Research Programs
Canadian Collaboration for Immigrant and Refugee Health (CCIRH)
The Canadian Collaboration for Immigrant and Refugee Health (CCIRH) is a team of clinicians, public and migration health experts, methodologists, and community health promoters from across Canada dedicated to improving the health of newly arriving immigrants and refugees. The group focuses on identifying neglected preventable and treatable health conditions relevant for immigrants and refugees, conducting high quality evidence reviews, developing clinical preventive recommendations using the GRADE approach, and disseminating our research to primary care practitioners and community based multicultural health brokers.
The goals are: 1) to produce reliable syntheses of evidence to improve quality and delivery of primary health care for immigrant populations; 2) to develop evidence based recommendations with discussions of implementation issues to assist practitioners in population- tailored practice checklists and practice routines; and 3) to support community based health brokers who often play a key role in advising new immigrants in terms of preventive services.
Campbell & Cochrane Equity Methods Group
The Campbell and Cochrane Equity Methods Group is registered with both the Campbell and Cochrane Collaborations.
The Cochrane Collaboration's purpose is to ensure that relevant, accurate, and current research about health interventions is available worldwide. To meet this objective, Cochrane contributors conduct and distribute systematic reviews. Similarly, the Campbell Collaboration produces reviews with an aim to "help people make well-informed decisions about the effects of interventions in the social, behavioral and educational arenas."
The Equity Methods Group encourages authors of both Campbell and Cochrane reviews to include explicit descriptions of the effect of the interventions not only on the whole population but to describe their effect upon the disadvantaged and/or their ability to reduce socio-economic inequalities in health and to promote their use to the wider community.
Ultimately, this will help build the evidence base on such interventions and increase our capacity to act on the health gap between rich and poor.
Cochrane Musculoskeletal Group
The Cochrane Musculoskeletal Group (CMSG), a specialized group of researchers, health-care professionals and consumer representatives, belongs to the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that prepares, maintains and promotes reviews of the effects of health care treatments.
The CMSG produces reliable, up-to-date reviews of interventions for the prevention, treatment or rehabilitation of musculoskeletal disorders in the form of systematic reviews. Each systematic review is a synthesis of all known published controlled clinical trials and gives the best estimate of health benefits and side effects of a particular therapy.
The Campbell International Development Coordinating Group (IDCG)
The Campbell International Development Coordinating Group is an international
network of researchers, policy makers and practitioners who are interested in
systematic reviews for better evidence-based international development policy and
practice. The Group prepares, updates and disseminates systematic reviews of high
policy-relevance with a dedicated focus on social and economic development
interventions in low and middle income countries
OMERACT
The Outcome Measures in Rheumatology (OMERACT) initiative is an informal international network of working groups and gatherings interested in outcome measurement across the spectrum of rheumatology intervention studies.
OMERACT 11 will be held at Pinehurst in North Carolina from 13 - 18 May 2012. Please see website for more information.
OMERACT 9: Kananaskis, Alberta