Strengthening patient-oriented research in Manitoba

The George & Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation (CHI), a unit jointly operated by the University of Manitoba’s (UM) Rady Faculty of Health Sciences and Shared Health, has secured $2.6 million in federal funding to improve patient-oriented research in Manitoba.

The two-year funding extension from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) for the Manitoba SPOR SUPPORT Unit will strengthen collaboration between patients, families, caregivers, researchers and health system decision-makers to improve health outcomes.

“Having people with lived experience at the table is vital to ensuring we’re working on the problems that matter most to Manitobans,” says Dr. Ryan Zarychanski, CHI Scientific Director and Professor of Internal Medicine in the Max Rady College of Medicine. “Their voices are helping us build a health system where research and evidence inform care.”

Over the next two years, the funding will build on previous successes by expanding Shared Health’s Patient and Family Advisor Network – deepening Indigenous health partnerships, strengthening researcher training and embedding patient perspectives into health decisions at every level. The goal is to transform Manitoba’s health system, whereby research, evidence and lived experience guide every policy change, service redesign and clinical improvement. 

CHI impact

Since its inception in 2008, CHI has helped move patient engagement from concept to practice. Examples of its impact include:

•    Understanding who received care – and who doesn’t. Working alongside Dr. Marcia Anderson, Rady Faculty Vice-Dean of Indigenous Health, Social Justice and Anti-Racism, CHI supported the development of a provincewide strategy to routinely collect patients’ race, ethnicity and Indigenous identity. That data informed the province’s June 2025 emergency department release and is now driving frontline interventions to reduce inequities and improve culturally safe care.

•    Putting patient feedback at the centre of quality improvement. CHI developed a provincewide strategy to routinely capture patient experience in the health system. Using the Canadian Patient Experience Survey – Inpatient Care, deployed across Manitoba hospitals following overnight stays, patient feedback is shaping how care teams identify problems and set priorities.

•    Research that measures what matters to patients. CHI impact includes the co-design of a clinical drug trial to reduce blood transfusion in surgical patients, leading to practice change. Another initiative, the Preparing for Research by Engaging Public and Patient Partners (PREPPP) Award, has supported more than 55 research projects. A recent study received $1.2 million in CIHR funding to improve access for First Nations patients.

That impact is what inspires Juanita Garcia to continue participating as a CHI patient partner. “I started working with CHI because I wanted my experience as a young student within the health system to make a difference for others,” says Garcia. “Being able to contribute to research and serve on the Patient and Family Advisor Network council shows what’s possible when patients are invited to be true partners in improving health care. Patient voices are now given a place at the table to make meaningful changes.”

Dr. Peter Nickerson, Vice-Provost (Health Sciences) and Dean of the Rady Faculty, acknowledges the critical federal and provincial funding to CHI. “CHI has been essential in shaping high-priority patient-centered research across diverse health domains that has strengthened the function and impact of our publicly funded health-care system,” says Nickerson.

“Improving care starts with listening to the people who use the system. That means patients, families, communities and meaningful partnerships with Indigenous communities,” says Hon. Minister of Health, Seniors and Long-Term Care, Uzoma Asagwara. “The Manitoba SPOR SUPPORT Unit, through the George & Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation, is helping ensure those voices shape decisions across our health system. By bringing lived experience together with strong research, this work is supporting more culturally responsive care and better outcomes for all Manitobans.”

By Rady Communications Staff