The Royal is proud to once again this year be ranked among Canada’s Top 40 Research Hospitals.
The annual list, released by Research Infosource recognizes dedicated research spending at leading Canadian research hospitals.
“The Royal has long recognized the importance of research within the mental health care landscape, and the necessity for care and research to come together to address current access and treatment challenges,” says Dr. Zul Merali, President & CEO of The Royal’s Institute of Mental Health Research (IMHR), affiliated with the University of Ottawa.
“The innovative work that is being undertaken by our researchers gives us hope that we will find solutions to get people suffering from mental illness better, faster, through more personalized and effective treatments.”
The IMHR has continued to grow and innovate this past year, with achievements including:
- One hundred and thirty-nine peer-reviewed publications;
- More than 130 clinical research projects involving patients;
- Support for almost 100 trainees as they establish their research careers;
- Significant grant funding success, with 137 active research grants and contracts;
- The launch of the one-of-a-kind Emerging Research Innovators in Mental Health (eRIMh) incubator program, which will provide financial and mentorship support to seven talented early-career scientists as they work to transform our understanding of the brain and develop new ways to predict, prevent and treat mental illness; and
- Awards for our researchers in the areas of lifetime achievement; innovation; early-career; and more.
While improving current treatment interventions remains a primary goal of the IMHR, ongoing research is also strongly focused on prediction and prevention.
For instance, Dr. Zachary Kaminsky, DIFD Mach-Gaensslen Chair in Suicide Prevention Research, recently developed an algorithm that uses artificial intelligence to predict suicide risk based on Twitter messages. The algorithm is still in its early days, but Dr. Kaminsky’s hope is that identifying risk will help lead to early intervention and fewer suicides, particularly in youth.
“Just like we can forecast heart disease through cholesterol tests, and breast cancer through mammograms, our scientists are working towards the capacity to identify those at risk, so we can prevent mental illness from developing in the first place,” says Dr. Merali.
As one of Canada’s foremost research institutions specializing in complex and treatment-resistant depression, The Royal’s IMHR fosters a culture of innovation, discovery, and change in an effort to reduce the devastating impact of depression and other mental illnesses – locally and globally.
For more information about this annual list, read the Research Infosource news release.
View the complete list of Canada’s Top 40 Research Hospitals for 2018.