IMHA On The Move - October 2011

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Message from the Interim Scientific Director

Phillip GardinerOctober will be a busy month for IMHA as we make our way across the country working on activities, all with the aim of addressing musculoskeletal, arthritis, skin, and oral health issues.

Starting on the West Coast in Vancouver, IMHA will be holding a Research Ambassador meeting. Our Research Ambassadors are a group of patients and citizens providing insight and sharing their experiences to help us develop new and effective knowledge translation activities. Their collective expertise constitutes an invaluable resource, and ensures that we consider how health research makes a difference in people's lives.

Next we head east to Quebec City the Canadian Arthritis Network (CAN) is hosting its 2011 Annual Scientific Conference (ASC) in partnership with the Canadian Network for Improved Outcomes in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (CaNIOS), the Canadian Alliance for Pediatric Rheumatology Investigators (CAPRI) and the Canadian Scleroderma Research Group (CSRG). I look forward to attending this conference and meeting more researchers and stakeholders in the arthritis community.

Finally, we head back to central Canada, where Winnipeg will be the location of our fall IAB meeting and our Café Scientifique on Oral Health.

In other news, I attended my first scientific council meeting in August, which was a retreat format in Wakefield, Quebec. It was a great opportunity for me to meet my SD colleagues and to talk to other institutes with whom IMHA is collaborating on the Inflammation in Chronic Disease Signature Initiative.

We have also started a new knowledge translation and evaluation activity on our website called IMHA Reports. So far, we have written two reports; Disparities in Oral Health and Skin Conditions and Diseases. Read more about the Oral Health report in the Other News section of this newsletter. The skin report will be posted to our website this fall.

As always, IMHA welcomes your comments and questions. Please feel free to contact us at imha.iala.cihr.irsc@utoronto.ca.

Phillip Gardiner PhD, Interim Scientific Director
Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis

Did You Know?

October is lupus and psoriasis awareness month. Both of these conditions are of great interest to IMHA, as they fit within our strategic priorities as well as some of our focus areas. In the 2000-2010 period, CIHR/IMHA funded 46 different psoriasis-related and 98 lupus-related projects (including grants, training or other awards/programs).
Note: Numbers could include renewed awards counted more than once

Good News Story

Bone and Joint Best Practices Toolkit

Almost 30,000 people across Canada experience a hip fracture each year. Despite ongoing improvements in surgical and rehabilitation interventions, a hip fracture is uniquely challenging for the patient and their family, the health care professionals that provide care, and the health care system. Hip fracture patients are often older and vulnerable and addressing their issues requires a comprehensive and coordinated strategy.

Bone and Joint Canada has worked collaboratively with partners from across the country including Osteoporosis Canada to develop a Toolkit that provides the best practices on hip fracture care. The Toolkit provides a Model of Care which gives a systems approach to caring for this patient population including ensuring access to surgery within 48 hours and access to rehabilitation for all patients. From a clinical perspective sections are provided on how to provide care for this patient population throughout the care continuum including:

  • Emergency Department
  • Surgery and the Operating Room
  • Immediate Post Operative Care
  • Functional Recovery (Rehabilitation)

There are a number of best practices that are addressed within the Toolkit including: prevention and management of clinical complications, the management of dementia, delirium and depression and secondary prevention including osteoporosis management and falls prevention. The National Hip Fracture Toolkit is available to all health professionals working in the public sector in Canada and is posted on the members section of the Bone and Joint website. For all other individuals interested in the Toolkit please contact Rhona McGlasson at Rhona.McGlasson@bell.net.

Check it out!

Learn more about arthritis research today! If you have not already done so, check out the IMHA News page for profiles of arthritis researchers and a video, featuring John Esdaile as he talks about the IMPAKT-HiP study.

Other News

IMHA Reports
IMHA has long been collecting data on funding trends, as well as surveying researchers within our mandated research areas. Recognizing the potential value of such data to others, IMHA initiated a more comprehensive approach to its data collection, analyses and evaluation activities. This led, amongst other things, to the creation of IMHA Reports. IMHA reports are posted online and are disseminated to IMHA's IAB as well as to a variety of interested stakeholders including senior management and staff at IMHA and CIHR, researchers, organizations, policy makers and others interested in knowledge translation and/or outcomes of projects funded in relevant health research areas.

