O'Brien Institute 2025 Population Health Catalyst Awardees

The O'Brien Institute is pleased to announce the winners of our Population Health catalyst competition. Funding was awarded to six projects that align with the Institute's Healthier Populations goal and were deemed likely to leverage external funding and lead to societal impacts. We were pleased to extend the reach of this catalyst competition by partnering with the Department of Community Health Sciences and Centre for Health Policy in the Cumming School of Medicine and the Faculty of Arts who provided co-funding for projects that also support their strategic priorities.

Learn about the winners and their projects below.

Dr. Alex Bierman, PhD

Financial strain and daily experiences of Albertan older adults

Co-funded by the Faculty of Arts

This project aims to understand how financial strain leads to experiences of marginalization and negative effects on health for older adults in order to prevent these challenges in later-life.

Dr. Jessalyn Holodinsky, PhD

Quantifying emergency department and hospital use among people who use the Alex Community Health Centre: A pre-centre expansion baseline study

Co-funded by the Centre for Health Policy

This project aims to explore if accessible team-based care in a community health centre setting reduces the need for complex patients to seek healthcare in the emergency department or at hospitals.

Dr. Kimberley Manalili, PhD

Identifying opportunities and connections for addressing the social determinants of health in primary care in Alberta

This project will catalyze the formation of an intersectoral collaboration to sustainably address upstream determinants of health inequities in Alberta.

Dr. Zack Marshall, PhD

Exploring new methods to demonstrate how trans and gender diverse people engage with research online

Co-funded by the Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine

This project aims to test new methods to demonstrate how trans and gender diverse community members engage with research online.

Dr. Lara Nixon, MD

Connection and action for equity: Collaborative services with older adults with experiences of homelessness

This project focuses on addressing the inequitable access to well being for older people with experiences of homelessness through increasing transdisciplinary connection and collaboration.

Dr. Amity Quinn, PhD

Strategies to increase menopause hormone therapy prescribing

This project aims to generate robust evidence on the effectiveness of nudges as a strategy in prescribing menopause hormone therapy, offering insights for policymakers to develop scalable interventions that improve access to evidence-based menopause care.