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Sometimes, as a team of Western students can attest, it takes a new set of eyes on a problem to find a solution for the ears.

The five-person team, including four Western students and an alumnus, created a winning commercialization plan for OtoTrain, a 3D digital anatomy training tool for doctors to assist in diagnosing diseases of the ear, as part of the Proteus Innovation Competition. The technology was developed by Western Professor Hanif Ladak.

A new and exciting medical app has been released! Written by physicians, it targets current medical students and works as a “study buddy”. It makes the perfect study buddy, as it is portable, knowledgeable and ready to study at all hours of the day when you need to.

Charles Ishak was awarded the WORLDiscoveries Scholarship for Commercialization / Entrepreneurship for his project on the development of novel cancer biomarkers. Charles is a fifth year PhD student in the lab of Dr. Fred Dick. Charles’ PhD project centres on the molecular changes associated with loss of the Rb tumour suppressor.

This award is generously supported by funds from WORLDiscoveries with the goal of fostering opportunities for entrepreneurship and/or commercialization.

The Western Medical Innovation Fellowship – the first-of-its-kind in Canada – was established in partnership with the University of Minnesota Innovation Fellows program in 2015. Highly qualified individuals with an engineering, computer science or life sciences doctoral or medical degree are sought to take part in this 10 month intensive training and hands-on program. You will have the opportunity to work in a team to identify unmet clinical needs and learn how to evaluate them from a business perspective. Designing, prototyping and testing your solutions to these needs in collaboration with clinicians/faculty members while under the guidance of expert community mentors will round out your fellowship experience.

Following a well-established blueprint for success, Western University has established the Western Medical Innovation Fellowship program – a new endeavour that immerses highly talented young scientists, engineers, and clinicians in a training and research heavy environment with the goal of developing future leaders and innovators of world-class medical technologies.

Ali Tavallaei is making better use of his time these days. As one of three young scholars chosen as part of the recently launched Western Medical Innovation Fellowship program, his focus has been streamlined.

“As a researcher working in the medical device domain, I am at risk of wasting a great deal of time, effort and resources on research ideas and projects that may never translate to the clinic,” Tavallaei said.

When Susan Scollie says millions, she means millions. The Communications Sciences and Disorders professor’s work inside Western’s National Centre for Audiology is helping millions of infants, children and adults hear a brand new world.

“People needed a good solution developed for fitting hearing aids on babies. We worked hard on that. It didn’t feel like pressure; it just needed to be done,” said Scollie, who leads the Child Amplification Laboratory Team.

How does Natalie Raffoul, BESc’01, approach her golf game?

“With a sense of humour.”

Don’t get her wrong. The Managing Partner at Brion Raffoul loves the game and her time on the courses of the Royal Ottawa Golf Club. In fact, she considers it a welcomed respite from her hectic world.

“That’s my retreat,” she said. “That’s my sanity – right there.”

Raffoul, BESc’01, spends her days off the greens as one of the country’s top patent attorneys, managing worldwide intellectual properties for clients. She is also an in-demand speaker and lecturer at Sprott School of Business at Carleton and McGill universities, where she teaches courses for entrepreneurs that cover patents, trademark, copyright and industrial design issues. “Just this morning, I corresponded with someone in Mexico. I spoke to someone in China and someone in Japan,” she said. “We’re really reaching out to folks all over the world. We’re constantly butting up against deadlines and timelines and time zones.”