Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

Arthritis is the most common chronic health condition in Canada, affecting about 6 million Canadians. Its impact on lives can be devastating, and its prevalence is rising. Given the significant burden that arthritis places on patients, the healthcare system, and society at large, a strategic focus on arthritis research is critical to ensuring that people living with arthritis receive the best possible care, while also working towards changing the future of arthritis. Since the sunsetting of the Canadian Arthritis Network in 2014, there is no longer a national meeting to bring together Canadian researchers and clinicians across all arthritis disciplines. This has created major knowledge translation, training and mentorship gaps across the arthritis ecosystem. To fill this gap, the Arthritis Society recently entered into a partnership with the Canadian Rheumatology Association and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis (CIHR-IMHA) to pilot an inaugural Canadian Arthritis Research Conference in February 2020 to promote knowledge dissemination and exchange among Canadian arthritis researchers and research trainees across all disciplines and pillars, along with the patients/consumer perspective. In doing so, this conference will spark new initiatives, support trainee development, inform ongoing and future research, and bring together the Canadian arthritis community. A CIHR Planning and Dissemination Grant would allow the Arthritis Society to ensure that all Society-funded research trainees have the opportunity to attend in order to access the latest research evidence and integrate themselves into the Canadian arthritis research landscape.