Inspiring Moments

We were also fortunate to have Dr. Mark George, a pioneer who spoke about developing transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a non-invasive treatment for people who haven’t had success with other treatments. His work has influenced the growth of CAMH’s Temerty Centre for Therapeutic Brain Intervention. And we also heard from Campbell scientists, on topics ranging from the genetics of gambling to autism treatment. If you missed it, you can watch the webcast here.

The symposium capped off a number of recent accomplishments for CAMH research. Recently, the 2014 rankings of Canadian research hospitals were released by the Research InfoSource group. Once again, CAMH is the top-ranked mental health research hospital in Canada in terms of research income. Overall, we are ranked 15th among all research hospitals in the country. This speaks to the caliber of our scientists in an increasingly competitive and challenging environment in securing grants.

There have been numerous success stories across the organization – major new studies underway, partnerships with government and industry to move research out of labs and into clinical trials, or towards improved service delivery. Every day, at least one new research publication comes out of CAMH.

Some of these accomplishments are highlighted in the 2014 Research Report: Discovery Across the Lifespan. It highlights studies from over the past year, from pregnancy to late-life, showing the relevance of our work from a different perspective.

Looking ahead to 2015, there are no signs of slowing down. We’re in the midst of developing a new strategy to strengthen clinical research at CAMH, which will be implemented next year.  We’re moving forward on ways to manage the vast amounts of data generated by research, through a bioinformatics or “big data” plan. We’re also looking at how to capture and analyze real-life data through integrated systems that have the potential to improve care within CAMH.

We’ll be focusing on these new priorities, while continuing to work at sustaining what makes us successful – supporting scientific talent, pursuing the grants to do our research, and making breakthroughs that have an impact for people with mental illness or addictions.

To learn more about the research being done at CAMH, follow @CAMHResearch on Twitter