“We do all of this because we want to see each other succeed,” said Nitesh Sanghai, a PhD student and program coordinator. “When you are finishing your program, it can feel like you are at the edge of a cliff.” 

The program, launched in 2024, aims to provide support and inspiration to pharmacy graduate students as they prepare to enter the workforce, following the lead of those who have been there before. 

On September 9, the student-led initiative invited  Dr. Harsha Blumer, associate director of research and analytics at the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy (MCHP), to share her own unconventional career trajectory during a program session. 

“Some people grow up not knowing what they want to do,” she began. “But I always did. I knew I wanted to be an astrophysicist.”  

Originally from Kerala, India, Blumer pursued a PhD in astrophysics at the University of Manitoba. She then took on a postdoctoral fellowship at West Virginia University, where she worked with the Green Bank Telescope for high-energy astrophysics research. “It was what I always wanted,” she said. “It was my passion.” 

Despite her love of astrophysics and the rewarding research she was undertaking – which included collaborating with various international teams such as NASA – her life wasn’t just about work.  

During her studies, she got married and she and her husband had their first child. Studying and parenting at the same time is challenging enough, but her husband stayed behind in Canada while Blumer pursued her dream in the United States.  

“My child said ‘Mommy’ for the first time over FaceTime,” she remembered. “If I talk about it too much, I’ll cry.”   That was when she knew it was time to come home.  

“There were so many rejections,” she said, remembering the career hunt. “Oh, you’re an astrophysicist? What does that have to do with anything?” 

Finally, she landed a position at the University of Manitoba as a research facilitator and technology transfer manager, then moved into her current position with MCHP five months ago. “I am good with data and I managed a team,” she said matter-of-factly. “Here it’s applying the same thing on the public health side.” 

For Blumer, that’s the key takeaway she wanted students to absorb.  “You may see a job that doesn’t directly relate to your field, but what you learn as a PhD student, all those skills are transferable.”  

Throughout the presentation, graduate students were nodding and smiling. “Life is not going to be a straight road,” affirmed master’s student Burak Berk, highlighting the importance of resilience.  

 “When I heard the speaker was the associate director at MCHP, I was curious about how she built her career,” said Floriane Houenagnon, also a master’s student. “I came to learn some of the key advice that she didn’t know back then.” 

As Blumer concluded her talk, she urged students to embrace the twists and turns of their career journeys. “I took a chance,” she said. “If you don’t take the chance, you won’t know.” 

The Manitoba Centre for Health Policy (MCHP), located in the community health sciences department of the Max Rady College of Medicine, curates and maintains the Manitoba Population Research Data Repository on behalf of the province.

The repository contains data that is routinely collected from the health-care, education, social service and justice systems every time a Manitoban comes into contact with these systems. Although the data is de-identified (made anonymous) to protect privacy, numeric codes allow each individual to be tracked across sectors and over time.

The MCHP project, called “The Essential Data Science Toolbox,” aims to introduce enhanced web tools and project management resources to assist both UM and external researchers in making effective use of the repository data.

The project received a grant of $83,879 from UM’s Strategic Initiatives Support Fund, which funds short-term projects that advance the university’s strategic goals. 

“The new tools will make it simpler for researchers and students to access, navigate and use Manitoba population data, leading to better and faster discoveries,” says Dr. Harsha Blumer, who holds the newly created position of associate director of research and analytics at MCHP.

“We’re building our capacity to facilitate important research and foster new partnerships and innovations.”

Manitoba’s repository is considered world-class by national and international scientists because of the extraordinary breadth, depth and linkability of the data. Researchers can use computers to link datasets and reveal associations across sectors – for example, the associations between social service involvement and educational outcomes.

In the 2023-24 fiscal year, 88 lead researchers used the repository data for more than 300 projects.

For the Toolbox project, MCHP consulted with researchers in fields such as education, psychology, social work and law, as well as health, to clarify their needs. Communities, government departments and organizations will also find it easier to undertake research with the new supports.

