The Future Fix: Tech Lessons COVID Taught Us

Spacing Radio

Spacing and Evergreen proudly present The Future Fix: Solutions for Communities Across Canada, a special podcast series. THIS EPISODE: Tech Lessons COVID Taught Us Throughout the pandemic, we've seen people use technology and data in creative ways to help combat COVID-19. Even everyday people found ways to connect people to information about the disease, and even vaccinations. In this episode, we begin by talking to Angelina Zhu and Deanna Hembruff, two volunteers for Vaccine Hunters Canada, about how they became involved in a national movement to help people find vaccine appointments: “Everybody had that sort of sense that this was going to be a great community tool to get word spreading and get people vaccinated, especially with a few gaps that existed in delivering the vaccination services to people who needed them.” And Dr. Tarun Katapally, professor at the University of Regina's Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, talks about how he and a team were able to work with Indigenous people in Saskatchewan to provide an app-based platform to curb the spread in smaller communities. It's called CO-Away: “If you look at upstream, preventative healthcare, and downstream, emergency healthcare, we are a very reactive system. So we wanted to completely upend this. Use of technology and our digital platforms could potentially support and facilitate self-governance in remote Indigenous communities.”