Report highlights accomplishments of health research collaborative WE-SPARK Health Institute has released its Year 4, second quarter report, highlighting key accomplishments from August 2022 – October 2022: $6.9M in new research funding reported by members; a new Innovation Hub to create a network of health care innovators; collected 40 patient tissue samples, re-launching fresh tissue trials in Windsor-Essex; 12 new members onboarded to its Student Volunteer Network; 10 face-to-face outreach events; and six events & workshops including a Think Tank and three WE-SPARK After Dark events, with 120 participants. Read the Report here. WE-SPARK quarterly reports communicate outcomes and provides accountability to its members and the Windsor-Essex community. All quarterly reports can be found here.
St. Clair College receives $720,000 to tackle youth homelessness and school nutrition St. Clair College has received $720,000 in social innovation research grants to tackle youth homelessness and school nutrition in Windsor-Essex. The first of the two projects focusses on youth experiencing homelessness, partnering with Family Services Windsor-Essex (FSWE). Lead Researcher, Dr. Kyle Jackson, Professor in the Honours Bachelor of Applied Arts in Social Justice and Legal Studies program at St. Clair College explains that the research will develop better methods to make contact with and estimate this hard-to-reach population. It will also conduct in-depth interviews with youth experiencing homelessness aimed at better understanding their lived experiences. “Ultimately, this will enable us to develop unique programming aimed at the prevention of homelessness before it begins in the first place,” said Jackson. SCC faculty and student researchers are utilizing a new sampling method and interviews to gather data on youth experiencing homelessness, to be used in assisting…
Erie Shores HealthCare Joins WE-SPARK Health Institute Left to Right: Bill Marra, President and CEO, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare / Lisa Porter, Executive Director, WE-SPARK Health Institute / Patti France, President, St. Clair College / Kristin Kennedy, President and CEO, Erie Shores HealthCare / David Musyj, President and CEO, Windsor Regional Hospital / Chris Houser, Interim Vice-President Research & Innovation, University of Windsor. Erie Shores HealthCare joined Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, St. Clair College, the University of Windsor and Windsor Regional Hospital as an official partner of WE-SPARK Health Institute during a celebration and signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on November 16, 2022. WE-SPARK Health Institute began approximately 13 years ago as a grassroots effort between health researchers and healthcare professionals across the Windsor-Essex region with a passion to elevate and grow health research. In March 2020, WE-SPARK was officially launched, with a vision to establish a thriving and engaged research community…
Innovation Ambassadors to address problems in healthcare Innovation Ambassadors will translate their research and clinical experience into products, services, programs, or processes addressing problems in health care. WE-SPARK Health Institute is launching an Innovation Ambassadors Program to create a community of innovators able to respond to problems within the local healthcare system. Made up of researchers and healthcare workers from its five partner institutions, the Innovation Ambassadors be involved in projects to translate their research and clinical experience into products, services, programs, or processes. The program will offer webinars and networking events to identify and act upon regional health and health care problems, connect with a diverse audience of industry and community partners, and forge partnerships with other innovators in regional ecosystems across Canada and internationally. Benefits of becoming an Innovation Ambassador include: connecting with representatives from provincial, national, and international organizations…
Internationally recognized experts speak at local research conference Photo Credit: Aaron Mahoney, AM800 More than 250 people from the Windsor-Essex health research community came together to learn from experts, and to present, share, and discuss health research projects. Held over two days on Friday and Saturday, the WE-SPARK Health Institute held it's first-of-its-kind in-person conference which featured guest speakers and presentations from a group of local, regional and international experts. A rapid-fire session was also held where students and trainees were able to present their current and completed research projects. Neelu Sehgal, Director of Community Outreach with Erie Shores Healthcare, was one of many in attendance. She says it was important for Erie Shores to take part. "Erie Shores Healthcare is part of this research conference to really look at what the best practices are and bringing practice to the bedside. So, research drives patient outcomes." Sehgal says during the COVID-19 pandemic they were faced with a different…
Scholarship winner tops in tech Physics student Jordyn Matthews won a $5,000 scholarship promoting diversity in technology. The contributions to technology by a UWindsor medical physics undergraduate have caught the attention of Canadian technology company Telus. Jordyn Matthews won Telus’ 2022 Diversity in Technology scholarship. The $5,000 award recognizes women and minorities in technology. Matthews has been busy working in campus research labs since her second year, when she joined physics assistant professor Dan Xiao’s lab. “Dr. Xiao is working on building a small portable MRI device that could be used onsite or in the field and I worked on novel designs for gradient coils,” says Matthews. More recently, the fourth-year student has been working with physics professor Roman Maev in his Institute for Diagnostic Imaging Research. “Dr. Maev has a project to build a trans cranial ultrasound brain imaging device so that ultrasounds could detect hemorrhages in the brain and I’m working on measuring the field…
Mural bears message promoting vaccination Artists Elyssa Biscocho, Paola Noriega Flores, and Aya El-Hashemi pose with their chalk mural in the Essex Centre of Research. Photo by Ruqayyah Faizan. Students from the Students Igniting Vaccine Confidence team have created a chalk mural in a campaign to promote confidence in vaccination against COVID-19. Volunteer artists from the Faculty of Science’s Science Meets Art (SMArt) group and St. Clair College filled the main floor chalk board walls of the Essex Centre of Research (CORe) building with art on Friday, Nov. 4. Aya El-Hashemi (BSc 2022), a master’s candidate in translational health science, created the installation design. The project lead says the team used a chalk wall to communicate this science-based vaccine confidence message because art is a tool that transcends language barriers and broadens the vaccine confidence scope. “Incorporating multiple disciplines helps close gaps as we translate knowledge to the community,” says El-Hashemi. “By having members from various…
Recruiting participants for a study on understanding the impact of COVID-19 on child development The purpose of this study is to understand the impacts that relative social isolation, in the sense that very young children (from neonates to 18 months old) have been exposed to during the COVID pandemic of the past 1.5 years, can have on all the diff erent aspects of early development, including social development, language development, motor development, and cognitive development. To participate in the study, please click here. For more information about the project, please click here.
Contest calling attention to vaccine confidence campaign A share-and-tag on Instagram contest is the latest effort in a student-led campaign to encourage vaccination against COVID-19. A contest run by the Students Igniting Vaccine Confidence team is aimed at drawing attention to lawn signs it has posted across the University of Windsor campus and coming soon to St. Clair College. The “Booster your confidence in vaccines” signs promote three calls to action: Get boosted Stay informed Spark vaccine confidence The contest offers a $25 e-gift card for Subway restaurant for sharing and tagging a graphic posted on the WE-Spark Health Institute’s Instagram feed. Contestants can enter as often as they like until Dec. 13 but only one winner will be drawn at random. Find the graphic and contest details here: instagram.com/wesparkhealth/.
