MSFHR announces its first three partnered scholar awards, collaborations with the National Collaborating Centre for Aboriginal Health (NCCAH) in Prince George and the St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation in Vancouver. Scholar awards allow researchers to initiate an independent research career, build a leading research program, make significant contributions to their field of research and attract additional funding to advance knowledge on a range of critical health issues. Since 2001, MSFHR has made more than 300 of these awards.
“I’m thrilled we have created a way of working together to advance health research across the province,” says Dr. Diane Finegood, MSFHR president and CEO. “Thanks to the National Collaborating Centre for Aboriginal Health (NCCAH) and the St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation, these three researchers will be able to find answers to health challenges facing our communities.”
NCCAH has partnered to fund Dr. Sarah de Leeuw, the first MSFHR scholar ever to be based in Northern BC. Dr. de Leeuw is an assistant professor in the Northern Medical Program at the University of Northern British Columbia and a research associate with the NCCAH. Her research seeks to address health inequalities lived by Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in northern BC, as compared to people in urban areas in southern BC. She is examining how creative arts and the humanities can resolve health inequities and attend to social determinants of health, particularly as they manifest in specific geographies.
The second collaboration, negotiated with the help of the Providence Health Care Research Institute, enabled St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation to partner with MSFHR to fund two scholars, both affiliated with the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE); Drs Kora DeBeck and Art Poon. These awards build on a long tradition of MSFHR support for BC-CfE researchers, support that has put the BC-CfE at the forefront of a global effort to confront HIV/AIDS.