Healthcare systems are constantly evolving based on the ever-changing needs of the populations they serve. Currently, across Canada, we are seeing significant impacts on healthcare systems due to an aging population and people’s desire to maintain their independence and quality of life as long as possible.
Within this context, there are significant opportunities to develop new and innovative approaches for the provision of healthcare services to meet the complex needs of senior care and others. NorQuest College health innovation researchers work with organizations and stakeholders to identify gaps, improve services, and provide appropriate, sensitive, and effective care—in a way that also facilitates collaboration among ecosystem organizations and across the entire healthcare sector, where innovative solutions may be adopted and scaled readily and quickly.
Below are two examples of health research projects that demonstrate how innovative healthcare research can create nimble and responsive solutions to contemporary healthcare challenges.
Rapid Response Research to Support Care Outcomes in Continuing Care
This initiative was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
- Project lead: Erika Goble, PhD
- Project coordinator: Kar Yee Tran
- Funding dates: 2020-2025
- Project partners:
- Institute for Continuing Care Education and Research
- Bethany Care Foundation
- Silvera for Seniors
- Lifestyle Options Retirement Communities
- Capital Care
- Carewest
- Keyano College
- Red Deer Polytechnic
About the project
As Canada’s population ages, we face a growing need to innovate seniors’ care to help people live in their homes and stay healthier longer, while reducing healthcare cost-per-person. The Rapid Response Research Initiative consisted of two intersecting projects, one funded by NSERC, the other by CIHR, that rapidly prototyped and tested a series of grassroots innovations in seniors’ care. From using robotic animals for dementia patients to helping seniors find others with their same interests, these small three- to six-month projects were developed, implemented, and evaluated by care sites across central Alberta, and the results were shared with other senior care providers across the province.
The most promising innovative solutions were evaluated and adopted by multiple organizations. To continue the work started by this initiative, partners are exploring how to grow the collaborative model employed to identify, test, and share industry-level solutions province-wide.
The initiative has also successfully supported the formation and incubation of three student-led businesses supporting seniors' health and wellness across Canada.
Debunking Feminine Eye Health Myths in Rural India
This project was funded by the Fund for Innovation and Transformation.
- Project lead: Simrit Parmar
- Team members: Felipe Civita Ferreira and Kristie O’Neill
- Project duration: 2021-2023
- Project partner: Operation Eyesight Universal
About the project:
Throughout rural India, there are pervasive myths about eye care that limit women and girls from accessing eye care. The purpose of this international project was to disrupt patterns of gender-biased eye care and position women and girls as powerful agents of change, thereby improving eye health for entire communities.
Over the course of two years, project team members engaged 15 communities in the Chenani Udhampur district of Jammu, India. Community members were provided with mobile eye care services, and their understandings of eye health were collected through photovoice sessions, door-to-door surveys, and pre- and post-testing. Based on participant feedback, community- as well as clinician-oriented Information, Education, and Communications (IEC) materials and Behavioral Change Communications (BCC) materials were created and shared.
In total, the project reached 27,231 people (of whom 12,974 were women), with 2,196 people receiving eye care screening, 136 cataract surgery, and 510 glasses. By the end of the project, all 15 villages were declared preventable blindness free. Following a knowledge-sharing event in October 2023, the IEC and BCC materials were adopted by three state public health agencies in India.