Dr. Calvin Howard says he first gained interest in the medical field during a science class at Fort Saskatchewan High School.
"The first time I got exposed to the brain and was genuinely interested in something that we were being taught about was in my Grade 11 biology class with Shaun Grainger. [He was] teaching about neuroscience," said Howard.
"He was a great teacher. Super, super energized and got all the kids very involved. That's kind of where I caught the bug."
After graduating from Fort High, Howard went straight to the University of Alberta. From there, he applied to med school at the University of Calgary and then was matched for residency in neurology in Winnipeg.
Today, Howard is researching a process that will help diagnose dementia at an earlier stage. This comes after being personally affected by his grandfather's dementia.
Using software and artificial intelligence, Howard aims to take the gold standard clinical test and make it more easily available for patients, with the goal of diagnosing people two to three years faster than before.
"My research is really built to make sure other families get more good years of life and don't spend multiple years trying to figure out what the heck is going on when they could just have answers and be enjoying the time that they've got left."
Howard will be doing research in Boston for the next few years.
He is also working on getting the software into the hands of people right now with a small tech startup built around it. The goal is to launch in the next few months. Details on this can be found at memorex (memorx.ca).