Canada faces significant shortages across various health professions, impacting wait times, surgeries, and timely care for procedures. The shortage of human health resources (HHR) has also impacted education of the vital health care professionals, as the availability of the sufficient number of the clinical placements by supervised clinical staff is constrained. University Health Network (UHN) is seeking to leverage the use of Virtual Reality (VR) specifically for students in their Respiratory Therapy program to enhance their clinical requirements. The solution aims to accelerate, shorten, and enhance the clinical placement without diminishing the quality of graduates.
UHN is posting this Call for Innovation to seek out qualified Canadian companies who can meet the following desired outcomes. UHN and CAN Health reserves the right to not move forward with this project at its full discretion and in particular if there are no qualified Canadian companies that can reasonably meet the desired outcomes.
To qualify for a CAN Health project, the company must meet ALL of the following criteria:
- Headquartered in Canada (additional criteria apply for companies not headquartered in Canada)
- Majority ownership of both the company and the solution by Canadians
- Solution at Technology Readiness Level (TRL)>7, indicating actual technology completed and qualified through tests and demonstrations
- All the data and AI models (if applicable) must be hosted in Canada and comply with all the Canadian privacy regulations
- Possess all regulatory approvals required for commercialization, such as Health Canada approval
- Completion of all required clinical validity/unity studies
- No need for policy changes to be widely adopted
- Strong use cases in the Canadian health care system
If the company is not headquartered in Canada or the solution is not majority owned by Canadians, additional criteria apply:
- Independent autonomy over business operations and product development (for subsidiaries, affiliates or distributors)
- High Canadian job creation potential, especially in executive and senior management positions
- Commitment of over 70% of contract value to Canada
During the company selection process, preference is given to companies/solutions fully owned by Canadians, followed by those majority owned by Canadians, and finally international companies with a significant presence and economic impact in Canada.
Problem Statement:
Due to the HHR shortage, the number of clinical placements for students have become a challenge, as there is a decreased number of qualified professionals available to support clinical placements for the students.
Objectives:
UHN is seeking to develop VR modules that can integrate with current training curriculum to enhance educational effectiveness and reduce clinical placement durations. This initiative also aims to increase the capacity and expedite the entry of highly qualified health professionals into the workforce.
Essential (mandatory) outcomes:
The ideal VR Training platform should meet the following requirements:
- Customization: The solution should be able to be customizable to align with the Respiratory Therapy curriculum, ensuring it meets the specific learning outcomes and accreditation requirements
- Easy Accessibility: The solution must allow learners to have access to the equipment 24/7, allowing them to practice on demand.
- Remote Training: The solution should support remote access, enabling students in remote areas to engage in the training.
- Self -Directed Learning: The VR modules should be designed to allow students to independently complete training, reducing reliance on faculty-driven sessions and encouraging self-paced learning.
- Cost Efficiency and Improved Student Preparation: The solution should reduce overall training costs while better preparing students for their clinical placements, ensuring they enter their practicum with enhanced efficiency and readiness.
Integrating VR simulations into healthcare education will help graduate more students, addressing the HHR challenge by replenishing the workforce. This increase in graduations will ultimately reduce hospital wait times and enhance overall healthcare delivery capacity.
UHN’s focus is to enhance its Respiratory Therapy (RT) program. The RT program is a three-year advanced diploma program. The program specializes in equipping students with competencies in mechanical ventilation, airway management, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, oxygen therapy and pulmonary rehabilitation.
