2018 PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship – Dr. Teresa Chan

“Many people think that knowledge translation is a podium presentation at a conference or a review article in a journal, but I want to change that perception. As a trained educator, I know that there are a lot of opportunities for scientists to apply great education evidence and theory to improve their KT game. The PSI Graham Farquharon KT grant will allow me to examine how social media and interactivity of researchers and scientists can help to engage the public and practitioners around the newest advances in the field of medicine. This program of research will identify strategies that social media-savvy scientists are using to engage their audiences, and help to provide guidance to researchers who might want to start incorporating these best practices into their own work” – Dr. Teresa Chan

The PSI Foundation is delighted to announce Dr. Teresa M. Chan of McMaster University as the 2018 PSI Graham Farquaharson KT Fellow. This Fellowship – valued at $100,000 per year for three years – is intended to protect a new, promising clinician’s research time, allowing the Fellow to undertake high-impact translational research.

Dr. Chan trained in Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Emergency Medicine at McMaster University. She graduated from Western University in 2008, and has both a BEd (Intermediate/Senior, Biology & Chemistry) and HBSc (Immunology) from the University of Toronto. Most recently, she has completed a Masters of Health Professions Education from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is now an Assistant Professor in McMaster University, and works clinically both as an Emergency Physician at the Hamilton Health Sciences and a Base-Hospital Physician at the Centre for Paramedic Education and Research. In her spare time, Dr. Chan volunteers for a number of not-for-profit medical education start ups, including Academic Life in Emergency Medicine (ALiEM.com) and CanadiEM.org.

2018 PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship – Dr. Nisha Nigil Haroon

“Diagnostic thyroid surgeries for managing incidental thyroid nodules are becoming increasingly common. The PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship gives me an opportunity to develop an interdisciplinary initiative that can optimize the management of thyroid nodules and also to develop a novel diagnostic panel to better predict the malignant potential of indeterminate thyroid nodules. I extend my gratitude to the PSI foundation for supporting my research and academic endeavors. My research is also supported by a Clinical Innovation Grant from the Northern Ontario Academic Medicine Association.” – Dr. Nisha Nigil Haroon

The PSI Foundation is pleased to announce Dr. Nisha Nigil Haroon as the 2018 PSI Graham Farquharson KT Fellow. This Fellowship — valued at $150,000 per year for two years — is intended to protect a new, promising clinician’s research time, allowing the Fellow to undertake high impact translational research. Dr. Nisha Nigil Haroon graduated from University of Kerala and received her fellowship in Endocrinology from the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, India. She moved to Canada in 2009, to take up a Clinical Research Fellowship in Endocrinology from the University of Toronto, where she obtained a Masters degree in Clinical Epidemiology. She is an Assistant Professor at Northern Ontario School of Medicine, a staff Internist and Endocrinologist at Health Sciences North and an affiliate scientist at Health Sciences North Research Institute. Nisha was recently awarded the Early Investigator award by The Endocrine Society, USA for metabolic bone research. She is a consultant to the Osteoporosis Canada’s Scientific Advisory Council, President-elect of the Association of Kerala Medical Graduates, Canada and serves as a board member of the Canadian chapter of American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists.

Dr. Nav Persaud: When Advocacy Leads to Change

“A program such as this where that burden is alleviated, it does a lot more than just help you stay afloat financially. The stress that is relieved is a huge benefit. It allows you to have peace of mind. And if you have peace of mind you can build on that.” -CLEAN Meds participant

Imagine having access to a universal health care system but you are unable to treat your condition due to financial burdens. Unfortunately, Canada is one of the only advanced economies with a universal health care system that excludes universal coverage of prescription drugs.

In January 2016, PSI awarded Dr. Nav Persaud, of St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, the 2016 Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship. With a focus on addressing health inequalities, Dr. Persaud launched the CLEAN Meds project to assess how better access to life-saving medications for people with low incomes might improve health, control disease, and save Canadians billions of dollars annually.

Dr. Persaud’s recent study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal indicates that if Canada had a national strategy for publicly funding essential medicines, patients and private drug sponsors would save $3 billion. With four hundred patients currently enrolled in the CLEAN Meds project, measuring the health effects of providing patients with free access to essential medicines who could not previously afford them will be instrumental in shaping public policy.

