Graduate Studentships

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 opportunities for research trainees enrolled in a Master’s or Doctoral program to undertake research that both meaningfully engages patients and addresses their priorities.

The program provides funding support and a range of training and development activities to build the interdisciplinary skills required to carry-out a POR approach to research. Students are trained in the fundamentals of POR through learning activities (including a methods course) delivered by AbSPORU and our partners. Through these, students explore a variety of approaches to engaging patients in research.

A Bright Future

Since its inception in 2015, the program has distributed approximately $2.5 million in funding to students. Recipients of the program go on to complete important work in POR, and have received approximately $5 million in subsequent funding by way of grants and fellowships from leading organizations in health research such as the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Alberta Innovates and the Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholars program.

Upon completion of the program, students are equipped with the knowledge and tools to perform meaningful POR. Graduates go on to pursue careers in academia, health care, government, health-system planning and programming, clinical practice and research and carry with them a focus on patient-oriented approaches to their work.

The studentship program increases capacity for future research that integrates a patient-oriented approach within the health system.

"In my role at Alberta Health Services - we have the Strategic Clinical Networks who do a great deal of research and who have patient partners both on their own steering committees as well as their research projects. So, I see more of the integrated model that perhaps wasn’t around 5-6 years ago." - Kyle Kemp, Director, Public Health Surveillance & Informatics - AHS, former studentship awardee

The Studentship program is expanding

More and more students are learning of the AbSPORU Graduate Studentship program and the benefits that patient-oriented research brings to their research training.

In 2022-23, the cohort was made up of twenty-four students out of 70 applications. The number of applications received for the 2021 and 2022 competitions were 40% higher than the average number of applications received between 2015 and 2020, which speaks to the growing interest in the program.
The program is attracting applications from a broader range of disciplines and areas, such as community health sciences, health services and policy research, biomedical sciences, clinical psychology, social work, kinesiology, rehabilitation medicine, computer science and engineering.

Inspired by other SPOR units across Canada, AbSPORU plans are in place to offer studentship opportunities specific to clinician needs.

The positive impact of the program is felt by students, supervisors, and the research

According to a survey conducted in 2021, most of previous studentship awardees said that not only have they been able to used what they learned in the program in their work and research since (80%), but were also encouraged to do so by their supervisors, colleagues, and/or research partners (84%). 96% of respondents agreed that the program taught the positive value of using a patient-oriented approach to their research.

“My AbSPORU-funded student has shared components of patient-oriented research approaches, including ideas surrounding patient engagement in knowledge translation, to the rest of the research team in my lab.” – Dr. Carole Estabrooks, Professor – Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta

Students also extolled the opportunities for networking, particularly at AbSPORU events such as our annual conference. They noted that these events presented opportunities for connection, mentoring and career development. Students have the ability to increase capacity for POR by funneling knowledge back to their supervisors and thus, influencing their research approach and methodology.

Patients are involved in the students’ research

In the 2022-23 cycle, patient partners were included as part of the review committee and therefore had a say in selecting the applicants and projects to receive the award funding. Through the year-long studentship, students and patients are able to collaborate on the design of their research studies and on effective knowledge translation strategies depending on the audience including via relatively newer mediums like social media.

Studentship Feature

Brooke Allemang

Former AbSPORU Studentship Awardee

Brooke Allemang is a registered social worker and holds a PhD from the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary. Brooke is also a former AbSPORU studentship recipient and credits the program with shaping her interest in patient engagement and providing her the knowledge and tools to approach her research from the perspective of those with lived and living experience.

"My career has changed dramatically as a result of this award. When I received it in the first year of my PhD (2019), it really set me up for success. Without it, my skill set would look really different at this point." - Brooke

Brooke has gone on to conduct research using these methods and author several publications on POR. Her doctoral project, titled “The READY2Exit Study’’ focused on the transition from pediatric to adult health care among young adults with co-occurring chronic health and mental health conditions. Brooke engaged youth partners to co-design all phases of her research project and used POR strategies and tools that she says she would not have thought of on her own. She describes that her youth partners pointed her towards the use of social media, specifically TikTok, to help with developing research questions, recruiting participants, collecting data, and sharing the results to the audience she hoped to reach. To set the stage for this, Brooke and her youth partners produced videos aimed at demystifying the research process, a need that these partners identified as critical to encouraging buy-in from the audiences she hoped to reach.

Building on her successful AbSPORU studentship, Brooke secured subsequent funding for her research from Alberta Innovates and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). In the second year of her PhD, she was awarded a national CIHR Strategy for Patient Oriented Research (SPOR) Transition to Leadership fellowship.

"Only 17 people across Canada won this award. It provided funding for my PhD and to launch my career investigator position. If I had not received the AbSPORU Studentship, I wouldn’t have been as competitive for this second base of SPOR funding." - Brooke

Brooke recently began a postdoctoral fellowship in Child Health Evaluative Sciences at SickKids in Toronto, where her research will focus on understanding the experiences of young adults with inflammatory bowel disease transitioning to adult care. She then hopes to secure an academic position that will enable her to further advance her work for the benefit of her youth and young adults research partners.

"I am one of the only social workers at the University of Calgary who has used this methodology in my work, so that has been a great opportunity to share this approach with students, trainees and faculty." - Brooke

Brooke’s supervisor, Dr. Gina Dimitropoulos, a professor of social work from the University of Calgary, noted the importance that the studentship program, specifically the incorporation of the patient voice, has had on her own research processes.

"I’ve learned a lot about how POR is better for the research. I think it has impacted my career. I’m all about social media now – How do you use social media for patient-oriented research and implementation in knowledge translation. I feel like I’m constantly learning so much about the patient’s ways of sharing." - Dr. Gina Dimitropoulos, Professor of Social Work, University of Calgary

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