The WHRI recognizes that digital health has the potential to significantly improve access and quality of health care for women, and as such, our digital health hub is a service to our membership to catalyze new research in digital health, and support existing digital health research projects. Over the past few years, we have partnered with the digital health research team at BCCHR to lead Digital Health Week, starting November 14, 2022. This is an opportunity for those engaged in, or even at the beginning of their journey in digital health research, to hear from research teams leading innovative work in digital health, hear experts speak about the opportunities and challenges in this field, and interact with trainees during a digital health research poster session. I encourage you to read more in this month’s e-blast and register for this exciting event.

Sincerely,

Lori Brotto, PhD, R Psych

Executive Director | Women's Health Research Institute
Professor | Department of OBGYN, UBC
Canada Research Chair | Women's Sexual Health

2022 Graduate and Fellowship Award recipients

The WHRI is very pleased to congratulate the recipients of the 2022 Graduate and Fellowship Research Award in Women’s Health. This competition was supported thanks to the dedicated funding provided by the BC Ministry of Health, in partnership with the BC Women’s Health Foundation.

Save the date for the Eighth Annual Women's Health Research Symposium!

Wednesday, March 8 | 8:30 am – 12:30 pm | In-person (Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre) + Virtual

Theme of this year’s event: Women’s Mental Health

This year’s event is being co-hosted by the WHRI and the BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services Research Institute as the theme of our 2023 event will focus on advancing women’s mental health through research. Dr. Lori Brotto and Dr. Jehannine Austin (as Executive Directors of both Research Institutes) are co-leading the symposium planning committee.

Please note that we will be hosting a mentorship and networking event for trainees engaged in women’s health research after the main symposium program.

Please share this event with your networks. An email to register for the symposium will be sent in the coming months.

REACH BC - Working for Researchers

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REACH BC is a publicly-funded online provincial platform that matches health research opportunities with potential study participants across BC. Members of the public are connected with health researchers for opportunities to participate in research studies and as patient partners to inform various stages of the research process.

We connected with Trainee, Malak Ibrahim about her experience using the platform to recruit participants for the Spot the Difference study. 

The story provides some pearls of wisdom for using REACH  BC and an overview of the process. 

Introducing the PRIME Research Award

The Women’s Health Research Institute, in partnership with the BC Women’s Health Foundation, is pleased to announce the first PRIME Centre Research Award competition for the advancement of knowledge in maternal, fetal and neonatal health. A total of two awards will be given at $11,250 each. This research award is an open competition with respect to funding a project in maternal, fetal and newborn’s health.

Welcome, Julia

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Julia Santana Parrilla (pronounced: Santana, like Carlos; Pah-ree-yah) is joining the WHRI as a Research Coordinator. She will be working primarily on the Beyond the Binary in BC Project, that she has been a part of since conceptualization. Julia contributed to the design of the successful application and works closely with Leadership to develop deliverables. Julia was working on the Project as an independent researcher. In her new role with the WHRI, she will focus on maximizing the visibility, and broadening the impact of this work. Her expertise in participatory methods, qualitative research, emergent design, and integrated knowledge translation are notable assets to this work. Julia will be working within the Knowledge Translation and Communications team at the WHRI. 

Outside of work, Julia enjoys exploring her creativity in the kitchen, talking nonsense to her cats, and doing nothing with people she loves.

Michael Smith Health Research BC announces results of C2 and REACH Award competitions

Michael Smith Health Research BC has announced the results of its two knowledge translation competitions. Please join us in congratulating the recipients of the 2022 Convening and Collaborating (C2) and Reach awards!

We were thrilled to see so many familiar faces among this year's recipients, including ten WHRI and BCCHR/WHRI joint members.

WHRI Reading List

This month we received new publications from the RESPPONSE study team, Dr. Kalysha Closson, and Dr. Aline Talhouk! Check out our updated reading list at the link below.

Don't forget to share your new publications with our team at whri.communications@cw.bc.ca for inclusion in the reading list.

This year for Digital Health Week, the BC Children's Hospital Research Institute (BCCHR) and Women's Health Research Institute (WHRI) have once again joined forces in partnership with the PHSA Office of Virtual Health and Digital Health Strategy Office (DHSO) to bring you a fun and inspiring afternoon of speakers, vendors, food and more!

Our hybrid event will feature stories of how we are putting digital health to work to improve women's and children's health in BC.

To register go to: https://bit.ly/3TuhyDv

Agenda:
2:00 – 3:30 Speaker Series
3:30 – 4:30 Vendor Fair and Networking Event in the Chieng Atrium

Location:
Chan Auditorium at the BCCHR or online

This event is part of a series of Digital Health Week events being hosted across the province by the PHSA. For more information on the exciting things happening throughout the week please see the Digital Health Week website.

Brought to you by the digital health week organizers: The Office of Virtual Health / Digital Health Strategy Office / BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute and Women’s health Research Institute / Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) – BC Chapter

PWHR Seminar Series

The Partnership for Women’s Health Research Canada invite you to their 2022-2023 Seminar Series, which explores processes and outcomes of knowledge mobilization for women’s, trans and non-binary health.

Register for the next event, a panel discussion about “Partnering with service providers to improve the health of women, trans and non-binary people.” Learning from research that has successfully engaged service providers to benefit the health of women, trans and non-binary people. There will be a discussion of knowledge mobilization challenges and lessons learned.

November 23rd from 9-10:30 am Pacific/ 10-11:30 am Mountain/ 12:00-1:30 pm Eastern/1:00-2:30 pm Atlantic