Nearly $400,000 to be invested in Winnipeg’s Orthopaedic Innovation Center
Posted September 3, 2020 6:29 pm.
Last Updated September 3, 2020 6:57 pm.
WINNIPEG (CityNews) – The Canadian and Manitoba governments have announced a plan to invest nearly $400,000 in support of the Province’s Orthopaedic Innovation Center.
The investment will help improve the supply of medical devices in western Canada.
The Winnipeg based Orthopaedic Innovation Center (OIC), will be purchasing specialized equipment to give Canadian manufacturers and healthcare organizations, allowing them access to testing services for personal protective equipment (PPE) that has been purchased from overseas.
The equipment will allow the OIC the ability to perform numerous tests for evaluating the performance of respiratory products.
The test will decrease the time for certifying or approving a product for use to less than two weeks, from twelve weeks.
“The Government of Canada is committed to the well-being of all Canadians,” said Minister Mélanie Joly in a statement.
“This $199,647 investment in the Orthopaedic Innovation Centre is to help foster a secure supply chain of critical medical products, right here in Canada. I look forward to the lab at OIC becoming an internationally accredited testing site.”
“The COVID-19 pandemic has made it clear that we need local, secure supply chains for critical medical products, including personal protective equipment, which is why we have invested in the development of local N-95 mask production with Precision ADM and others,” said Minister Helwer.
“Manitoba’s $200,000 investment in this initiative will help these local companies access rapid testing of these products, ensuring our front-line health providers have the products they need to ensure safe, quality care for patients across the province.”
The OIC will perform high precision testing and will assess and develop new technologies related to medical industry products and services.
“OIC is extremely grateful for the funding provided by WD and the Province of Manitoba to support this initiative,” said Martin Petrak, CEO of the Orthopaedic Innovation Centre in a statement.
“OIC is well-positioned to rapidly become an accredited filter media and respirator testing service in Canada to protect our frontline healthcare workers during this pandemic and future healthcare crisis. The OIC has a proven track record for world-class medical device testing which I know will translate to success in this new service offering.”
