14 New Research Projects Funded in Saskatchewan: 2026-27 Align Call 1 Results

There is a lack of Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) in Saskatchewan, resulting in long wait times for speech therapy, especially in rural First Nation, Inuit & Metis regions in Saskatchewan. Digital health innovations offer a promising strategy to support speech therapy practice in these remote settings. We will evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a newly developed AI-based speech practice app, developed by a Founder and CEO of Northern Voices, a speech-language pathologist from Saskatoon who provides speech therapy services in these communities.

The focus is on real-world implementation and acceptability across home, daycare and school settings. The feasibility will be assessed using a survey as well as semi-structured interviews and brief journals of children with speech disorders, caregivers, educators and speech-language pathologists about their experiences of using the app. The findings will inform iterative app refinement, translation to Indigenous languages used in those communities, pilot testing and efficacy studies.

School food programs have long played a vital role in supporting student health and academic success and have come into the spotlight recently with the creation of a Primary health care in Saskatchewan is facing many challenges, including increasing demand and pressure on clinics and health care providers. One approach that shows promise is the Patient Medical Home (PMH) model, which brings together teams of health professionals to provide coordinated and patient‑centred care. Recently, several patient medical home pilot clinics have been launched across the province. This project aims to support these pilot clinics by improving how they are evaluated. The research team will work closely with clinic teams, health system partners, and patient representatives to understand what matters most to patient medical home initiatives. Through focus groups and interviews, participants will share their experiences, successes, challenges, and priorities.

Using this feedback, the team will refine an evaluation framework that reflects authorities', clinics' and patients' needs in Saskatchewan. This work will help guide future learning, improvement, and decision‑making around patient medical homes, and support the effective implementation of the model across the province.

This project aims to improve care for diabetic wounds in rural, remote, and Indigenous communities in Saskatchewan. Indigenous Peoples in Canada are more likely to develop diabetes, often at a younger age, and are at higher risk of serious complications such as foot ulcers and amputations.

This project will explore whether wearable virtual care tools, such as smart glasses, could help local healthcare workers connect patients with wound specialists in real time without requiring long-distance travel. This could make care more timely, convenient, and less disruptive for patients and families.

Using a community-led approach, the project will review health data, learn from an existing successful program in Ontario, and work with patients, caregivers, Elders, and healthcare providers to co-design a model that fits local needs. The long-term goal is to improve healing, reduce amputations, lower costs, and support more equitable access to care close to home. This work is built upon, and continues to be sustained by, the ongoing and continually developing relationship between the Virtual Health Hub and the community of Île-à-la Crosse

The spreading of cancer to the brain, known as brain metastasis, significantly impacts cancer prognosis. However, the limited understanding of the underlying mechanisms of brain metastasis poses challenges for the development of preventive therapies. A major gap in the field is the lack of availability of cancer cell lines that naturally form brain metastasis in animal models for studying potential treatments. This proposed project will develop a repository of brain metastatic-competent cell lines representing different stages and types of cancers in Saskatchewan.

The repository will be the first of its kind in Saskatchewan and Canada and will be available for use by researchers worldwide. Development of this repository is well-aligned with the needs of the Saskatchewan cancer community, including researchers, clinicians, and patients, in the fight against cancer.

Current immunization protection levels for school-aged children in Saskatchewan and Canada are not at the recommended level. One recommendation to improve school-based immunization programs is to implement electronic consent forms, but there is little Canadian research in this area. Our project aims to support implementation by developing a multi-provincial program evaluation of electronic school immunization consent forms and applying for national funding.

The project activities include: 1. completing a scoping literature review to better understand the implementation of electronic school consent forms; 2. collaborating with industry and inter-provincial partners to establish information sharing and develop a program evaluation; 3. completing a small study to gather preliminary information from informatics experts, public health nurses and caregivers. Through these aims our team will support Saskatchewan’s public health priorities by generating information to improve school immunization consent processes, reducing administrative burdens, and promoting higher immunization protection levels amongst school-age children.

Nursing shortages are a concern in Saskatchewan and across Canada, affecting the quality and continuity of patient care. While efforts have focused on recruiting nurses, less attention has been given to retaining those already working in the system. Research shows that nurses are experiencing burnout, stress, and challenging working conditions, leading some to consider leaving their jobs. Although a range of nurse retention strategies exist, they are not consistently implemented in ways that account for the unique contexts and realities of the environments in which they are applied, including within Saskatchewan’s healthcare system.

This project will bring together nurses, healthcare leaders, and decision-makers from across the province to explore what is helping or hindering the use of these strategies in practice. Through a structured provincial Forum, participants will share experiences, identify challenges, and highlight areas for action, while also identifying partners to advance future research focused on improving implementation.

People receiving hospice-palliative care and their caregivers have important insights about how systems can improve provided care, but learning from their experiences in end-of-life contexts is inherently complex. Patients may be experiencing significant symptom burden, fatigue, emotional distress, or cognitive changes, while their caregivers may be navigating anticipatory grief or bereavement.

This project seeks to develop a Saskatchewan-relevant approach for gathering patient and caregiver voices using trauma-informed, psychologically safe, and people-centred methods that can support quality improvement and system learning. We will look at comparable health systems to identify practical and safe ways of engaging patients and their caregivers and collect qualitative data from key Saskatchewan hospice-palliative care interest-holders to understand what is feasible and what protections are needed. Findings will help guide future patient and caregiver engagement and inform development of a Saskatchewan hospice-palliative care framework.

