Then, about five years ago, a cousin pursued genealogical research and verified the Métis identity of Bouchard’s mother’s family.

“It was a community that I should have been a part of, growing up,” says Bouchard, a 26-year-old graduate student. “At first, I felt a sense of loss and anger at my ancestors for hiding it.

“But as I learned more about the reasons why families hid their Métis ancestry, I shifted to understanding the system of colonialism and oppression. I’m ‘re-membering’ myself as part of the Métis community.”

Bouchard, now a card-carrying citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF), holds a bachelor’s degree in biology. He is pursuing his master of science at the College of Pharmacy. His supervisor, assistant professor Dr. Anna Chudyk, has expertise in engaging patients in health services research.

For his master’s research project, Bouchard is planning what he believes is the first study of the health-care experiences of Manitoban Métis people living with congenital heart disease. He’s partnering with the MMF to recruit participants, and he’ll use the Indigenous qualitative research method of traditional sharing circles to collect the data.

“We need distinct, culturally based Métis health research,” he says. “Collaboration is key. Métis patients will be involved from the design of the study to the data analysis.

“We’re planning to do one urban and one rural sharing circle. Métis Elders will be involved. We want to make sure we’re doing our research in a way that promotes Métis voices.”

People born with congenital heart disease – the term for various types of structural heart defects – are surviving much longer than they used to because of advances in pediatric care, Bouchard says.

Many now live long, full lives, but they still require specialized cardiac monitoring. For example, a patient might need a heart valve replacement every 20 years.

Because Indigenous people, including Métis citizens, face many barriers to equitable health care, they are probably less likely to receive appropriate continuity of care for congenital heart disease, Bouchard says.

Roughly 30 per cent of all patients with the disease receive no adult cardiac care after transitioning out of pediatric care, he says. Indigenous patients, who are already disadvantaged in the health system and may live far away from heart specialists, are even more at risk.

“A lot of times, Indigenous patients are blamed for not seeking followup care,” Bouchard adds.

The research study will give participants a safe place to share the positives and negatives of their health-care experiences. The sharing circles will be guided by questions such as, “What is one message you wish you could tell health-care workers?”

It’s essential to listen respectfully to people with lived experience, Bouchard says. “Having the patients in the sharing circle drive the conversation is the best way for us to become informed about what needs to change.

“You can’t just rely on Westernized methods of large data collection and numbers and stats. You have to get the stories of the patients.”

Bouchard hopes his findings will demonstrate the research value of sharing circles and help to inform health-care decisions about the supports and services that Métis patients need.

“If you’re going to make a policy change that’s going to affect how Indigenous people interact with the health-care system, those stakeholders have to be at the table the whole way through,” he says.

Bouchard hopes the next step in his journey will be admission to medical school. “What I would like to do, potentially, is to be a leader in Indigenous health as a Métis physician, and try to give back to this community.”

At the college’s annual Graduate Studies Celebration, held March 14 in conjunction with Research Day, nine students received awards for their hard work and dedication as master’s and PhD students in the College of Pharmacy, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences.

“It’s such an honour,” said Jenna-Julie Esteban, who received the Leslie F. Buggey Graduate Scholarship in Pharmacy. This prestigious award is presented to a dedicated student who has achieved a minimum GPA average of 3.5 in the last two years of their previous program of student.

Maintaining this level of academic excellence is a challenge at any time, but in addition to being a hardworking master’s student, Esteban is also a new mother. “The support I’ve received at the College of Pharmacy has been incredible,” she said. “I’ve come such a long way and it’s been such a great experience.”

The event also provided the opportunity for graduate students to give 3 Minute Thesis-style presentations. Master’s student Danish Malhotra, who was awarded a College of Pharmacy M.Sc. Endowment Stipend, gave an overview of his poster, “Neutralizing Interleukin (IL)-1β Reduces Formation of Islet Amyloid Polypeptide Aggregates in Human Islets during Ex Vivo Culturentations.”

With a steady voice, Malhotra took the audience through complex information with simple but effective infographics. As he ended his speech, he gave a special call-out to supervisor Dr. Lucy Marzban. “I am so thankful for her support,” he said. “I am an international student from India and every day I am grateful to be here and for all the opportunities I have had.”

For Malhotra, the key is careful planning and always keeping his eyes on the prize. “I plan my day each day, I think everything through, and I work as hard as anyone can!”

The day also included a keynote presentation by Dr. Daniel Mueller, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto and a senior scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).

