Empowering Solutions: SHRF and Partners Invest $2.3M into Innovative Research Solutions to Address Saskatchewan's Health Challenges

Project Summary

Globally, school meal programs are one of the most successful drivers of improved health, education, and economic growth. Canada is one of few developed countries that has not had a national school food policy or program. There are, however, hundreds of ad hoc school meal programs across the country, mostly aimed at children from low-income families. These small programs do not see the same benefits as universal school meals. The original Good Food for Learning project studied the process, benefits, and challenges of implementation of a universal healthy school lunch program that included in-class learning about food and nutrition for elementary students in two Saskatoon schools, compared to two schools without the program. Saskatoon Public Schools continue to grow the universal school lunch program to eight schools and the research team will gather information about diet quality, knowledge and attitudes of students before and after the new universal lunch program. Further information about the strengths and challenges faced by the schools in implementing the new lunch program and food and nutrition education will support Saskatoon Public Schools and other schools as they continue to implement their own universal lunch programs.

Project Summary

The closure of the Saskatchewan Transportation Company bus service in 2017 has made healthcare inaccessible to many people. This project is an evaluation of the impact of the Kikinahk Free Bus initiative on the ability of northern Saskatchewan youth to access mental health supports and sexual and reproductive health services. Since the initiation of the Kikinahk Free Bus, there has been significant interest in understanding the impact of the service as an innovative solution to a major health system challenge in Saskatchewan and Canada - lack of travel options for those in rural and small communities. The research will explore how the La Ronge to Prince Albert Free Bus initiative influences healthcare access and equity for youth in northern Saskatchewan as well as how the initiative could be scaled up and sustained over the long term. This is the first evaluation of a rural Canadian intercity bus solution that is completely free and accessible to all and will provide valuable insight to youth experiences accessing mental and sexual health services.

Project Summary

The University of Regina Child Trauma Research Centre (CTRC) was established in 2020 to respond to serious challenges facing Saskatchewan children and families, including some of the highest rates in Canada of child abuse, neglect, children in care, intimate partner violence, and poverty. The CTRC aims to respond to these challenges through aligning research on trauma-integrated practices with the needs of Saskatchewan service providers (e.g., social workers, psychologists, counsellors, educators, health practitioners, etc.). These providers are the direct line of impact for children, youth, and families in vulnerable contexts, many of who have been impacted by traumatic events. The goal is to harness our existing expertise as a research centre to form a community collective of individuals who share an interest in child and youth well-being to co-create and evaluate feasible and effective trauma-integrated research for service providers. This project will be guided by four main Saskatchewan community sectors (social/justice, health, education, and newcomer services).

Project Summary

As a result of historical colonial practices and systemic racism, Indigenous children, both across Canada and within Saskatchewan, continue to be disproportionately affected by chronic diseases. Early learning spaces provide a valuable opportunity to promote physical literacy, the confidence to engage in physical activities for life, as a wholistic approach for prevention of chronic diseases and overall wellness. The research team, guided by Elder Kathy Wahpepah, is working with early learning educators and administrators to decolonize and revitalize the spaces where Indigenous children learn and play. Grounded in the Indigenous philosophy of ethical space and guided by etuaptmumk (Two-eyed Seeing), the initiative will braid Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing about wholistic wellness and land-based learning with the Western rooted concept of physical literacy to co-create and share arts-land- and-culture-based programming in early learning environments.

Project Summary

Neuroimaging using MRI is important for non-invasive diagnosis of brain disease and abnormal brain development. A major challenge of pediatric neuroimaging is that it requires the child to remain motionless inside the scanner for extended periods of time. General anesthesia can be used, but this adds risk and uncertainty for the family. MRI images can also be enhanced by administering contrast agents, but these agents also have potential side effects. The research team will develop and evaluate a new method of MRI pediatric neuroimaging using artificial intelligence in order to improve image quality. A new type of AI algorithm will use unenhanced MRI images to generate contrast-enhanced images (synthetic contrast-enhanced), providing radiologists and clinicians additional information to make a diagnosis without needing to administer a contrast agent to the patient or requiring lengthy scan times. The collaborative approach of the project—which brings together clinicians, researchers and patients—ensures that the research is patient-centered and grounded in real-world clinical needs.

