News & Events

The Women’s Health Research Institute (WHRI) is very pleased to congratulate the recipients of the 2018 Women’s Health Research Institute Catalyst Grants. This competition was funded thanks to the dedicated support of the BC Women’s Hospital + Health Centre Foundation.

This grant competition provides support for pilot studies in women’s and newborn’s health, which aim to generate preliminary data; test new approaches, methodologies or tools; bring new teams together; and/or support new research in women’s and newborn’s health from established researchers.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Suzanne Vercauteren

The BC Children’s Hospital Biobank collects, processes and stores samples and clinical data from women and babies to create a bank (or library) of samples. These samples can be used in future research to better understand the causes of diseases in women and families, with the ultimate goal of improving treatment and preventing diseases.

Cervical cancer screening using the pap test remains critical for this preventable disease. In BC, provincial screening rates have remained the same over the last decade where approximately 30% of the population are under or never screened. Despite this, few interventions have been implemented to increase screening, where rates are lowest among priority populations who face barriers to clinic-based screening.