Banting Fellowships, Canada’s most prestigious postdoctoral awards, recognize top postdoctoral researchers, both nationally and internationally. Crockett, currently a PhD candidate, will focus on implementing evidence-based strategies to improve pediatric readiness in Manitoba’s rural emergency departments. As a Banting Fellow, Crockett receives $140,000 over two years to build on previous findings by UM researchers on the baseline pediatric readiness of general emergency departments, often located in rural areas of the province.

Crockett and her postdoctoral advisor, Dr. Terry Klassen, plan to build on established partnerships between key stakeholders across more than a dozen rural and northern communities. By designing and implementing strategies to tackle gaps found in the initial assessment using a trial design, and through ongoing documentation of partner experiences and outcomes, their team hopes to enhance facility readiness and strengthen connections across the province.

“I congratulate Leah Crockett on this prestigious recognition,” said UM Vice-President (Research & International) Dr. Mario Pinto. “We have seen many important breakthroughs by UM researchers at Children’s Hospital over the years, but these are not always translated into practice as quickly as we would like. By partnering with community stakeholders and policymakers, this team will help to inform future research that responds to those in need across our province.”

Using a system of baseline pediatric readiness scores, the Manitoba Emergency Care Research for Kids team, located at the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba, will be able to measure quantitative improvements over time. Their strategy will also require a more in-depth, qualitative look.

“It’s not just important to improve readiness scores,” said Crockett. “We also need to understand equity in outcomes. What are the experiences of those working in rural facilities, what are the barriers experienced, and how and why do outcomes vary across sites based on various social and systemic factors? By taking a step back and studying our own methods, including the effectiveness of the strategies that are implemented, we can also advance the science of knowledge translation to inform the most effective way forward.”

Crockett, who is originally from The Pas, Man., is no stranger to health-care challenges in rural communities and has been working to narrow gaps between research and practice for more than a decade. In 2013, she worked on the Mwanzo Mwema project, a partnership between the Universities of Manitoba and Nairobi focused on delivering critical maternal, neonatal and child health services in rural Kenya.

Prior to her doctoral training at UM, Crockett also worked as a knowledge broker for the national network Translating Emergency Knowledge for Kids (TREKK), developing evidence-based resources, tools and training opportunities for health-care professionals. These experiences, coupled with her PhD training in knowledge translation and implementation science in child health, have primed her for this next opportunity.

“As someone who grew up in northern Manitoba, and also a new mom, the focus on pediatric rural health care is near and dear to my heart,” Crockett said. “Success for a project like this is highly dependent on the relationships and partnerships we are working to build. By strengthening direct networks between children’s hospital emergency rooms and those located in rural communities to share the latest advancements in pediatric research, we can achieve our shared vision: to ensure that every child receives the same high-quality care in an emergency.”

CRCs are world leaders in their field funded by the Government of Canada in the areas of natural sciences and engineering, health sciences, and social sciences and humanities. “These symposia were a wonderful opportunity for researchers to get to know each other’s specialties, and to spark new collaborations with students and the wider community,” says Mario Pinto, Vice-President (Research and International). “I thank all the CRCs for their groundbreaking contributions to address the issues faced by society today.”

This thought-provoking look at current UM research is available to view online, each featuring a brief presentation from the gathered CRCs followed by a question-and-answer period with the audience.

CRC Symposium 1, February 2, 2023 – Fort Garry Campus

Featuring presentations from: Heather Armstrong, Chair in Integrative Bioscience; Guozhen Zhu, Chair in Mechanical and Functional Design of Nanostructured Materials; Trust Beta, Chair in Grain-Based Functional Foods; Eric Collins, Chair in Arctic Marine Microbial Ecosystem Services; Britt Drögemöller, Chair in Pharmacogenomics & Precision Medicine; Ned Budisa, Chair in Chemical Synthetic Biology and Xenobiology; Lori Wilkinson, Chair in Migration Futures; Jason Kindrachuk, Chair in Epidemiology and Global Public Health; Sabine Mai, Chair in Genomic Instability and Nuclear Architecture in Cancer; Jörg Stetefeld, Chair in Structural Biology and Biophysics; Carl Ho, Chair in Efficient Utilization of Electric Power; and Nandika Bandara, Chair in Food Proteins.

