i4 Initiative
The McKenna Institute at UNB has launched a new initiative to help bridge health care gaps in New Brunswick as part of an ongoing collaboration with Shoppers Drug Mart.
The i4 Initiative is designed to inform, innovate, improve and implement health care solutions through a series of collaborative research and development projects.
While the first i4 project focuses on chronic disease, the model is built to scale. Future initiatives will apply the same action-oriented approach to other health care priorities across New Brunswick.
Supporting cardiovascular & diabetes care in your community
Phase 1: Data-driven insights
Phase one involves research led by Dr. Chris Folkins and supported by Dr. Ted McDonald from the New Brunswick Institute for Research, Data and Training (NB-IRDT) at UNB. Using provincial health data, the team is exploring how the burden of cardiovascular disease and diabetes—and associated health service use—varies across New Brunswick by geography and key sociodemographic characteristics like age, sex and household income. The findings will guide the design of targeted interventions, such as pharmacy-based programs, to help the communities and populations with the greatest needs.
Phase 2: Rapid innovation challenge
Phase two activates these research insights through a Rapid Innovation Challenge led by UNB’s Pond Deshpande Centre. The challenge is designed to identify innovative solutions and collaborations with systems leaders and community health care providers that address disparities in diabetes and cardiovascular care, with a focus on underserved and female populations.
Phase 3: Funding for real-world impact
Phase three applies outcomes of the innovation challenge to shape themes for a call for proposals, led by the McKenna Institute. This call will provide funding for research and innovation projects to help close the gaps in diabetes and cardiovascular care across the province.
In Focus: Distribution of disease burden and health care resource utilization associated with diabetes and cardiovascular conditions in New Brunswick
This retrospective study uses administrative data accessed via the New Brunswick Institute for Resarch, Data, and Training (NB-IRDT) to examine health outcomes and health service utilization associated with diabetes and cardiovascular conditions among New Brunswick residents overall, by geography, and by socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, separating each dimension by sex.
A key finding from the study was that a substantial proportion of New Brunswick residents who died from cardiovascular conditions did not have a documented cardiovascular diagnosis before their death. These undiagnosed cardiovascular deaths represent potential missed opportunities for earlier intervention and preventive care. Notably, the prevalence of undiagnosed cardiovascular mortality varied geographically, highlighting the regions that may benefit most from targeted efforts to improve primary care.
Another important finding was that New Brunswick residents with diabetes do not have their blood sugar control monitored frequently enough. Most regions of the province had testing rates for hemoglobin A1c (a marker of sugar control) that were well below the frequency recommended by Diabetes Canada guidelines.
Of further concern is that nearly half of all A1c results among diabetes patients showed that blood sugar levels were too high, meaning that many patients were at increased risk of potentially serious complications. More frequent testing appeared to be associated with better A1c results (a finding consistent with previous studies), suggesting that improved access to A1c testing (via community pharmacies, for example) may lead to improved outcomes for New Brunswickers with diabetes.
Supporting the i4 Initiative
The McKenna Institute would like to thank our partners at Shoppers Drug Mart for their support and involvement in establishing the i4 Initiative and funding these important projects. Our partnership with Shoppers Drug Mart was established to create innovative, community-based healthcare solutions in New Brunswick with Shoppers Drug Mart committing $2.5 million in funding to help support several research projects and help identify, build and test new models of health care for communities.
The McKenna Institute would also like to recognize and thank the UNB Libraries team for their contributions and involvement in producing the charts and data visualizations included in the NB-IRDT report for the i4 Initiative. Both Mario Tiozzo, a Data Analysis and Visualization Librarian, and Siobhan Hanratty, Director of Learning & Engagement and a Data/GIS Librarian, supported the McKenna Institute and NB-IRDT with this project.
