Health Innovation Roundup

Headlines

• Losing the Community Safety and Wellness Accelerator, which helped companies focus on public good, investment, and scale is a "big loss," says one successful grad of the defunct program. "Seeing how there was a really focused support in the community safety and wellness space was such a vote of confidence for us," said Lana Cuthbertson, co-founder and CEO of Areto Labs and one of the entrepreneurs from the CSW's first cohort. "(We felt) validation in hearing there was a real market need for what we were doing — and on top of that, a societal need — from these significant voices in the landscape."
• Edmonton has one of two clinics in Canada offering EndoSure, a non-invasive test for endometriosis that its distributor hopes will prevent the advancement of the disease. "This is going to be a big change, because right now we're basically finding and treating end-stage disease, but now we can find it at Stage 1," EndoDiagnosis COO Carolyn Plican told Taproot. Gynecologist Sam Azer and representatives from EndoDiagnosis will discuss the technology at a Women's Health Symposium on April 25.
• Sensory Canada is hosting an inclusive arts festival at the Bison Lodge on April 10 and 11, supporting Autism Edmonton, the Edmonton Association of the Deaf, AdaptAbilities, and the Braille Tone Music Society. April 10 features the Sensory Gala, while April 11 is the Sensory Festival. Both days include sensory-friendly environments, ASL interpretation, tactile art, and live performances.
• NAIT's Centre for Advanced Medical Simulation hosted nearly 200 students from five post-secondary schools for a mass casualty simulation. The school ran a realistic building collapse scenario in which students transported patients via ambulance to hospital settings. Terry Schlitter, dean of NAIT's School of Health and Life Sciences, said the inter-professional exercise gives students from different healthcare programs the chance to learn with and about each other before entering the field.
• My Viva received an Innovation Award from Obesity Canada at the organization's 2026 summit in Montreal, recognizing its digital health tools supporting behaviour change and improved outcomes for people with chronic diseases.
• Edmonton Unlimited is hosting a panel discussion on what life sciences investors actually fund, featuring investors and advisors from Lumira Ventures, One Six 8 Ventures, and Mintz LLP on May 5. Admission is subject to approval.
• The Perfect Match is among the health-related, locally made films playing at NorthwestFilmFest this month. The documentary follows a father's quest to find a matching stem cell donor for his toddler. Also playing are The Secret Longtree Society, which examines how trees show how we care for the world; Dolph: Unbreakable, about action star and cancer survivor Dolph Lundgren; and Tootoo, about NHL player and recovery advocate Jordin Tootoo. The festival runs from April 8 to 14 at the Garneau Theatre.
• The Alberta Emerald Foundation has announced shortlisted nominees for its 35th annual awards of excellence. The Clean Energy Improvement Program by Alberta Municipalities, agroforestry research from the University of Alberta, and research on microplastics in freshwater systems by NAIT are among them. The winners will be announced on June 4 in Calgary.

Social innovation

• The federal government has announced $650,000 for the City of Edmonton through the Crime Prevention Action Fund, supporting evidence-based crime prevention in the downtown core. The funding is intended to strengthen local partnerships, improve access to services, and enhance public spaces, particularly for youth and other vulnerable groups.
• Michelle Frechette and collaborators launched the Social Impact Innovation Hub, a new initiative that aims to use shared resources and proximity to empower social-impact organizations to accelerate each other.
• Tessa Muddle of Strathcona High School has been named one of 36 Loran Scholars for 2026, selected from more than 5,400 applicants for a scholarship valued at more than $100,000. Muddle is the co-founder of the all-girls flag football league Flag Like A Girl. She told CBC's Edmonton AM she has seen girls' participation in flag football grow since founding FLAG.
• In a solo episode of the Unapologetic podcast, host Erin Davis reflects on attending the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York, exploring the gap between global advocacy spaces and everyday leadership.
• Boyle Street Community Services has welcomed Fred Hines as its new deputy executive director. Hines brings over 20 years of leadership experience across nonprofit, education, post-secondary, and corporate environments, with a background in Indigenous education.

