Methods Clusters
Improving Patient Oriented Research
The Methods Clusters study patient-oriented research by bringing together all the people involved in care: researchers, patients, health care providers and health care system decision-makers. Together, we take on research projects to improve our understanding about the best ways of doing patient-oriented research.
Community Driven Priorities
Our projects are driven by the communities they matter to. Our stakeholders identified six areas where more methodology research was most important to them. These areas became the six Methods Clusters. Each cluster worked with their communities to develop specific research themes relevant to their work.
Studying and Doing
All Methods Clusters projects are patient-oriented research projects. We study patient-oriented research, by doing patient-oriented research.
Latest Updates
Hosting of Clinical Trials BC Conference
The Real-World Clinical Trials cluster is hosting a forum at the Clinical Trials Conference BC. This forum is taking place from 9-5 pm on January 27th, 2021. The focus is on Pragmatic Trials in the context of Learning Health Systems
See Conference Details | See Conference Resources
Citizen Science Launch
The Citizen Science Project has created a new portal to let the public share self-reported health data to generate patient-oriented research questions. As a Citizen Scientist for this project, participants will join forces with health scientists in British Columbia by providing information about their experience living with pain. Visit the site to explore or start sharing today!
Patient Partner-authored paper
Check out Tiasha Burch’s reflections on balances of power in patient-oriented research, in her sole-authored paper in The Patient. Tiasha is a patient partner on the “Using Health Economics Methods to Design Clinical Studies” research team. Read the paper here and the project here.
Rural Travel Costs project in the news!
Asif Khowaja and Jude Kornelsen are leading a Health Economics and Simulation Modeling Methods Cluster project which developed a measure for how much patients outside major cities are paying to access care. Read coverage in The Tyee.
Inside the Clusters
The Real-World Clinical Trials Cluster works to build capacity and foster methodological development in the field of clinical trials. The goal of the Cluster is to address the needs of diverse real-world populations and individual patient priorities, while working to make clinical trials more feasible and efficient in real-world settings.
DaSHI aims to advance patient-oriented research methods by using data science and health informatics methods to improve healthcare processes and patient-reported outcomes.
Patient Engagement is focused on advancing the ways patients can be involved in health research. This cluster aims to deepen our understanding and lead the way with provincially-focused methods that foster meaningful and active collaboration between health care researchers, providers and patients.
The Health Economics and Simulation Modelling methods cluster undertakes projects to understand how decisions are made in healthcare and how research funds can be spent on issues that matter to patients.
The Knowledge Translation and Implementation Science Methods Cluster works with the broad range of activities, methods, and scientific evidence that promotes the uptake of health research findings into routine healthcare practice. Together, this cluster studies methods that will help close the gaps between knowledge and practice in the context of patient-oriented research.
The Patient-Centred Measurement methods cluster aims to understand what matters most to patients by collecting information on their experiences and outcomes. Through collecting, reporting and incorporating these metrics into research and services, patients and families are able to have an impact on the quality of care that they receive.