Ryan D'Arcy

Halifax & National Research Council

In 2002, D’Arcy took a senior leadership role with the National Research Council (NRC) where he founded the NRC’s Institute for Biodiagnostics at the QEII Health Sciences Centre and IWK Health Centre, both affiliated with Dalhousie University. There, he led a team of 40 researchers and trainees, developing new new MRI, MEG, and EEG techniques for mapping the functional areas of the brain, diagnosing brain disorders, and testing experimental treatments.^[11]

In 2008, together with neuroscientist and neurosurgeon Dr. David B. Clarke, D'Arcy was part of the research team at the National Research Council at Dalhousie University in developing the world’s first virtual reality based neurosurgical simulation and rehearsal tool NeuroTouch, which was subsequently licensed to CAE Inc. as NeuroVR.^[12][13][14] NeuroTouch enabled surgeons and trainees to rehearse patient-specific surgeries in a computer-generated virtual environment using video captured from actual surgical procedures.^[4][15][16] In 2009, Dr. Clarke and Dr. D'Arcy successfully removed a brain tumour on a patient after mapping out and performing their surgical plan in virtual reality prior to the actual surgery.^[17]

D’Arcy and his research team’s work at the NRC led to the development of the Halifax Consciousness Scanner,^[18] a portable device that measures electrical activity in the brain and quickly determines neurological function, and can track the progress of patients who have a stroke or brain injury.^[19] The technology concept behind the Halifax Consciousness Scanner has received numerous awards, including a 2015 Wall Street Journal Award to Mindful Scientific, Inc. for Global Startup of the Year, which led to the development of a novel brain vital signs framework.

D’Arcy and his research team have also led the characterization of functional MRI activity in white matter, a previously controversial idea. The team has worked since 2006 to publish a series of studies demonstrating that it was possible to detect fMRI activity in white matter brain tissue, which provided a direct functional measures of connectivity for fundamental and clinical science advances.^[20]

Trevor Greene: Iron Soldier

In 2009, D’Arcy started working with Trevor Greene, a Canadian war veteran who suffered a devastating brain injury from an axe to the head while fighting in Afghanistan.^[21] He contacted Greene after watching the TV documentary “Peace Warrior” to help analyze his functional brain changes throughout his rehabilitation.^[22] Committed to making a difference and being an inspiration for others suffering from traumatic brain injury, Greene became part of a D’Arcy’s neuroscience research team to track and measure his brain and mobility improvements that resulted from his ongoing rehabilitation.^[23][24] The project (called “Iron Soldier”) has since progressed to utilizing robotic exoskeleton technology and Trevor's goal is to climb to the Mount Everest base camp.^[25]

Simon Fraser University / Surrey Memorial Hospital

In 2012, D’Arcy moved back to British Columbia as Head of Health Sciences and Innovation at Fraser Health's Surrey Memorial Hospital^[8] and a professor at Simon Fraser University’s Faculty of Applied Sciences.

In 2013, The Hon. Stephanie Cadieux, Minister of Children and Family Development for the Province of British Columbia, announced the appointment of D’Arcy to the Surrey Memorial Hospital Foundation BC Leadership Chair in Multimodal Technology for Healthcare Innovations.^[10] There, D’Arcy works with research and development teams to create advanced diagnostic and treatment tools for the treatment of people with brain injuries and diseases.^[8][26]

In April 2013, then City of Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts announced the creation of the Mayor's Health Technology Working Group with D’Arcy as co-chair,^[3][27][28] composed of leaders from the health, education and development communities to shape a new health-tech region located between Simon Fraser University Surrey and Surrey Memorial Hospital called Innovation Boulevard.^{[29][30][31][32][33]} The goal is to attract health and technology companies to the city and the idea was modelled after a similar region in Halifax designed by D’Arcy.^[34][35]

Later that year, D'Arcy and former colleague Dr. David B. Clarke teamed up again, this time with Conquer Mobile to develop PeriopSim, a suite of portable surgical simulation training tools used to train perioperative nurses.^[36]

In 2013, D’Arcy’s work was highlighted in a new brain imaging framework specific to the monitoring brain function recovery, and he coined a new neuroscience terminology, “brain vital signs” or the measurement of brain waves, similar to the measurement of a body’s vital signs like blood pressure.^[37][38][39]

HealthTech Connex Inc.

In 2013, D’Arcy co-founded HealthTech Connex Inc. as President and Chief Scientific Officer, a health-tech company focusing on developing neuro-technologies and bringing them to market. As an innovator and entrepreneur, he and his development team at HealthTech Connex Inc. conceived the NeuroCatch™ platform to convert electroencephalography recordings (EEG) into brain vital signs, through a rapid, portable, non-invasive brain health evaluation.