“Managing data research projects can be time-consuming,” Blumer says. “These improvements will streamline the process.

“The upgraded tools will make it easier for researchers from different fields and locations to do collaborative research of greater complexity and scope. We’re also removing technical and administrative barriers, allowing researchers to focus more on the research itself.”

As part of the project, MCHP will overhaul the organization of its glossary and concept library. These contain standardized definitions and explanations of terms, ideas and methodologies used in research. In 2023-24, the concept library logged 1.6 million page visits.

“The goal is to make the glossary and concept library more intuitive, interactive and user-friendly,” says Ken Turner, repository data analyst at MCHP.

MCHP’s project management support for researchers will also be improved. There will be a dedicated portal where users of repository data can request project management services, access comprehensive resources and get real-time support.

“The new resources will reduce the time and effort required to get ‘big data’ projects off the ground,” says Ina Koseva, senior research project manager. “Researchers will also receive ongoing advice on how to best manage their projects and tackle any problems that arise.”

The Toolbox project was originally led by Charles Burchill, who recently retired from MCHP.

The team expects to launch the new tools and resources online by the end of March 2025.

Social Policy Evaluation Collaborative Team Research at Universities in Manitoba (SPECTRUM) brings together more than 100 partners to help solve complex social policy challenges.

The group was recently awarded $2.5 million over seven years from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) to continue to build the collective that was launched in 2019 with a SSHRC partnership development grant.

Dr. Marni Brownell

“What we’re trying to do is produce really impactful and rigorous evidence that can change policy and practice,” said Dr. Marni Brownell, director of SPECTRUM and professor of community health sciences at the Max Rady College of Medicine.

“Our mission is ultimately to make Manitoba a better and more equal society when it comes to outcomes across health, education, social services and the legal system.”

SPECTRUM is currently focused on four research themes: child and family services, basic income, mental health and addictions, and housing and homelessness.

The partnership includes researchers and students from six post-secondary institutions in fields ranging from community health sciences and law to education and social work. The 14 community organizations involved include Harvest Manitoba, Autism Alliance of Canada and the Manitoba Métis Federation.

Provincial government staff who are taking part represent nine departments, including families, education and early childhood learning, as well as housing, addictions and homelessness.

Brownell, who is also a senior research scientist at UM’s Manitoba Centre for Health Policy and a researcher at the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba, said it’s a great advantage to have this partnership.

“Many of us have worked in this space for years where we produce really rigorous – and what we think are important – research findings, only to have them sit on a shelf and be ignored. Having representatives from the government at the table from the beginning is great because they can help shape the research so it can be used in policy decisions.

“And integrating community organizations, who serve the folks the evidence is going to impact, is really important.”

Elizabeth Decaire, a co-director of SPECTRUM and a nurse program advisor with the First Nations Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba, said her organization is participating in SPECTRUM because of the project’s understanding and commitment that First Nations voices and data must be represented and inclusive of First Nations members.

“Unfortunately, our First Nations children are overrepresented in statistical data that are concerning, mainly due to no fault of their own, but because of policies and systems currently in place that continue to cast harmful effects,” Decaire said.

“My hope is that this project will close gaps in health and social services for First Nations children and families.”

Each research project will start by using the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy’s world-class Manitoba Population Research Data Repository, Brownell said, and then the research will branch off in other directions. The data repository contains about 100 databases in several areas, including health and health service use, education, social services and the justice system.   

“At the centre of all of this is the repository,” Brownell said. “We begin with that because we have this great data. It’s hugely important for this research.”

The study was published today in the international journal Child Abuse & Neglect. The researchers analyzed de-identified (anonymous) government health and social service data that is stored in the Population Research Data Repository at UM’s Manitoba Centre for Health Policy.

