Researcher passionate about improving patient experiences

As an implementation scientist and patient-oriented researcher, Dr. Maoliosa Donald, PhD, is passionate about putting health research discoveries into practice. 

Driven by a desire to help patients, clinicians and researchers alike, Donald’s job is to try to break through the barriers of human behaviours and system challenges to ensure new research findings are implemented into clinical practice. 

“I went into research because I had the question ‘why aren’t we using the evidence and putting it into practice?’” says Donald. 

Donald, a physiotherapist, has put her clinical work on hold to allow for her research pursuits. She is part of the Libin Cardiovascular Institute’s nephrology research group. Her research focuses on improving outcomes for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) with co-morbidities, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and mental health concerns. 

When she joined the nephrology research group nine years ago as a senior research associate, Donald was an integral part of the team that helped implement the international CKD guidelines into practice by developing the CKD Pathway, an globally used web-based tool created to assist primary care physicians and community clinicians in screening, diagnosing and managing kidney disease with their patients. 

The tool is integrated into lab reporting in Alberta, where it flags abnormal readings that may indicate early kidney problems for physicians.  

Creating the tool involved meeting with primary care physicians and pharmacists to better understand– and break down—the barriers they faced in diagnosing and treating patients at the early stages of CKD.   

“We built it for the end user, rather than what we think they would want to know, and it has been well received,” says Donald. “It provides critical information at point-of-care and fills a large gap in knowledge.” 

Donald’s next project was the creation of a patient-facing tool to help people with CKD self-manage their condition. Donald and co-principal investigators Drs. Megan Elliott, MD, and Brenda Hemmelgarn, MD co-designed the web-based tool in collaboration with patient partners, ensuring the final product filled patient needs. 

My Kidneys My Health provides practical tips for patients living with CKD, their caregivers, and the public. Addressing a range of topics from physical and mental well-being to healthy eating, medications and symptoms, the website offers numerous resources for patients. 

The website continues to evolve as Donald continues her work, providing missing information on sexual and cardiovascular health and optimizing the site for specific demographic groups. 

“We are trying to build a resource that addresses everyone’s needs,” says Donald. 

Donald’s latest project addresses fragmented care for people with CKD and co-morbidities.

“Quality of life is very important to this group, and we need to focus on what is important to our patients,” she says. 

To help bridge the gap in knowledge regarding integrated care for this population, Donald recently completed a province-wide survey to understand patient and healthcare providers experiences with access, communication and coordination of care.

She is now planning a pan-Canadian survey. 

“My overarching goal is to develop a model of care that meets the needs of patients, caregivers, and their care providers,” says Donald. “This might look different than we expect, but it will be driven by patients and will improve their experiences and meet their preferred health outcomes.” 

Dr. Maoliosa Donald, PhD, MSc, BScPT, is an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences. She is a member of the Libin Cardiovascular Institute and the O’Brien Institute for Public Health.