You will lead a three -year -old student to how community hospitals can strengthen their research programs throughout Ontario and improve patient care
Press release
Health of Niagara
*************************************
Niagara Health was awarded a research scholarship of $ 250,000 in order to lead a three-year study in which examines how community hospitals can strengthen their research programs throughout Ontario and improve patient care.
The study under the direction of Dr. Jennifer Tsang, Executive Director and chief scientist of the Niagara Health Knowledge Institute (NHKI), will include the survey of managers from community hospitals with established research departments. The aim is to identify strategies on both organizational and system level that can increase the research capacity in these environments.
A main focus of the study is that patients in Niagara have the same opportunities to benefit from the latest research that are treated in larger academic centers.
“By growing research in community houses, we can give patients in Niagara better access to innovative therapies through clinical studies,” says Dr. Tsang. “This means that people do not have to travel to larger cities to take part in studies – they can do exactly here in their own community.”
For Niagara patients, this access can make a life-changing difference. Clinical studies often offer early access to promising new treatments and therapies that are not yet widespread. If these options remove obstacles to people on site who could otherwise be excluded due to distance, costs or time.
According to Dr. Tsang are research hospitals such as Niagara Health In addition to the provision of access to clinical studies, the latest evidence-based practices are faster, which leads to better results for all patients-those who are not directly inscribed in a study.
While the study collects perspectives from managers throughout Ontario, the health of Niagara is positioned thanks to the health research by community doctors as the driver of this work by the PSI Foundation of Doctors Services Incorporation (PSI).
“This is a provincial financed, competitive subsidy, and what it makes sense is that Niagara's health leads it,” says Dr. Tsang. “We show that a community hospital can determine the standard for how research is built up and shared throughout the province.”
The project falls in the Rich Canada program of Niagara Health (building capacities for research in community hospitals in Canada), one of six strategic initiatives of the Niagara Health Knowledge Institute. Since its introduction, Rich-Canada has created National Networks, Advanced Advocacy, and has developed practical toolkits to help hospitals to strengthen their research programs.
In the study, the Niagara Health aims to identify organizational support, partnerships and changes at the system level that are necessary to make research a core of community hospital culture. The results are shared throughout Canada in the form of a practical tool kit for hospital managers and the effects extend far beyond Niagara.
“We want to be the driving force behind a movement that changes the research landscape in Canada,” says Dr. Tsang. “The management of this work shows the health of Niagara that community hospitals can be innovators, not only for nursing providers.”
After completion, the results are shared to the Ontario Hospital Association, published in academic magazines and presented at national and international conferences. The results are also used to improve our research program for the research program for the building community research program, which provides organizations that are interested in participating in clinical research. The hope is that the strategies found will not only benefit Ontario, but can also be adapted to community hospitals across the country and even internationally.
“This is critical and often overlooked work,” remarked the Grant Review of the PSI Foundation. “The establishment of research capacities in community hospitals ensures a fair access of the patient to health research, promotes health authorization and at the same time improves the quality and generalizability of research results.”
*************************************