By Beverley Ware
When Dr. Jordan Warford pulls up to the Lovett Lake parking lot, you’d be forgiven for thinking he’s a contractor. His van is filled with frames and cages secured by industrial brackets and anchor bolts, but he steps out in a suit and tie – with perhaps a stray dog hair or two attached.
He converted the van to hold his kids’ car seats and up to eight dog cages. “Now that is not where we’re going. I can guarantee that,” says the man who figured one dog would be nice.
“Most people build their families by people. We build by dogs,” he says as his family awaits the arrival of their fifth dog. Son James wants to be a dog racer like his mom. Between the pets and their two children, he jokes he has a “clicker trained” house.
As Senior Director of Research for the Nova Scotia Health Innovation Hub, Warford said his four years with the team and as a parent have been marked by growth.
“It’s a magnificent journey to see our children and team members reach their potential,” and COVID amplified that journey. “They have embraced change and recognized things are not constant. That’s a strategic advantage for us at the Health Innovation Hub. The capacity of what this place can achieve in a really brief period of time is quite unique.”
Warford was drawn to the Health Innovation Hub as a research ethics manager for the opportunity to connect research with patient impact. “I’ve always been more grounded in the medical aspect of research and the care side.”
The Health Innovation Hub is a place where he can connect the continuum of research, clinical trials, and implementation. “To me, it was very important to help build that full pipeline. I didn't want just one piece of it. There's nowhere else that you can really do that -- where you can run alongside the full length of that pipeline and see the whole experience.”
The Health Innovation Hub is blowing up the stereotype that research is slow, Warford said. Clearly some aspects need to be methodical, but efficiencies have been created that don’t sacrifice the longer-term benefits of research. “Research can be responsive and meet the needs of our communities, and it can adapt to unique circumstances.”
Patients are experiencing the impact of clinical trials and research sooner because of its work, he said. “We are getting there faster and making a difference. People can feel that. As the center of excellence, we have that backbone of learning, asking questions. So no longer is anything static. We're not building things that will stay that way for the next 10 years. We're building things that might change next week, depending on the latest thing that we learned from the scientific community.”
There is a cultural realization at Nova Scotia Health that research is patient care through clinical trials and research, with participating patients enveloped by teams of researchers and caregivers focused on improving outcomes for all Nova Scotians.
Physicians are embracing clinical trials at a time research tools are making quality improvements and better use of data, and artificial intelligence is being incorporated into daily operations.
The involvement in research of allied health professionals, from nurses to physiotherapists and pharmacists, has been a game changer, Warford said, challenging the team with different perspectives.
“Every background, regardless of what degree you have and regardless of your path, can be involved with research. Research is something you engage with, not something that happens to you.”
The Health Innovation Hub is also changing models of research to better incorporate patient voices through education, national partnerships, and mentorship networks. It is a continual evolution, Warford said, that results in ongoing improvements as the very nature of research leads to more questions, more revisions, and more solutions.
Innovation and research feed one another at the Health Innovation Hub with entrepreneurs, researchers, clinicians, and clinician scientists creating together.
“I think our bias for action is unique,” Warford said. Coupled with the Health Innovation Hub’s reputation for collaboration, he said it’s getting the attention of international industry, government, and academic leaders.
Amid this action and growth, Warford is looking to the future. “My vision is to build bold, ambitious, strong leaders who are going to carry this momentum forward for the best possible patient care across Nova Scotia.”
