About us
Our team is led by researchers and clinicians with experience in symptom screening and self-management tools for patients with cancer.
Cancer and cancer treatment can result in side effects like pain, fatigue and nausea, as well as anxiety and sometimes depression, which are not always recognized and treated. For over a decade, our team has been committed to helping patients and their families identify their symptoms and concerns and provide them with tools to successfully manage their health through self-management. Self-management refers to the decisions and behaviours that a person engages in to live as well as possible with an illness. With the appropriate support, self-management can help improve physical and emotional symptoms, as well as address practical and social concerns such as family relationships.
Below, we have included a brief description of other present and past projects our team is leading in addition to e-IMPAQc.
Vision
Actively engaging patients, their caregivers, healthcare professionals, and researchers to deliver a high-quality, innovative, and sustainable electronic symptom screening and management program to optimize cancer care in Quebec
Mission
We are a team of patients, caregivers, healthcare professionals and researchers from across Quebec passionate about patient- and family-centered cancer care. We work together to implement a state-of-the-art, real-world electronic program for detecting, monitoring, and managing physical, emotional, social, informational, practical and spiritual difficulties across the cancer trajectory.
Our projects
TEMPO
TEMPO is a web-based self-management and physical activity program to help men living with prostate cancer and their primary support person actively look after their emotional and physical health.
Past projects
iPEHOC
The purpose of iPEHOC (Improving Patient Experience and Health Outcomes Collaborative) was to develop a common and sustainable measurement system for collecting and reporting patient-reported outcomes in Quebec and Ontario. The main aim of the project was to reduce symptom burden and improve patient experience of care by engaging physicians in the meaningful use of patient-reported outcome results in routine clinical care.
Looking Forward
The Looking Forward kit is a series of booklets that provides information, support and resources for patients who have completed active cancer treatment. While some of the resources for cancer patients suggested in these booklets are specific to Montreal and the province of Quebec, many national and international resources are also included. To find out more, visit the website.
Coping-Together
Coping-Together is a self-management resource for patients with cancer and their caregivers. It includes a series of six booklets that aim to provide practical coping strategies for the day-to-day management of common challenges associated with cancer.
e-IMPAQc's core team
Sylvie Lambert
Project lead
Dr Lambert is a Canada Research Chair and Assistant Professor in the Ingram School of Nursing at McGill University, and a scientist at St. Mary’s Research Centre. Prior to becoming a researcher, Dr Lambert was an ICU nurse. Her research interests include understanding the impact of a cancer diagnosis on patients’ and their caregivers’ well-being, developing and evaluating self-management interventions, and the use of patient reported outcomes to improve outcome evaluations.
Rosanna Faria
Clinical lead
Roasanna Faria is a clinical psychologist and coordinator of Psychosocial Oncology at St. Mary’s Hospital Centre. She is interested in improving patient experiences and psychosocial health outcomes for people with cancer.
John Kildea
Opal co-lead
Dr Kildea is Assistant Professor in the Gerald Department of Oncology at McGill University and a scientist at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre. His research interests include using data to improve the experience and outcomes of cancer patients, and developing evidence-based radiotherapy treatments. Dr Kildea is a co-founder and co-leader of the Opal Health Informatics Group, out of which the Opal app was developed.
Tarek Hijal
Opal co-lead
Dr Hijal is the chief of Radiation Oncology at the McGill University Health Centre and Associate Professor in the Department of Oncology at McGill University. His clinical interests include breast cancer, colorectal cancer and hematologic malignancies. His main research focus is decreasing treatment durations in breast cancer radiotherapy. Dr. Hijal is a co-founder and co-leader of the Health Informatics Group, out of which the Opal portal and app were developed.
Zeev Rosberger
Core team
Dr Rosberger led the development of the Louise Granofsky-Psychosocial Oncology Program at the Segal Cancer Centre. Dr. Rosberger has over 40 years of experience and expertise in clinical health psychology, and has been continuously funded for psychosocial oncology research studies that span the entire cancer trajectory. His current research interests include the psychosocial impact of cancer-related infertility, depression in cancer patients and interventions to improve quality of life in cancer patients.
Jane McCusker
Core team
Dr McCusker is a scientist at St. Mary’s Research Centre and professor emerita in the Departments of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health at McGill University. Her research over the past 25 years has focused on the mental health of older and chronically ill adults, emergency department care of vulnerable older adults, family caregiving and clinical epidemiology. Currently, Dr. McCusker leads several research projects on the evaluation of interventions to support improved care.
Mona Magalhaes
Program manager
Mona Magalhaes is the e-IMPAQc Research Program Manager, based at St. Mary’s Research Centre. Ms Magalhaes has an MA in social and cultural anthropology from Concordia University. As a qualitative researcher and project coordinator, she has supported projects related to patient and healthcare staff experiences of care, co-design of quality improvement projects and the development of self-care interventions.
Ashley Kushneryk
Site coordinator supervisor
Ashley studied behavioural neurobiology and spent the last 6 years working with collection of patient-reported outcome data, symptom screening and research in oncology. She is excited to bring the knowledge she gained from this experience to implement PRO screening more broadly.
Patient Partners
Linda Tracey
Linda Tracey is a freelance writer, editor and project coordinator, primarily in the area of healthcare communications, with a BA in Films and Communications and an MA in English Literature from McGill University. She underwent cancer treatment in 2009 and 2010, and has been involved in many projects as a patient partner over the past 10 years.
Site Leads
Dr Marie Andree Fortin
Hôpital de la Cité-de-la-Santé
Dr Danielle Charpentier
Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal
Dr Tarek Hijal
McGill University Health Centre
Participating Hospitals
e-IMPAQc is supported by
e-IMPAQc is powered by Opal
Opal is a patient portal designed to empower patients with direct access to their medical information. Based at the McGill University Health Centre, the Opal patient portal app has unique features, such as being able to provide medical data, including lab results, medical notes and treatment plans, and personalized educational material. For more information on Opal, visit the website (opalmedapps.com) or read the paper in the Journal of Internet Research, available at: https://www.jmir.org/2019/2/e11371.
The development of the Opal patient portal is supported by The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, the McGill University Health Centre, Cedars Cancer Foundation, the McGill University Health Centre Foundation and the Montreal General Hospital Foundation.
