Nova Scotia Cochrane Resource Centre

Nova Scotians are a proud bunch. We sing songs about our heritage with dignity and esteem. We’ve overcome a history of hardships and perseverance. Today, we enjoy a rich culture that offers a balance of all the best things in life: rural and urban settings; family life and work life, history and modernity; relaxation and entertainment.

Generations of Nova Scotians chose, and continue to choose, to stay in our distinctive and opportune communities; people immigrate from far and wide to experience all Nova Scotia has to offer: landscape, education, entertainment, great healthcare.

The qualities that make Nova Scotia a destination of choice did not spring up by chance. Well… some of them did, like our natural springs, green forests and tidal bores. However, most of our admirable attributes arose from centuries of good old-fashioned elbow grease.

Take our healthcare system, for example. It has taken many years to build the venerable system available in the province. It has taken the will and determination of many people who’ve spent their lives researching and building new and beneficial technologies.

One such group constantly aiming to better the quality of our healthcare is the Nova Scotia Cochrane Resource Centre. The organization helps inform decisions about human health care by preparing, updating and promoting the accessibility of health-related research.

As Dr. Jill Hayden, Assistant Professor at Dalhousie University and Principal Investigator of the Nova Scotia Cochrane Resource Centre explains, “We’re a local branch of an international non-profit organization, the Cochrane Collaboration. Our branch here in Nova Scotia develops local infrastructure that enables us to use research to aid healthcare decision making.

“Our ultimate goal is to build capacity for healthcare research evidence and help understand how it’s useful in developing policies and making decisions,” she explains. “Basically, we help make technical research practically relevant to support healthcare decision making.”

It seems like a big job. And, certainly, it is. So how do those overarching goals translate into tangible results?

Dr. Hayden’s work through the Nova Scotia Cochrane Resource Centre includes informing policy makers, healthcare professionals, and other researchers about how they can summarize and implement the mounds of research that exists in the field of health in a way that’s useful to Nova Scotians. It’s all about ensuring our circle of care implements best practices.

“There’s no such thing as a typical day in my line of work,” says Dr. Hayden. “But activities include delivering education sessions for Nova Scotia’s health decision makers to help them understand research, offering expert advice to Nova Scotia’s researchers regarding the literature that’s out there and how they might use it, and recruiting people to get involved in research and guide them through the task.”

It takes a very educated and experienced individual to serve as a medical school professor, a coach for policy makers, and an advisor to researchers.

Dr. Hayden was born and raised in the Maritimes. She completed her healthcare training in Toronto, where she went on to do her PhD in clinical epidemiology (translation: healthcare research) at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Hayden was previously involved in work with the Cochrane Collaboration in Toronto. Recently, the opportunity arose to open a branch of the international organization here in Nova Scotia, and she jumped at the chance.

“The opportunity came about through the Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation,” explains Dr. Hayden. “Our local Cochrane Centre is a provincial government-funded project, and it’s supported by Dalhousie University and Capital District Health Authority.

“I grew up here; I did my undergraduate degree here, my husband’s family lives here. We’ve always wanted to move back,” she adds. “So as soon as the opportunity came up to launch a Nova Scotia branch of the Cochrane Collaboration, I submitted my grant application immediately.”

Dr. Hayden has been running the Centre since 2008 and she has been extremely busy during that time.

“I’ve been busy pulling the network together, providing networking opportunities, offering training workshops, and building capacities within the research industry,” she explains.

Dr. Hayden believes her work, although still in its infancy, has the potential to be more fruitful than similar initiatives in Toronto.

“A regional centre wouldn’t be able to have the same impact in Toronto as we’ve had here,” she explains. “Here, there are so many elements that enable me to do my job to the best of my abilities: the collaborative nature of local academics, a vibrant health research community, and great connections between the Departments of Health, and Health Promotion and Protection, Dalhousie University and the research community.

“These elements give us the opportunity to influence decision making. And I actually have a chance to talk to the people who use the information I provide.”

Here, the close-knit community facilitates a link between research and the implementation of that research.

That suits Dr. Hayden and the Nova Scotia Cochrane Resource Centre well.

She sees the Centre as part of a larger initiative: to ensure health decision makers and healthcare professionals are using research and best practices and, thereby, ensure Nova Scotians reap the benefits of treatments that are guided by evidence and experience.

As the organization evolves, Dr. Hayden has some specific goals.

“In the short term, I want to establish the Nova Scotia Cochrane Resource Centre as a resource to identify the best research evidence available for healthcare decision making,” she says.

“In the long term, I want the average Nova Scotian to know we’re here, guiding healthcare to an optimum level,” she adds.

That’s a great message for Nova Scotians – one that affects us all and one we’d all be proud to hear: the Nova Scotia Cochrane Resource Centre is here to ensure that the province’s population has access to the best healthcare possible.

It’s just one more reason for us to wear our colours proudly.