THUNDER BAY -- A new centre could help the region become a leader in health-care research.
St. Joseph’s Care Group launched the Centre for Applied Health Research (CAHR) Friday at the 10th annual Showcase of Health Research at the Nor’Wester Hotel and Conference Centre.
The virtual centre will bring researchers together to network and collaborate and share their results.
Chi Cheng, a doctor and researcher with St. Joe’s, specializes in rural and remote residents, Aboriginal youth and youth in general – the people who most often fall through the cracks of the mental health system.
She said the new centre will be extremely beneficial in her research and help build on collaboration.
“In some ways it gives us the weight we need to apply for grants as well as attract other people from outside the region to help us answer the questions,” she said, adding she sees the CAHR becoming a leader in research for rural and remote health needs.
SJCG president and CEO Tracy Buckler said the virtual centre is a way to bring research together in a more organized way to provide support they may not have had before.
“We have a research department that is a very small department with a very dedicated committed group of people,” she said.
“To be able to organize the research in a way that we can get people in a different way and to be able to disseminate the results and to share that information and knowledge is the critical piece of the centre so that we can improve our client care.”
Launching the centre during the research showcase seemed fitting as the showcase has grown over the past decade, said Buckler.
“It’s great to see the growth over the 10 years and to really see the interesting research and the questions that are being answered in terms of the people we are here to serve and to make patient care, make client care better in our organization and continually improve,” she said.
