IHDCYH News – Vol.1, No.1, October 2012

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Message from the Scientific Director

I am pleased to introduce to you the first newsletter from the Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health. I hope you find this publication useful and informative in fulfilling your interests about the Institute.

Throughout the year I have had the opportunity to meet many of you and hear your thoughts and input on the new strategic directions of IHDCYH. I would like to thank all those who participated in the national online consultation and strategic planning forums across the country. Your contributions will have a valuable impact on the new and exciting directions of the Institute and I look forward to working with many of you to achieve these goals. Please stay tuned for IHDCYH’s 2012-2017 Strategic Plan to be launched in early 2013.

IHDCYH will also be leading some very exciting new initiatives including the CIHR Signature Initiative in Integrated Health Services. This initiative has the potential to truly be a “game-changer” for Canada. Not only will it improve outcomes and health services in targeted areas identified through this funding initiative, but it will also achieve transformational change in child health by establishing an integrated health care service and research infrastructure that will be a lasting legacy for Canada. This Signature Initiative will ultimately transform the way we provide health care and conduct research in Canada, and establish the foundation for Canada to become a leading health care and research powerhouse in the world.

I am looking forward to the many partnerships and collaborations in carrying out IHDCYH’s new path and initiatives. While achieving these goals, I encourage you to share your success stories with us to help demonstrate the valuable impact of reproductive, child and youth health research in Canada.

Dr. Shoo K. Lee
Scientific Director
CIHR-Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health

Researcher Profile

Dr. Robyn Stremler, RN, PhD  
University of Toronto and Hospital for Sick Children
CIHR New Investigator

In a unique CIHR-funded study Dr. Robyn Stremler focuses on the impact of sleep on women during pregnancy as well as on families with a newborn or hospitalized child. The Sleep TYME (Throughout Your Motherhood Experience) Study looked at over 500 women during their pregnancy to determine common sleep disturbances, the causes of these sleep problems and the effects sleep disturbance may have on other health issues for women or their babies. With this research, Dr. Stremler and her team will be able to improve the health of women and their babies by finding ways to help detect, prevent and treat sleep problems.

Dr. Stremler obtained her BSc(Hons) in Biology and Psychology from Queen’s University, her MSc(A) in Nursing from McGill University and her PhD from University of Toronto. She continued at the University of Toronto for her postdoctoral studies as well as at the University of California, San Francisco.  Presently Dr. Stremler, a CIHR New Investigator, is an Assistant Professor at the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto and Adjunct Scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). Watch this video to learn more about Dr. Stremler and her research.

Funding Opportunities

Team Grant : Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in Children and Youth

Application Deadline: October 29, 2012
The current Team Grant Funding Opportunity is intended to support the development of innovative new technologies and best practices that have the potential to improve the diagnosis and treatment of mild traumatic brain injury in children and youth. By supporting multi-disciplinary teams of health researchers and building further researcher capacity in this area of clinical research, it is expected that research outcomes will provide new knowledge relevant to the development of policies, programs and products aimed at the reduction of post-concussive symptoms. Such changes may include improved cognition, somatic symptoms and behavioural changes following mild traumatic brain injury in young Canadians.

Population Health Intervention Research (PHIR)

Application Deadline: November 30, 2012
Preventive Medicine in collaboration with Guest Editors Mark Petticrew, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Louise Potvin, Université de Montréal, invite researchers to submit papers on population health intervention research for a themed section of the journal. This themed issue will feature conceptual and theoretical papers about the foundations of PHIR, systematic and realist reviews of literature on population health interventions and related processes/outcomes, and research articles describing the processes and/or results of population health intervention studies using a range of research designs and methods. We also encourage submissions involving multiple jurisdictions, sectors, disciplines, and communities in high, middle- and low-income countries.

New Investigator Grants Program in Child and Youth Health Research

Application Deadline: December 17, 2012
The New Investigator Research Grants Program is a joint program between CIHR-IHDCYH and the SickKids Foundation (SKF). Its goal is to build research capacity in child and youth health by funding operating grants to new investigators who are within the first 5 years of their research careers as independent investigators. The complete guidelines, as well as the application package, is available on the SickKids Foundation website.