In May 2018, Dr. Persaud will share the results with public ddecision-makers in the hope that they will pay attention to research findings and views of Canadians to publicly fund a minimal list of essential medicines.

For more information, please click on the following links:

Program
About CLEAN Meds

Publications
Estimated effects of adding universal public coverage of an essential medicines list to existing public drug plans in Canada

Development of a preliminary essential medicines list for Canada

Media
The argument for providing ‘essential medicines’ for free in Canada

Government drug coverage could save Canadians ‘billions,’ study finds

Essential medicines must be available to all Canadians

Podcasts
Huge potential savings from public coverage of essential medicines in Canada

2017 PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship – Dr. Ziad Solh

“I am truly honoured to receive the 2017 PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship. This award will be the essential catalyst to the development of a research program in Pediatric Transfusion Medicine – an area where clinical and laboratory practice would benefit tremendously from evidence-based knowledge translation work. Thank you to my mentors and to PSI for this exciting opportunity to devote my time to Knowledge Translation research.”

The PSI Foundation is pleased to announce Dr. Ziad Solh of McMaster University as the 2017 PSI Graham Farquharson KT Fellow. This Fellowship — valued at $100,000 per year for three years — is intended to protect a new, promising clinician’s research time, allowing the Fellow to undertake high-impact translational research.

Best practices in blood transfusion lead to enhanced patient safety and optimal utilization of health care resources. Dr. Solh will work on improving transfusion practices in the pediatric hospital setting by linking evidence-based knowledge translation interventions with barriers to transfusion knowledge uptake that he described in previous work. Expected changes will include enhanced reporting, investigation, and prevention of transfusion-related injuries.

Dr. Solh holds an MD from the University of Ottawa, a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry/Biochemistry from Western University, and an MSc in Health Research Methodology from McMaster University. He completed his pediatrics residency training at Queen’s University and his pediatric hematology/oncology and Clinician-Investigator training at McMaster University. He currently holds a part-time faculty appointment in the Department of Pediatrics at McMaster Children’s Hospital as he completes a Royal College Area of Focused Competence program in Transfusion Medicine at McMaster University and Canadian Blood Services.

2017 PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship – Dr. Kerstin de Wit

“The PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Foundation grant will allow me to dedicate 3 years of research on how to improve the way pulmonary embolism is diagnosed in Canadian emergency departments. Currently, many emergency patients who are tested for pulmonary embolism undergo CT imaging. The CT scan has a small risk of kidney damage and cancer in later life. There are well validated pathways to test patients for pulmonary embolism without doing a CT scan. This research program will identify and address the barriers to using these other tests in the emergency department.”

The PSI Foundation is pleased to announce Dr. Kerstin de Wit of McMaster University as the 2017 PSI Graham Farquharson KT Fellow. This Fellowship — valued at $100,000 per year for three years — is intended to protect a new, promising clinician’s research time, allowing the Fellow to undertake high-impact translational research.

Dr. de Wit trained in Emergency Medicine and Acute Internal Medicine in the UK. She graduated from Edinburgh University Medical School, has a BSc in Pharmacology and a research doctorate (MD) from the University of Manchester. She moved to Canada in 2010, to take up a Thrombosis Research Fellowship in Ottawa, where she obtained a Master of Epidemiology. She is now an Assistant Professor in McMaster University, and works clinically as both a Thrombosis and Emergency physician in Hamilton Health Sciences.

2017 PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship – Dr. Angel Arnaout

“Understanding how to effectively reduce non-evidence based practices reflects a commitment to evidence-based medicine that will help optimize outcomes and contain healthcare spending. The PSI Graham Farquharson Fellowship Award will provide me with the support I need to be a successful lifetime KT scientist and help me elevate the standard of care across Canada through reduction of harmful non-evidence based practices, benefitting Ontarians, Canadians and the global community.”

