Leading Health and Life Sciences in Nova Scotia

THE CHRONICLE HERALD: Help for anxiety a click away with Tranquility Online

Read full Chronicle Herald article here Tranquility Online is an online application those with anxiety can use to manage their symptoms. And it all started with one Facebook post its Halifax co-founder and CEO wrote in 2016. Joel Muise was first diagnosed with general anxiety and depression in his last year of high school. He was working as a stock analyst when he wrote that post in 2016. There he shared his story of living with anxiety. Immediately, he got a response from a friend who saw themselves in Muise’s story. “I was really surprised by his response,” Muise says. “If that was the response I got from him, I thought I should share the whole story. In 48 hours, 4,000 people had read and shared it.”]]>

THE CHRONICLE HERALD: Halifax company explores use of virtual reality in eye testing

Read the original article here Despite the rapid uptake of digital technology in many of today’s biggest industries — with gaming and entertainment leading the way — the healthcare sector is slow to adapt to change. Halifax-based Electric Puppets, headed by CEO Ryan Cameron, aims to help them on their way. The company, under Cameron’s direction, offers solutions to real-world problems by harnessing… Continue reading]]>

Electric Puppets joins Tech Revolution Panel at BioPort 2018

Ryan Cameron CEO, Electric Puppets Ryan Cameron has been a serial innovator since 1997. In 2000, Ryan led a team to create the first interactive versions of the beloved Little Golden Books for Disney Interactive, and then became CTO of an international US based firm that delivered online education to fortune 100 corporate employees. Ryan was CTO of online educational companies for the next 10 years before starting his own innovative online educational company, and advised on international boards and organizations as well. Ryan created online educational products that won numerous awards and helped hundreds of thousands of fortune 500 employees learn important new skills in multi-year award winning online programs. Ryan joined Copernicus Studios in 2013 and led the interactive division to create one of the first speech recognition engines tuned to children’s voices to empower early literacy applications, and then founded Electric Puppets in 2016. Ryan is an avid rare book and antique collector and lives on an acreage in Chester, Nova Scotia. Read the BioPort 2018 press release here ]]>

ENTREVESTOR: New App Aids Carers of People with Dementia

DGI Clinical has launched a new app, SymptomGuide Dementia, that allows caregivers to track and manage symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. The app allows caregivers to learn about dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, and provides management strategies for dealing with symptoms. Caregivers can choose those symptoms most important to them and share progress with family and clinicians. The app is functional on iOS devices and available free on the app store. “Over two decades of research and conversation with people living with dementia and their caregivers has formed the foundation of SymptomGuide Dementia,” Dr. Kenneth Rockwood, President and Chief Scientific Officer of the company said in a statement. Rockwood, a geriatrician and Alzheimer’s disease researcher, said the app is designed to give caregivers comprehensive, current information about dementia, its symptoms, stages, treatments as well as an easy-to-use method of capturing an individual’s information and experience in a manner that’s meaningful for the caregiver. “Our hope is that the information tracked with SymptomGuideTM Dementia will be used for discussion with family members and for shared decision-making with clinicians.” The app was launched at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Chicago, an event attended by over 5,600 clinicians, researchers and industry scientists, the statement said. In Canada, the Alzheimer’s Society reports almost 600,000 Canadians are living with dementia. In the US, the Alzheimer’s Association indicates that 5.7 million Americans are currently living with Alzheimer’s disease, a number projected to reach nearly 14 million by 2050. Over 16 million Americans currently provide care for people living with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. Most are unpaid family members who suffer an emotional, financial, and physical toll as a result of caring for people living with Alzheimer’s disease. the statement said. DGI has a suite of proprietary electronic Clinical Outcome Assessment (eCOA) tools for licensed use by sponsors in drug development. The company’s products focus mostly on digital tools for diseases of the central nervous system such as dementia, Parkinson disease, and schizophrenia but also include applications for other chronic, complex diseases such as hemophilia]]>

ENTREVESTOR: Bringing VR to the Eye Doctor

Read the original article here Virtual reality and augmented experiences have revolutionized entertainment and gaming industries. Now, Halifax entrepreneur Ryan Cameron is working on bringing this technology to a clinical setting. His company Electric Puppets uses VR and eye-tracking technology to improve on the basic tests patients take when they visit the eye doctor. “In current cases, they’re using tests that are over 100 years old,” Cameron said in an interview. “It’s a combination of lenses, physical equipment, dials and whatnot.” Continue reading]]>