CRC Symposium 2, February 27, 2023 – Bannatyne Campus

Featuring presentations from: Tracie Afifi, Chair in Childhood Adversity and Resilience; Robert Lorway, Chair in Global Intervention Politics and Social Transformation; Janilyn Arsenio, Chair in Systems Biology of Chronic Inflammation; Puyan Mojabi, Chair in Electromagnetic Inversion for Characterization and Design; Annette Desmarais, Chair in Human Rights, Social Justice and Food Sovereignty; Zulma Rueda, Chair in Program Sciences & Global Public Health; and Kathryn Sibley, Chair in Integrated Knowledge Translation in Rehabilitation Sciences.

CRC Symposium 3, March 28, 2023 – Fort Garry Campus

Featuring presentations from: Ties Boerma, Chair in Population and Global Health; Kiera Ladner, Chair in Miyo we’citowin, Indigenous Governance & Digital Sovereignties; Rotimi Aluko, Chair in Bioactive Peptides; Zahra Moussavi, Chair in Biomedical Engineering; Terry Klassen, Chair in Clinical Trials; and Galen Wright, Chair in Neurogenomics.

CRC Symposium 4, April 24, 2023 – Bannatyne Campus

Featuring presentations from: Lisa Lix, Chair in Methods for Electronic Health Data Quality; John Ataguba, Chair in Health Economics; Nicole Wilson, Chair in Arctic Environmental Change and Governance; Lorrie Kirshenbaum, Chair in Molecular Cardiology; Meghan Azad, Chair in Developmental Origins of Chronic Disease; and Kristine Cowley, Chair in Function and Health after Spinal Cord Injury.

CRC Symposium 5, May 16, 2023 – Fort Garry Campus

Featuring presentations from: Kristina Brown, Chair in Arctic Marine Biogeochemistry; Nicole Rosen, Chair in Language Interactions; Robert Mizzi, Chair in Queer, Community & Diversity Education; Samar Safi-Harb, Chair in Extreme Astrophysics; and Susan Logue, Chair in Cell Stress and Inflammation.

CRC Symposium 6, June 19, 2023 – Bannatyne Campus

Featuring presentations from: Andrew Halayko, Chair in Chronic Lung Disease Pathobiology and Treatment; Colin Gilmore, Chair in Applied Electromagnetic Inversion; James Blanchard, Chair in Epidemiology and Global Public Health; Marcelo Urquia, Chair in Applied Population Health; and Souradet Shaw, Chair in Program Science & Global Public Health.

The study builds off of the Translating Emergency Knowledge for Kids (TREKK) program, for which UM is the host institution. Through its website and app, TREKK provides parents and health-care providers from across the country with evidence-based information and resources on more than 50 topics related to children. 

“Receiving this funding is really exciting,” said Dr. Terry Klassen, professor of pediatrics and child health at the Max Rady College of Medicine, director of TREKK and principal investigator of the study. “The funding allows our team to put together evidence, identify the latest research and put it in a format that health-care providers can access and use. I’m delighted that we can help improve the health outcomes of children and families in this country.”

The study will look at 10 conditions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers will update resources for conditions like asthma, bronchiolitis and croup. The research team will also add new topics on conditions like pneumonia to the TREKK database.

“I think the pandemic has changed things and made certain conditions more common,” said Klassen, UM Canada Research Chair in clinical trials, CEO of the Children’s Hospital Research institute of Manitoba (CHRIM) and scientific director of the George & Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation. “So with this changing dynamic, and what health-care providers are seeing in the emergency departments, it’s important they have the resources that best meets their needs.”

To reflect the needs of emergency departments, the research team will survey health-care professionals to see what additional topics should be added to TREKK’s resources. The researchers will also ask parents and youths about what information is important for emergency health-care providers to know.

The researchers will then test the usability of the resources they create and make changes as needed.

Dr. Veronica Lai

“These days we can Google basically anything, but that doesn’t assure the accuracy of the content and whether it’s evidence based,” said Dr. Veronica Lai, a UM postdoctoral fellow at CHRIM, and a co-investigator on the study. “At the end of the day, we hope that the resources we develop are going to be used by someone who needs the information, so we need to hear from them, and use their feedback so we can improve the resources.”

Klassen said they’ve found that some emergency department health-care providers experience a lot of anxiety when dealing with kids because they don’t treat them often and are used to seeing adult patients. He said it’s helpful and empowering for them to be able to quickly find evidence-based information on TREKK’s website or app.

