‘Window’ open for doctors to do mental health research

VANCOUVER | The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) wants physicians to become participants in an unfolding, multi-million dollar project: the setting up of new patient-based mental health research collaboratives across Canada and beyond.Right now there’s an unprecedented “window of opportunity” to transform mental health research and yield important breakthroughs, said Dr. Anthony Phillips (PhD), in a presentation at the annual meeting of the Canadian Psychiatric Association here. Dr. Phillips is scientific director of the CIHR’s Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction and a professor in the faculty of medicine’s psychiatry department at the University of British Columbia.New research moneyThere is a growing sense of urgency at every level of Canadian society, and across the globe, that the burden of mental disease is growing, he said, and that it extracts an unacceptably huge personal and economic toll from societies. To capitalize on the potential cascade of new mental health research money being made available right now from government and non-pharma corporate sources, physician collaborators are needed.“We need to move away from ego-based research and expand the culture of collaboration and sharing—not just nationally but internationally,” said Dr. Phillips.In terms of funding, he pointed to the $100 million the federal government approved for the Canada Brain Research Fund in the 2011 budget. Those are matching funds with the other $100 million coming from private donors. The funds will be administered by the Brain Canada Foundation and its partners. “So this minimum of $200 million spread over five to six years represents a new investment in neuroscience/mental health research.”Finding potential private donors for the matching funds isn’t an obstacle, in Dr. Phillips’ view. He gave examples, such as the $50 million Bell Canada announced last year for a wide range of mental health promotion and research initiatives.In terms of his own agency—CIHR—Dr. Phillips said neuroscience and mental health research has been made the top priority in the 2009/10 to 2013/14 strategic plan. That translates to $135 million to $150 million, or 15% of the CIHR budget over this timeframe.Top three prioritiesThis is where the call for broader collaboration comes in. “Establishing patient-oriented research networks is the number one push,” Dr. Phillips said. “I expect there will be a budget of $25 million (for this) over five years (which might grow) to get this thing started.”The second priority is personalized medicine.Community-based primary health care was the third priority, with a corresponding budget of $10 million to $15 million.“I think we’re all aware that of all the mental health care provided to individuals, around 80% of it is provided by primary-care physicians,” Dr Phillips said. “We want to harness that through collaborative research.”The concept of collaborative research networks is brand new; details are still under development. Hospital administrators across Canada will be able to access money to develop research infrastructures, so the best way to get the ball rolling is for physicians to express interest to their administrators, said Dr. Phillips.‘Reasonable compensation’He said he believes strongly that current and approaching breakthroughs in neuroscience are so exciting that momentum in this area will generate renewed interest and a desire to contribute. But he acknowledged that a collaborative culture cannot be built without rewarding physicians meaningfully for their time.“We have to begin paying people fairly for doing research, and money will be set aside for that,” he said. “What would reasonable compensation for a doctor’s time look like? That hasn’t been determined yet, but it should be an amount that adequately rewards physicians who will be missing out on a portion of their clinical schedule.”

‘Window’ open for doctors to do mental health research

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