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

Posted by Michele Charlton on February 5, 2020 in News

The Faculty of Medicine is home to three of the newest recipients of funding from the Government of Canada for their innovative health research.

The $842,051 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 CIHR’s 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, the Faculty of Engineering, as well as 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 Engineering
Project: Application of Advanced Wound Care Products and Techniques in the Northern Ontario First Nations Community



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





Yifeng Wei
, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry
Project: 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 Medicine
Project: 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 Psychiatry
Project: 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 Ontario’s 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. Gratzer’s hope is that this research will significantly improve wound care in the First Nations communities at a lower cost.

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