Inspire change: become a partner in Canadian health research
I used to run, until there was pain and disability.
A poorly understood disease process, as well as late and insufficient diagnostic procedures meant years of delays in my diagnosis, which in turn limited my treatment options. I had idiopathic avascular necrosis of the talus bone. In plain language, the pivotal bone in my ankle had somehow lost its blood supply and died.
Medical intervention included surgery but it failed to restore my bone health or joint mobility. In addition, the trauma of surgery actually made my ankle worse due to accelerating a progressive, degenerative process. The process of the bone dying was accompanied by debilitating pain that factored into my daily decision-making over a decade, as natural bone remodelling processes took place. The result of the bone dying included ankle deformity, muscle loss in my leg, joint dysfunction, and mobility challenges. The impact on my life included an end to most sports, but also a new sense of purpose, education, career, and role in health research.
Like you would have been, I was interested in my diagnosis, but the process of getting there fascinated me. Research evidence that described my disease process and how to manage the condition had long existed in medical literature, but that knowledge did not translate into a care plan for me. My condition was relatively rare, so I never set out to become a world expert on ankles. However, the issue I was experiencing with slow knowledge transfer into clinical practice and health care was common. So, I set out to learn why and how to solve the problem. I wanted to know how we know what to do in health and health care, which knowledge matters in health and health care, and what happens when we learn something new.
Asking these questions led me to knowledge translation (KT), which is an action-oriented approach to solving complex problems in Canadian health care by sharing what is already known from health research. Then I learned about integrated knowledge translation (IKT), which is an approach to doing health research that seeks to create new knowledge by integrating people like you and me as partners in the process. Your knowledge, skills, and experience in health and health care is needed to help guide innovative exploration and problem-solving. You can help improve health system functioning, and the health and well-being of all Canadians by becoming a partner in Canadian health research.
Being a research partner is not the same as being a research subject, who contributes something of themselves to research in the form of data. A research partner contributes by engaging in important decisions that affect the way research is done. Your role as a research partner and how you engage in research is up to you. There are opportunities for clinicians, organization leaders, patients, caregivers, and families to decide which health research topics matter most and how those topics are explored. Your contributions to health research can help prevent, diagnose, treat, and manage illness and disease by leading to new and improved ways of doing things. Your contributions to health research also have the potential to improve the quality of life of all Canadians.
Join a research team, form a research team, or submit ideas for health research. Start by going online to explore some of the family-friendly health research partnerships currently underway. Watch How to Become a Partner in Canadian Health Research (~4 minutes) to learn more.
Published March 4, 2025
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Cheryl Ann Moser is an Education Specialist in the Office of Innovation and Scholarship in Medical Education at the University of Manitoba. Her research interests are focused on ways of accomplishing Canadian health care reform, including with the way health care providers are trained. Cheryl’s recent research looked at using integrated knowledge translation (IKT) as a partnership approach to solving complex clinical problems in physiotherapy and the rehabilitation sciences. Her applied work includes knowledge translation (KT) projects in the areas of women’s heart and brain health, acute stroke pathway implementation, bystander intervention in cardiovascular events, cancer survivorship care, oral-systemic health care, freshwater security and environmental health, ways of accomplishing equity, diversity, and inclusivity in pediatric health care, and ways of engaging children, youth, and families in Canadian health research partnerships.