Funding Research by Health Professionals in NL

To build learning, capacity development, and sustainability in patient-oriented research (POR) and evaluation in Newfoundland and Labrador, NL SUPPORT and Quality of Care NL aim to provide funding to health professionals conducting POR on a biannual basis.

Applications for Spring 2024 are currently open until May 24, 2024! Learn more at https://nlsupport.ca/funding-opportunities/.

Applications are reviewed by panels of our staff, Memorial University faculty, and patient partners to determine whether each proposed POR project fits within our mandate.

In Fall 2023, a new funding round was launched for health professionals. In this round, health professionals from varying disciplines were awarded funding. Read more about their projects below!

Unraveling the Complexities of Health Care for New Refugees in Newfoundland and Labrador: A FRAM Analysis

Co-Lead: Dr. Christine Aubrey-Bassler, MD CCFP; Family Physician, Family Medicine Clinic, HSC; Clinic Lead and Co-Founder, Refugee Health Clinic, NLHS; Faculty Lead, MUN Med Gateway Program; and Assistant Professor, Discipline of Family Medicine, Memorial University

Co-Lead: Dr. Maisam Najafizada, Interim Assistant Dean for Social Accountability; and Assistant Professor, Division of Population Health and Applied Health Sciences, Memorial University

This research project aims to understand and describe the health care system as it is used by refugees who have recently arrived in Newfoundland and Labrador. Refugees often face challenges when trying to use health care services due to language barriers, not knowing how the system works, or other difficulties. By understanding these challenges, we can help make the system become more welcoming for those who are new to our province. Drs. Aubrey-Bassler and Najafizada and their research team plan to use a special method called FRAM (Functional Resonance Analysis Method), which helps us see the health care system like a dynamic map with many different paths. To create this map, the research team is not just looking at official documents and watching how health care is provided, but also talking to the people who work in health care and those who help refugees. They are also teaming up with patient and public partners — refugees, community members, and refugee representatives. Through workshops and planning sessions, these patient and public partners will help the research team identify what’s most important to study, inform the research questions, review and give feedback on how information is collected, and help clarify analysis. At the end of this project, the research team will have a dynamic map that shows how the health care system works for new refugees. This map will help understand how the system functions and identify where it might be confusing or hard for refugees to use. This map will be shared with the decision-makers in an effort to improve NL’s health care system which can lead to better health outcomes.

Virtual Reality Game-Based Intervention Technology: Autistic Adults Empowered Through Patient-Oriented Research

Co-Lead: Dr. Kimberly Maich, Professor, Special / Inclusive Education, Faculty of Education at Memorial University of Newfoundland; Research Fellow, Canadian Research Centre on Inclusive Education; Registered Psychologist (NL); and Board Certified Behaviour Analyst — Doctoral

Co-Lead: Dr. Tyna Doyle, Associate Professor, Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada (FRCPC), and Pediatrician at Janeway Children’s Health and Rehabilitation Centre (Eastern Health)

Autistic adults have reported unmet needs in accessing professional support and assistive technologies to effectively learn life skills. In the last two decades, serious video games have emerged as a solution to address the learning needs of autistic children. In game-based learning research with autistic individuals, serious video games are described as a flexible technology-based learning tool for teaching that may help autistic individuals reach learning goals, while considering their diversity to learn and express themselves. To date, the development of serious video games for autistic individuals has not included autistic adults in the design process. Drs. Maich and Doyle and their research team want to know: what are the best practices for co-designing engaging and effective virtual reality game-based intervention technologies with autistic adults? Answering this question requires the help of autistic adults. Three autistic adults will join the research team as patient partners. Patient partners will co-design the game elements of a serious video game and provide feedback on the effectiveness and functionality of the game with regards to teaching and learning. Using this information, patient partners will co-create a framework to be used by stakeholders in collaboration with autistic adults in determining how to balance the virtual reality game-based learning features with learning needs, preferences, and strengths of autistic adults. The results of this study will help to advance inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility by promoting autistic adults’ lived experiences, which have been underrepresented within autism research and services. Overall, the results of this study will lead to better virtual reality game-based solutions for autistic adults, thereby increasing their opportunity to master essential life skills.

Efficacy of the DISCAN for Assessment of Chronic Pain in Older Adults in Vivo and Telemedicine. Part 2: Project Information and Proposal Summary-Research Project

Co-Lead: Dr. Michael Bautista, MD, Associate Professor, Division of Anesthesiology, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Co-Lead: Dr. Roberta DiDonato, PhD, Adjunct Professor, Division of Anesthesiology, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Older adults commonly experience chronic pain in Canada. Pain in hospitals, emergency departments, and outpatient settings has traditionally been assessed using a scale, such as the Numerical Rating Scale, the Brief Pain Inventory, and the Visual Analog Scale. However, older adults have concerns regarding the use of these scales for pain control and management. To learn more about these concerns, Drs. Bautista and DiDonato and their research team talked with patients, patient groups, and their patient partners. They learned patients and their family members/caregivers reported difficulties with using pain assessment scales, identifying them as being inaccurate for measuring their pain-intensity and ambiguous and somewhat arbitrary for rating their pain. These pain scales have also been found to be less easy to use and less accurate for those patients who have vision, hearing or mental impairments. This is particularly important if pain assessment is done via telemedicine, as studies suggest that these pain scales may not provide consistent or accurate results in a virtual setting. To address this issue, the research team is examining the use of a novel pain scale, the DISCretized ANalog (DISCAN) method, for the assessment of chronic pain in older adults in telemedicine. The research team includes patient partners who will help with determining the study’s questions and priorities and the feasibility of the study’s design, as well as assisting with the development of recruitment strategies. Overall, the results will help to identify best practices for assessing pain intensity levels in older adults which can lead to their better health and well-being.

To learn more about our funding opportunities and how to apply (deadline: May 24, 2024), please visit https://nlsupport.ca/funding-opportunities/.

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