A robot called Moxie: Horizon's Medical Innovators' Challenge underway in Saint John

A robot that helps nursing staff is just one of the projects competing at the annual Medical Innovators' Challenge, a Dragon's Den-style event organized by the Saint John Regional Hospital Foundation. 

This year's event, which will give out more than $500,000, is set for Wednesday evening at 6:30 p.m. at the Marco Polo cruise ship terminal.  

And for the first time, two awards will be given out.

The David Elias CHS Health Care Innovation Award will give out $500,000 to a project that provides a significant medical solution.

There's also a new $100,000 prize this year, the Community Impact Award, to celebrate projects which "accelerate access to care beyond our hospital walls — advancing sustainable health care system solutions in our community and province," according to the foundation's website. 

Moxie the robot

One of the innovation projects this year is a robot called Moxie that is designed to help nurses.

The robot "doesn't replace nurses," said Shannon Hunter, president and CEO of the Saint John Regional Hospital Foundation, but "supports them in doing non-clinical tasks."

It typically saves nurses about 30 per cent of their day-to-day tasks so that they can focus on patients, Hunter said.

Another project focuses on the fact that heart disease and cancer can often coincide in older populations. The project, led by the New Brunswick Heart Centre, aims to use AI technology to support early detection research. 

The third project is designed to bring advanced genetic testing to the Saint John Regional Hospital, using AI technology to interpret data so that it does not need to be sent out of province, which can cause lengthy wait times and delay treatment. 

For the Community Impact Award, one of the projects is focused on helping homeless patients find housing so that they have somewhere stable to go after their discharge from the hospital. 

The second is a project to bring health-trained social workers into schools to work with children who live in poverty or who have food insecurity, to ease the pressure that schools face when students are struggling because of these issues. 

Hunter said the awards are primarily funded by Canada Health Solutions and Greenshield Canada but also through anonymous donors and the event's ticket sales. 

This year, the audience will collectively choose the two winners by voting for "the projects that they want to see in their community," Hunter said.