Mueller, who is also head of the Pharmacogenetics Research Clinic at CAMH, is responsible for the development of the first pharmacogenetic testing service for patients with psychiatric conditions in Canada.

Dr. Anna Chudyk delivered the faculty keynote on patient engagement as part of her research practice, providing insight into ways to bring lived experience of patients to inform her work.

Chudyk is not only an assistant professor within the college, but is also a podcaster with a regular program called Podcast: asPERusual, which encourages researchers to include patients and caregivers as a key part of their research teams to get the fullest picture possible.

The day also focuses on taking action against bias, stereotypes and discrimination while working to achieve the equity and inclusion of everyone who identifies as a girl or woman.

This year’s international theme for the day is “Inspire Inclusion.”

We asked members of UM’s Rady Faculty of Health Sciences community to reflect on this theme in the context of the Rady Faculty.

Mikayla Hunter is a master’s student in community health sciences in the Max Rady College of Medicine and founding president of the Queer & Trans Graduate Student Group.

“I identify as a non-binary woman, which means that I identify both as a woman and as non-binary,” they said. “International Women’s Day should be inclusive of all women, including trans women, who experience immense discrimination. To inspire inclusion, we need to make sure that our efforts are anti-racist, anti-homophobic, anti-transphobic and anti-ableist.

“One change that comes to mind is the need to provide free menstrual products in washrooms on campus. Menstrual equity is essential to enabling women and non-binary folks to participate equally in their work and their studies.”

Dr. Diana Sanchez-Ramirez is an assistant professor of respiratory therapy in the College of Rehabilitation Sciences.

“The invaluable contributions made by women deserve proper recognition and should serve as a source of inspiration for girls,” she said.

“To inspire inclusion in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, all members of our faculty must refrain from perpetuating traditional gender biases and make active efforts to establish an inclusive environment where the contributions of every individual are valued and respected equally.

“Women across the Rady Faculty need to feel empowered and encouraged to express their opinions and actively engage in leadership roles.”

Rhonda Campbell is an Anishinaabe instructor in the College of Nursing who directs Mahkwa omushki kiim: Pathway to Indigenous Nursing Education (PINE), a unit that supports Indigenous students in obtaining their bachelor of nursing and becoming registered nurses.

“I’m encouraged by the work being done at the College of Nursing to address Calls to Action 23 and 24 made by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission [calling for more Indigenous professionals in health care, retention of Indigenous health workers in Indigenous communities, and cultural competency training for health-care professionals; and calling on medical and nursing schools to educate all students in Indigenous health],” she said.

“In terms of women’s equity and inclusion, we have women students in our PINE unit who have family responsibilities. They may be juggling part-time employment and childcare. We help them to access the financial, cultural and academic supports they need during their educational journey to become nurses.”

Dr. Anna Chudyk is an assistant professor in the College of Pharmacy.

“To me, ‘inspire inclusion’ calls for the purposeful co-creation of environments where all individuals who self-identify as women are supported to thrive to their full potential and achieve the goals and positions that matter to them,” she said.

“Those who self-identify as women in the Rady Faculty should have opportunities to weigh in, through methods such as town halls and surveys, on how Rady can ‘inspire inclusion.’ And Rady Faculty leadership should commit to working with them to transform the information gathered into timely and measurable change.”

Dr. Asmaa Haimeur is an assistant professor of restorative dentistry and director of equity, access and participation in the Dr. Gerald Niznick College of Dentistry.

“Inspiring inclusion means empowering women to speak up, to participate and to apply for leadership roles,” she said. “We must create welcoming and supportive learning and working environments where women can reach their full potential.

“We need to understand and work toward removing barriers that women still encounter daily; evaluate and improve upon policies and practices that affect women’s learning and working experiences; and establish or promote mentorship programs that support women in their career paths.”

Kimberley MacKay is director of undergraduate nursing programs in the College of Nursing.

“Inspiring inclusion means empowering women and gender-diverse folks, particularly BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and People of Colour] individuals, to pursue leadership roles,” she said.

“There is a need for leadership positions in the Rady Faculty that are designed for women from minority populations and gender-diverse folks to have a seat at the table where decisions are made. This would help to make decisions more inclusive and understanding of the needs of a broader community.

“To address gender inequalities, we need to ensure that we’re teaching the values of inclusion and diversity to our children right from the start.”

A researcher might say it’s a combination of academic training and empirical study.

On the other hand, a patient might say you can’t truly understand what it means to live with an illness unless you’ve actually had it.  

