Grant: SPOR Mentorship Chair in Innovative Clinical Trials

HIV medications are getting better but for many HIV-infected Canadians taking their lifelong medication is a serious challenge. Current HIV care insufficiently addresses this. Better consideration of the patient's perspective during medical visits could help. Dr. Lebouché's research program centers on the development and testing of a new measure, a questionnaire about factors that patients believe make it hard for them to take their HIV medication. It aims to ensure that care is more patient-centered and responsive to these factors. This measure will be filled out on an electronic tablet prior to patients' regular clinic visits and scores will be shared with their doctor so that any difficulties can be discussed and addressed. Dr. Lebouché is consulting with both patients and HIV doctors to create this measure to ensure that it is relevant to them and he has several clinical trials planned to evaluate it. This research program puts the patient's perspective at the top of research priorities and is an ideal context to mentor trainees and new investigators in patient-oriented research and in the conduct of innovative clinical trials. With this Chair, Dr. Lebouché will recruit talented trainees with a range of academic backgrounds to create qualified researchers in these areas. His mentorship program consists of: 1) a personalized training plan; 2) trainee access to a team of 10 accomplished mentors with a wide range of relevant expertise; 3) weekly meetings and/or seminars; 4) structured consultations with two stakeholder committees on their research projects, an HIV patient committee and a diverse knowledge-users committee (50% are people living with HIV); 5) peer mentoring between trainees; 6) productivity requirements; and 7) trainee evaluation of the program. His research and mentorship programs are set to not only innovate HIV care but to increase the pool of investigators committed to engaging patients and other concerned groups in health research.