CANSpine Overview
Get Involved
Patients engage in all phases of CANSpine research, from identifying priority research questions to mobilizing knowledge of research results.
Interested in getting involved?
Patient Partner Advisory Group
Patients as partners in research
Collaborating with patients as partners is vital to CANSpine. Patients meaningfully engage in all phases of CANSpine research, from identifying priority research questions to mobilizing knowledge of research results. This ensures the patient’s voice informs all that we do and that CANSpine research meets the needs of patients and the community.
Patient Partner Advisory Group
The Spinal Pain Patient Partner Advisory Group is a diverse group of people who have varied experiences with spinal pain. While active collaboration in research is a focus, a multidimensional framework of engagement provides unique opportunity to engage in numerous research and educational activities.
Research projects
Patients engage throughout the lifecycle of research in a variety of different research projects focused to spinal pain
Quality improvement initiatives 
Patients improve processes and systems in CanSpine research
Public communication
Patients ensure our public communication is effective and meets the needs of patients and the community
School educational activities
Patients contribute to School of Physical Therapy in-person and virtual entry-level and post-graduate education
Authentic and sustainable partnerships
We strive to develop partnerships that are mutually beneficial and support meaningful engagement in an inclusive environment. This authentic engagement is impactful not only for CanSpine research, but also for patients, as indicated in the patient partner generated word cloud below.
What do you enjoy about Patient Partner Advisory Group meetings?
Get Involved
We are actively expanding diversity of Patient Partner Advisory Group lived experiences and perspectives of spinal pain.
Meetings are scheduled bi-monthly (6 meetings annually) on different days of the week and at different times of day, to accommodate a variety of schedules. Meetings are held in a hybrid format where people can join in-person or virtually on Zoom. In-person gatherings are held at a variety of locations across London. Various locations and timings are intended to facilitate inclusion.
If you are interested in joining the Patient Partner Advisory Group, or would like more information, please email us: CANSpineAR@groups.uwo.ca
