On April 9, 2025, SPARK Alberta celebrated their 5-year anniversary with a special event highlighting SPARK teams and the current state of their projects. As part of this event was a panel discussion where members from three previous teams told the audience how SPARK impacted their innovations.
Haley Martin, University of Calgary Office of Communications and Community Engagement
From idea to impact: Stroke.ai
Over the past five years, SPARK Alberta has supported 150 innovators across 40 projects, resulting in the launch of several successful startups. One notable example is Stroke.ai , co-founded by Craig Doram, BSc (Eng)’08, and Dr. Mohammed Almekhlafi , MD, associate professor, Cumming School of Medicine (CSM).The health technology company aims to improve in-hospital stroke monitoring and detection. Reflecting on their journey, Almekhlafi notes, "SPARK has been truly transformative for us. I can say with confidence that we wouldn’t be where we are today, in this amount of time, without SPARK’s support."
Doram, was present at the panel discussion in April and discussed the evolution the innovation of their startup took while in the program.
When Doram and Almekhlafi joined SPARK in 2021, they were conducting a clinical trial collecting data from hospitalized stroke patients and had begun developing initial machine learning algorithms.
Though they knew the tool held commercial potential, Doram notes, "we were really new to the whole startup ecosystem, and needed support with what to do next". Through SPARK’s digital health industry advisors , Stroke.ai gained access to a broad network of expertise, connections, and advice to help address this gap.
"What we have today is very different from the idea that we had when we first started in SPARK. The program provided strategic guidance, a network of strong mentorship and peer support with other applicants that helped us refine the idea first and then develop a business case and validate the idea to where we are today", notes Almekhlafi.
While in SPARK, Doram and Almekhlafi incorporated their company, Stroke.ai, and developed the first iteration of their market-ready product.
Local and global connections
SPARK Alberta is part of a SPARK global network of nearly 50 academic institutions across six continents. Launched in 2006 at Stanford University, the SPARK model is a unique partnership that brings together academic innovators and industry advisors in an open setting to discuss ideas and create solutions to a health-care system’s problems.The SPARK program blends creative thinking from academia with the business rigor of industry to improve patient care.
Overseen by Scott Kraft, MD, SPARK was brought to Alberta by W21C in 2020, with a focus on digital health. In 2023, provincial expansion to SPARK Alberta was made possible thanks to a grant from Alberta Innovates, scaling to support digital health innovation across all’Alberta post-secondary institutions.
SPARK Alberta serves as a foundational launchpad for many of Alberta’s digital health researchers as they transition from post-secondary institutions into the health innovation industry, but creating real patient impact requires a collaborative ecosystem.
Through partnerships with the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking Innovate Calgary , SPARK Alberta participants are also able to access expert advisors and mentorship from the Aeir program.
With SPARK helping lay the business foundations and catalyzing ecosystem connections, Doram and Almekhlafi went on to participate in Aeir, complete Innovate Calgary’s Life Science Fellowship and receive an Alberta Innovates AICE-Concepts grant, among other funding. Through these innovation ecosystem stepping-stones, Stroke.ai is almost nearing completion of the in-hospital validation and are on the cusp of raising capital to enter the market.
Over the past five years, five SPARK Alberta companies have incorporated, 17 prototypes have been developed, and almost $1 million in funding has been received by teams while in the program. Learn more about past and current SPARK Alberta teams here.
