Research program at KGH riding high

It's been a big few weeks for the Kingston General Hospital research program, featuring a multi-million dollar announcement, a prestigious award and another successful showcase.

Leading the charge was Dr. Daren Heyland. He's won funding to head up a new national research network aimed at improving healthcare for our aging population.

The new Technology Evaluation in the Elderly Network (TECH VALUE NET) will be centred here at KGH and Queen's University and will bring together 44 researchers from 19 institutions. The federal government just named it one of its Networks of Centres of Excellence and announced it will contribute $23.9 million in funding. Industry and other partners will add another $22 million.

“TECH VALUE NET has a tremendous opportunity to create new knowledge and best practices around the use of health care technologies for seriously ill elderly patients and their families, thereby improving their health outcomes,” says Heyland, who is a staff physician here as well as the director of our Clinical Evaluation Research Unit (CERU).

The network will focus on developing and implementing technologies for an elderly population.

“The new network really brings together three existing networks that Dr. Heyland has played an important role in developing,” says Vice President of Research Dr. Roger Deeley. “Being designated a Network of Centre of Excellence is a massive achievement for Dr. Heyland and his colleagues.”

And that wasn't the only big news for Heyland's group over the past few weeks. His team in CERU also landed a $500,000 highly competitive grant from the National Institutes of Health in the U.S. to advance research into meeting the nutrition needs of high risk, critically ill patients.

The TOP UP Trial will examine whether “topping up” with intravenous nutrition can improve the survival rates of the critically ill. Heyland's team will work on creating new guidelines around the issue.

Both of these announcements come hot on the heels of another notable award. Researchers from the Human Mobility Research Centre (HMRC) at KGH and Queen's have just won a top award in a prestigious design competition for their contribution to the prosthetic Niagara Foot. The foot took the gold award in the rehabilitation and assistive-technology products category at the Medical Design Excellence Awards in Philadelphia. The affordable, flexible and durable device was designed specially to help people who have lost lower limbs to landmines.

“The potential exists for the Niagara Foot to meet the needs of millions of high-performing amputees in these regions who want to continue working and taking care of their families,” says Tim Bryant, mechanical and materials engineering professor who leads the testing of the prosthetic device in the HMRC.

The foot was originally created by Niagara Prosthetics and Orthotics International Ltd.

Bryant and more than 20 Queen's students have been involved in the Niagara Foot project since 2004, working in the HMRC lab at KGH and travelling to El Salvador to perform field testing.

“These kinds of announcements are just what we are aiming for,” says Deeley. “They help show that we are well on our way to meeting our strategic goal of increasing the amount of important patient centred research we do.”

And also helping make the point last Tuesday was our second annual Research Showcase. About 150 people dropped by over the day to check out the 32 interactive booths, to ask researchers questions and to attend the two open panel discussions, one on living with anxiety disorders and depression and the other on pediatric hockey concussions.

“We're grateful to all the researchers and assistants from KGH, our partner hospitals and Queen's and organizer Veronica Harris-McAllister who stepped up to help bring this interesting showcase to life,” says Deeley. “People want to know more about the research we are doing and how it translates into better health care and the Showcase has turned out to be a great venue to get the word out."