Project Summary

This research aims to co-develop and co-evaluate a sustainable pediatric virtual care program in collaboration with Whitecap Dakota Nation and the Virtual Health Hub. This project will provide key evidence to support pediatric virtual care programs across Saskatchewan. The team will assess the effectiveness and sustainability of virtual care devices, determine the appropriateness of virtual care, hybrid care, or in-person care for specific needs, identify best and wise practices, and develop a framework for providing pediatric virtual care in Indigenous communities. The goal is to support the establishment and evaluation of a sustainable and culturally appropriate pediatric virtual care program for the Whitecap Dakota Nation community, serving as a model for other Indigenous communities in Saskatchewan and, more widely, in Canada. The potential impact of this project is decreasing or eliminating barriers encountered by Indigenous children and their families in obtaining quality and culturally-rooted pediatric healthcare.

Project Summary

Exclusive formula feeding is recommended for HIV-positive individuals to reduce the risk of HIV transmission to the baby. However, breastmilk is well established to have immune-boosting benefits that can’t be replaced by formula. Pasteurized donor breastmilk is an alternative that may be able to provide some of the benefits of breastmilk in a safe way, but this is not currently an accessible infant feeding option in Saskatchewan. The research team aims to understand if providing donated breastmilk to babies born to those living with HIV is something that caregivers want and if it can be done without too many challenges. The perspectives gained from this project will inform continued work in this area and aim to increase infant feeding options for individuals living with HIV and their babies.

Project Summary

This research seeks to understand the experiences of African Canadian immigrant youth in the process of finding their place to belong within Saskatchewan communities. While there is substantial work looking at the experience of adult immigrants to Canada, very little work focuses on immigration to the Prairies and on the experiences of youth specifically. The research team will work with Saskatoon Open Door Society to explore the strategies that African Canadian immigrant youth use to adapt to Saskatchewan and provide opportunities to understand their personal experiences. The study will be offered in both French and English for youth who have been residing in the four major cities of Saskatchewan - Regina, Saskatoon, Prince Albert, and Moose Jaw - less than 10 years. Canadian small urban centres are non-traditional newcomer-receiving communities that are growing fast. A better understanding of the experiences of immigrant youth will better support their integration needs and, in turn, will support economic growth through an increasing pool of workers in the province.

Project Summary

Healthy siblings of those with chronic illnesses such as congenital heart disease are often described as ‘forgotten’ or neglected members of the family. Parents of children with congenital heart disease have directly voiced concerns about the well-being of their healthy children, but there are currently no tailored resources. The overall objective of this project is to create and evaluate a tailored, evidenced-based Internet-delivered education resource for healthy siblings, designed to support their wellness and quality of life. The resource will include education about living with congenital heart disease and share the experience of other youth who have a sibling with congenital heart disease, and assist the healthy sibling to develop and practice healthy coping skills. Siblings of youth with congenital heart disease and their parents and health care providers will be provided access to the new resource to assess its usability, strengths and areas for improvement before the resource is used to support youth wellbeing.

Project Summary

Gaucher disease is a rare genetic disorder where an enzyme used by the body to break down fatty substances is missing, which can severely affect children. Parents can carry the gene for Gaucher Disease without showing any signs of the disease. Symptoms of those with the disease can vary in severity, with the most severe form often being fatal in children under 2 years. Gaucher disease is difficult to diagnosis with current available methods. This team, a collaboration of biomedical researchers and a neurology clinician, is developing diagnostic tests for Gaucher disease that can also predict disease severity by measuring the activity of enzymes in small volumes of blood. This test would also be able to monitor the success of treatment by measuring any improvements in enzyme activity.

