A Message & Invitation from the President

National surveys have demonstrated consistently over the years that the health status of Canadian rural residents is worse than that of their urban counterparts. For example, the frequency of common conditions such as heart disease, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, depression, and some forms of cancers, is higher in rural communities than in large urban centres. Despite this reality, clinical research dedicated to rural health issues is insufficient.

Recognizing the magnitude of the problem and the importance of taking action to improve the well-being of rural residents, a number of community leaders in the Huron-Perth-Grey-Bruce region created the Gateway Rural Health Research Institute, a centre focussed on addressing medical and health issues in rural populations – to our knowledge, this is the first community-driven research centre in Ontario and in Canada.

The institute will take advantage of the excellent conditions for clinical research the region has to offer including an aging population, high quality of health care professionals, and neighbouring world-renown medical research centres. The institute will support health care professionals to engage actively in research on areas of concern such as determinants of health, evaluation of intervention programs, assessment of health status, and disease prevention in a rural context. The institute will also provide an established community-based infrastructure for clinical research to academic investigators and the pharmaceutical industry so that, in collaboration with local investigators, they can expand their research initiatives to rural communities.

Although this initiative started as a rural health research centre, on August 22, 2008, we received notice from the Ministry of Universities and Colleges authorizing operating the centre as an independent research institute. As such, we will be able to expand significantly the scope of the centre to include research training programs, professional development activities, and establishing strong collaboration with regional and national academic institutions while increasing funding opportunities.

On behalf of the Board of Directors, I am delighted to invite you to join us in the launch of this exciting endeavour. For details, please see attached invitation.

Yours truly,

L. A. (Lin) Steffler

President