New Office of Research Lays Foundation for Robust Academic and Research Vision
1-2-2021
A new Office of Research is taking shape at Windsor Regional Hospital, designed to be one of the building blocks for a robust future in academics and research.
The brainchild of Dr. Wassim Saad when he took over as Chief of Staff in July 2019, Dr. Saad wanted to improve the quality of care in the organization by elevating its academic and research vision. By doing so, he says it will attract and retain physicians to the hospital who want to take part in research, therefore improving patient care and improve collegiality among the professional staff.
It started with the creation of ARC, the Academic and Research Committee, chaired by Dr. Caroline Hamm to support research activities. In order to help operationalize the work of this committee, a new Office of Research was structured. Recognizing the need to increase its profile and exposure, a physical location that was front and centre was chosen at the top of the escalators of the Met Campus in the former library.
With Nicole Sbrocca and Jessica Bennett as co-directors and Krista Naccarato, Manager of Corporate Research and office Coordinator Grace Park on board, Dr. Saad hopes it will pique the interest of professional staff when it comes to new research projects.
But he admits, it will take time.
“You don’t realize the fruits of your labour until much later, sometimes years or decades later,” he says. “Presenting this to the MAC (Medical Advisory Committee) and Board, I would tell them to be patient and that we may not see any gains early on but we have to have our sights set on the horizon. We need to continue to grow our academic and research footprint in order to position WRH to be a leader by the time we are in the new acute care facility.”
With a Strategic Plan in place for the next one, three and five years, the office is currently solely occupied by Grace, but the end goal is to create a space for collaboration. Designs are underway to renovate the space to be more welcoming, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony to take place after the pandemic.
“We will have staff who work out of this space, space for medical students, for investigators or researchers that need assistance for research applications,” says Naccarato.
According to Bennett, the new Office of Research ensures professional staff at the hospital are, at the very least, supported in their endeavours. “It is a one-stop-shop for anyone who is interested in research activities,” adds Bennett. “I really do see it as a supportive office.”
From a patient’s perspective, although the benefits may not be as tangible as a new state-of-the-art piece of equipment, the role research plays in a patient’s journey to recovery is undeniable. Even with the COVID-19 pandemic, patients have been enrolled in the Concor-1 clinical trial as previously reported in The Pulse and Windsor Regional Hospital was one of the first hospitals in Canada to enroll a patient in ACT 2 clinical trial - details to come.
Naccarato points out the more an organization encourages the development of research, the more staff are inspired to think outside the box.
“An easy example is in oncology, we don’t get new ways to treat cancer without clinical trials, we don’t get new drugs or therapies that are effective without clinical trials,” she says. “It elevates everyone’s games and skillset in an organization, which benefits not just those patients enrolled in the research trials.”
For Park, who arrived at Windsor Regional Hospital last summer from The Hospital for Sick Children she acknowledges all the behind the scenes administrative and operational work needed to accomplish such a feat.
“When you have large research projects that combine the efforts of different departments from labs or diagnostics, through to the inpatient and outpatient experience, it builds those relationships throughout the hospital,” she explains adding that staff who have even a “Preliminary idea for a research project, should reach out to the office because we are here to help.”
Learn more about the Office of Research online or send an email to research.office@wrh.on.ca.