Toronto, Ontario (February 4, 2021) – In Canada, 30 to 50 per cent of all health care involves a wound. With the pandemic, older, comorbid patients at the highest risk for wounds are also at the greatest risk of COVID-19 complications. While public health measures have helped to limit the spread of the virus, many wound patients can experience greater difficulty accessing the wound care they need. With impeded or delayed access to wound care, these patients are 20 times more likely to end up in hospital – at a time when preserving hospital capacity is vital.
To help ensure continuity and accessibility of care for wound patients in the home and community, a consortium of leading Canadian organizations has come together to launch Telewound Care Canada, a virtual care initiative designed to help patients connect with their care teams while reducing unnecessary travel and in-person care. Telewound Care Canada aims to implement, evaluate and scale integrated, virtually-enabled models of wound care that will impact over one thousand wound patients in Ontario and Quebec by Summer 2021.
By deploying Swift Medical’s AI-powered mobile application, patients will be able to easily capture and share scientifically-calibrated, high-precision wound images with their care team from the safety and comfort of their homes, empowering interdisciplinary care teams at SE Health and the Central East LHIN to better monitor, communicate and care for their patients. Wound patients can be enrolled in the Telewound Care Canada program by these health care providers – and can easily download the mobile app from the app store.
“With an incredible Canadian consortium, we will be able to truly transform the way wound care is delivered across the country,” says Carlo Perez, CEO at Swift Medical. “Together, we will create a framework to help providers deliver the next generation of wound care.”
“While COVID-19 continues to challenge how we provide health care to Canadians, our Supercluster community is deploying digital solutions to deliver safe, effective care for particularly vulnerable Canadians. This initiative is yet another example of how our community has contributed to Team Canada’s efforts to fight COVID-19,” says Sue Paish, CEO of the Digital Technology Supercluster.
Telewound Care Canada is a collective initiative that includes innovative health care and technology organizations from across the country. The founding members of Telewound Care Canada include the world-leading digital wound care technology provider: Swift Medical; innovative health care providers: SE Health and the Central East Local Health Integration Network (Central East LHIN); renowned teaching institution: The Michener Institute of Education at the University Health Network (UHN); and the leading Canadian home care solution provider: AlayaCare. Additionally, clinical research and validation of the new technology is being led by Dr. Sheila Wang, co-founder of Swift Medical and medical resident at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), which is supporting her work with Telewound Care Canada. This project would not be possible without a $2.5 million strategic investment from the Digital Technology Supercluster, which has helped Telewound Care Canada build new collaborative partnerships, accelerate their impact timelines and expand the adoption of AI-powered, digital health technologies nationally.
“The Central East LHIN is pleased to support Telewound Care Canada,” says Cynthia Martineau, CEO, Central East LHIN. “This new technology benefits patients by enabling providers to deliver proactive and preventive wound care in a timely manner, ensures our vulnerable population continues to stay safe at home, provides increased access to wound care experts for individuals in remote communities, and directly supports the Ministry of Health’s Digital First for Health strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.”
“We are thrilled to be part of this exceptional consortium, building on our amazing partnership with Swift Medical, enhancing care, safety and service for our clients at home and supporting SE Health’s commitment to client and family-centered care,” says Nancy Lefebre, Chief Clinical Executive at SE Health. “The accuracy in wound measurement and the visual wound progress promotes heightened clinical decision-making, early identification of any concerns and a rapid response – ensuring we are delivering the best care.”
“With the Telewound Care Canada initiative, Michener will continue to support the Canadian health care system by producing a generation of health care professionals with strong digital technology skills on top of their superior degrees of competency and compassion,” says Dr. Brian Hodges, Executive Vice-President of Education and Chief Medical Officer at UHN.
By the summer, Telewound Care Canada will impact over one thousand wound patients across Ontario and Quebec, with patients already experiencing benefits from using the solution, including one patient who says: “The Swift application has been very beneficial for us in several ways. For starters, it is very easy to use and has prevented unnecessary travel (to the hospital) and travel expenses. It has also enabled us to maintain quick and direct contact with our physician.”
As the initiative expands, Telewound Care Canada intends to scale further across North America to help provide accessible, empathic care to all wound patients, throughout and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
About Swift Medical
Swift Medical is the world leader in digital wound care. Our technology is used by over 3,900 health care organizations across the continuum of care to improve the prevention, assessment, treatment and management of wounds. To learn more about Swift Medical, visit them at: swiftmedical.com.
About the Digital Technology Supercluster
The Digital Technology Supercluster solves some of industry’s and society’s biggest problems through Canadian-made technologies. We bring together private and public sector organizations of all sizes to address challenges facing Canada’s economic sectors including healthcare, natural resources, manufacturing, and transportation. Through this ‘collaborative innovation,’ the Supercluster helps to drive solutions better than any single organization could on its own. The Digital Technology Supercluster is led by industry leaders such as D-Wave, LifeLabs, LlamaZOO, Lululemon, MDA, Microsoft, Mosaic Forest Management, Sanctuary AI, Teck Resources Limited, TELUS, Terramera, and 1Qbit. Together, we work to position Canada as a global hub for digital innovation.
For all requests related to Telewound Care Canada:
David Mannion
david.mannion@swiftmedical.com
416-303-8020
For media requests related to the Digital Technology Supercluster:
Elysa Darling
edarling@digitalsupercluster.ca
587-890-9833