Project Summary

Structural birth defects affect approximately 5% of Saskatchewan children and most often affect the face and heart because these two body systems develop similarly during embryonic development. Causes of birth defects can be genetic or environmental, and the cause may or may not be identifiable. Currently, two parallel but independent approaches are used to determine the cause of birth defects: Saskatchewan Health Authority Medical Genetics clinicians conduct genetic testing for known causes, and University of Saskatchewan biomedical researchers determine how unknown genes and environmental exposure cause birth defects in animal models. This project brings both approaches together in a collaborative team. The team will perform a retrospective case review of patients seen in the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital genetic medicine clinic in order to identify potential, previously unknown causes of birth defects in Saskatchewan. The newly identified genes will be tested in animal models to confirm if they are contributing to birth defects, which would strengthen the current genetic testing.

Project Summary

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, is a chronic and incurable disorder. Access to care is critical for disease management but individuals residing in rural locations and Indigenous persons with IBD face challenges in access to adequate and timely healthcare. Patient navigation programs have had success as an approach to reducing healthcare disparities. Patient navigators are designated individuals knowledgeable of the health system who can guide patients through their healthcare journey to overcome barriers that prevent them from getting the care they need. Two patient navigator programs were developed to improve IBD care access and support for rural Saskatchewan residents and Indigenous individuals living with this chronic condition. This project will evaluate these two patient navigator programs using medical chart reviews, surveys, and individual interviews. The results of this study will help to advocate and improve health outcomes for individuals living in rural Saskatchewan and Indigenous persons with IBD.

Project Summary

The transplant journey is overwhelming. Patients who receive a lung or kidney transplant must adopt new behaviours and monitor their health and medications for good health outcomes. Creative mobile health solutions can enhance the quality of care for Saskatchewan residents, especially for those living in remote or rural settings. A new mobile health app, the Health Education and Learning Platform (HELP), is being co-developed to support this journey. Features identified by healthcare providers, patients, and caregivers to help patients best manage their health will be developed and built into the app. The app will be piloted and assessed for feasibility and usefulness. Usage data and surveys will be collected from patients who are waiting for a transplant or recently received a transplant and their caregivers. A follow-up virtual interview will learn more about the participant’s experience using the app and included resources. These findings will provide the basis for a future clinical trial comparing the app to current care practices and build infrastructure for expanding the app into other healthcare settings.

Project Summary

Data on the prevalence of oral cancer in Saskatchewan is extremely limited, but heavy smoking and alcohol consumption are associated with increased risk of oral cancer. Early diagnosis of oral cancer significantly improves five-year survival rates, and that is why health care professionals need to be aware of the risk factors, diagnosis, and early clinical presentation of oral cancer. Compounding this difficulty, Saskatchewan has a high percentage of rural and remote inhabitants who may experience difficulties accessing oral health care due to their geographic location and the only two Oral Medicine/Oral Pathology specialists are located in Saskatoon with a lengthy waiting list. This project will examine clinical records to determine prevalence and complete a community needs assessment. This will then support the development of a screening tool and network that will enable non-dentist/non-specialist health care professionals in remote and rural areas to screen for oral cancer and premalignant lesions and determine the best practices for referral of patients to Oral Medicine specialists.

Project Summary

Maximizing quality of life is important for older adults, particularly those living with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias in long-term care. Recreation therapy staff provide meaningful leisure opportunities to improve physical, social, spiritual, emotional and cognitive well-being. Virtual Reality (VR) uses interactive immersive videos and has been shown to benefit physical activity, mood and cognitive health in long-term care residents. The majority of recreation therapists previously interviewed expressed interest in using VR if they received adequate support in their practice. VR content must consider the needs and preferences of the residents and the therapeutic goals. Creating unique tailored VR content is not feasible in clinical settings as it is expensive, time consuming, and requires special equipment and skills. Therefore, this project proposes to develop a content screening tool for recreation therapists to screen publicly available and subscription content. This tool will support recreation therapy staff to identify appropriate existing content to incorporate in their practice in Saskatchewan long-term care homes.

