I am extremely proud to have joined the CPCoE as the Director of Research Partnerships and the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) this past year. The number of milestones that we have accomplished surpasses any of the expectations I had coming into this newly created position. To view some of our highlights from the past fiscal year, please see below. 

1. SAB Related Activities
Adjudications and Related Tools
From July 1 to September 15, 2022, all Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) members met individually with the Chair of the SAB to exchange ideas and discuss the SAB's activities since CPCoE's inception and plan for the future. Meetings were also held with five veteran partners involved with the CPCoE and four members of the Advisory Council for Veterans (ACV). A new member also joined the SAB in the summer of 2022, Dr. Anne-Marie Pinard, full Professor at Laval University, and an anesthesiologist who works at the pain clinic at the Centre Hospitalier de Québec - Université Laval in Quebec City. She is also Director of the Medisca Leadership Chair in Chronic Pain Education.

Two SAB meetings were held on August 2, and November 2, 2022. At these meetings, more than 21 requests for research proposals were evaluated by the SAB members. On January 17, 2023, a third SAB meeting was held and under my leadership, the following documents and tools were created: the CPCoE Application Instructions, the CPCoE Application Form, and the CPCoE Rating Scale. The SAB also provided input on CPCoE’s new Researcher and Veteran Partnership Guide. These documents were thoroughly reviewed by all SAB members as well as by the CPCoE research team.

A new follow-up system has been put in place for projects that have received funding: applicants and evaluators can meet to discuss the evaluations received and any modifications to be made before the projects begin.

Creation of the CPCoE Strategic Research Collaboration Agreement (STRARCA)

The STRARCA is a short two-page document that aims to define what CPCoE means by strategic research collaboration. The objectives of having this document are to demonstrate transparency on which criteria the CPCoE makes its choices to establish strategic research collaborations, the decision to choose a research collaborator and to ensure that the choices of collaborations are linked to the priorities established by the ACV. The objective of using such a document is also to have a more centralized decision process. With a centralized process, all decisions are made in the same way by all members of the research team and are based on criteria that are related to the mandate and mission of CPCoE.

2. Research Collaborations 
Quebec Pain Research Network (QPRN) and CPCoE
Between July 2022 and March 2023, several meetings took place with the QPRN Direction. Finally, a collaboration agreement was signed between QPRN and CPCoE. This partnership has allowed the QPRN to create a Quebec consortium for research on the health of military personnel and veterans with the objective of bringing together veterans, members of the Quebec pain research community, managers, health professionals and decision-makers to establish a long-term partnership with the CPCoE and create an efficient provincial research community to develop and propel research on veterans suffering from chronic pain.

Canada's first University Chair for Canadian veterans
Since fall 2022, I have been in discussions with the Université Laval and Dr. Anne-Marie Pinard to set up a partnership between the Université Laval and the CPCoE to establish a Chair in Educational Leadership for Canadian Veterans.  The ambitious goal of the Canadian Veterans Leadership Chair in Education is to improve the care of veterans living with chronic pain through enhanced student training, tools for healthcare professionals and resources dedicated to the individuals themselves and their loved ones. The Chair's activities aim to develop an adapted and coherent set of awareness, training, support, and self-management resources that meet the specific needs of Veterans. The establishment of this Chair is progressing rapidly, and this Chair could see the light of day as early as Fall 2023.

Collaboration to create a research infrastructure at l’Hôpital Ste-Anne
Ste. Anne's Hospital is located in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, Canada. It mainly serves Canadian Forces Veterans and specializes in long-term care and geriatrics. This hospital’s complex comprises one in-patient operational stress injury clinic, the Residential Treatment Centre for Operational Stress Injuries (RTCOSI) and one outpatient Operational Stress Injury clinic, located at Sainte Anne's Hospital. Discussions and meetings between members of the management of l’Hôpital Ste-Anne and myself have led to agreement on a common basis for developing a new collaboration between this establishment and CPCoE, with the aim of developing a research infrastructure, through the future establishment of an on-site research coordinator. This project is also being carried out in partnership with the QPRN. 

QPRN retreat
On January 27-29, 2023, I attended the QPRN retreat in Sherbrooke, Quebec. This gave me the opportunity to introduce and present the CPCoE to clinicians and researchers and to strengthen the CPCoE connections. It was also an opportunity for me to announce CPCoE's upcoming calls for research proposals for the 2023 competition. During that retreat, I also met with members of the Quebec Network of junior pain investigators to promote our Capacity Building Initiatives (CBI’s).

3. Networking, Representation and Advocacy 
This year, we announced The Most Painful Podcasts in French. I worked with Tom Hoppe, the English podcast host, Veteran partner and ACV member in the production and promotion of our French podcast. In total, I hosted three episodes. The first being a transitional episode with Tom Hoppe that covered how our own civilian culture can impact our military identity. The next two episodes featured a physiotherapist who treats Veterans and then a Veteran himself.

During my participation in the QPRN members' retreat in January 2023, I completed two other podcasts in French: the first was on Discovering QPRN members, theme of LJ Hébert's research on the military and veterans, and the second was Who are the Canadian veterans?

Looking back on this list of accomplishments, I couldn’t be prouder of the members of the Scientific Advisory Board and the Research Team. The hard work and determination of these individuals made it easy for me to carry out these momentous tasks.

I look forward to improving our existing research collaborations and to creating new collaborations with organizations that have the same goal in mind as the CPCoE; to improve the lives of Canadian Veterans and their families, living with chronic pain.