51³Ô¹ÏÍø

Patient Engagement in Health Research: Enhancing Knowledge and Practice Claire is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychiatry at 51³Ô¹ÏÍø, working under the supervision of Dr. Brett Thombs. Claire works within the Scleroderma Patient-centered Intervention Network (SPIN), a large international collaboration of researchers, clinicians, patients, and patient organizations, who work to improve the lives of people living with the rare autoimmune disease scleroderma. Claire’s project aims to improve patient engagement and knowledge translation in scleroderma and in applied health research more broadly. The evidence produced will guide researchers in Canada and internationally on how to work effectively with patients to improve the quality and usefulness of health research. Claire completed her PhD in clinical psychology in March 2022 at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Western Australia. In 2022, she was awarded the faculty research medal for being the highest achieving PhD student at Edith Cowan University, and was awarded first prize for the best mental health PhD thesis in the state of Western Australia from Australian Rotary Health. Claire has previously been awarded two graduate research scholarships from federal government agencies, three competitive research grants as a co-applicant, has 20 journal articles under review, accepted, or published in peer-reviewed journals, has given 12 academic presentations including one plenary lecture, and is a registered psychologist (Australia only). Claire is committed to conducting patient-prioritized research to improve health outcomes, particularly mental health, in chronic and rare diseases.