Message From Management

Dr. Vincent Poitout (VP) We’ve come a long way in 5 years. Bringing the research teams together at a single site has fostered cross-fertilization among fields of expertise and has made it possible to share access to cutting-edge equipment. In addition to this important synergy, there’s the ability to attract talent, related in part to the quality of our facilities, which now puts us on equal footing with internationally renowned institutions. The desire of the management to incorporate innovation and research into hospital activities has also allowed us to show how valuable research is for population health and health care.

Dr. Fabrice Brunet (FB) The vision of research as a factor in the improvement of population health has been manifested in two ways: first, by increasing research quality and relevance and secondly by ensuring that the results of this research are quickly and directly applied to prove its value. This vision is in perfect alignment and synergy with that of the establishment.

FB We have to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) to change our ways of thinking and acting. Our corporate and integrative vision of AI is our assurance that it will be used relevantly to improve our performance and the health of our citizens. To support this vision, we created the School of Artificial Intelligence in Health. Unrivalled worldwide, this school is our guarantee of the social acceptability of our AI projects and their application for the benefit of the public. It’s a good example of the research and innovation process through which discussions, partnerships, and collective intelligence provide answers to the challenges facing our organizations by involving all actors in the ecosystem.

VP Our Innovation Hub is already speeding up the process of applying knowledge to patient care and to health policies. In an era of big data, CITADEL gives us real-time access to information and facilitates decision-making in all our hospital activities. As for the Unit for Innovative Therapies, it allows patients whose treatment has failed to access new treatments, particularly in oncology.

FB With Innove-Action, the CHUM acts as a catalyst for ideas and shares its innovations for redesigning health care systems, both at home and abroad. How can we go beyond our walls; how can we make sure that patients benefit from proper health care once they go home? Redesigning the health care system doesn’t mean changing our day-to-day procedures, but rather choosing to support our patients as they live their lives. To more quickly demonstrate patient benefits, we established the SERGIP barometer (care, teaching, research, management, innovation, patients), which ensures that all these dimensions become an integral part of our activities.

FB To meet the changing needs of the population, the research centre has chosen to have its teams concentrate on themes that answer questions asked by our patients. And we will continue in this same direction. This is one of the keys to generating new knowledge.

VP Knowledge that, most importantly, must be useful. So we need to be agile, to have the best experts who stay abreast of the latest developments and are able to quickly mobilize their knowledge or implement new ways of doing things. Our role is to provide them with the infrastructures and environment that allow them to remain leaders in their fields.

This fertile scientific breeding ground is home to more than 140 regular researchers, 330 investigators and some 460 students, who create and transform knowledge that makes a difference in patients’ lives.

Producing internationally acclaimed scientific output, the CRCHUM has an operating budget of $16M and an annual research income of $60M. It is supported by its research teams and competitive infrastructures for early clinical research in Canada (Unit for Innovative Therapies) and by some fifteen core facilities for research support and services.

Patient- and Population-Centred

A backdrop to all the CHUM’s hospital activities, our research stands out for its results, innovativeness, originality and dynamism. Our research is rooted in its community and in Quebec society.

We are a global leader when it comes to enhancing patient care, patient services and the patient experience. Our research is highly regarded in certain key sectors:

• Pathophysiology of solid tumours and related therapeutic intervention (oncology); pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes and its complications;
• Disease prevention through the adoption of good lifestyles or by changing lifestyles;
• Deciphering the mechanisms and developing state-of-the-art treatments for neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and multiple sclerosis;
• Canadian network of toxicology and comorbidities associated with the different types of hepatitis;
• New approaches in the fight against HIV.

Giving Patient-Partners A Voice

The CRCHUM’s patient-partner committee, made up of patients and researchers, guides the CRCHUM’s management team as they introduce the patient-partner approach into their development priorities and research programs.