IMHA has recently published its first report entitled Outcomes of the Seed Grant: Disparities in Oral Health (DOH). IMHA created this Seed Grant program based on the recommendations of two IMHA-supported consultation workshops. Those recommendations included building capacity for research and knowledge translation to help reduce disparities in oral health care within Canadian vulnerable populations. CIHR/IMHA's processes were successful in meeting program objectives, i.e., identifying and strategically funding four highly relevant disparities in oral health research projects directed to health services/systems or social-cultural-environmental/population health research. Together, the four research projects targeted disparities in oral health care in several vulnerable Canadian populations including seniors, aboriginal populations, low-income families/individuals and the working poor. Overall, the investment of only $463,275 in the four DOH teams leveraged multi-million dollar additional investments and successfully seeded new projects directed to research, training, and knowledge translation activities aimed at reducing disparities in oral health care in Canada. Stay tuned, there are more IMHA Reports to come!

Awareness Activities

Lupus Canada
October is Lupus Awareness Month. Over 1:1000 Canadian men, women and children are living with lupus and while we work towards our vision of Life without lupus we want to ensure people living with lupus are living well. To find out more about lupus please visit the Lupus Canada website.

Psoriasis Society of Canada
October is also Psoriasis Awareness Month. The Psoriasis Society of Canada represents their members' needs by: providing up-to-date information on treatment, programs and services; forming support groups across Canada; increasing awareness of psoriasis among health care professionals and the public; consulting with Government to assist with programs and services; and encouraging research programs to find the cause and cure for psoriasis. Participate in the Psoriasis walk to raise funds for programs, services and research being held October 23, 2011 across cities in Canada. For more information please visit the Psoriasis Society of Canada website.

Healthy Workplace
The goals of Canada's Healthy Workplace Month (CHWM) are to: increase awareness of a comprehensive approach to workplace health in Canada that involve s health and lifestyle practices, workplace culture and supportive environment, physical environment and occupational health and safety; through healthyworkplacemonth.ca, generate awareness and availability of healthy workplace tools, resources and Best Practices so that Canadian organizations may build and sustain healthy workplaces where there are mutual benefits for employees and their organizations; and increase the number of healthy workplaces in Canada. For more information please visit the Healthy Workplace website.

Partner Corner

The Arthritis Alliance of Canada Research Workshop (July 11-12, 2011)

What is the Arthritis Alliance of Canada (formerly the Alliance for the Canadian Arthritis Program ACAP)
In 2002, stakeholders from over 30 organizations from the arthritis community came together to form The Arthritis Alliance of Canada to work towards changing the inequities that exist across Canada in arthritis prevention and care. While each group continues its own specialized work, the alliance provides a central focus for national arthritis-related initiatives and a united voice to deliver one consistent set of key messages to government.

What were the objectives of this meeting?
As a member of the Arthritis Alliance, IMHA co-hosted a Research Workshop in Toronto (July 11-12, 2011) with the objectives of:

  1. identifying and prioritizing arthritis research foci stemming from four key initiatives, designed to raise awareness of the impact of arthritis;
  2. identifying implementation strategies to address these priorities; and
  3. providing advice on a proposed research strategy as a part of a national framework for arthritis.

Who attended?
There were about 30 participants including our Interim SD Phillip Gardiner, researchers, students, clinicians, consumers, and representatives from various organizations including the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), The Arthritis Society (TAS), and the Canadian Arthritis Network (CAN).

What was discussed?
Underlying the discussions of the workshop were four key documents: Life with Arthritis in Canada, a personal and public health challenge; Impact of Arthritis 2010-2040; Canadian Funding Arthritis Landscape Review; and Administrative Data in Rheumatic Disease Research and Surveillance Program. These reports shed light on research gaps and helped shape the dialogue around the future of arthritis research in Canada. Dr. Gardiner had the opportunity to present CIHR's Road Map Signature Initiatives, so that the arthritis community - in developing their research strategy - might plan to align themselves with these initiatives.

