Our Impact - Alberta Strategy for Patient Oriented Research SUPPORT Unit (AbSPORU)

Research Impact

Each year, AbSPORU provides critical research support to researchers engaging patients in their studies. AbSPORU’s expert staff also work on innovative solutions to common research gaps – data access and management, implementation of research findings, and supporting systematic changes to ensure long-term sustainability within the healthcare system.

Partnership. Innovation. Impact.

2024-25 Annual Report

Through innovation and partnership, we are leading bold efforts to tackle Alberta’s most complex health challenges. Highlighted in our annual report are just some of AbSPORU’s contributions to health research projects and system improvements that have real-world impact, leading to better health outcomes for all.

Read Full Report

Stories of Impact

Through everything we do, we elevate the patient-voice, helping to ensure that health research is creating systemic change in alignment with patient priorities for the betterment of all Albertans.

SORT BY: Newest to Oldest 

Critical Care and Chronic Disease Management Quality Improvement | 2025

Data-Driven Impacts

AbSPORU details three data-driven innovations to address system-wide challenges that improve clinical outcomes, reduce low-value interventions, and strengthen health system sustainability.

Advancing System Responsiveness through Acute Care Innovation | 2025

Embedding Climate Resilience into Healthcare

Climate change is a crucial issue for healthcare operations. As climate change continues to intensify extreme weather events and air pollution, leaders in health are urgently working to ensure continuity of care in acute care settings.

Patient-Oriented Research in the Lab | 2025

The Riddell Centre for Cancer Immunotherapy Innovates with Co-Mentorship Pilot Program

The Co-Mentorship Program at the Riddell Centre for Cancer Immunotherapy was developed in partnership with the Alberta Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research SUPPORT Unit (AbSPORU) and the Arnie Charbonneau Cancer Institute, representing a compelling case study on how patient engagement can be embedded early in research careers and sustained and scaled with proper support.

Improving Mental Health and Addiction Outcomes | 2024

National Overdose Response Crisis (NORS)

AbSPORU supported NORS, the first service of its kind in Canada, through an implementation science lens to evaluate factors such as acceptability, safety, adoption, and satisfaction. A survey co-designed by individuals with lived experience of substance use, service operators, and researchers was sent to more than 11,000 Canadians to gather key perspectives from various stakeholder groups on this service.

Supporting early-, intermediate-, and end-stages of Health System Initiatives | 2024

Embedded Implementation Science

Alberta’s health system is strengthening through the integration of implementation science at various stages of health system initiatives. Implementation science is a cornerstone of the Alberta Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research SUPPORT Unit (AbSPORU)’s services, and collaborations between health system partners and AbSPORU have yielded transformative outcomes in patient care and efficiency.

One Child Every Child | 2024

AbSPORU Partners on Historic One Child Every Child Initiative

In a groundbreaking leap towards improving child health and wellness, the University of Calgary secured a historic $125 million investment from the Government of Canada via the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF), augmented by additional partner funding to a total of $268 million. As a foundational partner, AbSPORU has committed nearly $400,000 in in-kind support to OCEC, which was crucial to securing the federal grant.

Creating a Health System for Patients, by Patients

We are pleased to report to you, our partners and the public, on the impact of your contributions through our work in patient-oriented research (POR) support in the province of Alberta. In 2022-23, an extraordinary number of people came together to move Alberta’s health system towards common goals, borne out of patient-led priorities.

Read Full Report

Graduate Studentships | 2023

Training the Next Generation of Patient-Oriented Researchers in Alberta

Training the next generation of researchers in patient-oriented research (POR) helps to ensure the sustainability of POR in Canada. The AbSPORU Graduate Studentship provides $30,000 in funding for research trainees enrolled in a Master’s or Doctoral program to undertake research that both meaningfully engages patients and addresses their priorities.

Acute Care Bundle Improvement | 2023

Driving Health System Change Through Partnerships in Acute Care

Health system transformation in Alberta requires partnerships between stakeholders and effective program implementation. The Acute Care Bundle Improvement (ACBI) initiative is a key priority for Alberta Health Services and is being implemented at 14 major acute care sites across Alberta.

PaCER Program | 2023

Including the Patient Voice to Improve Canadian Health Care

Ensuring that research incorporates the perspectives of patients with lived and living experience and views them as equal partners in the research enterprise is critical to having a health care system reflective of the priorities of patients, their families, caregivers, and community members.

Innovative Data Solutions | 2023

Providing Game-Changing Data Solution on Key Health Issues

AbSPORU provides a wide range of data services for researchers and decision-makers alike. Our innovative approaches to research have made us key data providers in Alberta. Excellent examples of this include a series of studies designed to improve our understanding of Long COVID and the BedMed project, a gamechanger in data collection in primary care.

CALGARY

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

EDMONTON

University of Alberta North Campus
Dianne and Irving Kipnes Health Research Institute
11405 87 Ave NW
Edmonton, AB T6G 1C9

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.

SITE CREDIT