Research Benefits Families and Economy
Facilities for pediatric pain, clinical psychiatry, and laboratory research were officially opened today at the IWK Grace Health Centre in Halifax.
The research facilities are helping to improve the health of Nova Scotia families. They are also helping to raise the province's profile as a centre of research excellence capable of attracting more health professionals, research projects and grants and business.
"Government and private-sector funding has helped provide research infrastructure from which patients and their families are benefiting," said Dr. Robert Bortolussi, chief of research at the IWK Grace Health Centre and researcher in the departments of pediatrics and of microbiology and immunology at Dalhousie University. "It is rewarding to see the work we are doing in these areas impacting positively on the lives of Maritimers."
Last spring, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Canada/Nova Scotia COOPERATION Agreement on Economic Diversification, the IWK Grace Health Centre, and a host of other partners announced an investment of nearly $1 million in equipment and lab space to support the pediatric pain, laboratory and other research projects. The Economic Diversification Agreement is managed by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) and Nova Scotia Economic Development.
"Nova Scotia needs top-notch education and research facilities in order to succeed in the new information economy," said MLA Jim DeWolfe, on behalf of Economic Development Minister Gordon Balser. "By investing in research, we're building an excellent international reputation that will bring even more research business to Nova Scotia."
"By creating partnerships that support projects such as these, we are contributing to the goal of making Nova Scotia an international centre for research and education," said Senator Bernie Boudreau, Leader of the Government in the Senate and Minister responsible for Nova Scotia, on behalf of George Baker, Secretary of State for ACOA. "Research like this benefits our lives in many ways."
The funding helped the IWK Grace to renovate and equip a facility that is supporting laboratory research in many diseases. One project focuses on the inflammation experienced by patients with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. The funding also covered equipment and renovation costs for the pediatric pain lab. Researchers are using this lab to develop equipment for measuring brain activity and for spotting pain in patients who can't communicate verbally.
"The Canada Foundation for Innovation is pleased to be a funding partner in the pediatric pain and research laboratory facilities at the IWK Grace Health Centre, which will contribute to the development of world-class research expertise and benefit both Nova Scotia and Canada in the knowledge-based economy of the 21st century," said Dr. David Strangway, president and CEO of the foundation.
The foundation is an independent, not-for-profit corporation established by the Government of Canada in 1997 to address an urgent need of Canada's research community: new, state-of-the-art research infrastructure. The foundation has been entrusted with a capital budget of $1.9 billion, and its investments are made in partnership with all levels of government, as well as with the private and voluntary sectors. Its work focuses on health, the environment, science, engineering and the social sciences in universities, colleges, hospitals and other research institutions across Canada.
In the clinical psychiatry research facility, mental health researchers are focusing on mood disorders. In Canada, one in 10 adolescents will be affected by a mood disorder by his or her 18th birthday. This work has been funded through the generosity of Maritimers by way of the IWK Grace Foundation.
One major direction of the IWK Grace strategic plan is to become an international centre of excellence in learning and research in children's and women's health. As a teaching health centre affiliated with Dalhousie University, the IWK Grace is committed to researching new ways to promote health and to diagnose, treat and prevent illness in women and children.
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