Honoured for developing a portable diagnostic device for rapid blood testing in remote communities.
Dr. Kenji Tanaka, a 2012 graduate of the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, has been awarded the Governor General's Innovation Award for his groundbreaking work in developing a portable diagnostic device that enables rapid, laboratory-quality blood testing in remote and northern communities. The device, known as HemaPoint, can perform a comprehensive panel of blood analyses in under 15 minutes using only a fingertip blood sample, eliminating the need to transport samples to distant laboratory facilities.
The idea for HemaPoint was born during Dr. Tanaka's experiences working as a locum physician in fly-in communities across northern Ontario and Nunavut. He witnessed firsthand the challenges patients faced when diagnostic blood work required samples to be flown to urban centres, often resulting in delays of days or even weeks before results were available. These delays frequently led to missed diagnoses, delayed treatment, and unnecessary medical evacuations.
"In many northern communities, the nearest hospital lab is a two-hour flight away. Patients would have to wait days for routine blood work results that someone in Toronto could get in an hour," said Dr. Tanaka. "I knew there had to be a better way. HemaPoint was designed from the ground up to work in the environments where it is needed most: places with limited infrastructure, extreme temperatures, and no reliable internet connectivity."
The device uses a proprietary microfluidic chip technology combined with optical spectroscopy to measure over 40 blood parameters, including complete blood counts, basic metabolic panels, liver and kidney function markers, and inflammatory indicators. It operates on battery power, functions in temperatures ranging from minus 30 to plus 45 degrees Celsius, and stores results locally when internet connectivity is unavailable, syncing automatically when a connection is restored. Since receiving Health Canada approval in 2024, HemaPoint has been deployed in over 60 remote health centres across five provinces and two territories.
Dr. Tanaka founded NorthPoint Diagnostics Inc. in 2019 to commercialize the technology, and the company has since raised $28 million in venture capital and government innovation funding. The Governor General's Innovation Award, which recognizes Canadians whose innovations have a positive impact on quality of life, was presented at a ceremony at Rideau Hall. Dr. Tanaka credited the University of Toronto's entrepreneurship ecosystem and the mentorship he received from Temerty Medicine faculty as instrumental in helping him translate his clinical observations into a viable medical device.
