About Us - Alberta Strategy for Patient Oriented Research SUPPORT Unit (AbSPORU)

About the Alberta SPOR SUPPORT Unit

The Alberta SPOR SUPPORT Unit (AbSPORU) is dedicated to improving the health outcomes for all Albertans through patient-oriented research.

We provide expertise, training and resources to Alberta’s health research community to increase Alberta’s capacity for patient-oriented research. We work closely with patients from diverse backgrounds and with our network of partners to improve healthcare in Alberta.

By fostering these partnerships, we are strengthening Alberta’s learning health system through effective, evidence-based knowledge translation and implementation, and assessing the implementation to accelerate continuous improvement of care.

Part of national initiative

AbSPORU is Alberta’s provincial arm for the Strategy for Patient Oriented Research (SPOR). SPOR is a pan-Canadian initiative established by the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) that ensures patients have a voice in health research, and that findings and results from this research are implemented into practice.

For all Albertans

AbSPORU promotes the implementation of best practices related to equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), and sex and gender-based analysis (SGBA) to ensure our work applies to Albertans.

Our priority areas

We provide training, research support and strategies for transformational change in four priority areas:

Capacity Development

Developing training opportunities to build stakeholder capacity to engage in patient-oriented research.

Data & Research Services

Facilitating access to Alberta’s health data and providing expert consultation services to support researchers in patient-oriented research.

The Learning Health System

Facilitating the creation of Alberta’s learning health system by supporting effective, theory-based knowledge translation and implementation work.

Patient Engagement

Working with researchers and community organizations to include patients at multiple stages of research, such as identifying research priorities, conducting and analysing data, and sharing results.

CALGARY

University of Calgary Foothills Campus
3330 Hospital Dr NW
Calgary, AB T2N 4N1

EDMONTON

College Plaza
1702, 8215 112 St NW
Edmonton, AB T6G 2C8

Land Acknowledgment

The Alberta SPOR SUPPORT Unit operates on and acknowledges the lands that are the traditional and ancestral territory of many peoples, presently subject to Treaties 6, 7, and 8. Namely: the Blackfoot Confederacy – Kainai, Piikani, and Siksika – the Cree, Dene, Saulteaux, Nakota Sioux, Stoney Nakoda, and the Tsuu T’ina Nation and the Métis People of Alberta. This includes the Métis Settlements and the Métis Nation of Alberta. We acknowledge the many First Nations, Métis and Inuit who have lived in and cared for these lands for generations. We make this acknowledgment as a reaffirmation of our shared commitment towards reconciliation, and as part of AbSPORU’s mandate towards fostering health system transformation.

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