PCHI Research

The goal of the Person-Centred Health Informatics Research Lab is to improve health outcomes among individuals at risk of developing or with chronic diseases. This will be achieved through improving the tools and methods used to evaluate and monitor changes in health; the implementation of chronic disease management interventions and programs that will maximize the derived benefits of health services; and knowledge exchange and transfer through creating and implementing evaluation processes that will provide ongoing feedback to the healthcare team and stakeholders regarding the effectiveness of chronic disease management and prevention programs.

PCHI Projects

We run several research projects in a number of research areas: Chronic Pain, Telehealth, Patient Reported Outcomes and Knowledge Translation.

Healthy Cities SMART Student Training Platform

This program is designed to train the next generation of researchers in implementation science using food and food systems to improve population health.
We welcome undergraduate and graduate students as well as postdoctoral fellows in epidemiology, public health, food and nutrition, agriculture, primary care, and health policy, Indigenous studies, engineering, economics, and other social sciences.

For more information on how to apply to the SMART Student Training Platform email: coordinator@guelphfamilyhealthstudy.ca

To apply, students must be enrolled in or accepted to a degree program at one of the participating Canadian Universities and supervised by a SMART Training Platform principal investigator.

SMART trainees will be able to:

  • Learn about implementation science, its theory, research, practice, methodologies, and tools.
  • Develop, evaluate, and promote interventions to improve population health.
  • Translate training and knowledge acquired in academic settings to real-world problems through case-based research.
  • Understand the importance of social, geographical, environmental, and biological determinants of health and healthy communities and cities.
  • Develop professional skills such as teamwork, knowledge mobilization, ethics, and leadership.
  • Network with leading experts, academics, and practitioners, including Indigenous community leaders.

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CHOIR

The Collaborative Health Outcomes Information Registry (CHOIR) is an open source, open standard, and highly flexible platform for a learning healthcare system to optimize care and advance real-world research discovery and innovation.

CHOIR incorporates classic testing-theory-based measures, such as the Pain Catastrophizing Scale, and item-response-theory based measures, such as the NIH Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS). PROMIS measures are normed and validated for the US population, providing a comparative metric across groups, and administered via computer adaptive testing (CAT). Outside the US, the PROMIS International initiative disseminates PROMIS domains worldwide via translation/cultural adaptation, calibration, and validation. CHOIR is flexible, in that each institution can tailor patient-reported-outcome measures to the site, clinic, and condition(s).

ECHO

Implementation of the Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) in the McGill RUIS disseminate evidence-based chronic pain management.

Project ECHO is a distance education model that connects specialists with numerous primary care practitioners (PCPs) via simultaneous video link for the purpose of training and mentoring PCPs in the care of patients with complex conditions through case-based learning. ECHO creates knowledge networks that enable a transition from centralized specialty care at academic institutions to empowerment of PCPs to deliver more highly skilled care closer to home. The goal of ECHO is to address identified knowledge gaps and increase PCP competence and confidence in managing chronic pain by providing short didactic presentations and case-based learning, as well as no-cost continuing medical education (CME) credits.

INSPIRE

Initiative for the Development of New Technologies and Innovative Practices in Rehabilitation (INSPIRE)

The Initiative for the Development of New Technologies and Practices in Rehabilitation (INSPIRE) aims to develop, evaluate, and implement novel technologies and interventions intended to enhance social roles and participation and health-related quality of life of individuals with physical impairments and functional disabilities.