Screenshot of Bryn Robinson, co-host of “As PER Usual”

For podcast co-hosts Dr. Anna Chudyk and Bryn Robinson, the answer is actually somewhere in the middle. Their new podcast, “As PER Usual: A podcast for practical patient engagement,” is encouraging researchers to include patients and caregivers as a key part of their research teams to get the fullest picture possible.

The podcast is intended as a place where academics and members of the research community come together with patients and caregivers with experience helping conduct research (patient partners).  Together, they discuss how those with first-hand experience can bring their unique perspective to a field that was traditionally the purview of scientists alone.

“That’s where patient engagement is pushing the envelope,” said Chudyk, assistant professor of  family medicine, Max Rady College of Medicine. “It’s acknowledging that lived expertise is very much a form of expertise, just like scientific knowledge.”

Offered bi-weekly in both audio and video formats, the podcast engages academic researchers and patient partners in conversations about the work they are doing to progress patient engagement in research.

“The patient’s traditional role in research has been as a research subject,” said Chudyk. “Patient engagement is trying to turn that concept on its head and instead have patients as active partners in the research process. We want to think about not only what the science says, but also what patients and caregivers say are the actual research questions and the outcomes we should be looking at.”

The podcast began as the knowledge translation piece of a research study on patient engagement in research co-led by  College of Nursing professor Dr. Annette Schultz and patient partner Roger Stoddard. “We wanted to get our findings out beyond just the typical academic mediums,” said Chudyk.

“I hope that we can reach folks that maybe want to learn more but haven’t yet had the opportunity,” said Robinson, co-host and research engagement manager with Horizon Health. “I’m especially thinking of younger/newer researchers who need the support to do this work, especially grad students and new patient partners who may not be familiar with engagement and aren’t sure about navigating existing institutions that pose barriers.”

For both Chudyk and Robinson, podcasting is a new approach to sharing their work. Despite the learning curve of working in a new medium, they’re excited about reaching out to both patients and academics. “We’re trying to have as broad an audience as possible,” said Chudyk. “We hope to not only spread awareness about our findings, but also be a medium that people can turn to if perhaps they’re curious about patient engagement in research or they’re actively involved in it as well,” said Chudyk.

“I want more people to feel empowered to do this work, to know that there are others who are doing it who can help can guide you,” added Robinson. “I want to see it become the standard – you know, as PER usual.”

“I don’t always recognize myself as a leader, so it’s nice to be tapped on the shoulder and be told ‘Yes, you are a leader,’” she says. “By taking a leadership course, I hope I can better recognize my strengths as a leader, but also my limiting behaviours that might be holding me back.”

Yerex is one of 13 faculty members, students or trainees who have received 2021 awards through The Winnipeg Foundation’s Martha Donovan Leadership Fund.

The $250,000 fund was established in 2019 to provide leadership development opportunities for women in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences. Up to $50,000 will be awarded annually for five years.

Recipients are funded to take a leadership course of their choosing, allowing them to develop their skills and advance their careers.

“Leadership is no different than any other skill set: it can be learned, and those of us who have taken the time to develop these skills will do better,” says Dr. Sara Israels, Rady Faculty vice-dean of academic affairs.

“We know that women are still under-represented in top leadership positions in the university and in the health-care system, and that the statistics have barely budged in the last 20 years. Supporting women in meeting their leadership goals is the purpose of these awards.”

Yerex is enrolled in the Oxford Women’s Leadership Development Programme through the Saïd Business School and the University of Oxford. She hopes this will help her narrow down her research topics, which include the oral microbiome’s relationship with oral disease, the oral health of Indigenous children, and quality assurance in dental hygiene practice.

“I think I’m most excited to clarify a vision for my career and map out a path that I want to pursue,” she says. “Right now my research is in a number of different areas, and I wonder if I would have more impact as a leader if I focused on one thing.”

Dr. Nicole Harder, an associate professor of nursing who is the current Mindermar Professor in Human Simulation at UM, was recently appointed associate dean of undergraduate programs at the College of Nursing. She will use her Martha Donovan funding to complete the Women’s Leadership Program offered by the Yale University School of Management.

“This program equips women with the knowledge and skills that they will need to lead, both now and in the future,” she says.

Harder, a specialist in human simulation learning, anticipates that the program will help her to explore the human side of leading in an area that relies heavily on technology.

Olabisi Ayeni, a nurse and PhD candidate in nursing, says the award will help her to promote the health and well-being of immigrant families in Canada. In Nigeria, Ayeni worked with the commissioner of health to get the Lagos State School of Nursing accredited.

