MSFHR celebrates 2017 award recipients

Each year, MSFHR gathers to celebrate the outstanding researchers that have been awarded personnel funding to conduct research that will improve the health of British Columbians while building BC’s health research capacity and nurturing the next generation of research innovators.

This year’s event was particularly meaningful as it celebrated the completion of the first cycle of our new suite of funding programs. In addition to honouring resarchers funded via MSFHR’s flagship Scholar and Research Trainee Programs, we celebrated the inaugural recipients of the Health Professional-Investigator, Innovation to Commercialization and Health Policy Fellowship awards – a total of 76 deserving researchers.

In addition to personnel awards, MSFHR funds outstanding teams of researchers and research users via the Convening & Collaborating, Reach and new Implementation Science Team Programs. Together, this suite of funding programs supports discovery-based research and the translation of that research into practice, policy and further research to improve the health of British Columbians.

The annual awardee recognition event is an opportunity for researchers from varied backgrounds and MSFHR’s co-funding partners to celebrate, connect, and learn more about each other’s projects. This year four researchers took to the stage to introduce their MSFHR-funded research projects:

• Dr. Heather Gainforth (2017 Scholar) who is exploring how to improve the use of health promotion research to enhance the health of people living with spinal cord injury.
• Dr. Dustin King (2017 Research Trainee, co-funded by the Pacific Alzheimer Research Foundation) who is examining how the modification of certain proteins in our cells might contribute to diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s Disease, and cancer.
• Dr. Richard Lester (2017 Innovation to Commercialization) who is using his award to develop tools to analyze digital exchanges between care providers and patients.
• Dr. Seonaid Nolan (2017 Health Professional-Investigator) who is researching how the health system can better support people with substance use issues as they transition from acute care back to the community.

“As well as celebrating our funded researchers the event is an opportunity to acknowledge and thank our funding partners, and the provincial government,” says Dr. Bev Holmes, MSFHR’s president & CEO, whose appointment was announced at the event. “It’s a time of great opportunity for health research and innovation in BC, and these partnerships are invaluable as we focus on developing, retaining and recruiting the research talent BC needs.”