Two Calgary youth have won an award for their efforts to provide reliable health information for those that could be relying on sources of misinformation.
Kamran Shukoor, a youth changemaker and last year’s mayor for a day, won the youth innovation award Friday for a health literacy project he created with co-founder Ibrahim Tariq.
The MediUnite Journal aims to boost health literacy by publishing articles written by local authors, often medical professionals or people who have experienced a medical issue first-hand. Articles are then edited and peer-reviewed by a team of medical professionals and distributed locally.
The journal has been distributed in 13 countries, and has more than 300 volunteers globally since it was founded in 2020.
Shukoor and Tariq’s journal is a regional winner in the Entrepreneurship and Technology category for the Ingenious+ awards, presented Friday at the University of Calgary, which celebrate young Canadian innovators and provide them with tools to further develop their projects.
Regional winners are awarded $1,000, as well as an opportunity for mentorship through the Rideau Hall Foundation. A national finalist is chosen from each region, receiving an additional $1,000. National winners in each of five categories, to be announced next month, are awarded $10,000.
Shukoor said the win came with a “mix of emotions.”
“While I’m honoured, it’s definitely a reminder that there’s more work to be done,” he said.
“There are people who are willing to put money behind it. There are people who are willing to support it, support youth. It’s more of a testament to the fact that this journey is about all of us, and that there’s a real need for this type of project.”
The project was born out of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Shukoor noticed a lack of information — and notable misinformation — being spread.
“In 2020, I read this report — it was called Saving Lives, Spending Less, and it’s by the WHO,” he said. “They basically say that for every $1 that you give to preventing premature death by disease, you save about $7 in treatment. So, as the name suggests, you can save more lives and spend less, just by restructuring your approach to health care.”
Another catalyst for the project, he said, was the death of his grandmother, which he attributed to medical negligence.
“Her death was very preventable had there been some basic medical literacy,” he said.
The journal has grown considerably, particularly in the past year, and Shukoor said the prize money will help continue that growth.
“Most of our operations are just volunteer-based, and so that doesn’t require much cost. The main factor that we’ve spent money on is printing and distribution,” he said.
Though the project has seen great success in other countries, he and Tariq plan to focus the next phase of expansion within Canada, particularly in rural communities.
“I read that one in five Canadians don’t have access to a family doctor,” he said. “I think because they don’t have that access to medical information that they might need, and it’s not always accessible, then they turn to social media, the internet, AI.”
With access to misinformation on the rise, he said, there’s an increasing need for accessible and reliable information.
“There’s a lot of questions surrounding AI, its dependence, its accuracy in health care, what role it plays in health care, et cetera,” he said.
“While we may have more access to medical information, better access to health care, we still see that need.”