Grant: Undergraduate Student Research Awards (USRA)

"This project investigates how geographic region and socioeconomic status (SES)influence neurosurgical outcomes in Ontario. Access to timely neurosurgical care is critical for conditions such as traumatic brain injury, intracranial hemorrhage, and spinal cord injury. Delays in treatment can result in significant morbidity and mortality. Neurosurgical services in Ontario are predominantly concentrated in urban areas, leaving rural and low-income populations at risk for delayed care and poorer outcomes. Despite growing recognition of these disparities, there is a lack of comprehensive, province-wide analysis linking geographic and socioeconomic data to neurosurgical outcomes. Using health administrative datasets, the student will collect outcome data from patients who underwent neurosurgical procedures in Ontario within a defined timeframe. Each patient will be stratified by residential postal code sortation areas to assess geographic outcomes and linked to area-level socioeconomic indicators, such as income/deprivation indices. Primary outcomes will include surgical wait times, perioperative complications, readmissions, and mortality rates. The student will use statistical and spatial analysis to compare outcomes across geographic and SES groups, identifying underserved populations and care gaps. Findings from this project will help inform future healthcare policy and planning by identifying where inequities exist and what factors may be contributing to them. The overaching goal is to support the development of equitable strategies, improved triage systems, or targeted funding, to improve access to neurosurgical care across Ontario."