Your pictures… Worth a thousand words!
CIHR has been a pioneer in the use of social media to engage Canadians and promote health research in Canada, with 124,000 fans on our Facebook page and more than 3,300 followers on Twitter. We are now building a Flickr gallery to promote health research among young Canadians. We invite you to be a part of it by sending us your images or photos - we'll do the rest. We will promote them to our networks, ensuring that they are seen in classrooms by teachers and students across Canada. So go ahead - send us your images or photos, and we will give them a wider audience and greater exposure.

Upcoming CIHR Events

Did you know that oral health can affect more than just your breath? On November 1st, 2011 IMHA looks forward to hosting, in partnership with the University of Manitoba, a Café Scientifique entitled Oral Health: more than bad breath at McNally Robinson Booksellers (1120 Grant Avenue, Winnipeg, MB). Jeff Dixon In the usual format, our expert panel will talk about their research, and then open the floor to questions. We are pleased to introduce our moderator for the evening, Dr. Jeff Dixon (left), Professor in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology and Division of Oral Biology at The University of Western Ontario, as well as our expert panel (from left to right in the photos below) made up of: Dr. Tony Iacopino, Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry and Professor in the Department of Restorative Dentistry at the University of Manitoba; Dr. Hani El-Gabalawy, Professor of Medicine and Head of the Division of Rheumatology at the University of Manitoba; Dr. Michael Glogauer, Associate Professor at the University of Toronto in the Faculty of Dentistry; and Dr. Robert Schroth, Assistant Professor in the Department of Oral Biology in the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Manitoba and Research Scientist at the Manitoba Institute of Child Health. Do you want to stay informed about Cafés happening in your area, subscribe to the CIHR Café Scientifique blog and get the latest information sent right to your inbox!

Tony Iacopino Hani El-Gabalawy Michael Glogauer Robert Schroth

Funding Opportunities

This winter, IMHA will be launching the following two funding opportunities. For more information on current funding opportunities, please visit IMHA's Funding Opportunities.

Network Catalyst Grant
This funding opportunity directly supports the third priority of CIHR's 2009-2014 Strategic Plan, Health Research Roadmap, by presenting a platform through which researchers and knowledge users can leverage KT and partnerships to accelerate the capture of the health and economic benefits of health research. The application deadline for this competition is December 15, 2011.

Dissemination Events Grants - Musculoskeletal Health, Arthritis, Skin and Oral Health
The specific objective of this grant is to offer additional sources of funding for highly rated applications that are relevant to specific CIHR research priority areas and mandates. IMHA will fund applications that are determined to be relevant to the research priority areas described below:

  • Physical Activity, Mobility and Health
  • Tissue Injury, Repair and Replacement
  • Pain, Disability and Chronic Disease

The total amount available for this initiative is $ 75,000. This amount may increase if additional funding partners decide to participate. The maximum amount awarded for a single grant is $ 25,000 per annum for up to one year.

Operating Grant Priority Announcement - Musculoskeletal Health, Arthritis, Skin and Oral Health
Operating Grants provide operating funds to support research proposals in all areas of health research including randomized controlled trials. The application deadline for this competition will be in March 2012, with funding to begin in October 2012.

Meetings of Interest

International Forum on Pediatric Pain (October 13-16, 2011) White Point Beach, NS.

The Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology Annual Conference: Exercise and Health for Everybody (October 19-22, 2011) Quebec City, QC.

Closing the Gap Between Oral Health Research and Practice workshop (October 27, 2011) Halifax, NS.

Canadian Arthritis Network 2011 Annual Scientific Conference: Bridging Gaps in Arthritis Knowledge with CaNIOS, CAPRI, and CSRG (October 27-29, 2011) Quebec City, QC.

Contact Us

CIHR - Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis
Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
The Banting Institute
100 College St., Room 207B
Toronto, ON, M5G 1L5
Tel: 416-978-4220
Email: IMHA@cihr-irsc.gc.ca

If you would like to subscribe to IMHA On The Move please email imha.iala.cihr.irsc@utoronto.ca and write "subscribe to newsletter" in the subject line. You will receive all future IMHA newsletters.