The PSI Foundation is pleased to announce Dr. Angel Arnaout of the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute as the 2017 PSI Graham Farquharson KT Fellow. This Fellowship — valued at $150,000 per year for two years — is intended to protect a new, promising clinician’s research time, allowing the Fellow to undertake high impact translational research.

The Ontario government’s 2016 Patient’s First: Action Plan for Health Care, identified the need to protect, prolong and sustain our universal healthcare system by ensuring the best value for healthcare resources; thereby also improving access and health care resource availability for patients that need them. A major cause of waste of healthcare resources is low-value care, a treatment or procedure for which there is no evidence of benefit or there is an indication of more harm than benefit. It is estimated that low value care represents up to 30% of the costs of healthcare. The PSI Graham Farquharson Fellowship Award allows Dr. Arnaout to undertake a substantial research program informed by state-of-the-art approaches from implementation science to develop and evaluate major initiatives to reduce low-value care in Ontario. Specifically, she will be focusing on the Choosing Wisely surgical initiative of reducing unnecessary advanced preoperative imaging in surgical patients (the Diagnostic Imaging Safety in Ontario – Leading Value and Effectiveness (DISSOLVE) Project). A direct result of this fellowship project will be a better understanding of the extent, drivers, and testing of effective methods to eliminate low value care, which will then serve as a framework for implementation of other Choosing Wisely initiatives; and will have immediate direct benefits for the Ontario healthcare system and the patients it serves through the reduction of low-value care.

Dr. Arnaout is a Breast Surgical Oncologist at the Ottawa Hospital and Associate Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. Dr. Arnaout has won numerous national awards for her work including the “Best Innovation in Cancer Care Delivery Award” at the Canadian Ontario Provincial Showcase, the Canadian Association of General Surgeon’s Research Award, and the Order of Ottawa. As a member of the Ottawa Center for Implementation Research, her passion is to set the standard for best practices in breast care delivery in Canada, through efforts of greater use of evidence-based guidance. She intends to use her research and leadership to raise the standard of breast care delivered in Canada, improve the quality of life of women with breast disease, and promote the responsible use of healthcare resources.

SPECIAL EVENT: NOSM’s 2016 PSI Visiting Scholar: Dr. Frank Sullivan

“If you want smart young people to be committed to working in rural areas then you should recruit people who have grown up in rural areas.” – Dr. Frank Sullivan

Rural Ontario continues to face many serious health concerns that need to be better understood and resolved with the help of clinical research. To address this issue, Community Submission Dates (NOSM) is making clinical research a central focus of their Strategic Plan (2015-2020).

In support of this initiative, PSI Foundation funded NOSM’s 2016 Visiting Scholar Program, which intended to:

  • Connect an experienced researcher to the institution as a role model
  • Offer educational opportunities to physicians interested in research
  • Aid in the development of their research skills and/or a research project of their own
  • Identify people interested in research funding

This year, Dr. Frank Sullivan, who is currently the director of the University of Toronto Practice Based Research Network, was announced as NOSM’s 2016 PSI Visiting Scholar. His primary research focus is on the application of health informatics clinical decisions in primary care, which was inspired by the dilemma of physicians having three unanswered questions for every two consultations with patients.

The visit was an overwhelming success on a number of levels. Dr. Sullivan engaged students, physicians, residents, health care professionals and faculty throughout his tour of rural communities in Northern Ontario. Specifically, he delivered a keynote presentation at the Northern Health Research Conference, which addressed how evidence based medicine and research can influence practice. A short documentary highlighting the visit is provided below along with a link to Dr. Sullivan’s keynote presentation.

Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5jaIYf0_QA
Slideshow – https://www.slideshare.net/pincomm/dr-frank-sullivan-early-diagnosis-of-lung-cancer?ref=http://www.psifoundation.org/ResearchPortfolio/frank_sullivan.php

PSI is engaged in receiving grants application from NOSM as they are a new institution in a unique position to make research a big focus now. Dr. Sullivan noted that this is extremely beneficial to rural healthcare as the more physicians engaged and trained in rural areas, the more likely they are committed to stay and practice in rural areas.

Although great strides have been made to build interest in research in the rural north, many challenges still exist, including the lack of structure, skills and resources. Fortunately, there is a great deal of determination among faculty and staff at NOSM to support this initiative.

