NLCAHR

Drawing on vital partnerships with the province’s four Regional Health Authorities, and the Department of Health and Community Services, CHRSP has, again this year, provided decision support to our healthcare system by working in collaboration with local researchers, national experts, health system practitioners, decision makers, and community organizations.  What we learned through our CHRSP studies was widely shared, not only with the knowledge users who worked with us on the project teams, but also through dissemination meetings in which we presented the key findings to professional and community organizations, to decision makers, to other knowledge users, and to healthcare practitioners across Newfoundland and Labrador and across Canada.  

This year, CHRSP welcomed a new partner in health system engagement: the province’s Department of Seniors, Wellness, and Social Development.  As the Department develops its strategic directions for improved health and wellness in Newfoundland and Labrador, we look forward to working closely with it to provide decision support that will address its research priorities.

The Centre distributed roughly $472,000 in research funding this year under three programs: the NLCAHR Awards, with some financial support from the School of Graduate Studies and the Office of Research at Memorial; the government-sponsored Newfoundland and Labrador Healthy Aging Research Program; and the Enhancing Health Care in Newfoundland and Labrador Program, funded by the province, Eastern Health, and the H. Bliss Murphy Cancer Care Centre.  We thank the students and researchers who applied to these programs and the members of the Peer Review Committees who evaluated their applications. Congratulations to all of those who were funded under these programs:  your work will contribute to the advancement of research knowledge that will, over time, both sustain and improve healthcare services in this province.

Last but not least, one of the Centre’s overwhelming successes this year was the expansion of our Research Exchange Groups, a unique capacity-building initiative to foster multi-disciplinary public engagement.  In last year’s annual report, we reviewed the contributions of nine active Research Exchange Groups; this year, that number has increased to sixteen.  Through these diverse groups, 619 health professionals, students, faculty and community members connect to discuss research in progress and to review the results form completed research projects, to learn about community initiatives, to review healthcare programming, to network, to exchange knowledge, to access funding, and to collaborate on research projects.