The Pulse: May 12, 2021

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Medo.ai's AI-based thyroid ultrasound system.

Medo-Thyroid uses artificial intelligence to simplify thyroid ultrasounds through a faster and more accurate diagnosis — the company said it's the world's first tool to do this.

It uses algorithms to automatically analyze scans of the thyroid gland, then locates, measures, and characterizes nodules or lumps using the existing Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System (TI-RADS).

"We applied artificial intelligence to make the process fast, so (caregivers) no longer have to fish around. They can just take a sweep instead, and then our AI automatically takes over and identifies the measurements with no assistance at all. It will then come up with TI-RADS classifications, which are used to determine whether (nodules) are cancerous or problematic enough that they require a biopsy," Medo.ai co-founder David Quail told Taproot.

• The Edmonton Football Team announced a loss of $7.1 million in 2020, during a virtual annual general meeting on May 11. It could have been worse. The team cut expenses in half and secured $2.5 million in federal assistance — leaving it in better shape than most CFL teams, writes Edmonton Journal columnist Terry Jones.
• Edmonton city council has rejected an application by developers to expand the Holyrood Gardens project after a public hearing on May 11. Regency Developments wanted to add another 450 residential units to the building at 83rd Street and 93rd Avenue — increasing the total number of units to 1,650.
• Edmonton Transit Service complaints are up nearly 500% since the city made a number of security improvements to its transit system in 2018, according to a report presented to the Urban Planning Committee on May 11.
• Epcor is providing $465,000 in funding to 23 Edmonton non-profits, charities and arts organizations impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. President and CEO Stuart Lee said he hoped the grants would "allow organizations to continue to bring joy to the community this spring and summer."
• Edmonton was named third best city for youth to work by the Youthful Cities 2021 Urban Work Index. The city scored well in areas like cost of living, equity & inclusion and public health, but recorded the highest rate of youth unemployment among the 27 Canadian cities ranked by the report.
• Former city councillor Michael Oshry launches his mayoral campaign today. Oshry announced his intention to run for mayor in February.
• United Sport and Cycle has launched an Edmonton Oilers drive-thru store ahead of the team's playoff run, Global News reports. "Just because we can't celebrate the NHL playoffs and our playoff run in the way we know ... doesn't mean we don't need to do it," United Cycle's operations manager Kelly Hodgson said.

A new strategic plan from the Edmonton Metropolitan Region Board (EMRB) will help the region's municipalities work together, said board chair and Stony Plain Mayor William Choy.

"If we don't have a plan, every community will start doing what they want in an uncoordinated way, which will hurt our chances at a sustainable future," he said.

The EMRB approved A Region by Design: Strategic Plan 2021-2024 on April 19, which outlines three priorities: enabling responsible growth, committing to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies, and encouraging collaboration between member municipalities and with other orders of government.

While the plan does not include any direct changes to the EMRB's policies or operations, Choy said one of the main goals is to give individual municipal governments a set of principles to consider when making decisions that may affect the region.

"It's an opportunity for all municipalities to provide input and to see what is important to us, as a region," he said.

This week's word is "ayisinîskâ," which means "the place where people are" in Cree. Here's how to pronounce it.

The Cree lesson of the week is produced in collaboration with local strategic communications agency Naheyawin.