Ohlson Research Initiative

Founded through the generosity of the Ohlson Family, the Ohlson Research Initiative (ORI) is founded on the principles of collaboration and multidisciplinary research. Our mission is to create knowledge that will lead to personalized therapy for head and neck cancer. Translational research, by its very nature, is dependent on the development of integrated networks that link the basic and applied science domains. 

Working in partnership with The Cumming School of Medicine - University of Calgary, the Arnie Charbonneau Cancer Institute and Alberta Health Services, the Ohlson team is focused on three research domains:

1. understanding head and neck tumour biology,
2. clinical effectiveness research and
3. imaging innovation.

Knowledge gained from these areas will help us better identify therapeutic targets, understand the effectiveness and impact of our clinical care and enhance the training of young surgeons. In addition, our collaboration with project neuroArm will result in advanced tools for robotic surgery in the head and neck.

Our focus is on people:

1. people who have the disease (our patients),
2. people who treat the disease and
3. people who create the knowledge needed to find and implement new and innovative approaches to the very complex problems found in head and neck cancer.