Patient Engagement
What is Patient Engagement?
Patient Engagement is an approach to research that involves meaningful and active collaboration between the research team and those with lived patient/caregiver experience (research advisors). Unlike enrolled study participants, research advisors are actively involved in the research process, including study design, outcomes measured, analysis and dissemination of findings.
POPCORN’s patient engagement strategy will ensure that patient and family involvement is integrated with all three levels of the network and across all eight pillars. The patient and family engagement initiative will be led by Francine Buchanan and supported by Sarah Mooney and Carla Southward. The team will work to:
Ensure patient engagement is implemented across POPCORN pillars and research projects
Education, mentoring and organizational support are provided for researchers and patient and family partners to engage in meaningful and positive ways
Ensure there is consistent and diverse patient and family partner representation within the network
Embed evaluation within the patient engagement to inform continuous improvement initiatives.
Team Members:
Image of Dr. Francine Buchanan
Francine Buchanan, MLIS, PhD
Lead, Parent Representative
Francine is the Research Patient & Family Engagement Coordinator, for the Ontario Child Health Support Unit (OCHSU) based at SickKids. In this role, Francine supports the hospital’s Child and Family Centred Care philosophy by ensuring patients and families have the opportunity to partner with researchers in the development and execution of paediatric research. Francine’s goal is to develop partnerships and facilitate communications between researchers, patients and families to ensure research is conducted with the patient and family voice as a key driver. Francine brings a diverse background of skills and experience to the role, as parent to a SickKids patient, health care researcher, former strategy consultant and patient research partner.
Image of Sarah Mooney
Sarah Mooney
Youth Representative
Sarah is the youth representative on POPCORN’s Scientific Committee. Sarah is currently earning her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree and MacEwan University. She finished her training as a Patient and Community Engaged Researcher (PaCER) from the University of Calgary in 2022. Living with chronic health conditions, Sarah became passionate about healthcare delivery, policy, and research early on. She is the co-founder and co-chair of the Alberta Health Services Maternal Newborn Child & Youth Strategical Clinical Network (MNCY SCN) Medical Traumatic Stress Working Group. Additionally, Sarah sits on the CIHR Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health (IHDCYH)'s youth advisory council.
Image of Carla Southward
Carla Southward, PhD
Patient, Family, and Community Engagement Coordinator
Carla is the Patient, Family & Community Engagement Coordinator for POPCORN and PIRN, and is based at SickKids. Carla is a lifelong learner with a passion for bringing people together to improve research outcomes. Before joining POPCORN, Carla was the Senior Lead, Knowledge Translation at the Ontario Brain Institute where she was responsible for ensuring the voices of patients and their advocates were incorporated into the research activities across six multi-institutional research networks.
To learn more about ways to get involved in POPCORN research, please email:
Carla Southward, Patient, Family, and Engagement Coordinator
carla.southward@sickkids.ca.