Kristi Coldwell

Kristi Coldwell has dedicated most of her adult life to ensuring the patient voice is meaningfully heard across the health system. She embodies the slogan “Nothing about us without us.”

In her work, she brings Patient Family Partners (PFPs – people with lived or living experience in the health care system) into a wide variety of projects and programs to improve patient care and the health care system. Kristi herself underwent a heart transplant as a teenager and that experience, coupled with her subsequent years of follow-up medical care, have instilled in her a deep desire to improve the health care system by incorporating the voices of those with lived experience.

Kristi builds patient engagement on many levels. Her work includes supporting patient engagement on research teams and training PFPs to review research proposals to ensure “patient oriented” research projects. She is a strong proponent for Patient Oriented Research (POR) and regularly co-delivers presentations on foundational POR principles and methods and facilitates POR panel discussions with the patient engagement team at the BC SUPPORT Unit (part of Canada’s Strategy for Patient Oriented Research). In this work, she has taught dozens of patients, clinicians, researchers, trainees and health policy decision-makers about POR. Her presence and passion in these training events have been a powerful reminder to participants that the patient voice is important in their work – she walks the talk! The patient engagement awareness and training program at the BC SUPPORT Unit has benefited greatly from her support and input.

Her positive impact on patient engagement is also demonstrated in a patient advisory group that she chairs. This group supports practice-based research programs in several health care organizations across BC. Kristi advocates for meaningful patient engagement in the program governance as well as the individual research and knowledge translation projects funded. These efforts have led to patient engagement becoming embedded in every aspect of the programs.

One PFP who has worked with Kristi for five years noted, “Kristi has an incredible ability to build capacity in programs, systems, and to spark and lead all kinds of initiatives within our health care system. Because of her passion, her work ethic, and her own lived experiences as a heart transplant recipient, Kristi has really made an impact on our health care system, closing gaps and improving it as a whole.”

At times, Kristi tells her own story of heart transplant and many years of subsequent interactions with the health care system and uses that story to inspire others to share their stories and work for change and patient care improvements. A nurse and research project leader who collaborated with Kristi explained, “Kristi provided invaluable feedback to gain a patient’s perspective on the transplant journey, helping to improve the experience for future transplant patients. As a mentor to patients, she combines a positive attitude with deep compassion, ensuring that each individual’s needs are met and voices are heard. Kristi’s dedication to research makes her an invaluable champion for all transplant patients.”