Tieghan Killackey (image supplied)
Tieghan Killackey receives CIHR New Investigator Award
Published: January 16, 2026
Tieghan Killackey, an assistant professor at the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, has been recognized with the CIHR New Investigator Award presented jointly by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research – Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health (CIHR-IHDCYH) and the SickKids Foundation.
Selected from a highly competitive pool of researchers, Killackey is one of only six recipients chosen from across the country.
The award will support Killackey’s three-phase project centered on the co-design and evaluation of a digital app for youth ages 12 to 18 requiring cardiac surgery. This patient population is under-researched and underserved when it comes to health services support, even though they often require several surgeries or cardiovascular procedures throughout their lives.
The app, which is based on the successful iCanCope model developed by Jennifer Stinson, a nurse clinician-scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and professor at Bloomberg Nursing, will feature both pre-operative and post-operative modes to support teens across their entire surgical journey.
“To me receiving this award is a sign that the problems nurses are trying to solve – which are grounded in the needs of the patients we work with – are being recognized as important health-care priorities,” said Killackey, who also holds the RBC Chair in Cardiovascular Nursing Research at University Health Network and U of T.
