When the Network for Healthy Population’s Catalyst Grant teams sit down to plan out their projects, they all have access to a secret weapon of sorts. David Gerstle, a Research Services & Liaison Librarian at the University of Mississauga has been tapped to support each of the groups in their research and planning.
Gerstle, who has an interest in health science librarianship, was enthusiastic about the prospect of partnering with the Network when UTM’s Vice President, Alexandra Gillespie, suggested the project. He was inspired by the idea that he could support research teams in producing evidence-based projects, as well as help improve science literacy.
“The main area where I’m contributing is research support, which is a key part of my job at the university level as well. I’m helping develop database searches, and searching outside of databases to get evidence-based answers for the teams,” he says. “I’m having conversations with them regularly and consultations where we’re developing search strategies, developing the databases we’re going to be searching. And I’m being informed by all of their expertise coming from other areas, and then trying to support their goals as much as I possibly can.”
As an information professional, Gerstle brings expertise the teams—made up of academics, healthcare professionals and community groups—don’t already have. This is something the Network’s Director, Dr. Lorraine Lipscombe, believes will make for richer and much better research. “The goal of our Catalyst Grant program is to get projects up and running in the communities quickly. David’s work helps remove a significant barrier in making sure our teams have all the important background information so their projects are able to move forward faster and with more confidence that all the research in the area has been consulted and considered.”
Describing himself as a “practical facilitator,” Gerstle is able to find things that a simple Google search or look through the academic literature might not reveal. From government documents to work outside the field, he can often suss out important things others would miss. He also finds it interesting to be able to work on new ideas where there may not already be a wealth of research.
“There’s such inventive ideas. That core of evidence is just not available right away, so we need to start searching the scholarly databases globally. For example, working with community screening for the prevention of diabetes I want to see where has community screening been done? What have the challenges been? What have the strengths been? How have they overcome their challenges? What kind of advice can they give us? That kind of information can come from the scholarly literature. But it can also come from outside the scholarly literature in terms of government databases, community publications, as well as in unlikely places like the blogs of caretakers trying to help prevent or manage chronic illness.”
And Gerstle himself has been learning new things about his adopted community while working on the project. Originally from the United States, he moved to Canada a few years ago. He had always idealized the Canadian healthcare system from afar. Now, working with teams who are trying to reduce structural inequities and improve the system, he realizes that nothing is perfect, but he’s inspired by the passion to enact change here—and that he can play a role.
