Research at Niagara Health

Research has a profound impact on the health and wellbeing of the people who live in our communities. 

Health research provides important information about disease trends and risk factors, outcomes of treatment, patterns of care, and healthcare costs and usage to name a few. This is what fuels us to do more. Our journey to become a community-based research and academic centre began several years ago. Niagara Health established a dedicated Research Office to strengthen our research and academic partnerships and set out to conduct research that would inform care, inspire innovation and create environments of collaborative learning.

With the help of partnerships and collaboration, we are becoming leaders in health innovation and research in Niagara and across the country. Niagara Health has two new Intensive Care Unit (ICU) research studies underway, one to better understand health outcomes for COVID-19 patients and the other to inform the development of a national strategy to expand clinical research in community hospitals in Canada.

Niagara Health’s second Annual Research Day will take place virtually on Thursday, April 28, 2022 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Learn more about the event and register today.

Research Partnerships

Brock University and Niagara Health launched a partnership in March 2019 that will increase opportunities to improve the overall health and wellbeing in our region and beyond. It will place a heightened focus on research that will help people stay healthy, improve both patient outcomes and the way healthcare is delivered, and create training and employment opportunities for Brock students and graduates.

The Research Office has built strong networks within our organization that include departments such as Quality, Patient Safety & Risk, Decision Support, Health Records and many clinical departments and units across Niagara Health.

We're also very proud to work closely with our community partners:

• McMaster University
• Brock University
• St. Joseph's Research Institute
• Niagara College
• Hotel Dieu Shaver Rehabilitation Centre

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Research Office Goals:

• To build healthcare learners’ and professionals’ skills and confidence in conducting health research
• To promote interprofessional collaboration in research
• To establish research networks with partners in the community to improve integration of primary and acute health services
• To improve health through knowledge translation

Fostering Community Hospital Research

Dr. Jennifer Tsang, Research Lead, Intensivist and Co-Director Critical Care Research, was part of a team of clinicians published in the Canadian Journal of Anesthesia (Oct. 12, 2021) examining the importance of increasing participation in pandemic research in Canada. They highlighted that while many Canadian hospitals are participating in COVID-19-related research, the majority of Canadians are cared for in centres where clinical trials are not conducted, and how increased research participation will benefit all hospitals where patients in Canada are treated. Read more

Examples of research at Niagara Health

• Conducting COVID-19 research studies and creating opportunities for Niagara patients to participate in clinical trials related  to the virus.
• Better understanding the standard of care radiation through Randomized Phase III Clinical Trial SABR COMET 3 and COMET 10.
• Reducing opioid prescriptions in Emergency Departments and surgical units.
• Participating in a Canadian Medication Safety Improvement Project – one of the many ways we emphasize safety and reduce harm.
• Being able to better predict and manage pain, agitation and delirium among our critically ill patients.
• Participating in More-2-Eat, a study that looked at ways to treat and prevent malnutrition. Our teams identify at-risk patients and work with them on nutrition treatment plans. We also connect patients to resources for support when they leave the hospital.

Learn more

• Process for Research Studies Conducted at Niagara Health
• Research Ethics Board
• Research News and Events
• Research and Quality
• 2018/19 Report on Research at Niagara Health

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