CRE-MSD Research Program
The Centre’s initial research program was based upon a “cell-to-society” framework and a philosophy of “let a thousand flowers bloom”. The breadth of our research into MSD prevention ranged from laboratory-based studies of injury mechanisms to the evaluation of implementation strategies in workplaces. This encouraged new faculty and students to become involved in MSD prevention research, opened up new sectors that had not been studied before, and gave established researchers the opportunity to explore new directions. The Centre’s researchers continue to pursue their varied programs of research – both laboratory and workplace based—in multiple sectors, and continue to be well represented in every call for research proposals by WSIB-RAC, CIHR, SSHRC and NSERC. 

The 6Q Initiative
The Centre sees the next three years as both an opportunity to build upon our achievements and to make a bold new contribution to the problem of preventing MSDs in workplaces. We have launched what we are calling the “6-Q Initiative” and it will become the organizing principle for the Centre’s work.

The 6Q Initiative is based on six key questions that we believe will help address the apparently intractable nature of MSDs. We believe that the answers to these six foundational questions could help determine whether we are moving in the right direction or whether our efforts are being derailed by not addressing one of the key issues. We believe that research and practice suggests that the existing approaches to some or all of these issues are not adequate, and the ramification of a poor understanding of these questions is ineffective prevention.
What are the six questions? The questions address: (1) our understanding of MSD etiology, diagnosis and burden; (2) the identification of multiple domains of risk factors; (3) the ability of workplaces to identify risks effectively and efficiently; (4) the development of efficacious interventions for MSD prevention; (5) barriers and facilitators for the wide and intensive implementation of interventions; and (6) our ability to improve MSD disability outcomes.

6QI: Research to Practice (r2P) strategy Our Research to Practice (r2P) Strategy will be guided by the 6-Q Initiative. We will be reaching out to stakeholders who can help us identify gaps and needs based on the six questions and the Centre will focus on collaborating with partners to help produce plain-language products that will bring these issues and their solutions to workplace decision-makers. We are excited by the opportunities that this new initiative will be affording us, and look forward to developing the Centre for the next three years and beyond and achieving its vision of preventing MSDs.

6QI: Research agenda Our Research agenda will also be guided by the 6-Q Initiative. The six questions are framed to discover possible barriers to effective prevention, identify gaps in research, possibilities for improvement in our practice, and consequently, where increased workplace and research focus is needed. Because of the very broad nature of these questions, they will require a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach.

In order to maximize the Centre’s impact, CRE-MSD’s research portfolio will concentrate on a subset of these questions: 3) the ability of workplaces to identify MSD risks effectively and efficiently; 4) the development of efficacious interventions for the prevention of MSDs; and 5) the implementation of interventions widely and intensivein organizations. However, the Centre’s MSD-Prevention Strategy, called the “6-Q Initiative”, will include finding partners to engage in all six questions.

The 6-Q Initiative will be a program of research to explore each question, often by collaborating with other research centres in Ontario and across Canada. We will be hosting five stakeholder workshops and an invited-researcher workshop later in 2009, and four more in 2010 that will address these questions. We plan to invite researchers from across Canada and Europe to these workshops with the goal of creating a state-of-the-art commentary. The findings of the workshop will be published in a special issue of the Journal of WORK to be published in 2011. Our vision is that this initiative will initiate a national network of researchers and students dedicated to clarify the underpinnings of an effective MSD-prevention strategy.

6QI: National Strategy The 6QI will help prioritize our outreach to other researchers and research institutions across the country and in this way will have a determining effect on how our researcher network grows, develops and is sustained.

We have begun to create partnerships outside Ontario. We are partnering with researchers in Quebec, Newfoundland, Washington State and British Columbia on a CIHR five-year strategic team grant. This grant application includes 14 researchers from three provinces, and seven major stakeholder partners, including three from Ontario (Hydro One, Steelworkers Union, and the Industrial Accident Prevention Association). The proposal is to create a model of workplace intervention to reduce the risk of workplace-based musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), and pilot the model in workplaces in each province.

We have established an informal collaborative partnership with SafetyNet, an Occupational Health & Safety research institute in Newfoundland, and are presently exploring commonalities and opportunities for mutual research projects. We are also developing collaborative relationships with St. Mary’s University in Nova Scotia, researchers in Lethbridge University in Saskatchewan, and with a group of researchers at NIOSH, in Washington D.C.