The Vesalius Trust awarded a 2024 Research Grant to Natalie Lucas, MScBMC ‘24. Photo courtesy: N. Lucas
Natalie Lucas, a second year student in the Master of Science in Biomedical Communications program at the University of Toronto, was awarded a 2024 Vesalius Trust Research Grant for her master's research project Speaking from the heart: An audience-informed animation for navigating palliative care and advanced heart failure.
The transition from palliative care to advanced care (sometimes called end-of-life care or hospice) is a sensitive topic–for patients, their health-care team, family, friends and other caregivers.
Patients approach palliative and advanced care decisions in different ways, and need to understand the process and the resources that are available to them. Health-care providers experience difficulty initiating the discussion and rely on printed pamphlets to communicate information.
Working with Anne Simard, Staff Scientist and Director of Transform HF, Samantha Engbers, Research and Planning Associate at the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research, and BMC faculty advisor Nicholas Woolridge, Natalie is creating a 2D animation for people living with advanced heart failure and their at-home caregivers.
Still from the 2D animation Speaking from the Heart. Courtesy: N. Lucas
Natalie’s choice of medium, 2D animation, was strategic. People who experience advanced heart failure tend to be 50 and older. "People who grew up during Disney's Golden Era. For them, it's a beloved medium," says Natalie. "Animation is associated with entertainment, and bringing entertainment into education is something I'm passionate about."
Natalie is creating characters informed by interviews with patients and caregivers who have lived-experience. She is incorporating diversity of gender, age, body type, race and ethnicity into her character design.
The goal is for patients to be able to see themselves in the experiences represented while learning how to manage at home the complex symptoms of heart failure.
Health-care providers will be able to use the animation as a resource to initiate conversations about palliative and advanced care.
Speaking from the heart: An audience-informed animation for navigating palliative care and advanced heart failure will be available in summer 2024 on The Heart Hub, the patient and caregiver education site of the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research.
MScBMC students who also received 2024 Vesalius Trust awards include:
Beatrice Nai-Jung Chen, MScBMC '24–Research Grant for her project A road map of health care transition to adult care for adolescents with paediatric heart disease
Jayne Leggatt, MScBMC '24–the Joyce McGill Scholarship for her project Sonoanatomy Atlas: An Interactive Educational Resource for Sonoanatomy and Ultrasound Protocol
Samantha Li, MScBMC '24–Research Grant for her project Storytelling with data: Teaching data-driven storytelling to undergraduate life science students
Juno Shemano, MScBMC '24–Research Grant for her project Wound watch: An interactive education platform on pressure injury prevention for unpaid caregivers
Vesalius Trust awards are made annually to recognize student research projects of merit.
~
Web sites referenced
Natalie Lucas’ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/natalielucasyoungblood/
The Heart Hub https://ourhearthub.ca/
Beatrice Nai-Jung Chen’s Vesalius Trust Research Grant announcement https://uoft.me/vt2024-beatrice-chen
Jayne Leggatt’s Joyce McGill Scholarship announcement https://uoft.me/vt2024-jayne-leggatt
Samantha Li’s Vesalius Trust Research Grant announcement https://uoft.me/vt-2024-sam-li
Juno Shemano’s Vesalius Trust Research Grant announcement https://uoft.me/vt2024-juno-shemano