An Edmonton medical device company received $2 million in financing for a device that will increase the number and quality of organs available for transplant.
Tevasol, a University of Alberta spinoff company, has designed a portable warm perfusion device that extends the life of transplant organs by keeping them warm and fed with oxygen, as if they were still in the body.
The current heart and lung preservation method – cold static storage – leads to progressive tissue damage and allows for only a six-hour window for transplant.
Tevasol estimates its Ex-Vivo Organ Support System could double or triple the number of available donor organs globally, by achieving longer preservation of function and better resuscitation of dysfunctional organs.
The seed funding, announced last Wednesday, will be put toward developing a device prototype for clinical use and starting a lung transplant trial at the University of Alberta.
A B.C. woman filed a constitutional challenge to the Liberal government’s medical assisted dying legislation last Monday, June 25.
Julia Lamb, 25, suffers from spinal muscular atrophy, a degenerative wasting disease that affects voluntary muscles and causes loss of physical strength.
Lamb is ineligible under the current law, passed by Parliament 10 days ago, because her death is not “reasonably foreseeable.” Lamb could live for years, even decades with her condition, which makes it difficult to walk, talk, speak and breathe.
Lamb does not want to die right now, but wants the right to leave on her own terms if her suffering becomes intolerable.
CNIB wants rehabilitation services for vision loss funded under the provincial health care system.
Currently, those suffering from vision loss receive rehab services from a charity, rather than a rehabilitation hospital, like the Glenrose.
CNIB receives funding from the government as a charitable organization, but says it’s not enough to cover the full cost of rehabilitation services.
Health Minister Sarah Hoffman said that fully-funded vision-loss rehab is not possible at the moment due to the current economic state.
Nearly a third of Canadian children aren’t getting enough sleep, according to a new report by ParticipAction.
This is the first time that the Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth has looked at the quality and quantity of children’s sleep.
The report found that too little exercise and too much screen time is causing children to have disrupted sleep because they are not fatigued enough when going to bed. This causes them to be tired the next day and less likely to participate in physical activity, creating a cycle.
The report handed out, for the fourth year in a row, a D-minus for physical activity, finding that only nine per cent of kids aged five to 17 get the recommended minimum of 60 minutes of physical activity a day.
Sedentary behaviour received an F, with 24 per cent of children five to 17 spending more than two hours in front of a screen.
In response to the results, ParticipAction released 24-hour movement guidelines outlining the number of hours a child should sweat (at least 60 minutes per day), sleep (nine to 11 hours per night for children aged 5 to 13 and eight to 10 hours for children aged 14 to 17) and sit (no more than two hours in front of a screen.)
