Niagara Health has been awarded a $250,000 research grant to lead a three-year study exploring how community hospitals across Ontario can strengthen their research programs and improve patient care.
The study, led by Dr. Jennifer Tsang, Executive Director and Chief Scientist of the Niagara Health Knowledge Institute (NHKI), will involve interviewing leaders from community hospitals with established research departments. The goal is to identify strategies at both the organizational and system levels that can increase research capacity in these settings.
A major focus of the study is making sure patients in Niagara have the same opportunities to benefit from cutting-edge research as those treated in larger academic centres.
“By growing research in community hospitals, we can give patients in Niagara more equitable access to innovative therapies through clinical trials,” says Dr. Tsang. “That means people don’t have to travel to bigger cities to participate in studies - they can do it right here in their own community.”
For Niagara patients, this access can make a life-changing difference. Clinical trials often provide early access to promising new treatments and therapies that aren’t yet widely available. Having these opportunities locally removes barriers for people who might otherwise be excluded because of distance, cost or time.
Dr. Tsang says beyond providing access to clinical trials, research-active hospitals like Niagara Health are more likely to adopt the latest evidence-based practices quickly, leading to better outcomes for all patients - even those not directly enrolled in a study.
While the study will gather perspectives from leaders across Ontario, Niagara Health is positioned as the driver of this work thanks to the Healthcare Research by Community Physicians Grant from the Physicians Services Incorporated (PSI) Foundation.
“This is a provincially funded, competitive grant, and what makes it meaningful is that Niagara Health is leading it,” says Dr. Tsang. “We’re showing that a community hospital can set the standard for how research is built and shared across the province.”
The project falls under Niagara Health’s RICH-Canada program (Building Capacity for Research in Community Hospitals in Canada), one of six strategic initiatives of the Niagara Health Knowledge Institute. Since its launch, RICH-Canada has created national networks, advanced advocacy initiatives and developed practical toolkits to help hospitals strengthen their research programs.
Through the study, Niagara Health aims to identify the organizational supports, partnerships and system-level changes needed to make research a core part of community hospital culture. The findings will be shared across Canada in the form of a practical toolkit for hospital leaders - extending the impact well beyond Niagara.
“We want to be the driving force behind a movement that changes the research landscape in Canada,” Dr. Tsang says. “By leading this work, Niagara Health is showing that community hospitals can be innovators, not just care providers.”
Once complete, the findings will be shared with the Ontario Hospital Association, published in academic journals and presented at national and international conferences. The findings will also be used to help enhance our Building Community Hospital Research Program toolkit, which provides helpful information to organizations interested in participating in clinical research.
The hope is the strategies identified will not only benefit Ontario but can be adapted for community hospitals across the country - and even internationally.
"This is critical and often overlooked work,” noted the PSI Foundation’s grant review. “Building research capacity in community hospitals ensures equitable patient access to health research, advancing health equity while also improving the quality and generalizability of research results.”
