Research Vision
The Research and Data (RAD) team is embedded within NAM daily operations to ensure research, evaluation, and radical innovation are optimally leveraged to achieve meaningful improvements in mental health and addiction outcomes for all people living in Alberta. Embedding scientific principles and approaches within NAM is a key strategy to support integrated knowledge translation. This strategic alignment allows for collaborative evidence-based identification of issues, developing innovative solutions, implementing sustainable programs, and evaluating impact.
Nam’s vision and mission guide every aspect of activity within the RAD team to help ensure all of NAM’s clients directly benefit from our willingness to radically innovate. Currently the RAD team is responsible for 2 pillars of activity:
Using applied research and evaluation to create mental health and addiction programs that result in 10 times better outcomes at 1/10 the cost;
Create a learning health environment where data and information are generated and shared to influence clinical decision-making and improve patient and family outcomes.
The RAD team ensures readily accessible data and real-time analysis so that improvements in patient and family experience and outcomes can be rapidly realized. Further, we use data and information to continually refine our innovative approaches to improving health and wellness of all Albertans, with a particular focus on racialized communities. With these pillars of activity, we aim to transform the mental health and addictions sector and the lives of people accessing our clinic.
More specifically, the role of the RAD team is to:
Promote and support evidence-informed decision making within NAM;
Evaluate NAM programs to improve both the experience and health outcomes for patients and families;
Co-design, implement, and evaluate innovative new clinical programs in an effort to reduce unjust and avoidable differences in health outcomes;
Facilitate the translation and mobilization of knowledge generated through NAM’s research and evaluation so that it can be of value to inform decision-making by leadership, policy makers, and clinicians within NAM and beyond;
Enhance non-profit research presence and culture in Alberta;
Build collaborations and partnerships with other organizations to further NAM’s research vision.