CW Digital Health Research Accelerator Grant-Round 3

The 2024 CW DHR Accelerator Grant is intended to support digital health innovations that will benefit women, children and families. This funding opportunity aims to accelerate digital health solutions towards clinical or community implementation by supporting researchers to develop prototype solutions, test feasibility in the operational context, assemble the required partnerships and teams, develop clinical and/or operational evidence, and create a plan for sustainment and scale-up.

Highlights and important dates

  • Total funds available for primary competition: $300,000 in total (A maximum of $50,000 for each grant for over 18 months, six grants in total)

    • $200,000 for Children’s Health focused projects and $100,000 for Women’s Health focused projects

    • Priority topic for one award – data mining in Children’s health

  • Additional directed call for partner awards through the Digital Lab at BC Children’s and Women’s Hospital with total funds available: $150,000 in total ($75,000 cash and $75,000 in-kind) – applicants to the Digital Lab partner awards must consult with the Digital Lab prior to submission of an LOI.

  • Letter of Intent (LOI) Deadline: October 4, 2024, 11:59 pm PDT

  • Full Application Deadline: December 6, 2024, 11:59 pm PDT

  • Anticipated Final Notice of Decision: January 17, 2025

  • Funding Start Date: Grant funds will be released upon applicable ethics approval.

General Application Requirements

Applicants for funds can apply at any Technology Readiness Level (TRL) but are required to advance your project’s TRL by at least one level from its original state by the end of the funding cycle. All projects of the CW DHR Accelerator Grant should align with the following criteria:

  • Have clear significance for women’s, children’s or families health, and/or clinicians by targeting one or more of the following impacts:
    • Improve physical or mental health outcomes
    • Improve the healthcare experience for patients
    • Empower patients and provide them agency to become active participants in their own care
    • Improve the experience and satisfaction of clinicians providing care
    • Reduce costs and increase value through other efficiency improvements in service delivery and outcomes
  • Accelerate DHR projects towards clinical implementation, adoption, sustainment, and scale
  • Provide investigators with the opportunity to conduct collaborative and multi-disciplinary digital health research projects
  • Align with at least one of the strategic directions, guiding principles, and objectives mentioned in the BC Digital Health Strategy and/or themes listed in the RAPID (Research Agenda for Perinatal Innovation & Digital health) research agenda.

Please contact the Digital Health Research Program (dhr@bcchr.ca) if you have any questions or need support in the development of partnerships or proposals for this competition.

The full call for proposals can be found here.

LOI template can be found here. Submission deadline: by 11:59pm on October 4, 2024

Peer Review Process

The SOP document can be found here. Learn about our Digital Health Accelerator Grant peer review process and the eligibility criteria for reviewers.

Additional Resources

Proposal Development

The Digital Health Research team, with the Research and Technology Development (RTDO) office, will host two virtual information sessions and Q&A for applicants on the following dates:

September 9, 2024 at 12 pm, PST

September 24, 2024 at 12 pm, PST

We strongly recommend that you attend one of our info sessions to learn more! Please email Sally.chen@cw.bc.ca for the Info session meeting links. We are also available to meet separately and assist with proposal development upon request and discussion. 

All investigators planning to submit to this competition are encouraged to attend one of these sessions.

The Digital Health Research Program Manager is available to meet with teams and support proposal development. Please contact Dr. Beth Payne at bpayne@cw.bc.ca to set-up an appointment. In addition, the research coordinator for the DHR initiative at WHRI/BCCHR is available to support projects after funding on a cost-recovery basis.

The RTDO is also available for review of proposals. As this is an internal grant funding program, the RTDO will review one version of each proposal from investigators planning to submit to this funding competition. Please contact Dr Dawn McArthur (dmcarthur@bcchr.ca); Dr. Rosie Twomey (insert address) or Dr Tamara English (tenglish@bcchr.ca)

Project Execution

Applicants are strongly encouraged to use internal BCCHR/WHRI resources for informatics, clinical research support and project management. These resources do involve some cost to the grant so early consultation is required. The IRIS group can provide software development and data management support along with project coordination during project execution (through the DHR program). In addition, please note that a team member from the CRSU can also be available to support ethics submission prior to disbursement of funds. Please engage these resources during project planning to ensure availability of staff.

See the links below for more information.

Integrated Research Informatics Services (IRIS)  

Clinical Research Support Unit (CRSU) 

Research Project Management Unit (RPMU) 

Congratulations to the 2022 grant recipients:

Tier 1:

  • Dr’s Emily Kieran and David Wensley – “Validating a Portable Pulse Oximeter for Screening and Follow up of Apneas, Bradycardias, and Sleep Disordered Breathing in Neonates”
    Co-investigators: Mark Ansermino; Lyndia Wu; Pascal Lavoie; Calvin Kuo
  • Dr. Sandesh Shivananda – “Vital signs Integration System to Improve Outcomes in Neonates (VISION) – a feasibility study”
    Co-investigators: Tamara Munzner; Mattias Gorges; Jonathan Wong; Candice Taguibao
  • Kishore Mulpuri – “Development of a Tracked 2D Ultrasound System to Generate Accurate 3D Metrics for Guiding Treatment in Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip”
    Co-investigators: Antony Hodgson; Anthony Cooper; Emily Shaeffer

Tier 2:

  • Dr’s Tim Oberlander and Katelynn Boerner, for the project entitled “Real time data for pain in youth with ASD: Can seeing your data make a difference?”.
    Co-investigators: Mor Cohen-Elig, Liisa Holsti; Grace Iarocci, Angie Ip, Karon MacLean; Louise Masse; Susan Poitras, Hal Siden
  • John Jacob, for the project entitled “Virtual Reality Preparation to Reduce Sedation Rates in Pediatric Medical Imaging”.
    Co-investigators: James Chen

Congratulations to the 2021 grant recipients:

Dr. Patricia Janssen – “Smart Parent: Teaching Parenting by Texting”

Co-Investigators: Wendy Hall; Julie Bettinger; Nichole Fairbrother; Mariana Brussoni; Louise Masse; Sarah Munro; Tim Oberlander

Dr. Matthias Görges – “REACHOUT-NexGEN: a virtual care platform for peer-led mental health support in adolescents with type 1 diabetes”

Co-investigators: Tricia Tang; Shazhan Amed; Joseph Leung

Dr. Kathryn Armstrong – “Using clinical digital messaging to improve pediatric congenital heart disease patient care; health outcomes; patient satisfaction; facilitators and barriers to implementation”

Co-investigators: Richard Lester; Astrid de Souza; Jim Potts

Dr. Tim Oberlander – “Visualizations of real time smartphone data to support youth living with chronic pain”

Co-investigators: Karon MacLean; Louise Masse; Liisa Holsti; Hal Siden

The Women’s Health Research Institute would like to acknowledge that we are uninvited guests on the unceded ancestral territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lo, and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-waututh) Nations.

As a provincial research institute committed to improving the health outcomes of women, including those across the 2SLGBTQIA+ spectrum, we recognize our responsibility in the collective effort towards establishing culturally safe health care systems and services that address health inequities among Indigenous peoples, especially Indigenous women, girls, and Two-spirit peoples.

We encourage all people involved in research to read both the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action and the In Plain Sight Report, and reflect on ways we can incorporate the recommendations into our work. As we gather in spaces together, we encourage you to reflect on your positionality on these lands and your personal commitments to reconciliation.

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