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School of Health at Concordia University brings science and art under one roof

Arts and humanities to play a key role in newly launched school.


There’s a lot of ground-breaking health research going on at Montreal’s Concordia University, often involving a variety of disciplines. Computer scientists are using augmented reality to help guide delicate surgical procedures. Environmental engineers are developing ways to gauge the risk of the airborne coronavirus in public buildings. Visual artists are exploring the impact of heart transplants.

Until now, however, most of that research has been independent, without the many opportunities for cross-fertilization that a larger gathering of disciplines would offer. Concordia has set out to change that with its new School of Health.

“We have a wide range of research activity in fields either directly in health or health-adjacent, but they’re spread across the university and not interacting in a way that’s synergistic,” explains Paula Wood-Adams, Concordia’s interim vice-president, research and graduate studies. “We wanted to find a way to bring this expertise and effort together so that it could become more active and effective.”

The conditioning floor of the PERFORM Centre at Concordia University is the site of community programs and research studies. The conditioning floor of the PERFORM Centre at Concordia University is the site of community programs and research studies. © CONCORDIA

Interdisciplinary approach

The School of Health, which launched this year, is gathering those experts into three hubs – biomedical science and engineering research, clinical research and prevention, and community health – which will draw together health-related research from areas as disparate as biochemistry, finance and the fine arts.

“We really want to have an interdisciplinary focus,” Dr. Wood-Adams says. “We think that’s the way that we can best contribute to solving some of the big challenges in heath care and in the general area of health in our country.”

Marta Kersten-Oertel knows all about how different disciplines can aid in problem solving. Dr. Kersten-Oertel, scientific director of the Biomedical Science and Engineering Research Hub, took her undergraduate degrees in computer science and art history.

Testing in the cardiopulmonary suite of the PERFORM Centre at Concordia University. Testing in the cardiopulmonary suite of the PERFORM Centre at Concordia University. © CONCORDIA

“I realized I could combine both” in the health field, she says. Now an associate professor in computer and software engineering, her twin interests inform her work of developing better ways to visualize 3-D anatomical data for image-guided surgery.

Her current research utilizes augmented reality technology to project MRI or CT images onto a patient’s body, essentially giving surgeons “X-ray vision” when they operate.

There will be more discipline overlap in the Clinical Research and Prevention Hub, where researchers in psychology, kinesiology and dietetics will be able to team with colleagues in biomedical engineering to tackle issues such as obesity and cardiovascular disease.

The arts and humanities, meanwhile, will play a key role in the School’s Community Health Hub, where the research is focused on developing healthy communities and better public policies.

“That, to my mind, is our most unique hub,” Dr. Wood-Adams says. So unique, that it’s still in the conception phase. This winter, the school has been inviting professors from the university’s four faculties to meet, share ideas and begin thinking about collaborations.

The series of virtual conversations, which began in January, is being facilitated by a theatre professor, Mark Sussman, who is also director of Concordia’s Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture.

“We want to recognize those researchers in the humanities, social sciences, and the arts whose work already engages with the health of communities and offer them a way to work under a wider, interdisciplinary umbrella,” Dr. Sussman says.

Pandemic pivot

The first of the conversations generated talk about, among other things, community outreach to help people with post-pandemic social reintegration, and the kind of communication skills that medical staff could glean from the humanities, such as empathy and cultural sensitivity. It also revealed that many researchers felt a need to make broader connections with their Concordia colleagues in other disciplines.

Dr. Sussman says that’s one of the hub’s challenges. “People are used to working in silos,” he says, “but we know intuitively that the big problems can only be solved with teams composed of people from many different fields. And it needs to include the writers, the artists, the humanist researchers.”

The School of Health isn’t only focusing on research, however. As its name suggests, it also aims to attract top students by creating doctoral programs in disciplines related to health.

Although they are still to be determined, Dr. Wood-Adams says one will likely be in biomedical science and engineering: “It’s an area where we have a great deal of expertise, but we don’t have a PhD program.”

The programs will be finalized after the School of Health has hired a dean later this year. That individual will be overseeing a school which can affiliate with nine university-recognized research centres and more than 20 research chairs working in health fields at Concordia, with a total of more than 150 researchers involved.

The PERFORM Centre on the Loyola Campus, will house the school’s administration and key infrastructure, while its professors will remain based in their respective faculties and departments. Dr. Wood-Adams says the long-term vision is for the school to have its own building and in-house researchers.

International partnerships

The school is just the latest step in Concordia’s ongoing drive to be a “next-generation university” prepared to deal with present and future challenges.

Its researchers showed themselves ready for such challenges during the COVID-19 crisis. “A lot of researchers pivoted,” Dr. Kersten-Oertel says.

The pandemic has left major issues that health research needs to address, Dr. Wood-Adams says, from the way long-term care facilities are run to the shortcomings of the medical supply chain. Those will be some of the issues tackled at the School of Health. And there are others.

Dr. Wood-Adams says the school will support the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals – and that includes finding more environmentally friendly ways of doing research.

Dr. Kersten-Oertel adds that the accessibility of its innovations must also be considered. “We need to develop solutions not just for the top hospitals in the western world, but for those in low- and middle-income countries as well,” she says.

Dr. Wood-Adams believes the School of Health will allow Concordia to attract more funding, take on bigger health projects and form significant partnerships with other universities, hospitals and industries. “We want to change the way things are done in the health field and we believe we have all the pieces to do it,” she says. “We’re going to bring them together and do really exciting new things.”

For more information, visit concordia.ca/healthinnovation

Advertising feature produced by Globe Content Studio with Concordia University. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved.