Meet 2017 Summer Studentship Recipient: Liel Cohn

CHILD-BRIGHT is proud to offer opportunities to help involve future generations of researchers, health professionals and leaders in patient-oriented work in Canada.  Meet Liel Cohn, one of our 2017 Summer Studentship recipients, and read her reflections on her time at CHILD-BRIGHT.

Name: Liel Cohn
Studying: BSc (Life Sciences), McMaster University
Focus of internship:
CHILD-BRIGHT Training Program

"The CHILD-BRIGHT Summer Studentship  provided me with the incredible opportunity to learn about new developments in research and the importance of patient involvement. Through engaging webinars and interesting readings, not only did I gain a new perspective but I also developed tools that will help me incorporate patient-oriented research into my current and future research endeavors.

“By educating patients and their families properly, and involving them in the research projects, physicians and scientists are able to provide what seems to be the most effective care, leaving the patient feeling more comfortable and confident than ever before.”

For my final project, I received the task of constructing a Venn diagram that compares and contrasts patient-oriented research with traditional health research. This project helped me recognize the faults in the traditional methods, while also highlighting the challenges in properly incorporating patient-oriented research in common practice. Despite being challenging, I now feel that patient-oriented research is the future model for research studies and is essential in promoting and developing the concept of individualized medicine.

Overall, this experience has further established my interest in patient-oriented care and research in the health care field."

Meet 2017 Summer Studentship Recipient: Shannon Morrison

CHILD-BRIGHT is proud to offer opportunities to help involve future generations of researchers, health professionals and leaders in patient-oriented work in Canada.  Meet Shannon Morrison, one of our 2017 Summer Studentship recipients, and read her reflections on her time at CHILD-BRIGHT.

Name: Shannon Morrison
Studying: Master's (Social Work), McGill University
Focus of internship:
CHILD-BRIGHT Strongest Families Neurodevelopmental Project

"This summer I had the opportunity to not only learn about patient-oriented research through the CHILD-BRIGHT Student Fellowship but to also experience how this type of research is done through my involvement with CHILD-BRIGHT’s Strongest Families Neurodevelopmental Team.

“I feel that I cannot proceed with future projects without thinking about who I should be talking to from the community.”

The value of hearing feedback from families and patients who are able provide comments on the direction, goals, and methods of a project that are grounded in their lived experience has been undeniable. This experience will affect any future research endeavors.

I feel that I cannot proceed with future projects without thinking about who I should be talking to from the community where the research will be based and how to incorporate their thoughts and ideas into the project so that it can create outcomes that are meaningful and useful for their community. "

Meet 2017 Summer Studentship Recipient: Brett Paffrath

CHILD-BRIGHT is proud to offer opportunities to help involve future generations of researchers, health professionals and leaders in patient-oriented work in Canada.  Meet Brett Paffrath, one of our 2017 Summer Studentship recipients, and read his reflections on his time at CHILD-BRIGHT.

Name: Brett Paffrath
Studying: BSc (Biology), University of Calgary
Focus of internship:
CHILD-BRIGHT Enhancing Brain Function with Non-Invasive Stimulation Program

As a studentship recipient for the CHILD-BRIGHT Network, I worked with the Calgary Pediatric Stroke Program (CPSP) team at the Alberta Children’s Hospital as part of the Enhancing Brain Function with Non-Invasive Stimulation project. This summer not only taught me the skills to succeed in the research world, but also caused the discovery of my true-self.  My experiences this summer changed my life forever.

More specifically, I worked on a project on "Source Localization of Pediatric Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) using Electroencephalography (EEG)." My project taught me numerous clinical research skills, including experimental design, data collection and management, method development, statistical analysis, and presentation. However, to me, the most important part of the experience was how much it allowed me to grow as a person and become comfortable with myself.

My work with the CPSP team was an enormous eye-opener to the scope and magnitude of patient-oriented neuroscience research. I cherished the exposure I had to so many academic paths, with the cross-over of a multitude of interesting departments such as Neuroscience, Bioengineering, Computer Science, Occupational Therapy, and more. Having an extensive history with computers and a love for understanding biological data, biotechnology and bioinformatics really peaked my interest for future career paths.       

“There was so much satisfaction gained from seeing a child, who had been working so hard for weeks on a goal that he had outlined, finally achieve his dream.”

— Brett Paffrath

While I was never directly involved with participants for my own study, as I was responsible for the data analysis portion of the project, I had plenty of opportunities to interact with patients of other CPSP studies and I gained a great appreciation for patient-oriented research and its benefits. There was so much satisfaction gained from seeing a child, who had been working so hard for weeks on a goal that he had outlined, finally achieve his dream. 

Working in the lab, I had not colleagues and bosses, but friends and mentors. Immediately, I felt accepted into their circle and loved every moment with the close-knit community. The pleasantness of my experience on my amazing project with my wonderful team, has massively boosted my own intellectual and social abilities and removed all doubts I had about my future.

I cannot thank the CHILD-BRIGHT Network and every member of the CPSP enough for allowing me this amazing opportunity that has truly changed my life for the better.

New Partnership to Advance Building Capacity in Patient-Oriented Research

CHILD-BRIGHT is pleased to announce a new partnership with the Canadian Child Health Clinician Scientist Program (CCHCSP), Ontario Child Health Support Unit (OCHSU), and the BC SUPPORT Unit, to support the development of a Patient Oriented Research Curriculum in Child Health (PORCCH). Together, as part of this new partnership, CHILD-BRIGHT will support the development of five novel online modules in patient-oriented research in child health, with the first of these expected to launch in early 2018. 

PORCCH is a collaborative effort funded through the Ontario SPOR SUPPORT Unit Working Group for Training and Capacity Building that involves patients and families, health care professionals, clinician scientists, and education researchers and aims to build an interactive online curriculum on patient-oriented research to better train Canada's next generation of researchers as well as patient and family research partners. 

CHILD-BRIGHT, the BC SUPPORT Unit, OCHSU and CCHCSP share a common objective in advancing patient-oriented research training in Canada. 

The Canadian Child Health Clinician Scientist Program (CCHCSP) is a training program currently composed of 17 participating Child Health Research Training Centres that is dedicated to training the next generation of child and youth scientists within an interdisciplinary framework. CCHCSP provides support for these highly qualified child health clinician candidates to develop their requisite knowledge and skills.

The Ontario Child Health Support Unit (OCHSU) – co-located at SickKids and CHEO – supports patient-oriented child health research in Ontario. At SickKids, a Clinical Trials Unit provides methodological expertise in innovative clinical trials and health economics; at CHEO, a Data Hub provides methodological expertise in the acquisition and management of routinely collected health and social data. OCHSU provides methodological support, leads capacity-building initiatives, and has developed data platforms to support child health research across Ontario. 

The BC SUPPORT Unit is a multi-partner organization created to support, streamline and increase patient-oriented research throughout British Columbia. The Unit is one of 10 SUPPORT Units established across the country as part of Canada’s Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR) led by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

To read more about CHILD-BRIGHT’s mandate under CIHR’s SPOR initiative, click here.

2016-17 Report to Community Now Available

The CHILD-BRIGHT Network Report to Community for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017 is now available. 

A special thank you to our financial partners for their ongoing contributions and commitment, and to all the patients, families, committee members, and CHILD-BRIGHT supporters who guide us in our work.

Our Report to Community is also available in French.