Could artificial intelligence help predict which COVID-19 patients will become gravely ill? Could a home-based spit test diagnose COVID-19? Could virtual care after surgery reduce patient returns to hospital?

These are just a few of the questions that TOH physicians will now be able to tackle, thanks to $1.2 million in funding from The Ottawa Hospital Academic Medical Organization (TOHAMO). This year, TOHAMO launched a separate Innovation Fund Competition on COVID-19 and partnered with TOH’s COVID-19 Research and Innovation team to align the central intake of ideas through the COVID-19 Ideas Hub. 

Many excellent ideas were submitted and 37 were invited to participate in the TOHAMO competition. A total of 12 were selected for TOHAMO funding, after review by a panel of experts.

Many of these projects are making use of core research and innovation resources such as the Ottawa Methods Centre, IQ@TOH and ICES uOttawa, which are funded in part by generous donors to The Ottawa Hospital Foundation. The Foundation is also providing seed funding for COVID-19 projects through the COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund.

TOHAMO research grants are possible because of the Alternate Funding Plan negotiated between the Government of Ontario and the Ontario Medical Association to support physicians at academic health sciences centres.

TOHAMO COVID-19 Innovation Fund Winners

Getting Ahead of the Curve: Predictive COVID-19 Case Identification Using an Interactive Propensity Score Modelling & AI Approach

• Lead Principal Investigator: Lise Bjerre
• Other team members and collaborators: Rami Abielmona, Emil Petriu, Kumanan Wilson, Gary Garber, William Hogg, Margaret Watson, Marion Bennie, Patrick Redmond, Berit Lavik, Stefania Rodella, Mauro Venegoni, Giuseppe Danilo Vighi, Mark Hayman

Protecting Healthcare Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Improving Safe Usage of Personal Protective Equipment by Video Feedback

• Lead Principal Investigator: Sylvain Boet
• Other team members and collaborators: Alain Audette, Jamie C. Brehaut, Joseph K. Burns, Warren Cheung, Nicole Etherington, Jeremy Grimshaw, Samantha Hamilton, Colin McCartney, Glenn Posner, Virginia Roth, Louise Sun, Monica Taljaard

Novel Salivary Testing for Rapid and Safe At Home Testing of SARS-CoV-2

• Lead Principal Investigator: Stephanie Johnson-Obaseki
• Other team members: Libni Eapen, Lisa Caulley, Martin Corsten, Guillaume Poliquin, Jonathan Angel, Jonathan Whelan, Jill Allen

The Effects of the Health System Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic on Chronic Disease Management: Comfortable Past, Challenging Present and Desired Future

• Lead Principal Investigator: Tetyana Kendzerska
• Other team members and collaborators: Andrea Gershon, Mark Fitzgerald, Douglas Manuel, Mohsen Sadatsafavi, Marcus Povitz, Therese Stukel, Teresa To, Shawn Aaron, Sunita Mulpuru, Melanie Chin, and Rebecca Robillard.

Post Discharge After Surgery Virtual Care with Remote Automated Monitoring Technology (PVC-RAM) Trial

• Lead Principal Investigators: Manoj Lalu, Gavin Hamilton
• Other team members and collaborators: Alan Forster, Colin McCartney, Sudhir Sundaresan, Suzanne Madore, Reece Bearnes, Navya Kalidindi, Heather Clark, Susan Madden, Daniel McIsaac, Samantha Halman, James Chan, Husein Moloo, Andrew Seely, Rodney Breau, Randa Berdusco, Dalibor Kubelik, Jad Khalil, John Sinclair, Moein Momtazi, Dean Fergusson
• Project summary

Development and Validation of a Real-Time, Frailty-Focused, Risk Prediction Model for Mortality Among Hospitalized Patients with SARS-CoV-2 Infection (COVID-19) in Canada

• Lead Principal Investigator: Sunita Mulpuru
• Other team members and collaborators: Melanie Chin, Christopher Pease, Gonzalo Alvarez, Shelly McNeil, Arianne Buchan, Melissa Andrew, Alan Forster, Tetyana Kendzerska, Andrea Gershon, Ranjeeta Mallick.

Surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 in the Built Hospital Environment

• Lead Principal Investigators: Caroline Nott, Derek MacFadden
• Other team members and collaborators: Laura Hug, Alex Wong, Rees Kassen

Introducing and Evaluating Sepsis Advisor: A Clinical Decision Support Tool to Help Predict and Prevent Future Unexpected Deterioration of Patients with COVID-19

• Lead Principal Investigator: Andrew Seely
• Other team members and collaborators: Doug Barnaby, Karen Burns, Shannon Fernando, Kwadwo Kyeremanteng, Tim Ramsay, Jeffrey Perry, Jamie Brehaut, Nathan Scales, Christophe Herry, Caitlin Anstee, Anna Fazekas

Surveillance of Critical Care Outcomes during implementation of Ontario’s ICU Triage Recommendations During the COVID-19 Pandemic

• Lead Principal Investigators: Peter Tanuseputro, James Downar
• Other team members and collaborators: Sarina Isenberg, Amy Hsu, Naveen Eipe, Michael Rubin, Mike Hao, Nicola Pratt

A Randomized Open-Label Trial of CONvalescent Plasma for Hospitalized Adults With Acute COVID-19 Respiratory Illness (CONCOR-1)

• Lead Principal Investigator: Alan Tinmouth
• Other team members and collaborators: Dean Ferguson, Juthaporn Cowan, Derek MacFadden, Shane English, Andrew Seely, Antonio Giulivi
• Project summary

Mobile Reporting of Adverse Events from a Pandemic COVID-19 Vaccine

• Lead Principal Investigator: Kumanan Wilson
• Other team members and collaborators: Alan Forster, Dean Fergusson, Doug Manuel, Julie Bettinger
• Project summary

One additional project will be announced at a later date with partners.

The Ottawa Hospital is a leading academic health, research and learning hospital proudly affiliated with the University of Ottawa. 

Media Contact 
Amelia Buchanan
Senior Communication Specialist
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Office: 613-798-5555 x 73687
Cell: 613-297-8315
ambuchanan@ohri.ca