Clinical Research & QI Incubator

The Clinical Research and QI (Quality Improvement) Incubator aims to bring clinicians and scientists together, to turn healthcare questions and challenges into active, implementable solutions. The Incubator is operated by the Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Management (located at UBC’s Southern Medical Program) in partnership with Interior Health and scientists at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan Campus. This program is offered free of charge to licensed clinicians practicing within the Interior Health region (East Kootenay, Kootenay Boundary, Okanagan, Thompson Cariboo Shuswap).

2022 Project Intake

Send us your clinical research or QI ideas, questions or challenges. Incubator projects are typically addressed through smaller-scale projects such as systematic literature reviews, online surveys, retrospective chart reviews or pilot experiments. Some examples of previous Incubator projects include: evaluating the effectiveness of nabilone for long-term care patients; measuring the impact of changes in cervical cancer screening guidelines on compliance to breast cancer screening guidelines; assessing a primary care dietary intervention on metabolic outcomes; and learning from parents about routine growth monitoring in infancy.

If you have questions about the suitability of your idea, you can contact Dr. Christine Voss, Assistant Professor, at christine.voss@ubc.ca. Together, we will determine the feasibility, objectives, and timeline for your project idea.

Once we have given the green light for a project idea to go forward, we will assemble a project team of UBC Okanagan researchers who have relevant content or research expertise. We will create a comprehensive project plan including methods, protocol, and ethics application (if applicable). We will also help identify and source project resources such as librarian support, biostatistician and student research-assistant support.

We will work with you and the project team to ensure the project deliverables are achieved. Your input and ongoing participation (a few hours per month) are essential to ensure that the project addresses true clinical conditions/situations in order to maximize the real-world impact of the project findings.

Upon project completion, we will communicate and share the results with key stakeholders including Interior Health, UBC Okanagan, UBC Faculty of Medicine, and healthcare professionals throughout the region. We will also help identify next steps to move projects into new phases, as appropriate.

To learn more about the Clinical Research and QI Incubator, contact Dr. Christine Voss at christine.voss@ubc.ca.

An Incubator Story

This year, more than 30,000 British Columbians will be diagnosed with cancer, including 6,195 in the interior region. Sadly, those numbers will continue growing year on year; according to BC Cancer’s projections, the number of new cancer cases in the region is expected to increase by 27 per cent from 2019 to 2034.

Kelowna-based BC Cancer radiation oncologist Dr. Siavash Atrchian teamed up with Dr. Christine Voss, CCDPM Investigator to develop an Incubator project that would help advance outcomes for patients and explore how best to integrate family physicians into the post-treatment care.

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