The Saskatchewan government has recently developed a new publicly funded model for nurse practitioner practice in response to the new federal interpretation of the Canada Health Act. In April 2026, services performed by a physician covered by the act will also be covered if provided by a nurse practitioner or pharmacists.

This new model enables nurse practitioners to apply directly to the Ministry of Health for a contractual practice agreement, supporting autonomy of practice and increasing access to primary care services for 800 residents per nurse practitioner. In March 2026, the ministry opened a new call for applications. However, the challenge for nurse practitioners is in accessing relevant business resources and mentorship. Therefore, aim of this timely and highly relevant project is to engage with NPs to identify their knowledge needs and develop resources to support their success in this new ministry funded model for practice.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is leading cause of hospital admissions, readmissions, and mortality worldwide and these outcomes are also present here in Saskatchewan. Many patients discharged after an acute COPD flare-up do not receive guideline-directed therapy, leaving them at increased risk for prolonged recovery, relapse and rehospitalization. The Post-Exacerbation Airways Clinic (PEAC) was established to provide early follow-up, optimize inhaler use and technique, and coordinate ongoing care.

This study will evaluate how many patients are discharged on recommended COPD medications, identify the specific interventions provided through the PEAC clinic, and compare readmission rates between patients followed in PEAC and those who did not attend. The findings will help reveal care gaps, inform healthcare system delivery, enhance patient outcomes, and reduce the overall burden on hospitals and the healthcare system.

Children in Saskatchewan are exposed to violence in the home at the highest rate of any province in Canada. These children face elevated risks for long-term health problems, including anxiety, depression, sleep difficulties, and stress-related physical illness. Many children disclose experiences of violence to professionals in shelters, counselling programs, and community support programs. Supportive responses, such as remaining calm, listening, and acknowledging emotions, can help children feel safer and more regulated, whereas unsupportive responses increase distress and undermine well-being.

While national health organizations emphasize the importance of safe, supportive environments for children exposed to violence, there is limited clarity about what supportive responding looks like in everyday practice or how it can be systematically studied. This project will work with Saskatchewan professionals to better understand how supportive responses occur in real-life conversations and clarify how this knowledge can inform future research and services aimed at protecting children’s health in Saskatchewan.

Roughly 10% of children in Canada have a neuro-disability, which can result in challenges with vision and perceptual skills. These brain-based visual problems in children are known as cerebral visual impairment (CVI). This study seeks to learn more about current healthcare services being used by children and families in Saskatchewan who are at high risk for cerebral visual impairment. Families have described challenges accessing healthcare providers who are able to assess and diagnose cerebral visual impairment in Saskatchewan.

Based on this feedback, we will look at health data to understand how often children with neurological disabilities are being referred to services that could assess visual impairments. We will look at how these services are accessed across the province, including Northern and rural zones. The goal of this research is to identify current care services, so that we can build vision care pathways that will meet the needs of families in Saskatchewan.

Chronic dental infections, such as long‑lasting inflammation in the tissues around a tooth, are common in Saskatchewan and especially affect rural and Indigenous communities. These infections do more than cause pain - they release inflammatory molecules into the bloodstream that may also influence the brain. New research shows that chronic oral inflammation may contribute to neuroinflammation linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

This project will explore whether natural compounds found in Saskatoon berries - a locally grown, culturally significant fruit - can help reduce harmful inflammation in dental pulp cells and prevent downstream effects on brain cells. Using laboratory models, the study will test how Saskatoon berry extracts affect inflamed dental cells and whether they can lower inflammatory and Alzheimer’s‑related signals in the brain’s immune cells.

The findings may support the development of a safe, locally sourced therapy that improves oral health, reduces systemic inflammation, and contributes to long‑term brain wellness in Saskatchewan communities.

Gliomas are the most common brain tumors. Even with treatment, survival remains limited - typically less than 10 years for low-grade gliomas and under 18 months for glioblastoma. Surgery is the most important treatment, and the more tumor that can be safely removed, the longer patients live. However, during surgery it is often difficult to tell where tumor ends and healthy brain begins. Current tools to guide surgeons are either limited or too expensive for widespread use.

This project will develop a new, low-cost approach that uses electrical signals from the brain to identify tumor tissue in real time during surgery. By giving surgeons clearer information at the critical moment of decision-making, this technology has the potential to improve tumor removal, extend survival, and make advanced surgical care more accessible to patients everywhere.

Vulvar health is an important but often overlooked part of women’s health. Many women and gender-diverse people experience symptoms such as pain, itching, or skin conditions, yet these concerns are frequently misunderstood, underdiagnosed, or dismissed. This can affect daily comfort, mobility, relationships, and trust in healthcare.

In Saskatchewan, Indigenous communities have long held knowledge about sexual health and wellness, but colonization and systemic barriers have disrupted the sharing of this knowledge. Today, stigma, limited language, and lack of access to knowledgeable care and practitioners create challenges in understanding and addressing vulvar health.

This project will partner with Indigenous women and gender-diverse people in Saskatoon and Prince Albert to explore experiences of vulvar health through discussions and creative activities. Together, participants and researchers will identify barriers, strengthen culturally meaningful communication, and co-develop ideas for supports and education. Findings will inform future resources to reduce stigma, improve care, and enhance quality of life.