Gateway's frontline research advantage
The ultimate goal of Gateway is to improve the health status of rural residents.
This will require the collaboration between community health centres, rural health professionals, academic teaching and research institutions and the community at large. Thus, a primary goal of Gateway is to provide a community-based “point of access” where stakeholders meet to develop and implement research strategies designed to improve the health status of rural residents in Southwestern Ontario.
As a community-based research organization, Gateway:
- Supports rural health professionals (physicians, nurses, pharmacists, etc) to conduct research relevant to their rural practices. Gateway aims to be “the research institute of the rural health professional.”
- Offers a community-based research infrastructure to academic investigators for the implementation of knowledge translation research
- Encourages collaboration and networking activities between rural health professionals
- Promotes development of partnerships between community health centres and academic institutions for teaching and research in rural health
- Attracts young physicians and other health professionals with an interest in research to rural areas
- Attracts research resources to rural Southwestern Ontario
- Provides opportunities for mentoring students in health research while addressing health issues in real life clinical scenarios
As a community-driven research organization, Gateway:
- Allows community participation in the development of research initiatives and interpretation of results (participatory research)
- Enables community members to take ownership of health issues and act upon them
- Corrects for a ‘missing link’ in traditional health research: partnership between community health centres and the communities they serve
- Facilitates bottom-up, strategic approach to healthcare solutions