If you’re interested in learning more about research opportunities at NOSM, please direct all your questions and concerns to Dr. David MacLean, Assistant Dean, Research at dmaclean@nosm.ca. All other inquiries about the content of this article can be directed to the Post Grant Coordinator, Nuvi Dhaliwal at dhaliwal.n@psifoudnation.org.

If you’re interested in learning more about Dr. Sullivan, please click on the following link:

The Scope, Northern Health Research (http://bit.ly/29oV46N)

2016 PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellow – Dr. Nav Persaud

“The PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship will allow me to conduct translational research focused on addressing health inequities. The research will promote excellent primary care for everyone, including disadvantaged and marginalized people.

It is fitting that the PSI Foundation would support my aim to improve access to care because the Foundation was established using funds from a pre-paid medical plan that improved access to care for Ontarians. We already know that access to primary care improves health and reduces inequities; the PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship will help me translate that knowledge into improvements in health.”

The PSI Foundation is pleased to announce Dr. Nav Persaud of St. Michael’s Hospital and the University of Toronto as the 2016 PSI Graham Farquharson KT Fellow. This Fellowship — valued at $150,000 per year for two years — is intended to protect a new, promising clinician’s research time, allowing the Fellow to undertake high-impact translational research.

Millions of Canadians cannot afford medications. At the same time millions are harmed by medications that are inappropriately prescribed or not prescribed. The Fellowship will allow Dr. Persaud to conduct translational research promoting access to appropriately prescribed essential medications. We will conduct a trial of providing people with free access to a carefully selected set of essential medications and measure the effects on health and the quality of prescribing.

Dr. Persaud received his BSc in Physiology from the University of Toronto, his BA from the University of Oxford in Philosophy and Psychology, his MSc from the University of Oxford in Neuroscience, and his MD from the University of Toronto. Dr. Persaud completed his Family Medicine residency and postdoctoral research training at the University of Toronto and St. Michael’s Hospital. He is a staff physician at St. Michael’s Hospital, an associate scientist the hospital’s Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute and an assistant professor at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Mark Sinyor: Using Data to Help Fight Suicide in Toronto

“Suicide is the number one cause of death from illness from adolescence to mid-life. Unfortunately, the biggest challenge isn’t a lack of programs or services, rather it is identifying high risk groups and understanding the most effective preventative measures.” -Dr. Mark Sinyor

In 2010, Dr. Mark Sinyor of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre published the Bloor Viaduct study in the British Medical Journal (Link: http://www.bmj.com/content/341/bmj.c2884.full). Through this study he determined that more had to be done in Toronto to prevent suicide than just building a barrier at the Bloor Street Viaduct bridge. In 2011, PSI launched Dr. Sinyor’s independent research career by awarding him with $20,000 for his Resident Research project titled, “Understanding suicides in Toronto: a comparison of suicide victims with and without a history of suicide attempts.”

The funding was fundamental to collecting and pairing epidemiology and clinical data, which includes information from over 3000 suicides in Toronto. With this kind of information at hand, the database has been a game changer in helping to inform suicide prevention in the city. Researchers, for example, are able to correlate relationships between gender, age groups, and regions of the city with higher rates of suicide. Breaking up this kind of information allows for tailored intervention, which will be key in helping to identify mental illness among different groups, such as in socially isolated elderly or in youth. Essentially, the database is helping to detect people prone to suicide, identify how to treat them, and how to treat suicide in itself. Dr. Sinyor and the research funded by PSI were part of Toronto Public Health’s suicide prevention initiative. In 2015, he organized the first forum in Canada connecting mental health experts, public health policy makers and members of the media to discuss steps to improve public discourse about suicide. Dr. Sinyor also sits on the TTC’s suicide prevention committee.

According to Dr. Sinyor, good treatments exist; however, the community needs to take more of an initiative to recognize, understand and talk about mental illness in order for people to utilize the correct services. With better understanding, particularly in high risk areas, anyone from healthcare workers, friends, family, and teachers can create meaningful change.

If you’re interested in learning more about Dr. Sinyor’s work, please click on the following links:

 

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