“This is about improving the outcomes of children when they visit an emergency department,” Klassen said. “We want any child, anywhere, to have the best care possible. TREKK’s resources provide doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists with information to feel more confident when dealing with a child.”

The initiative, led by the federally funded Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), connects patients and researchers who work together to improve service delivery and practice.

The five-year investment, announced at the University of Manitoba on June 27, will expand the capacity of the Manitoba SPOR Support for People and Patient-Oriented Research and Trials (SUPPORT) Unit. The unit is housed within the George & Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation (CHI), which operates as a partnership between UM and Shared Health.

Terry Duguid, Member of Parliament for Winnipeg South, made the announcement on behalf of the Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Health.

“Through patient-oriented research, we are transforming the role of the patient from a passive receiver of health services to a proactive partner who helps shape research and, as a result, health care,” Duguid said.

Additional contributions to the SPOR SUPPORT Unit from Manitoba bring the total investment to $30 million. This includes $17.4 million from the Government of Manitoba and the provincial health authority, Shared Health, and $6.1 million from UM.

“Investing in this research allows us to offer … better experiences and health outcomes for patients,” said Monika Warren, chief operating officer for provincial health services and chief nursing officer at Shared Health.

Patient-oriented research, Warren said, empowers patients and provides the health-care system with insight to improve care.

“Listening to the priorities and concerns of patients and their families is not only respectful and inclusive, it’s good science,” said Dr. Brian Postl, dean of the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences.

“People who live with a disease or health condition become experts on that condition. By consulting with them … we focus our research and make it more useful to those who need it most.”

The SPOR Support Unit’s current partnership with Ongomiizwin, the Indigenous Institute of Health and Healing in UM’s Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, will be expanded to further incorporate Indigenous health perspectives and respond to Indigenous health needs.

This includes potentially expanding the role of the Indigenous Advisory Council as a forum for Indigenous patient engagement and implementing a new Indigenous Health Care Quality Framework in both research and health systems.

Dr. Marcia Anderson, vice-dean, Indigenous health, social justice and anti-racism in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, said all the SPOR SUPPORT Unit funding partners share “a common goal to close Indigenous health-care gaps in outcomes and quality.”

Dr. Terry Klassen, scientific director of CHI, UM professor of pediatrics and child health, and Canada Research Chair in clinical trials, said: “With the renewed funding from CIHR and our partners, we will continue to nurture a responsive health-care system that is continuously improving to meet Manitobans’ needs.

“We believe that begins with a commitment to advancing a culture of inclusive patient-oriented research, with an emphasis on equity, diversity and inclusion.”

Klassen cited recent examples of engaging patients in CHI-supported research:

• Lauren Kelly, UM assistant professor of pharmacology and therapeutics, is working with teens to study the use of a cannabis extract to manage hard-to-treat chronic headaches. Through engaging with patients, Kelly’s team ensures that its clinical trial answers important questions using practical designs.
• Eric Bohm, UM professor of surgery, involved people who needed bilateral knee-replacement surgery in designing a national clinical trial that compares having both knees replaced simultaneously with having them replaced one at a time. This partnership will lead to a Patient Decision Aid.

Thomas Beaudry, who has participated in CHI research as a caregiver partner, spoke to reporters about the value that patients and their caregivers bring to health research.

“We want patients to be part of the process and to have a voice,” Beaudry told the Winnipeg Free Press. “The funding will allow for more research potential and more participants.”

Tell us about your research.

My research is centered on testing new treatments and approaches to improving the outcomes of children and their families. I use the randomized controlled trial as the most powerful tool to give trustworthy results. My clinical area is pediatric emergency medicine and so much of my research focuses on new treatments in this area. COVID-19 is demonstrating the key importance of clinical trials in both determining effective new treatments and whether the vaccines are safe and effective.

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I did medical school and my pediatric residency at UM. After that my academic career as a clinician scientist in pediatric emergency medicine developed in Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario/University of Ottawa and Stollery Children’s Hospital/University of Alberta. I was recruited back to UM in 2010 to assume the leadership of Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba.

Doing large network clinical trials, UM has a strategic advantage in being located in the middle of the country. The George and Fay Centre for Healthcare Innovation, one of the CIHR SUPPORT Units, has been great infrastructure to develop clinical trials and has some really excellent clinical trialists. Dr. Ryan Zarychanski has been an international leader in COVID-19 trials to discover effective and safe treatments.

What does CRC funding mean to you as a researcher?