Project Summary

Raynaud Phenomenon is a condition of the fingers and toes where blood flow stops and they become very pale and numb, typically due to cold exposure. The condition is painful and can limit activities and lead to tissue damage if not managed properly. It can also be an indicator for some types of connective tissue disease. Nifedipine is a blood pressure medication that can help manage Raynaud Phenomenon, but causes a number of side effects when taken orally. Laboratory work on a patented topical cream containing nifedipine will be tested in rats to see if it can reverse or prevent cold-induced blood flow reductions, using a vascular ultrasound method on the tail artery. This artery is similar to those in fingers and toes because it is involved in temperature regulation. In parallel, patients and health care providers in rural and remote Saskatchewan communities will be surveyed to see if they are aware of Raynaud Phenomenon and its potential consequences, and to assess how they currently deal with the symptoms. This shared knowledge will be used to generate educational materials for patients and for rural clinic health care providers so they can recognize Raynaud Phenomenon and provide patient guidance, referral and management strategies.

Project Summary

In Saskatchewan, many lung cancer survivors find it hard to access the right kind of support to manage ongoing physical symptoms and emotional distress. For lung cancer survivors, mindfulness could be a key tool in dealing with the distress that often accompany their journey. Mindfulness means being present in the moment, noticing what's happening around us and within us, without judgment. This project aims to take a mindfulness program called MIND-OP, and tailor it specifically for lung cancer survivors in Saskatchewan, working with lung cancer survivors and caregivers to understand their unique challenges. MIND-OP is an online, self-guided program designed to be easy to access and use, no matter where someone lives. This project is not just about creating a helpful program; it's about making it accessible to everyone who needs it, including those in remote or rural areas.

Project Summary

Lung cancer is the # 1 cause of cancer deaths. Current standard of care chemotherapies, such docetaxel, work by killing fast growing cells and response varies greatly between cancers. As such, only 1-15% of lung cancer patients see benefit from docetaxel treatment and resistance is widespread. New targeted therapies and immunotherapies work on cancer more specifically and have led to modest improvements in survival in 15-25% of lung cancer patients. These therapies work by identifying protein or immune targets that are found in specific cancers at excessive levels. Targeted radiopharmaceutical therapies, or radiotherapies, works by binding to a specific treatment target and delivering radiation directly to the cancer. Targeted radiotherapy can directly kill the cancer through radiation and enhance sensitivity of the cancer to be killed by other therapies. This project will test a new radiotherapy targeting a protein called Nectin-4 on its own and in combination with existing immunotherapies like pembrolizumab. This approach will provide a basis for future phase I clinical trials.

Project Summary

Early detection of Alzheimer’s disease provides valuable time to deal with the disease progression and slow it down through adjusting lifestyle factors and supportive medications, but Alzheimer’s disease has no clinical symptoms in early stages. Existing laboratory diagnostic tools for early detection of Alzheimer’s disease are very invasive. This project will work with optometrists, using artificial intelligence and optical coherence tomography imaging to examine the eyes of Saskatchewanians living with Alzheimer’s disease and healthy counterparts. Since the eye is the most accessible route to assess the central nervous system through the optic nerve, this technique will be used to identify eye patterns in those people who developed Alzheimer’s disease. A combination of the eye imaging data analysis algorithm, input from ophthalmologists, optometrists and neurologists and patient history will assist to identify pre-clinical patients at risk with a new minimally invasive early detection tool.

Project Summary

Older adults, especially those with Alzheimer's’ disease and related dementias, are at an increased risk of experiencing adverse outcomes after surgery, including postoperative delirium. Postoperative delirium is a sudden temporary change in mental status after surgery. This study aims to co-develop, implement, and evaluate a multidisciplinary, patient-centred clinical pathway to reduce the risk of postoperative delirium in older surgical patients in Saskatchewan. This multidisciplinary pathway will include pre-operative screening, anesthetic protocols, increased identification of postoperative symptoms by family members, and other strategies that can be adopted by the healthcare team and patient’s loved ones. The success of the pathway will be measured using clinical, health system, and patient-oriented outcomes.