They studied the 20-year period from 1998 to 2019, tracking data for more than 47,000 First Nations infants and more than 169,000 non-First Nations infants from birth to age five. An infant was defined as a child under the age of one year.

The results revealed that:

• about 36 per cent of First Nations infants had an open CFS file (a rate more than four times higher than for non-First Nations infants);
• about nine per cent of First Nations infants experienced placement in CFS custody (a rate nearly seven times higher than for non-First Nations infants);
• removal (apprehension) of a newborn from its parents at birth was about six times more common for First Nations newborns than for non-First Nations newborns;
• about five per cent of First Nations infants experienced legal termination of parental rights before turning five years old (a rate nearly eight times higher than for non-First Nations infants);
• the rate of CFS contact increased the fastest among First Nations infants, growing by 22 per cent over the study period, versus rising by two per cent among non-First Nations infants.

“We knew before the study that First Nations children and families face vastly disproportionate involvement with Child and Family Services,” said Dr. Kathleen Kenny, a postdoctoral fellow in community health sciences at the Max Rady College of Medicine, who led the study.

“We also knew that Manitoba has the highest rate of child removal and out-of-home placement in Canada – in fact, one of the highest in the world. Our study is the first to quantify the staggering rate of CFS involvement among First Nations infants at the whole-population level and show how it has increased. Our results support calls to develop First Nations-led services to address this extreme inequity.”

Researchers developed the study in consultation with representatives from the First Nations government, First Nations-led organizations, organizations serving First Nations families, clinical and policy experts, and parents and grandparents affected by CFS.

“It is heartbreaking to learn of the high rate of involvement of First Nations infants with the CFS system,” said Grand Chief Cathy Merrick of the AMC. “The first year of life is so critical in terms of the bonds built between parents and their children. What is taking place that First Nation babies are being exposed to government involvement within hours, days and weeks of being born?

“This study highlights the urgent need for culturally sensitive solutions that prioritize the well-being and preservation of First Nation families. We must work together to address the root causes of this concerning trend and ensure that First Nation children are supported, nurtured and empowered to thrive in safe and loving environments.”

Chief Betsy Kennedy of War Lake First Nation emphasizes that when infants are apprehended, it results in profound and irreparable losses in bonding and attachment. “This not only disrupts the infants’ developmental stages but also severs their ties to ancestral lands, cultural heritage, First Nations language and collective nationhood – everything that nurtures identity in a person.”

Chief Kennedy, who is also chair of the AMC Women’s Council that oversees the AMC-FNFAO, says this act of forced removal has been rightfully recognized as a dire crisis by First Nations leaders and has garnered significant international attention as a critical human rights issue.

The researchers’ joint recommendations include:

• End the practice of infant apprehension. Fund First Nations-led models that support the preservation of family and cultural bonds. For example, invest in First Nations-led family reunification homes.
• Empower First Nations-led customary systems of care so that children grow up connected to their Nation and culture.
• Establish community-based, supportive spaces outside of CFS where families in crisis can be referred as a first-line strategy to strengthen families and keep them intact.

View or read the study infographic:

First Nations infants pdf

First Nations infants plain text

Published Wednesday, the study looking into the rate First Nations infants involved in Manitoba’s child welfare system was jointly led by researchers from the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, the First Nations Family Advocate Office and the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy at the University of Manitoba.

To read the full article, please visit CBC Manitoba. 

Over a year ago, Lisa Tarko caught COVID-19 and ended up in hospital for nearly a month.

She’s still living with the effects of the virus every day.

“It really is a struggle,” said Tarko, 64, who finds herself among the tens of thousands of Canadians living with post-COVID condition, also known as long COVID.

Now a team of researchers at the University of Manitoba is trying to better understand how long COVID is affecting Manitobans, and health-care providers here are working to help people with symptoms. 

Those symptoms can include fatigue, chest pain, trouble speaking and problems with breathing, memory and concentration, the World Health Organization says.

