Projects
Our research is organized across four focus areas spanning palliative and end-of-life care, health systems, equity, and arts-based knowledge mobilization. Select any project to read more about the work.
How to read this page
Each focus area uses its own colour. Select a project to read its full description, and funding acknowledgement.
Health System Considerations
Most people indicate a preference to receive healthcare at home towards the end of life. Yet many patients still struggle to access physician and nurse practitioner home visits. This mixed-methods study examines how health system costs, provider perspectives, and system structures shape home-visit capacity across Ontario. By pairing health economics analyses (i.e., cost effectiveness, costing, and contingent valuation) in Ontario with a national survey and interviews, we aim to identify practical levers to expand equitable home-based palliative care and build a compelling policy case for scaling home visits at end of life.
This project is funded by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Project Grant.
Transitions from hospital to home are pivotal moments in palliative care — yet often fragmented, stressful, and poorly coordinated. In a multi-year, multi-site process, ACEPATH brought patients, caregivers, and clinicians together as equal partners to co-design a practical intervention that strengthens communication and improves the experience of going home and settling in once home. Through iterative workshops and prototype testing, we built a patient-informed solution and pilot tested it with promising results. We are now exploring opportunities for refinement, scaling, and further effectiveness testing of ACEPATH.
Visit the Hospital to Home hub for the ACEPATH Guidebook
This project is funded by the Bruyère Academic Medical Organization Incentive Grant, The Ottawa Hospital Academic Medical Organization Innovation Fund, the Canadian Frailty Network Early Career Investigator award, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Transitions in Care Grant.
Near the end of life, many Canadians see multiple physicians across several specialties — often at the expense of continuity. This project maps patterns of continuity of care using population‑level data and qualitative inquiry, then brings those findings to the public through participatory design and theatre. By blending data, lived experience, and creative engagement, we aim to understand how continuity shapes outcomes that matter to patients and spark public dialogue about its role at end of life. We are now exploring funding opportunities to bring a play based on this research to production.
This project is funded by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Project Grant.
Non-Cancer Models of Palliative Care Delivery
People with end‑stage kidney disease on dialysis and those with end-stage liver disease face high symptom burden yet limited access to specialist palliative care. This program evaluates a novel consultative clinic model to understand how outpatient palliative care can better support these patients. Through chart reviews, interviews, a systematic review, and a landscape analysis of hospice and PCU admission policies, we aim to identify gaps, illuminate inequities, and guide the development of more accessible palliative care models for organ‑failure populations.
This project is funded by the University of Ottawa Department of Medicine Pilot Research Grant and The Ottawa Hospital Academic Medical Organization Innovation Fund.
Heart failure is common, complex, and highly symptomatic — yet palliative care remains underused. This research program examines outpatient and home-based palliative care models for people with advanced heart failure, exploring patient needs, treatment preferences, care experiences, and system-level outcomes. Through cohort studies, interviews, and process evaluations of innovative care models like the University of Ottawa Heart Institute's Cardiac Supportive and Palliative Care Program and Sinai Health's HeartFull, we aim to define what high-quality, person-centred palliative care looks like for this population and how to deliver it effectively.
This project is funded by the Pan-Canadian Palliative Care Research Collaborative (PCPCRC) Seed Funding Competition and GIPPEC.
Equity & Structural Vulnerability
People with opioid use disorder face significant barriers to accessing high-quality palliative care and essential symptom‑relief medications. OUTLOUD investigates end‑of‑life care for this population by combining population-based administrative data with qualitative interviews and focus groups with patients, caregivers, and clinicians. The project characterizes people with opioid use disorder and life-limiting illnesses, explores their access to and receipt of palliative care, and examines how complex health and social needs, stigma and discrimination, and fragmented healthcare systems influence care experiences. It also identifies opportunities to improve access, equity, and compassion for this population through strengthened interdisciplinary collaboration, tailored and community-based services, and the integration of trauma-informed and harm reduction approaches to care.
See the Meet Me Where I Am installation
This project is funded by Health Canada and a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Project Grant.
People with mental illness alone are currently excluded from MAiD eligibility in Canada, yet individuals with both mental and physical disorders are receiving MAiD — a group largely absent from public debate, policy discussions, and research. This project examines who these individuals are, how their numbers are changing over time, and how assessors navigate the added complexity mental disorders bring to MAiD requests. By integrating coroner data with ICES records, conducting interviews with MAiD assessors and people with lived experience, and partnering with StoryCentre to create online digital stories, we aim to generate the first comprehensive portrait of MAiD assessments involving co-occurring mental and physical disorders. The findings will illuminate how mental disorders shape decision-making today and help prepare assessors for future requests involving mental illness as the sole condition.
This project is funded by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Project Grant.
Trans and gender diverse (TGD) people in Canada often face discrimination in health care, including palliative care, which can lead to delayed or avoided treatment. This project works with TGD people, their families, community organizations, and health‑care professionals to understand what respectful, gender‑affirming palliative care should look like. Through interviews, focus groups, and a national survey, the study identifies barriers to care as well as strengths and supports within TGD communities. The team will then co‑design a new palliative care intervention and develop tools to evaluate its impact. A high‑fidelity version of the intervention will be tested with end‑users to assess its feasibility and acceptability. The project also includes an online participatory design installation to gather wider community and provider feedback. Ultimately, this work aims to improve palliative care experiences for TGD people and lay the groundwork for a future national trial.
This project is funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research Operating Grant on Advancing 2S/LGBTQI+ Health Through Research.
Structural vulnerability is worsening in Canada due to intersecting housing affordability, mental health, and drug toxicity crises. Caregivers in the general population are typically bio-legal family members, yet people experiencing structural vulnerability are often estranged from family, relying on friends, neighbours, and community workers who themselves may face structural vulnerability. Thus, these mostly non-kin caregivers may shoulder heavier burdens and have distinct needs. Our two community-based research grants are engaging paid and unpaid caregivers to understand how caregiving is different in the context of such structural vulnerability. This work will shed light on the experiences and needs of oft-neglected caregivers and care recipients.
This project is funded by University of Ottawa Community-Based Research Grant, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
Arts-Based Knowledge Mobilization
This program pioneers a bidirectional arts-based methodology that brings research to the public — and brings public meaning-making back into research. Through design installations like The Terminal Diner and nationally touring art exhibits like Art of a Good Death and Roots of Wisdom, we invite people to reflect on end-of-life experiences, share stories, and co-create insights that shape subsequent inquiry. This approach expands what counts as evidence, deepens public engagement, and demonstrates how creative methods can transform health services research.
Explore our Art & Design projects
This program is funded by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Project Grant, a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Planning and Dissemination Grant, a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Development Grant, and Sinai Health's Golda Fine Award.