Updates in the IHDCYH Community

We would like to introduce Cynthia Yeh and Christine Lavictoire, who have joined IHDCYH as Acting Assistant Directors from August 2012-August 2013. Welcome to the team Cynthia and Christine!

Cynthia Yeh, MBA, PMP
Before coming to CIHR-IHDCYH, Cynthia was a Program Manager with the Maternal-Infant Care Research Centre at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. Cynthia has over ten years experience working in an academic health care research centre.  Her experience covers grant administration, financial management and research project management. Cynthia had contributed to the successful submission of multi million dollar grant proposals to both federal and provincial grant agencies. She has had the opportunity to work with multidisciplinary professionals across the spectrum of health which has given her a solid understanding of the many interdependencies related to health care research.

Christine Lavictoire, BSc
Christine is an Ottawa University graduate, with a Bachelor’s of Science degree with Honours in Human Kinetics. She has worked for the Public Service of Canada since 1999; her first occupation being with HRSDC, Human Resources Development Canada, for Grants and Contributions Programs. In 2000 she joined the Canadian Institute Health Research (CIHR). Over the twelve years at CIHR she has worked with the Research Translation Programs, the Institute of Circulatory & Respiratory Health, and as a Deputy Director in the Research Capacity Development branch she managed a suite of Award programs to help undergraduates, graduates and postgraduates in obtaining stipend and salary support. Many were prestigious prizes, such as the Canadian Health Researcher of the Year Award as well as many other targeted prizes in Cancer, Knowledge Translation, Aging. She has working associations with federal government departments such as Health Canada, PHAC; provincial governments and private sector corporations as well as International partners, to deliver programs such as but not limited to Science to Business, Journalism, and Science Policy Fellowships etc.

Meetings and Events

The Secretariat on Responsible Conduct of Research invites you to a webinar on the Responsible Conduct of Research:
An Introduction to the Tri-Agency Framework: Responsible Conduct of Research

October 25, 2012 from 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time

During this one-hour webinar, Karen Wallace, Policy Analyst, will introduce the main elements of the Framework; highlight the responsibilities of researchers, institutions and Agencies as they relate to Agency-funded research; and describe the process for addressing allegations of breaches of Tri-Agency policies.

Register for this webinar

Registration capacity is limited to 200 attendees. A recording will be made available online for viewing at a later date.
For future news on the responsible conduct of research, add your name to the Secretariat’s electronic mailing list at: secretariat@rcr.ethics.gc.ca.

PHAC Symposium
Health Relationships:
The Foundation for Healthy Development

You are cordially invited to an informative, insightful, and interactive symposium on healthy relationships as the foundation for healthy development among youth, hosted by the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Date: Tuesday October 30th, 2012
Time: 1:30 - 4:00pm, informal reception to follow
Location: Banting Auditorium, 251 Sir Frederick Banting
Driveway, Tunney's Pasture, Ottawa
Teleconference Details: 
613-960-7513 or 1 877-413-4788 / Conference ID 5462543

RSVP: Please reply to Elaine.MacDonald@phac-aspc.gc.ca no later than Friday, October 25th, 2012 and indicate whether you will be joining in person or via teleconference.

Communicating IHDCYH News & Success Stories

Please visit our IHDCYH Youtube Channel dedicated to those interested in reproductive, child and youth health. Our channel will provide you with information about IHDCYH programs and activities, research success stories within the IHDCYH community, and an inside look at events throughout the year.

CONTEST
This is our first IHDCYH newsletter publication and we are still brainstorming a newsletter title. We invite the IHDCYH community to provide suggestions.
Please submit your suggestion by November 9th, 2012 to IHDCYH-IDSEA@cihr-irsc.gc.ca.
We look forward to your creative ideas!

IHDCYH also welcomes researchers, partners and other stakeholders to share news stories that relate to areas of our mandate. If you have interesting research results or developments, are organizing a conference or workshop, or wish to report on a past event, we would like to feature them in our newsletter or other communication materials. Please send this information to: IHDCYH-IDSEA@cihr-irsc.gc.ca.

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