Tarko had to use an oxygen feed before COVID-19 because of severe asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, symptoms. She also used a walker, but only when she went out. 

Now, she needs the walker even inside her home. She lives with chronic headaches, fatigue and brain fog.

…In Manitoba, a Shared Health spokesperson said the province doesn’t track the number of people with long COVID — but that’s what researchers are now trying to learn. 

Dr. Alan Katz, a family physician and health services researcher at the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, is part of a team using data from Manitoba health records to see whether those with a positive PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test for COVID-19 went on to seek care for symptoms that could be related to long COVID. 

“We’ve really been working to understand the data that’s available and to make sure we’re getting it right,” said Katz. “We don’t want to overestimate or underestimate this because it has significant impact on both patients … and health-care providers.”

The team is also launching a survey in the coming weeks to collect data from people who tested positive on a rapid antigen test, since the province limited access to the more sensitive PCR testing in Manitoba around the time infections from the Omicron variant of the coronavirus started to surge. 

Read the full CBC story here.

For the few who are married, is being in that legal partnership linked with health benefits, perhaps because of various kinds of spousal support?

Or could marriage be associated with negative health effects, possibly because a minor who is married may lack autonomy, options or human rights?

Those are among the questions that prompted Dr. Marcelo Urquia to conduct a study of nationwide U.S. birth data, published today in the journal PLOS Medicine.

Dr. Marcelo Urquia

Urquia, associate professor of community health sciences in the Max Rady College of Medicine and researcher with the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, holds a prestigious Canada Research Chair in applied population health. He is an expert at analyzing population-based databases to uncover evidence that would otherwise remain hidden.

He is interested in understanding health risks using a family perspective. “As a social epidemiologist, I look for sociocultural factors that affect health,” says the professor, who earned his doctorate at the University of Toronto before joining UM in 2016.

For the just-published study, Urquia and a postdoctoral fellow, Andrée-Anne Fafard St-Germain, collaborated with a researcher at the University of South Florida.

“We knew that in low- and middle-income countries, child marriage has negative implications for women’s health and well-being, compared with marrying older,” Urquia says.

“We also knew that in high-income countries like the United States, marriage is associated with positive reproductive health outcomes among adult women. But we wanted to know: Does the protective effect of marriage in a high-income country also apply to mothers under 18?”

The researchers analyzed more than 5.5 million U.S. birth registrations for mothers aged 24 or younger in the period 2014 to 2019. They compared three age groups: under 18, 18 to 19, and 20 to 24.

Most U.S. states permit marriage under the age of 18, but fewer than 4 per cent of the mothers under 18 were married.

The study found that marriage was associated with an increased likelihood of prior pregnancy termination, repeat childbearing, maternal smoking and infant morbidity (health problems) among births to mothers under age 18. The association of marriage with these indicators was weaker or reversed among births to older mothers.

Marriage was associated with more positive outcomes when looking at factors such as preterm birth, small-for-gestational-age birth, prenatal care initiation and breastfeeding among births to mothers aged 20 to 24. But for births to mothers under 18, or 18 to 19 years old, these beneficial health associations were weaker or absent.

Overall, Urquia says, the findings suggest that the favourable health effects associated with marriage are greatly reduced or absent for mothers under 18.

“Our study wasn’t able to reveal the reasons for these child marriages,” he says. “The reasons might include family pressure, or traditional or religious practices of minority groups.

“One of our striking findings is that in the U.S., a girl under 18 who has a child is much more likely to have another child before turning 18 if she is married.”

The study points to the need for further research on the drivers and consequences of marriage and pregnancy before age 18 in high-income countries, the scientist says.

“Girls under 18 are less empowered than adult women,” Urquia says. “Qualitative research in Latin American countries has shown that many girls in very poor households there may not receive adequate parenting. They may see marriage as a way out of that environment. We don’t know how common that is in North America.”