My CRC in Clinical Trials will allow us to build a strong basis to do innovative randomized controlled trials. We will be able to develop strength in Bayesian analyses for randomized controlled trials. We would like to train the next generation of clinical trialists.

How did you feel when you learned you were awarded your Canada Research Chair?

I was absolutely delighted to learn I was awarded my CRC. It was truly one of the most exciting moments in my life. It was great to share a celebratory moment with my family and friends.

What inspires you? 

Conducting randomized controlled trials in pediatric emergency medicine is motivating as there are times where my grandkids do visit the emergency department with a fracture. Some of the trials we are doing will advance the care we provide children with a fracture. The ability to do something that will make it better for one’s grandkids is inspiring.

Dr. Marilyn Li in Ottawa inspired me to go into Pediatric Emergency Medicine. She helped me do my first randomized controlled trial in bronchiolitis. Later Dr.Ian Chalmers, founder of the Cochrane Collaboration, has been an amazing person to look up to. His commitment to doing the best clinical research based on patients’ needs is remarkable.

What about you would people find surprising?

People may find it surprising that I spent my childhood in Belize. My dad helped run some primary schools there and founded a high school that is still in operation. I went there for one year before we returned to Canada to finish my high school. My childhood has given me a very rich view of life and very supportive of diversity and inclusion.

Do you have any advice for students/young grad students starting their career?

Focus on asking interesting questions in a very supportive environment – using the best methodology available – that is innovative and cutting edge.

The awards were announced today by the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry. The new UM CRCs will receive $6.4 million over the next five to seven years.

“Our government is taking action to attract and retain the world’s brightest and most distinguished researchers,” said Bains. “For over 20 years, the Canada Research Chairs Program has been mobilizing Canada’s most esteemed academics to train and mentor the next generation of researchers and pursue ground breaking research that responds to society’s economic, social and health needs.”

Ten of the UM CRCs have been awarded to early career researchers and one prestigious Tier 1 chair to an established UM clinician-scientist. The CRC Program provides funding to universities to recruit and retain Canada’s knowledge leaders. Tier 1 chairs are acknowledged by their peers as world leaders in their fields and are appointed for seven years, receiving $1.4 million in funding over their terms. Tier 2 chairs are exceptional emerging researchers in their fields, appointed for rive years, receiving $500,000 in funding over their terms.

“I congratulate this amazing group of research leaders in being awarded Canada Research Chairs,” said Dr. Digvir Jayas, vice-president (research and international) and Distinguished Professor. “It is a significant career milestone to receive such recognition of excellence by Canada’s research funding program.”

The new UM CRC’s are:

Nandika Bandara (Food and Human Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences) Tier 2 CRC in Food Protein Processing & Bioproducts

Kristine Cowley (Physiology and Pathophysiology, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences) Tier 2 CRC in Function and Health after Spinal Cord Injury

Britt Drögemöller (Biochemistry and Medical Genetics, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences) Tier 2 CRC in Pharmacogenomics & Precision Medicine

Danielle Gaucher (Psychology, Faculty of Arts) Tier 2 CRC in Social Inequality, Gender and Public Policy

Terry Klassen (Pediatrics & Child Health, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences/ Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba) Tier 1 CRC in Clinical Trials

Robert Mizzi (Educational Administration, Foundations & Psychology, Faculty of Education) Tier 2 CRC in Queer, Community and Diversity Education

Zulma Rueda (Medical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences) Tier 2 CRC in Sexually Transmitted Infection – Resistance and Control

Souradet Shaw (Community Health Sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences) Tier 2 CRC in Program Sciences & Global Public Health

Elizabeth Wall-Wieler (Community Health Sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences) Tier 2 CRC in Population Data Analytics and Data Duration

Nicole Wilson (Environment & Geography, Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth, and Resources) Tier 2 CRC in Arctic Environmental Change and Governance

Galen Wright (Pharmacology & Therapeutics, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences) Tier 2 CRC in Neurogenomics

The CRC program recognizes that diversity is indispensable to research excellence and is committed to working alongside Canadian institutions to achieve its equity targets and reflect the diversity of Canada’s population by 2029. Among the 259 Canada Research Chair recipients announced today, 26% self-identified as racialized minorities, 5% as Indigenous Peoples, 10% as persons with disabilities and 51% as women.

Doctors treating children with head injuries should add one more item to their checklist when considering whether to order a CT (computed tomography) scan or surgical intervention, a new study suggests.

