New process harnesses the power of patients
By Douglas Miller, Jon Meddings and Cy Frank,
Edmonton Journal December 3, 2013

If you think time flies, you’re not a Canadian health researcher.
The people who search for silver bullets against killer diseases, build innovative devices to replace worn body parts, and devise diagnostics that find mutations before they become cancers, watch with frustration as their work inches laboriously from their labs to the patient.

Canadian scientists create valuable medical knowledge, but the health-care system doesn’t always seize upon it fast enough. Moving one medical innovation from the lab to the patient takes an average of 14 years in Canada.
Fourteen years is a painfully long time if you are the innovator behind the new therapy. It is an eternity if you are the suffering patient.
But change is upon us.

Recognizing there is no more powerful voice for research aimed at healing and prolonging life than the patient’s voice, Alberta is the first jurisdiction in Canada to embrace a national movement to empower patients. We believe this movement can transform health care in Canada — and none too soon.
Earlier this month, Alberta launched a strategy for a patient-oriented research unit called Support for People and Patient-Oriented Research and Trials (SUPPORT) — a research resource and services cluster with patients at the centre of all activity.

Patients involved with Alberta’s SUPPORT unit will have a powerful voice in setting research priorities and a central role in conducting research.
Importantly, our patients will be part of Alberta’s newest pipeline for translating knowledge into medical practice and health policy.

Instead of watching from the sidelines, our patients will be positioned to pull knowledge past the obstacles along the pipeline. No longer will the most important voice — the patient’s — be lost in translation.
Canadians will no longer receive suboptimal care because of medical breakthroughs sitting on the shelf.

Other research and health care communities in Canada are preparing to launch their own SUPPORT clusters as part of the national movement. As their work takes hold, there will be unprecedented opportunities to pool resources, share evidence and spread best practices nationally in ways that will get the right care to the right patient at the right time.

Our patients are stepping out of their traditional role of passive recipients of care and subjects of clinical trials. They are taking an active role that gives them a powerful new voice.

With the power of patients behind them, Alberta’s universities and health system are poised and ready to take on the challenge.
Dr. Douglas Miller is the dean of medicine and dentistry at the University of Alberta, Dr. Jon Meddings is the dean of medicine at the University of Calgary, and Dr. Cy Frank is chief executive of Alberta Innovates-Health Solutions.