$3.5M supports chronic-disease research in Quebec

Quebec City, QC – The Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec (FRSQ), in partnership with the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux (MSSS) and the pharmaceutical company Pfizer Canada, have announced the first series of projects chosen in connection with the Pfizer-FRSQ-MSSS Chronic Disease Fund.

Created thanks to a provision of $5 million from Pfizer Canada, the FRSQ-coordinated research grant program is aimed at chronic disease prevention and management initiatives. Of the different projects submitted, five were recommended for funding: those of the CSSS Champlain, the CSSS de Chicoutimi, the CSSS de Laval, the CSSS du Rocher-Percé and the CSSS du Sud-Ouest-Verdun. The funding totals nearly $3.5 million for the next two years.

“This is a very innovative type of research program, for it includes both an innovative clinical component and an evaluative research component. Collaboration between health professionals and researchers is a unique opportunity to recognize and disseminate original chronic disease prevention and management initiatives throughout Quebec, adds Dr Howard Bergman, vice-president of scientific affairs at the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec.

“At Pfizer, we believe that it takes more than medication to improve chronic disease management. Strongly committed to improving people’s health, we are proud to partner with the FRSQ and the MSSS to stimulate health innovation. This initiative attests to Pfizer Canada’s desire to maintain its involvement in the development of research and once again reaffirms its commitment to the government’s chronic disease priorities,” says Paul Lévesque, President of Pfizer Canada.

The funded projects are as follows:

CSSS Champlain – $699,040:
The intersectorial and interprofessional type 2 diabetes follow-up proposed in this project improves the continuum of services that has been in place for over two years in the Réseau local de services Champlain thanks to the collaborative efforts between the network’s family physicians and the primary health care teams at the CSSS Champlain and Charles LeMoyne Hospital. This improvement involves an increase in the number of family physicians who provide this follow-up, the inclusion of community pharmacists in the care team, and a more systematic evaluation of diabetes-related risks for individuals aged 45 and up.

CSSS de Chicoutimi – $699,800:
This project is aimed at implementing an intervention that will constitute an improvement, an adaptation and a permanent part of the services provided by the Trajectoire des services de réadaptation intégrés pour maladies chroniques du Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean (a regional initiative offering a range of activities pertaining to issues such as diet, physical activity and smoking cessation) in primary care settings in the Chicoutimi and Jonquière regions, whose CSSSs are partners in this proposal. The project relies on the success of the Trajectoire’s previous operations, on regional mobilization, and on the experience acquired within the teams.

CSSS de Laval – $636,282:
Laval’s healthcare community created the TRANSIT program, which is aimed at TRANSforming InTerprofessional practices with a view to improving the quality of cardiovascular preventive care at the primary care level. The overall objective of the project is to institute the TRANSIT program at a family medicine group in order to improve care and service coordination through a pivot nurse in a context of interprofessional collaboration, to facilitate access to the services of nutritionists and kinesiologists, to improve self-management support for patients and their families, and to improve the management of clinical information.

CSSS du Rocher-Percé – $699,928:
This project, with the theme of managing one’s health in the Rocher-Percé region, is characterized by two major innovations. The delivery of interventions prescribed as part of individualized interdisciplinary service plans is based on a group physical activity program which takes place regularly in four localities in the region and at points of delivery as unconventional as private gyms. In addition, the consolidation of the technological tools currently in use will continue to facilitate home follow-up, and a new software program will facilitate the decentralization of practice settings and interdisciplinary follow-up by permitting the real-time sharing of clinical information.

CSSS du Sud-Ouest-Verdun (in charge) and five partnering CSSSs1 – $700,000:
Continue implementing an integrated, interdisciplinary cardiometabolic risk prevention and management program for the purpose of assisting primary care general practitioners in managing people with diabetes and/or hypertension, and take action on health determinants, for example, the way lifestyle habits affect diabetes and hypertension, in order to delay disease progression.