A general internist from Cranbrook who is passionate about health research has been named as the new Director of the Rural Scholars Program at UBC’s Faculty of Medicine.
Dr. Denise Jaworsky takes over from Dr. Ilona Hale, who passed the torch earlier this year.
As a rural internist and researcher, Denise is familiar with the crucial role that rural physicians play to ensure that knowledge is produced and disseminated across the province.
She said that in her new role she will continue to build a cohort of rural clinicians who have an interest in scholarship.
“One of the things that I’m really passionate about is rural capacity-building,” said Denise. “I feel that rural communities are often underestimated and undervalued, and people don’t realize what the true potential is. If rural communities and rural clinicians, are just given a little bit more opportunity, I think some really great things can come from there that are very community-focused and driven by real-life experiences. That can have the most impact on improving health.”
She added: “I’m really passionate about creating systems that allow rural communities to drive change, whether it’s through program development, advocacy or scholarship.”
She said that rural physicians who are interested in research are welcome to reach out to her at [email protected].
The Rural Scholars Program was created to provide an opportunity for rural clinicians to develop skills in scholarship and leadership. The program takes a broad approach to scholarship and can encompass any category of scholarship: discovery, integration, application/engagement and education. To find out how to apply to the program for 2024 click here.
For more on the Rural Scholars Program visit: https://crhr.med.ubc.ca/rural-scholars-program/.
“I feel that rural communities are often underestimated and undervalued, and people don't realize what the true potential is. And if rural communities and rural clinicians, are just given a little bit more opportunity, I think some really great things can come from there that are very community-focused and driven by real-life experiences. That can have the most impact on improving health”
Clinical Trials
Denise has been involved in rural research for a long time. Her passion for research has led her to spearhead a clinical trials study in her home community of Cranbook.
“We were fortunate enough to be selected as a portfolio site for this program called Accelerating Clinical Trials. It’s a national program with a vision of bringing more communities into clinical trials and increasing geographic access to clinical trials,” she said.
Typically, clinical trials are run in urban areas, close to larger populations. But Denise said there are many benefits of expanding clinical trials to a rural community. “There are benefits to the participants themselves. It gives people access to investigational therapies that they would not otherwise have access to,” she said.
Steps towards health equity can also be gained by bringing clinical trials to a rural community. “You’re increasing the representation and the external validity of the data by showing that you can deliver these therapies at a rural site, or that these therapies work in rural sites,” said Denise. “And then the other thing is that clinical trial infrastructure also helps to support health services infrastructure.”
She added: “They have done studies showing that sites that implement and deliver clinical trials can also have better overall health outcomes in certain areas.”
The first clinical trials in Cranbrook could be delivered as early as fall 2024 and they have funding for three years.
Psychological safety
Another area of interest of Denise is rural physician recruitment and retention and the role that psychological safety may play in that.
As part of a study that is being funded in part through the Rural Physician Research Grant Program from RCCbc, Denise is looking for physicians who are willing to be interviewed. If you are a physician who has left a rural community or considered leaving due to concerns with psychological safety, she wants to hear from you.
The study will look at suggestions on how to make rural healthcare environments more psychologically safe for healthcare workers.
In the study, psychological safety is described as the degree to which people view the environment as conducive to interpersonally risky behaviours like speaking up or asking for help.
Interested participants would be asked to take part in a 30–60 minute semi-structured, virtual interview.