More health news

• A potent veterinary sedative called medetomidine is appearing with increasing frequency in Alberta's unregulated drug supply and cannot be reversed by naloxone or other standard opioid overdose treatments, warns addiction medicine specialist Monty Ghosh. Kayla Halliday, who manages the Spectrum drug-testing program by the Queer and Trans Health Collective, said she's seen the increase firsthand when checking drugs for contaminants. Halliday demonstrated how she tests drugs for CBC Edmonton's Radio Active.
• Alberta Reproductive Centre medical director Ariana Daniel discussed the risks of the "zero trimester" trend with CBC Edmonton's Radio Active. Daniel, a reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist, said influencer marketing is contributing to the use of untested products, extreme dieting and exercising, and halting prescription medications among those preparing for pregnancy. She recommends basic practices such as adequate sleep, a well-balanced diet, and hydration for pre-conception health measures.
• A lack of primary care and the absence of accountability makes the recent provincial announcement of $34 million for Indigenous healthcare empty, wrote physician Esther Tailfeathers. "At Paul Band, one hour from Edmonton, patients have to hitchhike on the busy highway to access primary care; some have been killed on the road," she noted as an example of an unclosed gap in the system.
• The University of Alberta's Samuel Osama Ogbeide and other health practitioners proposed deploying mobile urgent-care trailers in hospital parking lots to relieve Alberta's emergency department wait times. Their two-stream triage model would redirect patients whose conditions are not life-threatening to the mobile clinics, keeping Level 1 trauma centres focused on urgent cases.
• Alberta Medical Association president Brian Wirzba discussed Alberta's doctor recruitment challenges on CTV's Alberta Primetime, noting that while other provinces are actively targeting U.S. health workers, Alberta has not launched specific physician recruitment efforts south of the border. "Alberta needs to remain competitive," Wirzba said, pointing to Alberta-trained physicians leaving for other jurisdictions.
• Twenty-five health-care workers signed an open letter opposing Bill 18, which would bar doctors from administering medical assistance in dying to patients unlikely to die within 12 months. Inclusion Alberta and Inclusion Canada voiced support for the legislation, arguing it protects people with disabilities from being offered death in lieu of needed supports.
• Alberta Health Services is taking legal steps to recoup $49 million that it paid to a Turkish drug company and importer MHCare Medical for children's medication that it never received. Premier Danielle Smith distanced herself from the controversy while acknowledging "sloppiness" in the 2022 contract, which is under investigation by the RCMP and the auditor general. Opposition Leader Naheed Nenshi criticized the government's handling of public funds.
• City of Edmonton officials say provincial photo radar restrictions have made it harder to fund traffic safety programs after many sites were removed in 2025. Revenue had already been declining due to policy changes and a pandemic-era drop in traffic, widening the funding gap. Experts warn residents may face higher costs or reduced infrastructure spending as the province maintains the restrictions. "At the end of the day, you are taking a revenue source that was being borne by few people who break offences, and now their burden is coming to everybody," said Paul Boniface, an urban planning professor at the University of Alberta.
• United Nurses of Alberta has awarded 15 nursing education scholarships of $1,500 each to first-year nursing students across the province, along with one $1,500 scholarship from the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions.

Happenings

Here are some events coming up over the next seven days:

• April 2: the (everyday) edge: After Dark starting at 6:30pm at Rising Moon Studio in Strathcona County
• April 2: Imagine a Progressive Future: A Community Dialogue starting at 7pm at St. Albert Inn and Suites
• April 3-4: Canada International Health & Medical Expo at Evario Events Centre
• April 7: Deepening Your Relationship with Yourself starting at 1:30pm at St. Albert Public Library (Downtown)
• April 7: Curious Brews: The Smartwear Revolution starting at 6pm at MKT Fresh Food | Beer Market
• April 7: Thoughtful Tuesday - Inside the Manosphere: Watch Party and Discussion starting at 7pm at Earth's Refillery Coop

And here are some upcoming events to keep in mind:

• April 15: Edmonton Death Café at Felice Cafe
• April 25: Women's Health Symposium at Holiday Inn Conference Centre Edmonton South by IHG
• April 29: Invest In Alberta's Continuing Care Think Tank at Fairmont Hotel Macdonald

Visit the Taproot Edmonton Calendar for many more events in the Edmonton region.