Health Innovation Roundup
May 27, 2026
A group of social agencies has released the pilot version of a dashboard to track responses to crises across Edmonton in an effort to better tell the story of crisis diversion and return actionable information to the community. The dashboard, developed by PALcares, keeps track of the efforts of the 24/7 Crisis Diversion Team, which is made up of Boyle Street Community Services, Canadian Mental Health Association - Edmonton, Hope Mission, and REACH Edmonton. The team helps people facing a non-emergency crisis — the kind of call you'd put in to 211 — reducing the need for medical, judicial, or police intervention and preserving 911 for vital emergencies.
The April report, for example, shows there were 2,483 crisis diversion responses, which works out to about one every 17 minutes. Of those, well over 800 resulted in a "warm handoff," in which the person in crisis was connected with a shelter, a hospital, or another safe place. An exploration of the data shows the ebbs and flows of activity over the course of a day and the neighbourhoods that tend to see the most calls, while also reflecting that this kind of crisis happens all over the city. "The data visualization capacity of the dashboard is incredible," Adeoluwa Adeoya of Hope Mission told CBC's Edmonton AM. It breaks the data down per business improvement area and ward, as well, perhaps offering city councillors particular insight into what's happening in their areas.
"As stewards of community data, there is a real responsibility to share that data back with the community," data scientist Sasha Lyuber of PALcares said at a media availability at Boyle Street's King Thunderbird Centre on May 20. In building the dashboard, he's had to walk the line between transparency and the protection of privacy. Response locations are reported at the neighbourhood level instead of indicating exact addresses, for example, and the dashboard offers monthly reports rather than real-time data. Lyuber is eager to hear from the public about how else to adjust the reporting to ensure it is of the greatest use. The team is gathering feedback, with plans to incorporate it into an update in the fall.
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Headlines
- The Alberta government is spending $10 million over the next three years to support a Health Innovation Lab, delivered by the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute, in an effort to improve healthcare procurement. The initiative will support up to 12 AI-powered medical projects per year, Technology and Innovation Minister Nate Glubish announced at Upper Bound.
- A panel at Upper Bound explored how to responsibly use AI with prostheses. Bailey Kacsmar and Afari Darfoor of the University of Alberta's PUPS Lab and Patrick Pilarski of the BLINC Lab discussed how technological advancements have changed prosthetic devices such as cochlear implants and bionic limbs.
- Urologist Adam Kinnaird of the University of Alberta has won an imaging award from the European Association of Urologists for a research trial on detecting prostate cancer. "It's an exciting trial that shows a new imaging technology may be as good as what we currently do and it may be faster and cheaper and more easily accessible," Kinnaird told CBC Edmonton's Radio Active.
- Outbreaks of Ebola and hantavirus show that global pandemic preparedness still needs broader vaccines and antivirals that can respond to new strains quickly, said University of Alberta virologist Matthias Götte. "It is basically not acceptable that, in 2026, after all we went through with COVID, and really starting in 2014 with the West African Ebola outbreak, we are still faced with situations like this," he told Folio.
- The University of Alberta's pandemic-preparedness consortium held its third SPP-ARCing Connections event to connect trainees with biotech and pharmaceutical employers outside of academia. Organizers said representatives from more than 10 companies attended, including Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation and Gilead Sciences, while keynote speaker David Wishart discussed career paths beyond the lab.
- Emily Berg, a researcher at the University of Alberta, will present the results of a study on student homelessness at the Big Thinking Summit, the annual gathering of the Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences that is being held this year in Edmonton from June 9 to 11. Interviews with 65 students in Nova Scotia and Alberta revealed that about 28% faced some form of homelessness, revealing a need for universities to assess and mitigate the problem.
- Christian Zyp from CJSR's Moving Radio shared the story behind his "Decade of Cheating Death" celebration with CBC's Edmonton AM. Zyp contracted meningitis, spent six weeks in a medically induced coma, underwent multiple amputations, and received a kidney transplant as part of his health journey. Sea Change Brewing Co. and The Black Dog Freehouse celebrated his resilience by donating proceeds from beer sales to Wheelchair Sports Alberta.
- Carmen Wyton of the Women's Health Coalition spoke to the Amplify podcast about the gaps in women's healthcare and efforts to fix them. As an example, women with uterine fibroids often wait more than a decade for diagnosis and treatment, she said, pointing to the need for the National Framework for Women's Health in Canada Act, which is under consideration in Ottawa.
