Canada urgently needs to develop and implement innovative solutions for the health and wellness of an increasingly aging population as well as for all Canadians. There is also a need to foster health and social equity in diverse populations, and respond to emergent needs such as the COVID-19 pandemic. KPU has also recognized an opportunity to bring together medical, wellness, independent living, and digital health technologies with business and market expertise and clinical product development. KPU is making a significant investment to deploy health technologies and train more people in its use. This area is highly collaborative, involving multiple areas of expertise from the health and technology sectors, post-secondary institutions, and government. The Fraser Health Region which encompasses multiple Lower Mainland health authorities and cuts across KPU’s Surrey, Tech, and Langley campuses is the largest health region in BC. This region is rapidly growing and solutions to address complex health needs across a diverse population are needed. The development of Surrey’s second hospital and the associated oncology centre adjacent to KPU Tech campus provides unprecedented collaborative research and innovation opportunities.
Anchored by KPU’s Faculty of Health and with significant active engagement from the Faculty of Science and Horticulture among other areas, research strengths are in the areas of health promotion, nutritional informatics, mental health and addictions, professional practice (e.g. nursing), Indigenous health, medical anthropology, chronic condition (e.g. AIDS, cardio-vascular disease) prevention and treatment, perinatal care, relationship violence, ethics, sleep quality, effects of fatigue on health, and complementary medicine (e.g. yoga, traditional Chinese medicine). Innovation activities include: health-related digital technologies, genomics, analysis of diverse health datasets for program and policy decision making, and development of health products aimed at prevention and treatment.
KPU proposes a Tier 2 CRC in the area of nutrition informatics with aims to optimize the application of data and knowledge for food- and nutrition-related problem-solving and decision-making. This CRC research program focuses on applying nutrition informatics to develop the knowledge and resources required to prevent and treat non-communicable diseases in diverse populations. The research will integrate expertise in health behaviour and education, personalized nutrition, digital reality applications, and mixed methods within a multidisciplinary, fundamental, and translational research framework with the aim of advancing knowledge, research, policy, and practice related to nutrition informatics and how it can support self-management of health among diverse populations.