The study published today is the first in a series led by Urquia, examining the same topic in Canada, Brazil and Ecuador.

“In Canada, marriage under the age of 16 is illegal, but ages 16 and 17 can marry if they meet certain legal requirements,” Urquia says.

“In our Canadian study, which we hope to publish in a few months, we were able to include the age difference between the wife and her husband when the under-18 wife gave birth. That’s another important variable.”

The study, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, looked at infections in 16 urban centres, including Vancouver, Hamilton, Quebec City and Winnipeg. Researchers observed concentrations of cases according to social determinants of health, such as income, housing, essential work, visible minority status and more. They found that visible minority status was the social determinant of health that was important across all cities, with variations in the others.

“Social determinants of health have a huge impact on who contracted COVID-19,” said Dr. Alan Katz, an author of the study, and director of the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy (MCHP) at the University of Manitoba. “The results of the study show that people who had higher socioeconomic challenges experienced higher rates of infection and worse outcomes.”

There were 62,709 COVID-19 cases in BC; 15,089 in Manitoba; 239,160 in Ontario; and 215,928 in Quebec recorded in the metropolitan areas that were included in the study. They accounted for 81 per cent, 57 per cent, 83 per cent and 80 per cent of all confirmed cases in each province, respectively.

The study found that Winnipeg did not have as high a concentration of COVID-19 hotspots because of how people live and work in the city, said Katz, professor of community health sciences and family medicine at Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences.

“We were a little bit surprised with the magnitude of the difference between Winnipeg and other cities,” Katz said. “But it makes sense when you look at how people live. In other big cities, more people are living in high-rise buildings and in higher density areas. We don’t have those same high-density areas in Winnipeg in the same way. We have areas where people live with significant challenges and poverty, but they’re not living in the high-density conditions which seems to be a key risk factor.”

Katz also said that people in some of the larger cities who didn’t have the option of not going into work or were not eligible for sick leave appeared to live in similar areas that became significant hotspots. Winnipeg did not have this same localized effect, he said.

The study’s findings are consistent with those of other studies from Canada as well as Sweden, the United States and other countries showing higher rates of COVID-19 in racialized communities or diverse neighbourhoods. Katz said that the worse impacts of COVID-19 are on Indigenous people in Manitoba, but in Winnipeg the population is fairly spread out.

“It’s about recognizing that pandemics in particular don’t affect everybody equally,” Katz said. “We need to target our interventions to those who are at most risk, and in this case, it’s very clear that the most at risk people are the people who live with higher socioeconomic challenges.”

The authors call for city-specific public health supports like geographic hot-spot initiatives, such as vaccination rollouts and access to mobile and outreach testing with wrap-around support for quarantine and isolation, that are tailored to effectively reach and meet the prevention and care needs of communities at disproportionate risk of COVID-19.

The researchers analyzed provincial surveillance data from January 2020 to February 2021. The data used for Winnipeg came from the Manitoba Population Research Data Repository held at the MCHP.

“It’s exciting for me because we were invited to join the study because of how good our Manitoba data is,” Katz said. “People from across the country recognize how valuable the MCHP repository data is and they invite us to come join them to do this kind of work using Manitoba data.”

A team of researchers at the University of Manitoba has received a $202,000 grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to study what’s become known as “long-haul COVID.”

Research into the loosely defined condition is still in its infancy, with the World Health Organization (WHO) only recently settling on a definition.

“Post COVID-19 condition,” the WHO says, “occurs in individuals with a history of probable or confirmed SARS CoV-2 infection, usually three months from the onset of COVID-19 with symptoms and that last for at least two months and cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis.”

The WHO says common symptoms include fatigue, shortness of breath, and cognitive dysfunction, but can include other issues that generally impact a person’s everyday life.

The lead researcher at the University of Manitoba is Alan Katz, the director of the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, and a professor of family medicine and community health sciences.