- Two major health projects are nearing completion on Enoch Cree Nation. The River Cree Medical Centre will include diagnostic imaging, a pharmacy, and six operating rooms, while the Maskêkosihk Recovery Community will offer 75 beds with programming rooted in Indigenous culture.
- Generic versions of Ozempic are expected at Alberta pharmacies soon after Health Canada approved versions from Apotex and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories. Pharmacists told CBC the new options should lower the cost of semaglutide for patients. Meanwhile, Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation intends to work with Vimy Pharma on another generic version.
- Alberta Health Services profiled its Tracer HUB program, which makes radiopharmaceuticals daily for nuclear imaging and cancer care. It now supplies cold kits to more than 152 hospitals nationwide, and a new Calgary cyclotron facility is planned for 2027.
- A Reluctantly podcast episode explored how Edmonton's Kids with Cancer Society supports families through childhood cancer with fundraising such as its Teeing Up for Kids golf tournament, which takes place on June 12 at the Highlands Golf Club.
Social innovation
- CBC's Edmonton AM profiled Arch Greenhouses, part of Arch Enterprises, a non-profit that offers employment support and community inclusion for adults with developmental disabilities in Edmonton.
- Families raising children with disabilities face funding gaps and waitlists for respite, employment, and life-skills support, said Michelle Hordal of Adaptabilities on an episode of the Give Amplify Connect podcast. The goal should be developing a sense of belonging, not just service delivery, she said.
- The University of Alberta and Alberta SPCA have developed a toolkit to help peace officers spot when an animal owner may be in distress and connect that person with support.
More health news
- Edmonton Police Service and Recovery Alberta are creating an integrated stabilization centre for people causing public disorder while intoxicated but don't face criminal charges. Critics told CBC that detaining people could push drug use further underground. "Is it evidence-based? Is it helpful? There's not a whole lot of suggestion that that's the case," University of Alberta medical professor Ginetta Salvalaggio told CBC.
- The Alberta Federation of Labour is planning Fight Back Now rallies across more than a dozen communities on May 29, including Edmonton and St. Albert. Organizers expect the protests to mark the start of a broader campaign over healthcare, affordability, education, and democratic rights, the St. Albert Gazette reported.
- A policy analysis from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives argued that recent ER deaths in Alberta reflect systemic hospital underfunding. Meanwhile, University of Alberta nursing professor emeritus Donna M. Wilson opined on how to reduce wait times, starting with paying ER doctors equivalently to other specialists.
- Former Alberta Health Services CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos told an Edmonton court that she fears for her safety, alleging a pair of podcasters have harassed her as she pursues a wrongful-dismissal lawsuit against the health authority and the Alberta government.
Happenings
Here are some events coming up over the next seven days:
- May 27: In The Loop: A Social Innovation Mixer for Edmonton's Circular Economy starting at 4:30pm at Brighton Block
- May 28: Lunch N Learn: Vital Within starting at 12pm at St. Albert Chamber of Commerce
- May 28: Startup TNT Edmonton Summit Finale starting at 7pm at Edmonton Unlimited
- May 28: Between Us: An Interactive Talk on How the Body Remembers starting at 7pm online
- May 30: 3rd Annual ADNC Nurses Week Celebration starting at 8am at Days Inn and Suites by Wyndham
- May 30: License to Give: Charity Poker Night starting at 6pm at River Cree Resort and Casino
- June 2: Health & Wellness Fair starting at 10am at Northgate Lions Seniors Recreation Centre
- June 2: Working Together: Supporting Brain Injury Survivors starting at 12pm at Buchanan Centre
And here are some upcoming events to keep in mind:
- June 8: Health Innovators Breakfast: Innovating for Diabetes at Matrix Hotel
- June 9-11: Big Thinking Summit at Edmonton Convention Centre
- June 13: Housing Is A Human Right: Celebrating 40 years of ECOHH at Alberta Avenue Community Centre
Visit the Taproot Edmonton Calendar for many more events in the Edmonton region.
This roundup was sponsored by Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation.
API is one of Canada's largest not-for-profit life sciences commercialization organizations. We catalyze growth in the life sciences sector by addressing key challenges that hold companies and innovators back.