TDV Global Joins TRLabs to Generate Health Care Innovation

September 23, 2004 -- Winnipeg, MB - A 3-year, $900,000 research and development project to be jointly undertaken by TDV Global Inc. and TRLabs will contribute to an improvement of Canada's ability to track, monitor, and respond to national health issues such as SARS, the bio-terrorism threat, and BSE (mad cow disease).

The Emergency Response Management Systems project, to be completed under the terms of a TRLabs membership agreement announced today, will contribute key information networking, computing architectures, software tools, and application interfaces to implementation of a broader initiative - the Canadian Network for Public Health Intelligence (CNPHI - web site) being spearheaded by TDV Global with its partners Health Canada, The University of Guelph, TRLabs, the Canadian Public Health Laboratory Network, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. CNPHI is targeted at improving the capacity of the Canadian health system to reduce human illness associated with infectious disease events by supporting intelligence exchange, surveillance activities and outbreak investigations. This will be achieved by establishing an integrated framework to collect and process surveillance data, disseminate strategic intelligence, and coordinate response to biological threats.

"The foundation for effective public health and bio-terrorism preparedness is an integration of surveillance, epidemiology and lab information that has the capacity to identify, communicate, and quickly respond to a health threat," said TDV Global Partner James Gordon. "Our work with TRLabs will focus on a key challenge - getting diverse databases and geographies to not only talk to each other over networks, but to give networks the intelligence to sift through very large data streams to make the correlations that identify threats and guide response actions quickly before threats become more severe and expensive. An important theme of our work will be to build robust database monitoring capability while ensuring individual privacy."

Director of Manitoba Operations Jeff Rohne notes the TDV Global relationship represents a maturing of TRLabs' research and development capability in the Health Sector. "We have been actively engaged in eHealth projects with health regions knowing that our aging demographic and the rigorous demands of the Health sector are a considerable social and economic challenge and opportunity," said Rohne. "The TDV project, and others we aim to take on in future Health partnerships, leverages ICT's immense capacity for innovation that improves patient diagnosis and care and opens a new world of possibilities for companies exporting eHealth innovation to the world." TRLabs has three Health partners - St. Boniface General Hospital Research Centre, Manitoba Institute of Child Health, and Saskatoon Health Region.

"TDV came to us with a research challenge in the context of a broad effort to build a better Emergency Response System in Canada, and the project both adds to our research capability and feeds our broader research program," said TRLabs President & CEO Roger Pederson. "This more project-oriented collaboration marks an evolution for our open consortium model, but an evolution that raises the bar for technology innovation, partnership and collaboration, and training of highly qualified personnel."

"The challenges of the future require multidisciplinary solutions," said TDV Global Chief Executive Officer Brad Goble. "We are very pleased to see the kind of multidisciplinary teamwork in this project that is required to generate these complex but practical solutions. Our partnership with TRLabs sets a new benchmark for leveraging Canadian know-how for the benefit of our national health care system."

CNPHI is one of 17 projects to receive a total of $28.8 million in funding (web site) for an interdepartmental federal government counter-terrorism research and technology initiative created to prepare for and respond to Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) threats. The CBRN Research and Technology Initiative (CRTI), led by Defence R&D Canada, an agency of the Department of National Defence, is a five-year, $170 million fund to address CBRN threats as part of the Government's comprehensive $7.7 billion security package announced in Budget 2001. The first round of funding in September 2002 invested $46 million in 24 projects.

About TDV Global (www.tdvglobal.com)
TDV Global Inc. is a strategic management consulting company serving national and international Public sector clients in Health and Security. TDV's team of strategic management consultants provide executive-level diagnostic, conceptual, and analytical expertise to help organizations redesign and revitalize strategic approaches and improve accountability and decision making. TDV focuses on development and implementation of integrated business solutions and restructuring and program delivery initiatives. TDV's headquarters are in Ottawa, with regional offices in Winnipeg and Halifax.

About TRLabs
TRLabs creates innovative technologies and trains students to enhance ICT expertise and improve Canada's global competitiveness. Labs in Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, Regina, and Winnipeg employ 265. With 54 partner members representing a unique synergy of industry, government, and university, research activities focus on seven strategic areas dedicated to building the network of the future: data networking, digital media, home technologies, network access, network systems, photonics, and wireless communications. In its 18-year existence, TRLabs has trained 775 highly skilled university graduates, created 280 technologies adopted for use by companies, and generated 155 patents issued or filed.

About TRLabs Manitoba
TRLabs Manitoba (est. 1994) employs 75 people in the area of data networking - research aimed at improving the speed, reliability and efficiency of the communications network. TRLabs' success at contributing to the growth of Manitoba's ICT industry has included training of 128 Masters and Ph.D. students in Computer and Electrical Engineering, generation of 23 patents issued or filed, and the production of 46 industry-commercialized technologies in the last four years. Graduates remaining in Manitoba reached two-thirds last year (40% historically).

TRLabs member partners in Manitoba are e-Stage Technologies, InfoMagnetics Technologies, Linear Systems, Linnet, Manitoba Hydro, Novra Technologies, OMT Technologies, ProfitMaster Canada, Red River College, RMA Technologies, TDV Global, Tell Us About Us, The Information Forge, Vansco Electronics, the University of Manitoba, and the federal and provincial governments, respectively through Western Economic Diversification and Manitoba Energy, Science & Technology. TRLabs has collaborative research agreements with the St. Boniface General Hospital Research Centre, and the Manitoba Institute of Child Health.

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