HHS Knowledge Centre aims to channel research to benefit patients

Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) has launched the HHS Knowledge Centre to promote knowledge synthesis, knowledge mobilization, and quality of care. Broadly speaking, it will work to communicate research findings to healthcare professionals, policy makers and the public so that patients receive the latest and most advanced care.

“While leading-edge research is happening at HHS, our researchers aren’t always aware of each other’s work and findings because we’re such a large organization,” said Dr. Marc Jeschke, who since joining HHS two years ago has focused on improving collaboration among the research community at HHS, McMaster University and beyond. “The greatest impact happens when we work together and share our findings, and the new Knowledge Centre will foster collaborations across many clinical and research areas.”

Knowledge synthesis focuses on gathering and organizing studies, reports and other findings to determine which treatments work best and creating guidelines for physicians to follow. Knowledge mobilization is about ensuring that recommendations for best practice find their way to the bedside; and quality improvement focuses on improving patient outcomes, enhancing the patient experience, and making sure the hospital works as efficiently as possible.

The HHS Knowledge Centre began operating in July. It is led by three co-directors who are HHS physicians: interventional cardiologist Dr. J.D. Schwalm; intensive care physician Dr. Bram Rochwerg; and anesthesiologist Dr. Ekta Khemani. All three are also researchers and experts in knowledge synthesis, knowledge mobilization and quality improvement.

“The new centre will make us much stronger as we approach projects, because we can cover the full spectrum of knowledge translation from start to finish,” said Dr. Schwalm, whose area of expertise is implementation science. This involves figuring out how to introduce research-backed methods into everyday practice and making them stick.

In 2018 Dr. Schwalm became director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Implementation (CEBI) to advance health care at HHS through research and education. CEBI has now been folded into the new HHS Knowledge Centre.

“We’re morphing into something bigger and broader with greater reach,” said Dr. Schwalm, whose work as CEBI’s director had a strong focus on improving the delivery of cardiovascular care.

The new centre will include other HHS pillars such as trauma and critical care, oncology, children’s health, women’s health, rehabilitation medicine and aging. The centre’s involvement could range from small projects, like consultations, to leading large projects from start to finish. All projects will directly benefit HHS patients.

“The exciting part, and the challenge, will be uniting forces across specialties through the new centre,” said Dr. Rochwerg, whose specialty is knowledge synthesis with a focus on the intensive care unit.

“HHS is a world leader in producing evidence-based guidelines in areas including critical care, hematology, cardiology and thrombosis,” said Dr. Rochwerg. “Worldwide, it’s hard to find a guideline from these areas published in the last decade that doesn’t include at least one HHS investigator.”

Dr. Khemani brings leadership in teaching quality improvement strategies to physicians and other healthcare providers who work directly with patients, such as nurses, occupational therapists and physiotherapists.

“Our healthcare providers really want to improve the system, but they don’t necessarily have the quality improvement background or tools to do so,” said Khemani, whose support includes helping healthcare providers build the skills and knowledge needed to improve workflows, create a culture of continuous improvement, and even develop their own quality improvement projects.

The three co-directors credit HHS president and CEO Tracey MacArthur and vice president of Research Dr. Marc Jeschke for recognizing the need for a Knowledge Centre and supporting its formation. HHS is a top Canadian research hospital, but with so many physicians and staff involved in research projects, it can be easy to stay in silos.

Dr. Khemani noted, “This has been a great opportunity to combine what we’ve been working on, and advance knowledge translation work across the organization. We all share the same goals of building capacity and supporting HHS as a research powerhouse.”

Lise Diebel is communications advisor at Hamilton Health Sciences.