A dozen post-secondary students spent their summer researching patient care at the Royal Victoria Regional Health Center (RVH).

Among them was Elsa Salathiel, a third-year medical student at University College Dublin in Ireland.

Salathiel returned to her hometown of Barrie to explore how RVH’s unique skin cancer biopsy clinic could improve patient care in rural and remote areas.

Melanoma, a serious and increasingly common skin cancer, requires early detection and treatment to improve survival. However, residents who live in rural and remote communities can often experience significant delays in accessing basic health services.

Salathiel’s research focuses on whether rural and remote residents face longer wait times for melanoma surgery than those in urban areas, and whether the innovative regional melanoma cancer biopsy clinic RVH skin helped detect melanoma earlier among rural populations.

As the recipient of the 2024 Laura E. Crook Fellowship for Community Health Research, Salathiel’s work helps address health inequities.

“Community-based research is all about finding meaningful information that can inform better resources and care for patients,” said Dr. Laura Crook, the scholarship’s namesake and long-time retired family physician.

“Developing local healthcare professionals and researchers, like Elsa, who can help identify inequities and lead to innovative care solutions is the icing on the cake. I can’t wait to see what his work reveals,” Crook said.

In 2021, the Ontario Cancer Advisory Committee conducted a major study recommending that more hospitals across the province adopt programs like RVH to improve access to specialized skin cancer care.

RVH has been recognized for its ability to provide timely skin cancer diagnoses and connect patients to specialist teams.

Study results could provide critical insight into the effectiveness of the RVH Biopsy Clinic in reducing delays and improving treatment outcomes for patients in Simcoe Muskoka.

“Receiving this scholarship and being recognized by such a well-known and respected physician as Dr. Crook is an honor,” says Elsa. “It has been inspiring to put my passion for medicine into practice by participating in research that will have an immediate impact right here in my own community.” »

If successful, this project could serve as a model for expanding specialized services to meet the unique needs of rural communities across the province. By validating the clinic’s effectiveness, this research could help reduce health care disparities, such as ensuring that rural patients receive the same timely, high-quality care as urban patients.

“It is encouraging to see younger students taking such an interest in research,” said Dr. Renee Hanrahan, chief of surgery and research supervisor at RVH. “This work is critical to helping us better understand how we can adapt health care interventions to improve access and outcomes for all patients, regardless of where they live.” »

Applications for RVH’s 2025 Summer Student Research Program will open in January, continuing the hospital’s tradition of developing the next generation of clinical researchers.