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 community leaders in health innovation and research. Have a look at our Research Office’s first Annual Report that highlights research activities conducted over the past year here. 

Research Partnerships

Brock University and Niagara Health launched a new 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.

Research Day

Niagara Health hosted its inaugural Research Day at its St. Catharines Site in November 2018. More than 100 researchers, students, academics and healthcare workers attended the event to learn about medical research being conducted in the region.

Our Partners 

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   

Fostering Community Hospital Research

Two of our researchers recently published in the prestigious Canadian Medical Association Journal (September 3, 2019 issue) examined the impact of research activity in community health settings. Dr. Jennifer Tsang, Research Lead, Intensivist and Co-Director, Critical Care Research at Niagara Health, and Paige Gehrke, a Registered Nurse in our ICU at St. Catharines, were part of a team of clinicians who found that increased involvement in research could offer more capacity for national research, expedite knowledge translation, increase staff engagement, opportunities for continuing education and enhanced clinician career satisfaction, among many other benefits.

Examples of research at Niagara Health 

• 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

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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

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