Page 7 - Peter Munk Toronto Star
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ON ON1 SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 2015 TORONTO STAR⎮M7
PETER MUNK CARDIAC CENTRE
> BREAKING THROUGH
Why the ‘Dragon’s Den’ of medicine is on fire
Many of the PMCC’s innovation committee initiatives “Not funding innovation is like
have paid dividends, going on to receive government funding
not funding research and
KATE RAE “Not funding innovation,” says Ra- TIM FRASER FOR THE TORONTO STAR
kowski, “is like not funding research development at a corporation.”
SPECIAL TO THE STAR and development at a corporation.” Ali Ursani, left, team leader in medical imaging service, and Dr. Narinder
Paul look through a cardiovascular phantom, the result of an innovation HARRY RAKOWSKI
In a small boardroom at the Peter So far, about 60 per cent of the initiative. The device mimics heartbeats in rate and rhythm to facilitate INNOVATION COMMITTEE
Munk Cardiac Centre, eight mem- proposals have received approval, ultralow doses of X-ray radiation during CT studies of the heart. CHAIRMAN
bers of the hospital’s innovation with around 30 projects now in vari-
committee are hotly debating the ous stages. Rakowski vets all of the project to explore how a simple anti- ic translocation than people who There’s also a proposal to study
pros and cons of a seemingly crazy projects in advance, offering sugges- oxidant cocktail containing vitamin work for airlines that don’t leave the whether the use of two types of anti-
idea: Would recovering heart pa- tions to help them get approved. C, omegas 3, 6 and 9 and an apple ground). diabetic drugs can prevent abdomi-
tients be more likely to stick with skin extraction can prevent DNA nal aortic aneurysms using specifi-
their prescribed exercise regimen if One “great win” has already made a damage caused by diagnostic radia- Another proposal that has the com- cally designed mice from a lab in
they were given a dollar a day? big impact at the centre, reducing tion. mittee excited is a study of how a Maine.
blood consumption in the operating green injectable dye can help cardio-
The proposal to investigate the an- room by 40 per cent thanks to a It’s a simple and accessible poten- vascular patients with poor circula- The group agrees that it’s a long
swer (one of five before the panel machine that evaluates a patient’s tial solution that can be used by ev- tion in their lower extremities at risk shot, but with 5 per cent of men over
that’s been dubbed the Dragon’s Den blood’s ability to coagulate. eryone from people concerned of losing a limb. It’s the project’s third 65 walking around with an undiag-
of medicine) is being examined by a about bone scans and dental X-rays kick at the can, having gone back nosed aneurysm at risk of rupturing,
seemingly disparate crew that in- But back to the Dragons’ Den. Lin- to frequent flyers (airline pilots are twice for revisions. This time, the the implications if it does work are
cludes real estate developers, a radi- da Belford, a nurse practitioner, is shown to have a greater rate of genet- group is unanimous in its support. huge.
ologist, a former investment banker arguing passionately in favour of the
and a nurse practitioner. proposal to use cash rewards to in- “You have to throw a lot of darts at a
centivize exercise. Of course it problem before you hit the target,”
Thanks to cuts in government sounds strange, she argues, but the says Rakowski.
funding, an aging population, a fact is that nothing else seems to be
scramble to keep up with modern working. The fifth and final proposal of the
technology and crumbling infra- day is to follow up with adults with
structure, there’s currently a whole “The benefits of cardiac rehabilita- only one ventricle (most of us have
lot of “no” in health care. tion are real, but the continuance of two) who underwent a Fontan pro-
the program afterwards is poor,” Bel- cedure as children to shunt the ma-
This small but vocal group (there ford argues. “Eighty per cent of pa- jor vein from the abdomen up to the
are 13 on the committee in total) tients don’t continue with exercise veins going to the lungs. The down-
wants to say “yes” — to ideas, to pos- programs after rehab.” Although she side of this life-saving operation is
sibilities, to the power of apple skins, recognized this might not be the so- that most patients go on to develop
green dye and customized mice cre- lution to getting people healthier, liver abnormalities.
ated in a lab in Maine. Belford wanted to try it anyway.
Murphy (jokingly referred to by
Formed two years ago by chair Har- Other committee members dis- Rakowski as his “I-like-everything
ry Rakowski, the committee (“defi- agree just as vehemently, citing prob- guy”) encourages the committee to
nitely the most functional one I have lems with everything from optics support the proposal, the first step,
ever been a part of,” confesses one and sustainability to the cost of the he hopes, in helping to improve the
member), has $1 million a year to project (its researchers were re- procedure.
distribute to pioneers at the centre. questing $150,000, over a tenth of the
committee’s annual budget). “We wouldn’t invent anything new
“Hospitals have difficulty in under- if we say it’s good enough. Many
standing what innovation is and fos- Rakowski’s difficulty with the idea times in medicine we decide it’s as
tering it and funding it,” Rakowski boils down to this: “If you can’t be good as it’s going to get. I think we
says. “The Peter Munk Cardiac Cen- motivated by the fact that you might should look at this and ask, ‘How can
tre didn’t have a mechanism in place die, seven bucks a week isn’t going to this be done better?’ ” The group
to critically appraise proposals and do it.” finally agrees it will go back for revi-
understand whether they were sions.
worth funding, their sustainability The proposal gets rejected, after a
and how it would lead to both an five-to-three vote, as does another That feeling — that “what if it does
improvement in patient care and al- for a spiritual care app that was cited work?” — is at the heart of the com-
so to funding down the road.” as vague, costly (at $250,000) and mittee’s mandate. It’s what has driv-
poorly designed. en medicine forward for centuries,
The makeup of members is in itself and what will propel it into the fu-
innovative: business gurus and med- But there is much excitement ture.
ical experts rub shoulders, bouncing about other proposals, including an
ideas off one another, giving every update from committee member “The innovation we help foster to-
project a critical eye from all differ- Keiran Murphy, a radiologist, about day will become tomorrow’s prac-
ent angles. his own recently funded $50,000 tice,” says Rakowski. “We just have to
be willing to take chances.”
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