St. Mary’s Research Centre: An Ongoing Commitment to the Well-being of the Community
St. Mary’s Research Centre, a major institution renowned for the quality of its work, is a well-established part of its community. It is known for research projects that contribute to the welfare of its users. “What’s fabulous, is that our work is grounded in reality and allows us to constantly interact with the medical establishment,” says Christina Raneburger, Associate Director. “Given that proximity to its users is one of the core values of St. Mary’s Hospital Center, it has an immediate impact on the quality of care provided.”
St. Mary’s Research Centre is supported by the St. Mary’s Hospital Foundation and by private and institutional research grants. “We have five primary research axes, namely cancer care, family medicine, eldercare, clinical studies, and surgical science,” adds Ms. Raneburger. “Our top priority is to tie our research to actual applications in the care provided.” The McGill University-affiliated research centre also collaborates with the Université de Montréal and the Université de Sherbrooke. It also has an international reach through its publications, collaborations, and participation at conferences.
Ms. Raneburger is pleased to point out the Centre’s extensive accomplishments and its ongoing work on several exciting projects. “We work in symbiosis with our customers’ lifecycle. We also are in direct contact with our clinicians. We are continuously working to improve the lives of our patients. To work at the Centre is to be part of a fabulous team and to have access to many opportunities,” she adds.
The St. Mary’s Research Centre recently welcomed Dr. Talía Malagón, an epidemiologist and mathematical modeller whose academic background and professional accomplishments are impressive. Her research includes work on cervical cancer and its evolution.
What motivated Dr. Malagón to join the St. Mary’s Research Centre? “It’s the community involvement,” she says. “It’s an extraordinary place to do research that will have a significant impact in the future.” One project underway at the Centre is looking at the detection of cancers during the COVID-19 pandemic. “During the pandemic, there were fewer medical consults, and therefore fewer cases detected. And now that services have been re-established, there hasn’t been an explosion in cases. It raises the question of where those cases of cancer went. As we now know, that there will be other pandemics, we need to assess our healthcare system now to make it more resilient.
Research will help us to determine a trajectory for cancer cases based on very specific markers. Modelling will help us to prevent illnesses from birth, based on the genetic background,” concludes Dr. Malagón.
Ms. Raneburger would like to thank the St. Mary’s Hospital Foundation, which contributed to the recent hiring of Dr. Talía Malagón.