the pandemic,
Gaetano would visit twice a day to
support her at mealtimes, provide
connection, and to keep her walking.
With the restrictions he was unable
to access the facility to provide care
for Janet.
“All of a sudden you have this big
void. You are her caregiver; this is
who you are, and this is what you do,”
says Gaetano. “When that was taken
away, you can’t really start anything
else. You just have to wait until you
can become her caregiver again.”
The feedback from caregivers
through this study has allowed
the researchers to provide several
policy recommendations to enhance
community supports: maintaining
tailored caregiving assistance and
resources; providing clear, correct,
and concise information on public
health protocols; and allowing family
caregivers continued access to
care recipients as they provide an
essential role. As the virus continues
to adapt and family caregivers wait
for their resources and support
services to resume, there is an
ongoing need to understand their
experiences in order to guide future
policy recommendations.
“As an unpaid caregiver, fatigue
and anxiety is still happening,”
says Gaetano. “The pandemic has
highlighted these issues for
unpaid caregivers.”
This research led by Dr. Gwen
McGhan, RN, PhD, Faculty of Nursing
and Dr. Deirdre McCaughey, PhD,
Cumming School of Medicine,
was conducted in partnership and
supported by the Alzheimer Society
of Calgary, Dementia Network
Calgary, Alzheimer Society of Alberta
and Northwest Territories, the
Drummond Foundation, and Alberta
SPOR Support Unit.
15
W21C Research and Innovation Centre Annual Report 2020–2021 | COMMUNITY 16

COMMUNITY
Alberta Health Services’ Assess, Treat,
and Refer Coordination Centre
Improving access to mobile medicine for health care
W21C helped our
program identify new
process improvement
ideas, which in turn
allowed us to implement
solutions that increased our
overall efficiency and quality of
care we provide to our patients.
W21C was able to expand
upon on our current patient
care model by allowing us to
step back and find previously
unidentified patterns and
connections that turned into
new ideas and solutions. The
support the W21C provided our
Community Paramedic program
was fantastic and we continue to
implement solutions based on
the recommendations created by
the W21C team.”
Ryan Kozicky
Director, EMS Mobile Integrated Healthcare
THANK YOU
W21C PROGRAM SUSTAINABILITY
W21C acts as a research consultancy, supporting
innovators from the health system, academic
institutions, industry, and the public sector. We
receive core operational funding from a variety
of provincial, national, and international funding
bodies, peer-reviewed granting agencies,
corporate donors, and industry partnerships.
This funding enables W21C to provide research
expertise and lab infrastructure on a cost-recovery
basis, allowing us to validate new technological
solutions and applications in real health-care
settings. We also receive grants supporting
specific research projects. The funding received
to date has strengthened our international
reputation as a trusted and impartial source of
high-quality research services and evidence—
helping innovators bring new products to market
and improving patient safety and quality of care in
our health systems.
W21C EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
We would like to thank the W21C Executive
Committee, which is currently comprised of
our founders and senior research faculty. This
committee works closely with the directors to
provide strategic guidance to the W21C Research
and Innovation Centre.
ALEX BARON, W21C
The AHS Assess, Treat, and Refer
(ATR) Coordination Centre, a
community paramedicine program,
provides an incredible service.
Every day, their interdisciplinary
team of patient coordinators (PCs),
community paramedics, and on-call
physicians strive to improve access
and provide innovative approaches
to mobile medicine for health care.
ATR increases accessibility to primary
and urgent care, by coordinating with
local care practitioners to support inhome
medical treatment for patients.
Through this unique approach
to patient care, the ATR reduces
the burden on our health system,
providing services traditionally
requiring emergency medical
services (EMS), emergency
departments, or hospital admissions.
In performing their duties and
completing their assignments, the
ATR team works with a variety of
software and digital tools. The ATR
program managers were looking to
understand if these technological
systems cause undue cognitive strain
and inefficiency on their team.
W21C worked with the ATR team to
conduct a multi-phase evaluation
of their technological systems. This
project was conducted in two
phases. In Phase 1, W21C identified
information and communication
technology requirements that
would enhance performance and
satisfaction for the PCs. In Phase 2,
the W21C Human Factors team
sought to understand and document
the workflows, skills, and traits
that PCs require to undertake their
tasks and roles within the ATR
Coordination Centre.
Through observations and interviews
with ATR staff in Calgary, the
research team recognized that much
of the work undertaken by the staff
closely resembled that of an IT help desk ticketing
system. They identified twelve core challenging
tasks within the ATR program with the possibility
for refinement. Working as the command centre for
the entire South Zone, ATR staff would handle such
tasks as scheduling appointments, coordinating with
care practitioners, and communicating with external
health-care staff, just to name a few, with many of
these tasks being repetitive and mentally tedious.
W21C provided AHS with recommendations to
alleviate the mental burdens for the staff members
and suggested that greater investment in automation
would further ease those challenges. These could
be valuable as the Government of Alberta looks
to merge the ATR program with other potentially
similar programs in the future.
John Conly, MD, Medical Director
Barry Baylis, MD, Senior Researcher and
Executive Committee Member
William Ghali, MD, MPH, Senior Researcher and
Executive Committee Member
W21C is also supported by academic faculty
conducting population or health systems research,
and individuals working on the front lines of patient
care. These leaders continue to identify gaps or
opportunities within the health system and work
with us to explore solutions. Please visit w21c.
org/about for a full list of operations and research
teams, academic faculty, and Unit 36 leadership.
17
W21C Research and Innovation Centre Annual Report 2020–2021 | COMMUNITY 18

GD01, TRW Building
3280 Hospital Drive NW
Calgary, AB T2N 4Z6
Canada
403.210.6975
w21c@ucalgary.ca
W21C
W21C
W21C, University of Calgary
#makingcarebetter
W21C is located on the traditional territories of the people of the Treaty 7 region in Southern Alberta.
The City of Calgary is also home to Métis Nation of Alberta, Region III.