“My concern is that the impact of COVID is currently being considered primarily in the context of hospital beds being occupied and ICU beds being occupied,” Katz says.

“This (study) is about understanding what’s coming in the next six months to years around what our health system will face the more these people who have had COVID infection may go on to long COVID.”

Katz says their research has three primary goals.

The team wants to understand what proportion of people who had COVID-19 ultimately end up with “long COVID,” who is most likely to be affected, and what symptoms people are experiencing exactly.

Read the full Global News story here.

Roos is being recognized for unlocking the potential of big data systems analysis to clarify the social determinants of health, helping inform effective policies in support of universal health care. Roos and her husband, Dr. Leslie Roos, co-founded MCHP at UM, in 1991. The Manitoba Population Research Data Repository at MCHP makes it possible to track the health and health systems use of approximately one million Manitoba individuals and has become a model for research data centres across Canada and around the world.

“The award makes it clear that even in these weird difficult times, very nice things sometimes happen,” said Roos.  “This is a special honour because I am not a physician, and yet I have had a wonderful career teaching and doing research in a medical faculty. Currently, I’m working with health care providers helping them understand the importance of diagnosing and treating poverty in their patients.  Life is good!”

Canadian Medical Hall of Fame Laureates are Canadian citizens whose outstanding leadership and contributions to medicine and the health sciences, in Canada or abroad, have led to extraordinary improvements in human health.

“Dr. Noralou Roos is a pioneer in her field and role model for generations of public health policy researchers,” said Dr. Digvir Jayas, vice-president (research and international) and Distinguished Professor at UM. “The impact of her leadership and contributions to providing an evidence informed decision-making model for policy makers has influenced the care that millions receive around the world.”

Recognizing that administrative data were ideal for researching pharmaceuticals after they come to market, Roos worked with Health Canada and other groups across the country to design and implement a research network to monitor Drug Safety and Effectiveness (with an initial commitment of $32 million from then Minister of Health).

“Dr. Roos is an extremely worthy inductee to the prestigious Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.” said Dr. Brian Postl, dean, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences and vice-provost (health sciences). “As a leader, her influence on health policy, knowledge translation, health equity and drug safety have been transformative. I congratulate her on this well-deserved honour.”

Roos was able to create analytic capabilities for understanding the social determinants of health that existed nowhere else. MCHP’s work inspired the creation of Healthy Child Manitoba, a cross-ministry (Health, Education, Justice and Family Services) effort to target these social determinants of health. Building on her experience with policy makers, she developed a 6-year CIHR-funded initiative linking 80+ academics across Canada, helping them communicate their research via the media, eventually publishing more than 650 OpEds in the major daily broadsheets across Canada.

For 25 years she held a National Health Research Scientist award and was awarded a Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Population Health (2001-2007) in the first round of funding. She completed her undergraduate degree at Stanford University (A.B. with distinction and departmental honours) and her PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her PhD dissertation was published by Harvard University Press. One of her papers was awarded the “best article of the year” by the American Association for Health Services Research. The Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) reported Roos’ work as being cited among the top half of 1 per cent of published scientists globally.

She was a member of the Prime Minister’s National Health Forum, a member of the executive of the Medical Research Council and the Interim Governing Council that ultimately established CIHR. She received the Order of Canada and in 2016 was promoted as an Officer. She was elected to the Academy of Science of the RSC and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. She was named the 2010 Hall Laureate and received the 2011 Inaugural Population and Public Health Research Milestone Award (from CIHR and the Canadian Public Health Association). She received the Biomedical Science Ambassador Award from Partners in Research, and recently, was the recipient of both the 2020 Vanier Medal from the Institute of Public Administration of Canada and the Manitoba 150 Women Trailblazer award.

The 2022 Canadian Medical Hall of Fame Laureates will be celebrated at a ceremony held in association with The University of Ottawa, Faculty of Medicine on June 17, 2022 in Ottawa, Ontario.