Katie
Research Chair, Patient-Centred Outcomes
Katie is a qualitative and mixed methods scientist and research chair in patient-centered outcomes at a local hospital. She was trained as a qualitative social scientist (i.e., using stories, discussions, and observations as data) and her interest has always been to learn about the experiences of all users of health care, such as patients, caregivers, families, physicians, and other front line workers. Due to the nature of her qualitative work, she often engaged with patients/caregivers as participants in research projects. Thus, it was a natural move to begin engaging patients/caregivers as partners in research. One area of her work has been focusing on the experience of people who survived a heart attack or were brought back to life when their heart stopped. This field has been primarily driven by patient outcomes and medical procedures, which made Katie realize that she needed patients/caregivers to help her understand how to research their experiences as survivors. She has had a positive experience engaging patients/caregivers to point out research priorities in this area and suggests that they should be involved when researchers are planning a research project. Katie thinks the future of patient/caregiver-researcher partnerships is a bright one with endless possibilities. There will always be research that needs to be done in a research environment, but she believes it is important to continue encouraging researchers to engage with patients/caregivers where possible in health services research.
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- Measuring Impact of Partnership – KatieKatie builds in an evaluation of partnerships as part of a larger grant application
- Improving Patient Care and Experiences – KatieKatie’s experience working with patient partners made her feel more comfortable communicating with patients and families
- Diversity – KatiePartnerships in research, according to Katie, need to be more accessible to diverse populations
- Valuing contributions – KatieKatie’s team included all participants as co-investigators rather than collaborators
- Skills for partnership – KatieKatie feels that researchers need to be open-minded, empathetic and humble