ICRH News
Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health (ICRH) Strategic Outlook
Mission: The ICRH supports research into the causes, mechanisms, prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, support systems, and palliation for a wide range of conditions associated with the heart, lung, brain (stroke), blood vessels, blood, [critical care, and sleep].
Vision: To achieve international leadership through fostering an environment of extraordinary openness, excitement, energy, commitment and excellence in highly ethical, partnered initiatives focused on research, research training, and research translation for the circulatory and respiratory sciences and for the betterment of the health of Canadians.
Values: Innovative people; innovative programs of research; interdisciplinary research findings; international quality of research; impact of findings on health.
Strategic Research Priorities
Building international leadership through national excellence in health research
Research Training and Career Development
Over the next 10 years, more than 50% of faculty within university health sciences centres will retire from the workforce. The ICRH is committed to training, recruiting, retaining and re-training the brightest, most passionate investigators throughout the life cycle of their careers. In the current health care environment, ICRH is very concerned about the ability of clinicians to maintain the quality of their research while delivering excellent patient care.
Goals:
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Establish comprehensive, sustainable training opportunities guided by visionary leadership, including personnel awards and large scale training center programs
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Attract and retain researchers from Canada and abroad who bring excellence, innovation and mentoring skills across the spectrum of all research themes and disciplines through a national coordinated strategy
National and Global Health
The formation of national and international collaborations, partnerships and networks, centered around pressing health problems can greatly benefit a global community faced by an accelerating burden of heart, lung, blood vessel and blood diseases. By working in a coordinated and catalytic fashion with partners, ICRH has a unique opportunity to achieve world leadership in cardiovascular and respiratory health research.
Goals:
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A harmonized national research agenda that finds efficiency, embraces diversity, benefits from specialization and novelty, and is supported and understood by the research community and Canadian citizens.
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Build strong international research partnerships with developed and developing countries that benefit not only our society, but also those of other countries.
Integrating the biomedical, natural and social sciences, engineering, mathematics and the humanities
Building and integrating strong research teams and networks
Trans-disciplinary teams have a dynamic and comprehensive approach that integrates quantitative (mathematics, physics and computational sciences, computer modeling), basic biomedical, clinical and behavioural sciences (health services and epidemiological research), technology transfer, professional and scientific education, and public educational outreach activities.
Goals:
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Improve integration of knowledge from molecules to populations and back again by establishing robust and unusual research teams,
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Establish a network of research centres across the country that embrace national responsibility as hubs of special knowledge, guidance, and standards of quality and performance, and that are charged with leadership in certain extraordinary applications at the leading margins of circulatory and respiratory research enterprises.
Improving the health status of vulnerable populations
Vulnerable populations and circulatory and respiratory diseases
Fetuses, children, women, aboriginal peoples, immigrants and refugees, and the elderly are among several groups in the population that are especially vulnerable to circulatory and respiratory diseases, including asthma, chronic obstructive lung diseases, atherosclerosis, obesity, heart failure, stroke, and other related chronic diseases.
Goals:
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Identify and begin to modify the key influences that convey increased vulnerability to circulatory and respiratory diseases in particular populations
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Translate existing and newly validated observations for these populations, fostering improvement of risk factors and a knowledge-based approach to prevention strategies
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Improve our understanding of health systems delivery models in order to positively impact the global burden of circulatory and respiratory diseases
Strengthening health research and the health system in the genomics era
Gene-Environment Interactions in Circulatory and Respiratory Diseases
Cutting-edge methods in genetics, genomics, proteomics, cellular biology, imaging, bio-informatics, environmental assessment, epidemiology and population health are now available and must be applied, in large scale interdisciplinary research settings to address complex diseases that are imposing extensive societal burdens.
Goals:
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Understand the complex and multi-variate interplay between genetic variation, gene products, and the social, cultural, ecological, and therapeutic environments in predicting and preventing conditions that lead to human circulatory and respiratory disease
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Develop new tools for early detection, prognostication, individualization, and monitoring of complex, chronic eco-genetic diseases of the circulatory and respiratory systems
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Develop and foster innovative cell and tissue regenerative strategies including stem cell biology and gene therapy.
