During the past decade, research teams within the Capital District Health Authority, IWK and Dalhousie University have been collaborating on groundbreaking research, pooling a multitude of skill sets and creating a fertile environment for generating great ideas and improving health care.
Now, a powerhouse of research integration and productivity in Nova Scotia – "Discovery and innovation for Health"– is the overview model for health care research from the collaborative teams at the IWK, Dalhousie University Health Faculties and the Capital Health District.
Dr. Ray LeBlanc, Vice President of Learning, Research and Innovation for Capital Health, says at a certain point it became increasingly evident that scientists do not do research by themselves, but that success in discovery and funding comes from teamwork. The team approach, he says, has been active for quite some time at department levels, but what's notable today is the co-operation in terms of program development between institutions, which are looking to enhance each other's work, rather than duplicate it.
"We've realized that we have come a long way towards a more integrated approach to research by support-ing each other more actively. It means we're sharing information about who's doing which research, which grants are held and so forth with a common database that's being shared between Dalhousie, IWK and Capital Health. In terms of research services, we've harmonized a lot of the functions."
The benefits of collaborative research teams are enormous, says Julia Taylor, Coordinator of Research Development at Capital Health. Having a single research collaboration team can reduce the number of iterations a new health technology needs to go through in development, leading to a more efficient and more effective outcome.
One such case is the team of musculoskeletal researchers at Capital Health and Dalhousie looking at the way a person's gait deteriorates over time and how that impacts the joints. This diverse research group includes orthopaedic surgeons, biomedical engineers, physiotherapists, and trainees. The intent is to be able to design interventions, based on analysis of a patient's gait or the monitoring of joint replacement implants that can be applied to extend the life of a natural joint, or the life of the implant.
Professor of Surgery and Director of Orthopaedic Research at Dalhousie University/CDHA, Dr. Michael Dunbar, says the integration of research services between Dalhousie, CDHA and the IWK has been very helpful in understanding and planning for the "big picture" in research.
"We are moving away from silos of researchers operating in isolation, to teams of researchers across disciplines that has allowed for significant success in publications and grant and award captures. My team would not have been as successful as it has recently, without this level of integration. Clearly, my team is very supportive of this initiative."
The group effort also has a significant impact on the learning methods of students who get valuable, inter-disciplinary, practical experience in an integrated clinical setting rather than working in a bubble.
Established professionals like bio-medical engineers are also able to reap the benefits, gaining information in a clinical environment that they would not previously have been able to access, helping them to advance their technologies in a more efficient way.
"Now what I can do is bring them to the OR and I can say in real time at the interface, 'look at this. I'm having this issue here. There's got to be a better way to do it. Go away from here, take this, and figure it out and come back to me.' They are really stimulated by this because it's not just something on paper that's theoretical-it's a real problem. It's a really exciting environment that's very dynamic and active.
"I'll often joke when I get equipment, and I'll say, 'some engineer designed this obviously because it can't physically fit in the human body,' so it completely cuts out 10 steps of the process rather than iterating things and coming back to us. They'll know right away that it won't work." Another successful example of a multi-faceted research team is the vaccinology group involving CDHA, Dalhousie, and IWK, where world-class experts are developing and evaluating vaccines in the new Canadian Center for Vaccinology, says Dr Scott Halperin, the director of the Centre.
"The Canadian Center for Vaccinology was established to unite the biomedical and clinical sciences with the social sciences and humanities to cover the spectrum from basic discovery research, through evaluation of vaccines, to translation into useful vaccine products, policy and programs," Halperin says.
"In the world outside of pandemic flus, most vaccinations are directed towards children, so he (Halperin) has assembled a team of international experts and it so happens that some of those experts are also non-paediatric physicians on staff at Capital District, and they are all members of the faculty of medicine, so that gives you an idea of the integration," says Dr. LeBlanc.
But the progress won't just benefit patient care and boost Nova Scotia's competitive presence for funding, he says. It will help focus the enormous beneficial economic impact that Health Research brings to Nova Scotia, creating high-level jobs in the community, attracting highly qualified professionals, help enrich our education system and our overall well being as a society.