A team of researchers from across Canada — including the head of the University of Manitoba’s pediatrics department — announced an improved method to determine if children with minor head injuries need such measures in a report published on Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

The new rule adds to the CATCH assessment method, which lists seven things pediatricians should look for: how alert a patient is, open fractures, persistent headaches, irritability during an exam; basal skull fractures, a hematoma (and dangerous bruising), and how dangerous the mechanism of injury was.

“The first CATCH was pretty good, but we needed to add one more area to make sure we really caught all the kids that needed to be scanned with the CT who presented with a minor injury,” said Dr. Terry Klassen, medical director at the U of M’s pediatrics department and scientific director for the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba.

Read the full story here.

When a child is sick or injured, our health-care system usually delivers excellent care. That’s good news. Yet the adage that “children are not small adults” — and have specific medical needs — reflects the challenge still facing most Canadian emergency departments.

Each year in Canada, approximately 1.8 million acutely ill and injured children will visit an emergency department. What most Canadians don’t realize is that approximately eight in 10 of those kids will be cared for in a general emergency department with various levels of pediatric care expertise.

Why is this important? Recognizing red flags early and starting appropriate treatment can mean the difference between life and death for kids in emergency care. The unique medical needs of children present a special challenge for emergency care providers.

Some general emergency departments may not see many sick children, so when they do have to provide care for kids in medical crisis, some essential skills may not be second nature to non-pediatric specialists. Skills such as providing the right dosage of medication according to child weights or understanding age-appropriate vital signs are critical in an emergency setting.

Developing pediatric expertise in general emergency department settings can also be difficult because certain health conditions in children occur infrequently and accessing pediatric-specific training can be a challenge. As a result, caring for a very sick child is often the No. 1 discomfort for many general emergency department health-care professionals.

And keeping up on the latest evidence can be near to impossible.

These knowledge gaps are also costly.

According to research, failure to apply the best available evidence is widespread in pediatric health care, even for common conditions. Take, for example, croup and gastroenteritis. Simple and inexpensive medicines can reduce hospitalization rates by as much as 86 per cent and, thus, significantly reduce health-care costs. Yet, the recommended medications aren’t used as often as they should be, which means both the health of the child and the well-being of the health-care system are potentially jeopardized.

It has been estimated that routine administration of ondansetron to children with gastroenteritis, for example, would prevent 4,065 intravenous insertions and 1,003 hospitalizations annually — and would save the health-care system $1.18 million per year.

This also holds true for other conditions. A recent multi-centre study in Ontario found significant inter-hospital variation in the treatment of bronchiolitis, with many infants receiving tests or medications that had little evidence of benefit.

The level of emergency care for children varies widely across the country and sometimes the results can be devastating. In recent news, there has been a spate of misdiagnoses in Canadian emergency departments involving children. Unfortunately, such tragedies, while not common, are anything but new.

It’s been five years since two-month-old Drianna Ross of God’s Lake Narrows died of sepsis (blood infection) from an MRSA infection. For conditions such as sepsis, identifying red flags and starting treatment as soon as possible are critical, especially for those in remote settings where it may be a couple of hours before a child gets to a pediatric centre. But it’s not always easy for medical professionals without frequent exposure or specialty training to spot the red flags in children.

So what’s the solution?

A national program based in Manitoba is working to share the vast knowledge and evidence produced at children’s hospitals across the country with community hospitals and nursing stations, so that all children receive the same level of excellent care no matter where they live. Called Translating Emergency Knowledge for Kids (TREKK), the program focuses on providing current information on the recognition and treatment of the most serious conditions afflicting children.

TREKK creates both clinical tools that doctors and nurses can access when treating a patient, but also provides outreach sessions, simulation training and a network that better connects rural, remote and urban community hospitals to their closest children’s hospital.

But more can be done.

While a few dozen general emergency departments are using TREKK, there are about 1,400 other emergency facilities that could benefit from such resources — and aren’t. It is time for federal and provincial governments in Canada to invest in a knowledge infrastructure so that health-care providers can access TREKK at the point of care of acutely ill and injured kids. It’s time to scale up, in other words.

Are we ready to commit nationally to emergency care for children?

Led by Dr. Terry Klassen in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba, the SPOR Network – Innovation in Pediatric Clinical Trials (IPCT) Project will use real patients under carefully controlled situations to measure how well a medication works and how safe it is. Knowledge gained from trials will help doctors choose which medicines to prescribe.

