Linda Watson
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Scientific Director, Cancer Research and Analytics (Acting)
Scientific Director, Applied Research and Patient Experience Cancer Research and Analytics
BScN, MM, PhD
Contact information
Phone
Preferred method of communication
Administrative Assistant
Toni Gemmell
Email: toni.gemmell@ahs.ca
Telephone: 403.476.2606
Research and teaching
Research areas
- Applied Research and Patient Experience
Research Summary
My program of health services research revolves around strategies, applied interventions, and digital health solutions that improve the person centredness of ambulatory cancer care and patient experience. As an embedded researcher in Cancer Care Alberta (CCA), I have had the unique privilege to lead several implementation science programs aimed at improving the person centredness of ambulatory oncology care provincially. The first major provincial implementation science project I led was the development of the CCA’s cancer patient navigation program. This involved the implementation of cancer patient navigator roles in all community cancer centres sites to better serve the unique care needs of rural Albertans with cancer. After a robust program evaluation, this program has been sustained and expanded upon.
I currently lead the provincial “Living well after Cancer” program aimed to support improved transitions between CCA and Primary Care post ambulatory oncology treatments. I also have led the CCA’s provincial Patient Reported Outcomes program, which revolved around routine collection, analysis and utilization of the information to guide clinical care in CCA. Over 80,000 cancer patients have completed a CCA PRO report, with just under 500,000 unique PRO entry time points and over 50,000 supportive care referrals associated with the clinical review of PROs. Further integration of PROs and visual trended reports into Connect Care are currently underway. Digital health strategies is another area where I have led work including the development of a patient centric consult recording app called “MyCare Conversations” to assist patient with recall of information shared by clinicians.
Finally, I also lead the programmatic measurement, analysis and reporting back of patient experience trends within CCA to clinical teams and operational leadership for the purpose of guiding continual quality improvement. The next phase of implementation science research will revolve around testing a new model of care that integrates virtual care, digital health and person centredness
Biography
Dr. Linda Watson has been an oncology nurse in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for over 30 years. She has held a variety of nursing and inter-professional leadership roles within the CancerControl Alberta (CCA) provincial program and currently holds two Scientific Director positions with CCA; one as the Acting Scientific Director of Cancer Research and Analytics as her permanent role as the Scientific Director, Applied Research and Patient Experience. Dr. Watson also holds an adjunct professor position with the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Calgary and is also a past President of the Canadian Association of Nurses in Oncology (CANO). She current is serving a four year term on the Board of Directors for the International Society for Nurses in Cancer Care (ISNCC).
