Anna Chudyk, MSc, PhD

Research summary

As an expert patient-oriented researcher, Dr. Chudyk leads interdisciplinary research teams in understanding and mobilizing patient and caregiver health and healthcare experiences to drive how research problems are defined, understood, and studied; data are analyzed and synthesized; and findings are mobilized to effect real-world change. Central to this work is her ability to meaningfully and effectively engage patients and caregivers as members of the research team. Her research program is dually focused on (a) increasing patient-oriented research capacity at the individual, interpersonal, and systems levels, and (b) transforming health and social care and interventions to optimize patient and caregiver experience, better reflect patient and caregiver priorities and outcomes, and have long-standing impacts that matter to patients and their caregivers.

Keywords

• AsPERUsual: a podcast for practical patient engagement
• Cardiac research
• Care transitions
• Healthcare interventions
• Healthcare transformation
• Learning health system
• Patient and caregiver care preferences
• Patient engagement
• Patient-oriented research
• Social aspects of clinical and health services
• Social prescribing

Dr. Anna Chudyk's research career is marked by prestigious National level awards and recognitions, including a Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarship, a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship and most recently Phase 1 and 2 Patient-Oriented Research Awards - Transition to Leadership Stream Fellowships, all from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Through her post-doctoral training, Dr. Chudyk has developed a unique skill set that combines her extensive background in biostatistics and interest in the social aspects of clinical and health services research towards transforming health-care interventions and services to better reflect patient and caregiver-identified priorities and outcomes as well as advancing individual and systems-level capacity for patient-oriented research.

Highlights of the patient-oriented research program that Dr. Chudyk has been developing at UM over the past five years include multi-stakeholder research projects aimed at expanding enhanced recovery protocols to incorporate patient and caregiver preferences and prioritized outcomes, a Pan-Canadian study that identified activities, impacts, and future directions for Canadian patient engagement research, and co-development of a graduate-level course and podcast focused on patient engagement in research.

Though only at the beginning of her early researcher career, Dr. Chudyk is already a principal or co-applicant on 14 successfully funded projects, has authored 36 manuscript publications, presented as guest speaker in 20 invited or guest lectures, and is regularly asked to lend her patient-oriented research expertise to researchers and organizations throughout Canada and internationally. She is also the co-founder and co-host of asPERusual: a podcast for practical patient engagement.

Education

Doctorate in Experimental Medicine from the University of British Columbia

Masters of Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the University of Western Ontario

Bachelors of Health Sciences from the University of Western Ontario

Awards

• Patient-Oriented Research Award – Transition to Leadership Stream Fellowship – Phase 2, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) (Current, 2023)
• Dean of the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences Post-Doctoral Fellowship, University of Manitoba (2022)
• The Winnipeg Foundation's Martha Donovan Women’s Development Leadership Award, University of Manitoba (2022)
• Patient-Oriented Research Award – Transition to Leadership Stream Fellowship – Phase 1, CIHR (2020 – 2023)
• First place in Health, Leisure and Performance Institute’s Research Day Poster Competition, University of Manitoba (2018)
• Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, CIHR (2012 – 2015)
• Doctoral Award – Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships (declined for Vanier Award), CIHR (2012)
• Silver Quill Award, Canadian Physiotherapy Association (2012
• SciVerse ScienceDirect Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Top 25 Hottest Articles (2012)
• Four-Year Fellowship, University of British Columbia (2011 – 2015)
• Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarship, CIHR (2007 – 2008)
• Ontario Graduate Scholarship (declined for Canada Graduate Scholarship award), Ontario Student Assistance Program (2007)