Better health outcomes through data-focused partnerships at Saskatchewan Polytechnic
A growing number of organizations collect information about every aspect of their operation with the intent to convert it into a value-added business advantage. They often arrive at the question, “What do we do with all this data?”
That’s where Saskatchewan Polytechnic’s Digital Integration Centre of Excellence (DICE) comes into the picture.
“Just as DNA informs the various processes, structures and responses in all of nature from the small to the very large, in a business system, data has become the entity that informs the various processes, structures and responses that enable organizations to survive and thrive,” says Terry Peckham, director and research chair at DICE, Saskatchewan’s first Technology Access Centre.
DICE researchers perform applied research across a range of business sectors. Common to them all is their use of sensors or computers – a tie that binds nearly every aspect of modern life, he says.
“Today, devices create, manipulate, analyze, store, transmit or display data. By extension, data is at the core of what DICE does,” says Dr. Peckham. “We collaborate with clients to develop solutions for data integration, integrity, storage, transmission and analysis.”
DICE’s clients include existing companies looking to adopt new technologies such as the Internet of Things, which generates lots of data that needs to be stored, or new companies as they plan their technology stack, he says. “The importance of data as a corporate resource and the purposeful storage of that resource is now at the forefront of most clients’ requirements.”
Dr. Peckham notes that the way in which data is generated, captured, transmitted and analyzed is on a staggering growth trend that is not slowing. “While DICE’s expertise can benefit businesses across a wide range of sectors, there is a growing need in health care,” he adds.
For example, DICE is working with Savyn Tech, a Canadian company developing a first-of-its-kind digital platform based on the traditional Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, to help treat patients with trauma and PTSD.
Three million people in Canada have lifetime PTSD, including 570,000 immigrants and refugees. Limited access and cultural barriers contribute to 35 per cent of those with PTSD not improving and being 15 times more likely to die by suicide. Savyn aims to remove these barriers by providing digital EMDR therapies in multiple languages.
“DICE is collaborating with Savyn to collect data and validate the product’s efficacy as a delivery mechanism,” says Dr. Peckham.
Similarly, DICE is collaborating with Ontario-based Cardea Health to develop an AI-based platform for cardiac specialists. The goal is a system that can use AI to extract non-standardized patient data from multiple sources into a coherent data flow.
This will reduce the workload on cardiologists by using natural language processing algorithms to recognize cardiological terms and locate relevant data. Extraction of crucial patient data from electronic medical records will help physicians accurately diagnose and plan treatment.
“The health-care sector has a long history of gathering and storing patient data and is a rapidly growing area for AI use,” says Dr. Peckham. “Where there is data, AI can be of help – whether in sorting and extracting or organizing and analyzing.”
By partnering with DICE, organizations have access to exceptional computational facilities, faculty expertise and talented student researchers, along with research and development funding and a vast network of connections, he adds.
“Through applied research expertise and facilities, we are ready to help turn ideas into reality,” says Dr. Peckham. “If you have a business challenge you need assistance with, DICE is ready to help.”
Learn more at saskpolytech.ca/dice.
This article was originally published in the Innovation excellence special feature in the May 31 Globe and Mail, produced by Randall Anthony Communications.