Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health

CIHR) -supports research that focuses on cardiovascular health, respiratory health, blood and blood vessels, stroke, critical/intensive care, and sleep/circadian rhythms.Together, the disease areas that are covered under the mandate of the ICRH represent conditions with the largest health, societal, and economic burden of any of the other Institutes within CIHR.This reality and the extraordinary diversity of these medical conditions present a major operational challenge for the ICRH.Despite these difficulties and limited resources, the Institute's 2013-2016 Strategic Plan1 demonstrates a commitment to ensuring that research excellence, capacity, competitiveness, innovation, and impact are enhanced across all research fields affiliated with the Institute.Moreover, building on previous successes, the ICRH continues to nurture past collaborations and work to establish new meaningful national and international alliances with the research community, partners, and other stakeholders to develop interdisciplinary, integrative health research that reflects Canada's emerging health needs, gaps, and opportunities.The ICRH also strongly supports partnerships with relevant stakeholders to accelerate the transfer of new knowledge into benefits for Canadians.Notably, patient engagement is an important priority that will serve as 1 of the major building blocks of all clinically related initiatives of the ICRH.Based on identified gaps, opportunities, and feedback received from the International External Review Panel,2 ICRH research communities and partners, and in alignment with the CIHR 2014-2018 Strategic Plan, the ICRH identified 4 research priorities for 2013-2016.The first priority focuses on enhancing capacity, competitiveness, and impact of our communities through networking.This objective is consistent with the importance of aligning with CIHR's largest comprehensive Roadmap Signature Initiative (RSI) the Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR).In 2013, the Institute launched the ICRH Emerging Networks program in 3 gap areas, funding the Canadian Vascular Network, Canadian Respiratory Research Network, and the Canadian Stroke Prevention Intervention Network.In addition, through focused community development programs in critical care, stroke treatment and recovery, sleep and circadian rhythms, blood diseases, and resuscitation clinical research, the ICRH has targeted 5 additional research communities in need of networking.Aligned with CIHR's Patient Engagement Framework,3 the ICRH will use specific actions and tools to enhance patient engagement in health research, implement patient engagement as a core priority in strategic initiatives, and offer programs that will allow patients to be true partners in research.Finally, the ICRH is continuing its collaboration with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health in the ongoing support of 2 large Canada-US networks--the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium and the Cardiothoracic Surgical Network, and will explore other international network opportunities.