Alberta first province to launch SUPPORT Unit for patient-oriented research

CIHR plans rollout across country

Alberta is first out of the gate to launch a SUPPORT Unit for its Strategy for Patient Oriented Research (SPOR), matching $24.3 million in funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR). The $48.6 million in funding over five years will be deployed to align provincial health researchers with policy makers, health practitioners and patients with the view to improving health outcomes by stimulating translational research activities across the province.

Alberta's Support for People and Patient-Oriented Research and Trials (SUPPORT) Unit is the first of at least eight to be rolled out across Canada as the opening foray of CIHR's larger ambition for its SPOR strategy, which includes nationally oriented networks, an enhanced clinical trials environment and training to boost and maintain research capacity. Provincial proposals for the other SUPPORT Units will be submitted, reviewed and announced by the next fiscal year.

"This is transformative in my mind, changing the game from AIHS being a passive funder of research to a more pro-active role as research broker and facilitator," says Dr Cy Frank president and CEO of Alberta Innovations - Health Solutions (AIHS), which is providing all of the matching funds. "The health system broadly will benefit by employing applied research and innovation of value from the bench to the bedside to the community and back again."

The agreement was hammered out between CIHR and AIHS over the past year and Frank says the province is taking a broader view than the patient focus proposed by CIHR. In addition to the six platforms underpinning each SUPPORT Unit, AIHS has added a seventh — the training of patients to be advocates and experts in the research process.

"CIHR wanted to focus on the patient but I want all aspects. Our plan is to engage content experts in parts of our health and health care system and identify leaders and champions that will add value," says Frank. "Our job at AIHS was easy: pick the right people and back them."

For CIHR, the SPOR initiative is an integral component in its new roadmap (currently under development) and a major plank in its core mission of taking a holistic, integrated approach to transforming the way in which the medical research community interacts with the health care system, the economy and society at large.

Key to SPOR is to allow each province to determine the priority ranking of the core platforms (see chart). Provinces will be required to implement a performance measurement strategy covering the whole spectrum of research and the four pillars upon which CIHR is based — biomedical, clinical trials, population and health services and public health and its determinants.

"All jurisdictions are on board and supportive of SPOR. The provinces set the priorities," says Jeff Latimer, CIHR's director of platforms and major initiatives. "SPOR is changing the way we fund research in Canada to have meaningful patient engagement."

For Alberta, SPOR SUPPORT Units dovetail nicely with the province's new strategic clinical networks, with nine in operation and another six planned over the next year. They also provide an opportunity to eliminate waste and add value to the health care system.

"We're aligning capacity with the needs of the system. We plan to make it self-sustaining by year six so that requires a business plan," says Frank. "Our major partner is the Alberta health system and if the SUPPORT Units provide value, they should provide ongoing support. We also plan to have private investment around specific research programs as well as foundations and philanthropy to attract international research to the province."

Embedded with each SUPPORT Unit are six core platforms (see chart).

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