When Dr. Anna Chudyk collaborates with patients and caregivers in health research, her key goal is to ensure that their voices are heard and their priorities respected.
The assistant professor in the College of Pharmacy is a rising leader in patient-oriented research. She is committed to meaningful collaboration between patients, caregivers and researchers across all stages of the research process.
Chudyk prefers the term “care partners” to “caregivers” for those who support patients, reflecting their close collaborative role in the patient experience.
“Patients and care partners have a knowledge that comes from living with a condition every day,” she says. “When you combine that with scientific expertise, you can uncover solutions that truly make a difference.”
Chudyk leads the Shaping Healthcare by Addressing Real-life Experiences (SHARE) Lab at St. Boniface Hospital Research. One of her recent projects there involved redesigning recovery protocols for cardiac surgery patients, based on real-life input.
“We worked with a small group of patients and care partners to completely revise the information packet provided by the hospital to patients having cardiac surgery. For example, we specifically detailed the physical activity that they can and should engage in before and after the operation.”
Chudyk was raised in southwestern Ontario and earned her bachelor’s in health sciences and master’s in epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Western Ontario. Her doctoral program at the University of British Columbia ignited her passion for participatory research.
Her early studies focused on healthy aging. About her path to patient-oriented research, she says, “I wanted my work to mean something not just to me, but to the people we’re supposed to be helping.”
After arriving at UM as a postdoctoral fellow in 2018, Chudyk joined the College of Pharmacy faculty in 2024. She is also affiliated with the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba.
With a strong interest in the “how” of involving patients and care partners in health services research, she has published papers about models and frameworks of patient engagement, how patients and care partners perceive their role, and approaches researchers can take to engagement across study designs and stages of the research cycle.
Aiming to reach beyond “the usual academic outlets” for discussing this work, Chudyk produces and hosts a podcast called As PER (Patient Engagement in Research) Usual.
The podcast grew out of a study published in Health Research Policy and Systems in 2024. In it, Chudyk collaborated with Roger Stoddard, a patient partner, to explore future directions for patient engagement in Canadian research.
“One of our recommendations from the study is that patient partners should have opportunities to hold meaningful roles in funding allocation and peer-review processes for research grants. They should be supported in that work through training and appropriate compensation.
“We need patients seated at every funding table to ensure that research is driven by patient and care partner priorities and perspectives.”
Chudyk envisions a health-care system where listening to patients isn’t an afterthought, but a fundamental practice. “We’re building a culture where science is guided by the people it’s meant to serve,” she says.
BY ANNETTE ELVERS