In the fall of 2018, this committee allowed two patient-partners to be appointed members of the CRCHUM’s scientific committee. It also established an awareness campaign for patients and citizens to promote the importance of research and the research cycle

Key Contributions To The Quebec Life Sciences Strategy

To meet the standards of a world-class clinical research centre, in 2018 the CRCHUM established the Unit for Innovative Therapies (UIT) under the initiative of Dr. Rahima Jamal, a hemato-oncologist at the CHUM. The UIT allows patients whose treatment has failed to have access to new treatments and accelerate the development of such treatments. Developed in collaboration with several CRCHUM researchers, this project aims to strengthen the health care system, a priority established by the 2017-2027 Quebec Life Sciences Strategy. Major pharmaceutical companies are presently offering phase 1 clinical trials at the UIT. The unit also supports the CHUM’s innovative clinical research programs by facilitating the development of trials initiated by our researcher-investigators.

Precision medicine is another priority component of this Strategy, not only for the province, but for the health care system and the public as well. The CITADEL (Center for the Integration and Analysis of Medical Data), an integral part of the CHUM and its research centre, has been a repository for the medical and administrative data of some 4 million patients treated at the CHUM since 1998. Accessing and using this data has been a valuable asset for both researchers and managers, who can analyze medical conditions, health care and services and recommend improvements that will benefit patients. Consisting of computer engineers, data scientists and biostatisticians, the CITADEL team facilitates data processing and analysis for nearly 60 projects currently underway.

On the strength of this infrastructure unrivalled elsewhere in Quebec, the CRCHUM received $1.2M in funding from the Ministère de l’Économie et de l’Innovation to facilitate access to the clinical and administrative data of health institutions province-wide. This project involves Quebec’s largest institutions (CHUM, MUHC, CHU de Québec, CHU de Sherbrooke, MHI, Quebec Heart and Lung Institute, etc.).

Global Visibility

A world-class research centre, the CRCHUM produces highquality knowledge output and mobilizes it widely across the scientific community, making it available to decision-makers and the public at large.

Here’s a summary of 2018-2019, a year filled with discoveries and awards that echo our practical objective of playing a leading role in improving health care and promoting health.

Developing Talents

Since its founding, the CRCHUM has actively supported the development of successful research teams. With its dynamic environment that allows research groups in emerging and translational niche sectors to thrive, the CRCHUM is able to attract new research leaders and recruit the best students. In 2018, 10 regular researchers joined the CRCHUM: Chantal Bémeur (Cardiometabolic theme); Marie-Claude Bourgeois-Daigneault, Gerardo Ferbeyre and Dr. Philip Wong (Cancer theme); Sophie Petropoulos and Sabrina Anh-Tu Hoa (Immunopathology theme); Dr. François-Martin Carrier, Emmanuelle Duceppe and Dr. Brian James Potter (Health Innovation and Evaluation Hub theme), Mark Keezer (Health Innovation and Evaluation Hub and Neuroscience themes).

A well-known training facility, the CRCHUM welcomes an average of nearly 650 students per year (undergraduate, masters, doctoral and postdoctoral trainees). Each of our researchers supervises on average three to five students, destined to become future research leaders.

In 2017, to facilitate recruiting the best students, the CRCHUM introduced an Open House Day where masters, doctoral and postdoctoral students could meet our research teams and discover the unique characteristics of a research environment in an ultraspecialized hospital setting. In the past three years, more than 200 students have taken part in this event. The 2019 event was once again a success.

Held annually, the Student Congress also provides young scientists with a platform for presenting their research results and meeting world-class researchers. The 20th conference saw a record number of participants and featured 140 abstracts and 110 posters. The Datablitz session, a concept introduced this year in which students had three minutes to present their research results, was also highly appreciated.

Valorization

• 8 spinoff companies active in the following areas:
  • Medical technology
  • Biomaterials
  • Personalized medicine
  • Metabolic diseases
  • Virtual nurse platform
• 38 active patents
• 33 pending patent applications
• 19 active business agreements
• 10 invention disclosure statements