Miranda Fidler-Benaoudia, Research Scientist II/Epidemiologist at Alberta Health Services, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Proud moment for our team and collaborators
This week marks a major milestone: approximately 8,500 letters are being sent to adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors across Alberta, inviting them to participate in an electronic questionnaire on reproductive health after cancer.
The survey spans topics including fertility preservation, assisted reproductive technologies, pregnancies before and after cancer, and sexual health. Our goal is simple but powerful: to use survivor-reported data to improve care, experiences, and outcomes for young people with cancer in Alberta, and ideally help shape care practices beyond our province as well.
Research like this truly takes a village, and I’m incredibly grateful for the collaboration behind it:
– Our Patient and Family Advisory Council informed the development of the questionnaire, with 6 individuals also piloting the questionnaire.
– Our fantastic IT team (Steve, Wendy) built the REDCap questionnaire and connected it to survivor-specific QR codes, making participation as visually attractive, seamless, and low-burden as possible.
– Our dedicated administrative team (Stacy, Lisa, Seuli, Pam) prepared every single envelope over two months – an enormous effort!
– The Alberta Cancer Registry (Angela, Marion, Marla) and Cancer Advanced Analytics (Val, Siwei, Devan, Vickey) team identified all AYA cancer survivors diagnosed between 2015–2024 who are currently living in Alberta and sent the letters out on our behalf.
– And of course, my incredible research team – especially Malak Ibrahim who led this initiative – and our co-investigators (Shu Foong, Lauren Walker, Amy Metcalfe, Sarah McKillop, Cynthia Maxwell, Jeffrey Roberts, Ronald Barr, Susan Crawford, Peter Przybylski, Kirsten Fiest, Ellen Greenblatt, Jason Pole) who together rigorously designed and tested every aspect of this work!
As Principal Investigator, I couldn’t be prouder of how such a diverse group of individuals came together to make this launch a success. This is what collaborative, patient-centered research looks like and I’m excited to see what we’ll learn and how it will make a difference. Stay tuned for updates!
This study has been approved by the Health Research Ethics Board of Alberta – Cancer Committee (HREBA.CC-25-0252). This study is proudly supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research | Instituts de recherche en santé du Canada.”
Photo 1 caption: (L-R) Destiny Lutz, myself, Stacy, and Malak Ibrahim delivering the letters to the Alberta Cancer Registry
Photo 2 caption: Celebratory launch lunch”