While she considers that a great leadership experience, she’s hoping that taking a course will teach her how to confidently lead a team.  

To Ayeni, leadership is about inspiring the people you work with to achieve goals together. That’s something the course she has enrolled in promises to help her develop. She’s hoping to focus on her communication skills.

“As a leader, I think you need to be dynamic and be able to communicate to the people you’re working with,” she says. “You need to be able to motivate people through your words.”

The Martha Donovan Women’s Leadership Development Award was created to encourage women to seek out leadership positions and ensure they are confident enough to apply, Israels says.

“Women with leadership skills will be prepared when leadership opportunities present themselves and will be more confident to seek them out,” she says. “We want to grow the potential in the next generation of women leaders. This is an investment in the future of academic health care.”

The award is open to any woman who is a part-time or full-time academic faculty member, student, postdoctoral trainee or resident in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences. To apply, visit the website.

2021 RECIPIENTS:

FACULTY MEMBERS

• Aviva Goldberg, Pediatrics, Max Rady College of Medicine
• Nicole Harder, College of Nursing
• Alexa Hryniuk, Human Anatomy and Cell Science, Max Rady College of Medicine
• Erin Knight, Psychiatry, Max Rady College of Medicine
• Jennifer Protudjer, Pediatrics, Max Rady College of Medicine
• Kathy Yerex, School of Dental Hygiene, Dr. Gerald Niznick College of Dentistry

STUDENTS/TRAINEES

• Olabisi Ayeni, College of Nursing
• Allison Balasko, Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Max Rady College of Medicine
• Sikta Chattopadhyaya, Physiology, Max Rady College of Medicine
• Anna Chudyk, College of Nursing
• Jasmine Frost, Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Max Rady College of Medicine
• Qian Liu, Biochemistry and Medical Genetics, Max Rady College of Medicine
• Karen Livingston, College of Nursing

Both researchers are located in Max Rady College of Medicine departments and are advised by Dr. Annette Schultz of the College of Nursing.

Dr. Anna Chudyk, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of family medicine, and Amanda Fowler-Woods, a PhD candidate in community health sciences, are both first-time recipients of the SPOR national training fellowship.

Both said they are honoured to have their work recognized by CIHR and receive their fellowships, which were created to support development of leaders in the field of patient-oriented research.

Dr. Anna Chudyk

Chudyk was awarded $70,000 per year plus a research stipend for three years for her work on the theory and application of patient-oriented research, which she is leading in collaboration with patients, the departments of family medicine and surgery, College of Nursing, Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management and St. Boniface Hospital Research Centre researchers.

“My current projects are focused on developing a deep theoretical understanding of patient-oriented research and applying this knowledge to enhance capacity for patient-oriented research, both within St. Boniface Hospital Research Centre and the broader Canadian patient-oriented research community,” she said.

Chudyk began her research career by obtaining a master’s degree in epidemiology and biostatistics from the University of Western Ontario. While at the University of British Columbia, she found an interest in applying her research skills to helping people in the community through participatory research, which brought her to UM last year.

“I truly believe that those affected by a problem should be actively involved in the generation of solutions to it, and that individuals’ reflections on their first-hand experiences are essential to effecting individual and social change,” she said.

While this is her first SPOR fellowship, her master’s and PhD studies were also supported by national CIHR scholarships through the Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarship and Vanier Canada Graduate scholarship programs.

Amanda Fowler-Woods

Fowler-Woods received $50,000 per year for two years for her Indigenous health research. A two-time UM alumna who works regularly with Ongomiizwin – Indigenous Institute of Health and Healing, she said this is the first time she’s received CIHR funding for work that she leads, although she has worked on several other CIHR-funded projects.

“This fellowship will allow me two years to finish my dissertation research project, which is part of a larger project initiated through Shared Health which involves the development of a system for the collection of racial and ethnic identifier data within the Manitoba health-care system.  This is something we don’t do consistently in Canada, but is being done in other countries, like the U.S., New Zealand, Australia and the U.K.,” she said.

She said the award will also help with her work at UM’s George & Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation, where she is working to incorporate Indigenous health perspectives throughout its various platforms.

“As an Indigenous researcher, it has always been important to me that my work is focused on the health of Indigenous peoples,” said Fowler-Woods, who grew up in Thunder Bay, Ont. “I have a very strong connection to my Ojibwe culture and I feel very fortunate that this fellowship will allow me to continue my work in this area.”