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Winner of 2021 TAC-Lerners Research Grant Competition

2021 Winner of the TAC-Lerners Trauma Research Grant Competition from Edmonton

The Competition: Since 2019, the Trauma Association of Canada (TAC) has been pleased to announce a call for submissions for an annual “TAC-Lerners Research Grant.” The one-time (non-renewable) grant of $5000 is intended to fund new interdisciplinary Canadian trauma research. The first grant was awarded in 2020.

About Lerners: Lerners LLP ( https://www.lerners.ca/) one of Canada’s leading law practices, has been helping trauma patients for 90 years, as part of the trauma recovery journey. Because Lerners LLP knows that trauma research improves the care of the injured patient and their return to the community, they have made a historic commitment to furthering trauma research in Canada in the form of an annual grant of $5000.00 provided to, and administered by TAC, for a period of five (5) years. It is to be awarded to a TAC member who submits an innovative trauma research proposal for consideration. The winner will be announced at the TAC annual scientific meeting and conference each year.

Criteria for the Competition: Potential impact on the lives of trauma patients or their families/communities, scientific methodology and merit, creativity, multidisciplinary collaboration, and patient centred approach. At least one member of the research team had to be a TAC member.  Proposals were also judged on how they capture the spirit of the vision of Lerners LLP; “Every case is different. Every client is unique. Every injury is personal” and the vision of TAC to “improve the lives of all those affected by, or at risk of traumatic injury.”

The winner of Lerners LLP Trauma Research Competition will be requested to present their work in the form of a podium presentation at the annual meeting of the Trauma Association of Canada the following year.

Judging:  In 2021 there were 10 submissions received from across Canada by the TAC Research Committee Chair, Dr Andrew Beckett. Thank you to all those who submitted this year!  The quality of the submissions was excellent.

They were scrubbed of all identifiers (researcher, institution, and region names) prior to blinded review by a panel of five (5) external reviewers who represented:

• Different regions from across Canada
• ITNC representative
• TAC member-at-large
• MD’s
• RN’s
• Directors from TAC BOD

Each reviewer scored the submissions using a standardized rubric covering multiple domains including the impact on care of patients or members of the public, scientific excellence, research team configuration, uniqueness of the project and most importantly alignment with the spirit of the vision of Lerners LLP and TAC.

The 2021 Winning Proposal: We are pleased to announce that the winner for the 2021 competition is from Edmonton, Alberta.  The lead for the submission was TAC member, Erica Lester MD MSC FRCSC for her team’s submission titled: “Evaluation of a Multidisciplinary Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic in the Public Health Care Setting: a Health System Performance and Cost Utility Analysis.”  Other project team members are Amanda Klooster MN NP, Trevor Lashyn MD FRCPC CSCN (EMG), and TAC member Ram V. Anantha MD MSc FRCSC.

Reminder of Deadline for 2022 Competition: The deadline for submissions for the 2022 competition is February 1, 2022 2359 EST (with the winner announced in Montreal April 8, 2022).    

To find out more about the Competition and how to submit CLICK HERE