We are a radically interdisciplinary, solutions-focused group of clinician-scientists, engineers, humanities experts, and basic and social scientists tackling the increasing complexity of today’s health and healthcare delivery challenges. The Centre is jointly supported by Queen’s University and the Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC), and works in partnership with the Federal and Provincial governments and private industry. The CHI is transforming health research by creating cohesive interdisciplinary teams, state-of-the-art platforms, and community partnerships to forge paths towards the next generation of health solutions.
We are integrating insights from the frontlines of care to understand the real-world experiences and needs of patients and clinicians.
We are building an innovation platform that will harness best-in-class health data to generate hypotheses, fuel understanding and monitor impacts.
We are reducing the barriers for the research community to access state-of-the-art shared resources and specialized facilities for collaboration.
Our Expertise
The Centre for Health Innovation (CHI) is a 50-year evolution of the Clinical Mechanics Group. Our multi-disciplinary, multi-national teams have a strong record of ground-breaking technical discoveries that translate from bench to bedside to enhance patient care. By pioneering innovations in advanced biomechanical measurement methods, imaging techniques and computing technologies for treatment of acute and chronic mobility impairments, the CHI continues to develop research partnerships to combine with existing investments and expertise for innovative research. The result has been the expansion of research capacity in the areas of molecular imaging, data analytics and artificial intelligence, health policy, biomedical informatics, analytical chemistry, and immunopathology. We provide a unique environment for advanced education and training to graduate students and clinical residents, both in research and professional practice. Engineering and science students collaborate with clinical trainees, residents, and fellows under the mentorship of multidisciplinary research teams. By fostering collegial relationships with other departments, the CHI continues to realize the creative and innovative power of inclusion and the strengths of complementary disciplines to inspire research that addresses the complexity of human health challenges.
Key Areas
Human Performance Analysis
Biomechanics: A high-performance human motion laboratory and a three-dimensional fluoroscopy system provides unprecedented capacity for studying the biomechanics of joints. Neuromuscular Systems Assessment: Where focus is on the development of body-borne sensors and energy harvesting from body motion. The combination of these technologies with machine learning, and biomechanical data analytics is used to assess activities of daily living in real time.
Artificial Intelligence and Informatics
Ontario Health Data Platform: is an innovation platform developed to harnesses best-in-class health data critical to multi-scale investigations of human health. This high-performance computing environment applies informatics innovations through sophisticated computational approaches to rapidly detect trends, predict outcomes and evaluate innovations. These data enable powerful computational approaches to drive analysis and healthcare innovations.
Integrated Treatment Technologies
Surgical Informatics: Incorporates a range of molecular and spatial imaging technologies and digital pathology methods. In combination with large-scale data analytics projects, tissue disease status can be identified in real time during surgery.
Regenerative Materials: Laboratories have been established to study regenerative materials and biomaterials development including micro-CT scanning for the analysis of tissue microstructure. Regenerative tissue constructs using novel biomaterials and stem cells have been developed for a range of load bearing tissues.Computer-assisted Therapies: Specialized systems for computer assisted therapies include imaging and computer vision technologies, as well as dedicated operating rooms for research involving patient procedures.
Major Goals (or Objectives)
1
Lead in health innovation through programs of excellence in research, outreach, and cost-effective patient care
2
Power translational research through interdisciplinary teams and state-of-the-art infrastructure to generate innovative hypotheses and solutions
3
Provide a hub of intellectual activity for faculty, clinicians, graduate students, residents, and the community to engage in collaborative, interdisciplinary health research
4
Train Highly Qualified Personnel in health informatics to forge successful careers in computational health innovations