What is the Parent and Clinician Team?
The Parent and Clinician Team (PACT) are parents with children participating in the TARGet Kids! study who partner with our researchers. The goal of the PACT is to foster patient and family-oriented research in TARGet Kids! by actively engaging patients and families throughout the research process. We look to parents for input and they help guide our research priorities, study design, the outcome measures we use, as well as the interpretation and use of our findings.
Parent and Clinician Team (PACT)
Who is a Parent Partner?
A parent partner is a parent who collaborates with us and engages in all aspects of our work.
We know that parents and families are experts on their child’s health, experiences and needs, and are best suited to guide our research priorities.
We formed the PACT so that parents can give their input and actively engage in our work.
Who can join the Parent and Clinician Team?
All parents who are a part of the TARGet Kids! registry or studies can join as parent partners. We welcome the input of fathers and are extending a special invitation for fathers to join us as members of PACT.
Find out more about the PACT and how it helps to guide TARGet Kids! research in these 2 papers we published:
Our priorities are informed by parents
These are some of our research priorities:
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Effective strategies for screening and prevention of mental health problems.
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Interventions to increase physical activity in children.
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The impact of daycare attendance on child health and development.
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Effective interventions for obesity prevention in young children.
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Interventions to promote social skill development.
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The impact of parental stress on children.
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Effective methods for screening for developmental delay in children.
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Effective strategies for behaviour management in children.
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Nutritional factors that affect child behaviour.
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Appropriate amount o screen time for children.
To learn more, you can read the journal article we published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
PACT Involvement with TK!
In 2017, TARGet Kids! in collaboration with families, parents and the PACT developed a list of 10 priorities in child health research. To learn more, visit Archives of Disease in Childhood to access the article that was written.
We recently worked with the PACT on a priority refresh exercise to match our publications to our identified priorities. We reviewed all TK! publications since 2017, and compiled a worksheet highlighting key themes and the connection to each priority. We are happy to report that all of our work since 2017 is connected to our priorities.
Through this exercise, we see that working with our PACT community is helping us to do work that is relevant, effective, and impactful.
