ABOUT
W21C is a research and innovation centre based in the University of Calgary’s O’Brien Institute for Public Health in the Cumming School of Medicine and the Calgary Zone of Alberta Health Services (AHS). W21C conducts research to improve health services and systems to Make Care Better.
OUR HISTORY
W21C was created to respond to the urgent need for innovation in health care. The Canadian Adverse Events Study (Baker 2004) reported that as many as 20,000 deaths occurred annually in Canadian hospitals from preventable adverse events. This finding drew considerable attention to the issues of safety and quality in health care, resulting in a call for strategic research and innovation to address the challenges in health care systems.
In response to this call came the opportunity to create a medical unit that could conduct research to improve health services and systems, resulting in the Ward of the 21st Century. Opening in 2004, this medical unit – Unit 36 at the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary, is nationally and internationally unique. It functions as a “Living Laboratory” – a beta test site for researchers to explore prototypical hospital design, novel approaches to health care delivery, and the use of new and innovative medical technologies, right in a patient care setting. The talented team of health professionals who work every day to take care of patients on Unit 36 is paramount to W21C’s success – helping W21C achieve its vision of “defining the future of health care”. While W21C still works regularly with the original Ward of the 21st Century, the program has been able to expand beyond this unit to other health care settings including hospital-based units across the health system, community-based care, long term care, and even patient’s homes. Expanding the living laboratory concept beyond the original ward enables the program to evaluate research across the entire continuum of care.
In 2008, W21C received funding to expand its research space with the construction of the W21C Research and Innovation Centre – located in the University of Calgary Cumming School of Medicine’s Cal Wenzel Precision Health (CWPH) Building. Doors opened to the new W21C Research and Innovation Centre in the Fall of 2009. This centre houses meeting and seminar spaces, research workstations and office space, and the Healthcare Human Factors and Simulation Laboratory.
The Healthcare Human Factors and Simulation laboratory serves as a testbed for technologies and processes and provides W21C access to a simulated clinical environment. This space enables W21C to evaluate innovations so that research and development can occur without impacting clinical operations within the health system. The lab is ideal for innovations that may not be quite ready for the clinical environment. The lab also provides portable simulation and observation equipment, enabling W21C to take research into operational health system environments across Calgary.
PROVIDING VALUE TO INNOVATORS AND THE HEALTH SYSTEM
W21C’s incredible interdisciplinary team can utilize diverse preclinical and clinical spaces and healthcare environments to develop, evaluate, and launch health innovations at any stage of development. The team works on innovations at an idea stage to explore if there is a potential benefit to the health system and if the idea is worth pursuing, all the way up to international trials of near market ready products to demonstrate large scale effectiveness.
W21C’s team of research methodology experts can also come together to help inform broader health system evidence and policy and help better understand urgent issues facing our health care system. For example, the team has been involved in international reviews and projects on issues such as anti-microbial resistance, emergency department overcrowding, and exploring best practices in dealing with outbreaks on hospital wards. The W21C’s human factors team has been involved in space evaluations for new hospital builds, evaluations around, the preparedness for health care crises like the Ebola outbreak and looking at the safety and design of ambulances.
Partnerships have been key to W21C’s success. The program can tap into content experts from across the health system, including world leaders in infectious disease, emergency medicine, and stroke care. W21C also has strong connections and partnerships with health system partners, the local, provincial, and federal governments, industry partners, and other ecosystem support partners. Together these groups are working to advance health innovation in our health system to make care better for our community.
SPARK ALBERTA
SPARK Alberta is a cohort-based program supporting evidence-based digital health innovations within the University of Calgary and other local academic institutions. Originating at Stanford University, SPARK aims to bridge science and clinical practice and ensure that important ideas and discoveries make it into practice to benefit patients. SPARK is based within W21C and supported by Innovate Calgary.
PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
W21C has worked with many companies that look to evaluate their products before bringing them to market. This includes Surface
Medical’s CleanPatch – a 3 inch by 3 inch patch that works like a bandage for hospital beds, and XSENSOR’s ForeSite PT™ System, a thin sensing overlay that goes between the sheet and mattress on a patient’s bed and is used to reduce pressure injuries. Both innovations were tested in the Human Factors Simulation Lab and on Unit 36, with feedback from these evaluations used to improve the final design.
W21C has also collaborated with AHS, including the first major study in Canada to re-evaluate ambulance design. Paramedics were put through simulation scenarios in moving ambulances to examine the interaction between ambulance design and care provider safety. Thanks to this study, several key changes were made to the design of future ambulances, including an improved overall layout and seat design to encourage seatbelt use, along with rounded corners on interior surfaces to prevent injuries.
