DMCBH members are leading several research teams across British Columbia and helping to bridge the gap between evidence and impact, thanks to funding awarded by Michael Smith Health Research BC. In total, 57 teams are being supported through the 2024 Convening & Collaborating (C2) Program and 34 teams are being supported through the 2024 Reach Program. Both programs bring together researchers and research users, such as health professionals, patients, and policymakers, to ensure that evidence is used to improve health and care across BC.
The Convening & Collaborating (C2) program supports teams of health researchers, trainees and research users to engage with each other and to co-develop research that is relevant and impactful for people such as patients, health practitioners and policymakers.
The Reach program supports teams of researchers to share their findings with those who can use and directly benefit from the research.
Congratulations to the DMCBH members who have received awards for 2024:
Convening & Collaborating (C2) Awards
Trisha Chakrabarty: XR Technology to Support Students with Mood Disorders: Co-Developing a Research Agenda
Mood disorders (depressive and bipolar disorders) affect many Canadian post-secondary students and can severely impact functioning. Many affected students do not access treatment due to limited finances, time and available resources.
Extended reality (XR) can address some of these barriers. XR includes virtual reality, which creates interactive 3D representations of the real world, or augmented reality, which overlays digital stimuli on to the real world. XR has been successfully used to deliver therapy for mental health disorders including depression. Users can also access XR therapies at a low cost, and at times and locations of their choice. Despite these advantages, the potential of XR to aid students with mood disorders has not been explored.
This project will bring together students with lived experience, clinicians, administrators and community mental health organizations to develop a research agenda to guide future investigation of how XR can support students with mood disorders. It will also create a User Advisory Committee to advise on the design of XR treatments. The outcomes of this project will ensure that future research will generate XR treatments that are effective and relevant for BC post-secondary students.
Brian Christie: Evaluating Wolves’ Den: A traumatic brain injury-focussed peer support and education group
Do you know someone affected by a traumatic brain injury (TBI)? In Canada, about 1 in 50 people live with brain injuries, dramatically altering lives and making navigation through the healthcare system challenging. Further, many survivors lack the necessary support from family and peers, which makes the recovery journey difficult. The Wolves’ Den, part of the Brain Changes Initiative, is a peer support and education group dedicated to improving the lives of TBI survivors. It promotes six pillars of brain health: exercise, cognitive training, mindfulness, nutrition, sleep, and reducing harmful exposures. Here, TBI survivors can share stories, meets experts, and learn how to enhance their recovery. This project aims to evaluate and expand the Wolves’ Den program. We aim to conduct a comprehensive assessment to evaluate Wolves’ Den. This includes qualitative and quantitative methods to collect feedback from members, refine the program, and improve offerings. The funding will also support expert sessions, facilitation, the creation of TBI-accessible session recaps, and outreach to attract more participants. Our goal is to ensure the program remains a leading resource for TBI recovery, continually adapting to meet community needs.
Maggie Clarke: Creating a research agenda to improve treatment for patients with epilepsy in BC
Epilepsy affects millions globally, including 50,000 in BC. Of this population, about 1/3 have drug-resistant epilepsy. Seizures can be unpredictable and often dangerous, leading to injury, hospitalization, and mortality. In addition, they often negatively impact mental health and daily functioning. Epilepsy surgery is the only curative therapy for patients with drug-resistant epilepsy. It can improve patients’ lives and reduce the risk of sudden unexpected death. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a non-invasive neuroimaging tool that aids in presurgical planning, proven effective in a multitude of studies and used continent-wide. Despite this, BC lacks a comprehensive epilepsy program supporting MEG for presurgical planning, lagging behind other Canadian regions in funding and treatment availability for its epilepsy population. Addressing this gap necessitates collaboration among the community, healthcare providers, researchers, and policymakers to co-create a research agenda. Our outcomes will include identifying and learning from successful models outside of our region, identifying the specific needs in our current model, and creating a research agenda aimed at addressing these needs.
Scott Ramsay: Modernizing brain injury services in British Columbia: Developing research priorities for children, youth, and young adults
Acquired brain injury is a pressing and under addressed issue in Canada, especially in children and youth. These brain injuries can lead to an array of health outcomes, including issues with physical, cognitive, mental, and emotional health. Given the vast impacts of brain injury, children and youth access services in a variety of settings, including acute care, rehabilitation, and community settings. Despite the extensive personal and societal burden of a pediatric brain injury, research relevant to children, youth, and those transitioning to adulthood is limited across hospital, rehabilitation, and community services for these groups during their injury. This proposed multisectoral engagement project brings together researchers, clinicians, community organizations, not-for-profit groups, and partners with lived experienced in acquired brain. These individuals interact with acquired brain injury in acute care, rehabilitation, and community settings. This project will identify key research priorities on health and care services for children, youth, and those transitioning to adult services with acquired brain injury in BC.
Reach Award
Fidel Vila-Rodriguez: Enhancing Public Understanding of Interventional Brain Medicine through Lay Abstracts and Social Media Education
The proposal aims to create extended lay abstracts for approximately 80 research papers produced by our lab that focus on Interventional Brain Medicine technologies. These abstracts will translate complex research outcomes into easily understandable summaries for non-specialists. This project aims to disseminate knowledge away from an in-group of academics and towards the broader population and public policy it hopes to serve. Each week, trainees, patient partners, and research co-leads work in tandem through an iterative process of revisions and open discussions to produce easily comprehensible layman translations of technical academic work. These lay abstracts serve the purpose of narrowing the knowledge-practice gap by encouraging public engagement in research through their publication on open-access platforms such as X and Research Gate as well as the lab’s website and monthly newsletter. In the creation of lay summaries and KT, public and professional perception for these novel methods is to be improved, guiding their future accessibility and easing the burden of illness on a scale both within and outside of BC through the empowering nature of open collaboration with the public.
Read the announcement on the Michael Smith Health Research BC website.
