Dalhousie University is home to four of the newest recipients of funding from the Government of Canada for their innovative health research.

The $1,159,527 in funding is provided by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Project Grants, which help researchers gather the kind of information they need to make real improvements to clinical practice, health service delivery, and public health policy.

The Project Grant competition is one of CIHRs flagship funding programs. They are multi-year grants that are designed to support researchers at various stages in their careers as they conduct health research and knowledge translation projects that cover the full range of health research topic. Project grant recipients are leaders in their fields and their projects tackle pressing health issues that matter to Canadians, such as chronic pain management, mental health literacy intervention for Indigenous youth, and harnessing mast cell responses to viral infections.

In addition, four clinician scientists affiliated with the Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA) and the IWK Health Centre also received funding, bring the total in new health research funding to $3.2 million.

The researchers receiving funding include:

Paul Gratzer, Associate Professor, Department of Process Engineering and Applied Science, School of Biomedical EngineeringProject: Application of Advanced Wound Care Products and Techniques in the Northern Ontario First Nations Community

Noreen Kamal, Assistant Professor, Department of Industrial EngineeringProject: Atlantic Canada Together Enhancing Acute Stroke Treatment (ACTEAST): Improving Access and Efficiency of Treatment

Jean Marshall, Professor, Department of Microbiology & ImmunologyProject: Harnessing Mast Cell Responses to Viral Infections

Yifeng Wei, Assistant Professor, Department of PsychiatryProject: Developing, Evaluating, Disseminating and Sustaining a School-Based Mental Health Literacy Intervention for Indigenous Youth

Javeria Hashmi, Affiliated Scientist, Nova Scotia Health Authority and Assistant Professor, Department of Anesthesia, Pain Management and Perioperative MedicineProject: Strategy for Understanding How Expectations Interfere with Chronic Pain Management: A Multi-Modal Neuroimaging Study.

Rudolf Uher, Psychiatrist, Nova Scotia Health Authority and Professor, Department of PsychiatryProject: Sleep and Circadian Rhythm as Development Antecedents to Major Mood Disorders

Francesca Di Cara, Department of Pediatrics, IWK Health Centre and Assistant Professor, Departments of Pediatrics/Microbiology and Immunology Project: Defining the Peroxisome-Lipid Signaling Network in Innate Immunity

Souvik Mitra, Division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, IWK Health Centre and Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics.Project: Relative Effectiveness and Safety of Pharmacotherapeutic Agents for Treatment of Patent Ductus Arteriosis (PDA) in Preterm Infants: A National Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) Project.

Highlights of successfully funded projects:

Application of Advanced Wound Care Products and Techniques in the Northern Ontario First Nations Community

First Nations people living in Canada are among the highest risk population for diabetes and related complications. Community-based and culturally appropriate prevention strategies and monitoring of indications of diabetes among this high-risk population are essential to reducing health disparities.

With diabetes, minor abrasions and cuts on the feet can become chronic, infected wounds. Once the infection reaches the bone, amputation often becomes necessary. Canada currently spends $1.5 billion on direct costs for diabetic amputations, and in Ontarios North West Local Health Integration Network area alone, there were more than 100 amputations last year, which cost up to $43 million.

Paul Gratzer who has developed a new tissue engineered would care product called DermGEN, is working with Joanne Ogden, an award winning wound care nurse who has created a Wound Care Centre of Excellence in the Fort Frances area with a focus on limb preservation. DermGEN was created through research at Dalhousie and will be applied in a clinical study to assess the efficacy of this product in treating diabetic ulcers in the First Nations Communities of Northwest Ontario. DermGEN is unique in that it can be stored at room temperature, is easily transportable, and requires simple wound preparation and aftercare treatment which can be managed by patients at home.

"I am very excited to receive this funding as it enables my research to be used in helping a population who experience the highest rates in Canada of diabetic complications that lead to limb amputations, says Prof Gratzer. In partnership with the local First Nations communities, their Chiefs and Elders, and local wound care clinicians, we will bring advanced wound care technology directly to diabetic ulcer patients enabling them to heal faster and potentially eliminate the need for amputations.

Prof. Gratzers hope is that this research will significantly improve wound care in the First Nations communities at a lower cost.

Atlantic Canada Together Enhancing Acute Stroke Treatment (ACTEAST): Improving Access and Efficiency of Treatment

Stroke is a devastating disease, and the leading cause of severe physical disability. Ischemic stroke is the most common form of stroke; and is treatable with medical treatment and a new minimally invasive surgical procedure. These treatments can transform lives, but minutes matter for improving outcomes.

Dr. Noreen Kamals research is focused on increasing the proportion of ischemic stroke patients receiving treatment, and improving the efficiency of treatment. Her team will carry out this work across all of the Atlantic provinces, and employ an Improvement Collaborative intervention. This intervention uses the Model for Improvement adopted from Industrial Engineering, which employs alternatingface-to-face workshops and action periods to test and implement changes at local hospitals. The workshops involve sharing information with hospital teams and facilitation of cross-site learning.

It is anticipated that the potential benefit for patients experiencing ischemic stroke is profound. It is anticipated that 10-20% of ischemic stroke patients will have improved outcomes, which means that up to 550 more patients each year in Atlantic Canada can return to their homes with no or little disability, and use much less rehabilitation and long-term care services.

This funding means so much because ACTEAST is incredibly important to me for a number of reasons, says Dr. Kamal.The first reason is for the patients of course, who deserve the best possible outcomes that medical evidence has to offer. This brings me to my second reason, this is a cluster trial using a novel design to rigorously study the impact of an implementation, which will show its impact on being able to mobilize knowledge obtained from randomized clinical trial into practice. Finally, I have fallen in love with this region and its people; I look forward to working with the people from Atlantic Canada across four provinces and multiple health authorities to make it one of the best performing acute stroke systems in the world.

For more information about the CIHRs Project Grant program can be found on the CIHR website.

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Feds fund innovative health research happening at Dal, NSHA and IWK - Dal News