“I’m thrilled that the investment today from CIHR, Research Manitoba and Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba will contribute to better and safer treatments for children in the areas of gastroenteritis, bronchiolitis and pain management at emergency departments nationwide,” said Dr. Klassen. “I’m also very proud and excited that the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba will lead our collaborators across the country in this important research, using very innovative and cutting edge randomized controlled trial methodology.”

Dr. Terry Klassen leads tour after announcement.

Dr. Klassen’s project is funded as part of the Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR). SPOR is a national initiative led by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). It is about ensuring that the right patient receives the right intervention at the right time. It is a pan-Canadian coalition of partners from the public and private sector – all dedicated to the integration of research into care.

“Our government is committed to encouraging SPOR networks by making certain that they receive the funding necessary to continue the important work they’re doing,” said Terry Duguid, Member of Parliament for Winnipeg South, and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Status of Women. “These national collaborative research networks including researchers, patients, policy makers, academic health centres, and health charities, are vital to ensuring the translation of research findings into patient care and health care policy more quickly and efficiently – something that benefits all Canadians.”

“By working together and making joint investments in this type of important research we are helping our research institutions create innovative solutions that will help people across this province and beyond,” said Cliff Cullen, Manitoba’s Minister of Growth, Enterprise and Trade. “We are pleased to support the Innovation in Pediatric Clinical Trials Project. Thanks to everyone involved for your commitment to children’s health and making the clinical trials process easier, less expensive and more informative for health professionals on the front line.”

“All advances in health care come because of research,” stated Lawrence Prout, President & CEO, Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba. “Our donors put their confidence in our Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba with their initial seed money for this endeavor. We are excited that this collaborative work across Canada will not only save the lives of sick and injured here, but also around the world.”

“I congratulate Dr. Klassen and his research team on their success in receiving these funds,” said Digvir S. Jayas, Vice-President (Research and International) and Distinguished Professor at the University of Manitoba. “Their work on networking and collaborative research systems will greatly enhance our ability to provide the highest standards of care for Canadians.”

More information is available at the SPOR website.          

The estimated total budget for Dr. Klassen’s project is $8.4 million, from nine funding partners:

Canadian Institutes of Health Research – $3,000,000

Research Manitoba – $600,000     

Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba – $600,000

Women and Children’s Health Research Institute – $800,000

Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute – $600,000

Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute Inc. – $600,000

Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto) – $800,000

Department of Paediatrics, Western University – $804,000

CHU Sainte-Justine – $600,000

TREKK shares knowledge and experience among general emergency departments, children’s hospitals and academic institutions to ensure that the latest knowledge about pediatric emergency care is put into common practice.

Terry Klassen is the director of TREKK.

“We are grateful to the Government of Canada for its continuing support of TREKK and our vision that every child receives the highest standard of care, whether they are treated in a pediatric or general emergency department,” said Dr. Terry Klassen, director of TREKK. “This additional funding will allow TREKK to share the latest evidence in pediatric emergency care through innovative and engaging resources for both health providers and families and continue with efforts to expand TREKK’s reach to all emergency departments across the country.”

Robert-Falcon Ouellette, member of Parliament for Winnipeg Centre, along with Terry Duguid, member of Parliament for Winnipeg South, today announced that TREKK will receive $1.2 million over three years to continue to connect the best research on pediatric emergency care with those who can put it into practice. The announcement was made on behalf of Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science, at the University of Manitoba.

These investments are the result of the most recent competition for the Networks of Centres of Excellence Knowledge Mobilization initiative. Children and Youth in Challenging Contexts (CYCC) and Promoting Relationships and Eliminating Violence Network (PREVNet) were the other two networks to receive renewed funding. Funded networks support knowledge transfer activities and collaborations among academia, industry, government and not-for-profit organizations in a variety of sectors.

“The Government of Canada’s support for these NCE Knowledge Mobilization networks results in direct benefits to Canadians on a day-to-day basis. We are proud of the TREKK team and how their efforts help ensure that children in Manitoba, and across the country, can count on receiving the best possible emergency care, even if their doctor does not have specialized pediatric training,” said Duguid.

“I congratulate Dr. Klassen and his team on this renewed funding and on the exemplary research undertaken by him and his team of scientists and clinicians. Their discoveries are transforming pediatric emergency care for children locally and nationally and saving lives,” said Digvir Jayas, Vice-President (Research and International) and distinguished professor from the University of Manitoba.