The College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists is Canada’s first national system of multidisciplinary recognition for the emerging generation of Canadian intellectual leadership. It comprises a fourth entity (along with the current three Academies) within the Royal Society of Canada.The Members of the College are Canadians and Permanent Residents who, at an early stage in their career, have demonstrated a high level of achievement.

Alex Scott has been elected President-elect of Physiotherapy Association of BC (PABC), and will take over the role as President next spring for a 2-year term. This is very exciting for the Department as not only will Alex provide excellent leadership to the profession, but his involvement will further strengthen the already strong ties we have with PABC.

Jordan Guenette has been appointed as the new Associate Director of the Centre for Heart Lung Innovation (formerly the James Hogg Research Centre) at St. Paul’s Hospital for a 5-year term. This is a huge honour for Jordan as the Centre is one of the top ranked respiratory research centres in the world.

Pat Camp has been elected as a Director of the Board for the Canadian Lung Association for a 2-year term. In that role, Pat will have input on lung disease research priorities and funding opportunities across Canada.

Kristin Campbell took on the role of Associate Head, Research for the Department. Kristin will lead the department in achieving research goals set out in the strategic plan

The Alumni Builder Award recognizes a cross section of alumni representing all faculties who have significantly contributed to the University and enriched the lives of others, and in doing so, have supported alumni University of British Columbia’s mission of realizing the promise of a global community with shared ambition of a better world and an exceptional UBC.

Nancy Cho was chosen for this award for her dedication to education and furthering the practice of physiotherapy, and many years of volunteer service to the Faculty of Medicine. Nancy received her BSc (Rehab) in 1982.  Nancy began contributing to UBC while still a student and she has supported the Department ever since. As president of the Rehabilitation Student Council led by Nancy Cho she led the establishment of UBC Rehabilitation Sciences Alumni Bursary. Nancy teaches in the program and has served on numerous Department committees and consistently strives to better the experience of our students and the broader physio community.

Wondering if your class is planning an upcoming reunion? Or want to plan something but need some help?  The alumni office is here to help.  They will help you with all aspects of reunion planning, event details, budgeting, class lists, etc. Check out their website for resources and the contact information for our Alumni representative.

Dr. Clayon Hamilton, supervised by Dr. Linda Li, received a prestigious Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Health System Impact Fellowship Award, one of only six given out in this competition. This award is  jointly funded by the CIHR and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, the goal of this new program is to create “a new generation of leaders of evidenced-informed health and health system improvement.”   Dr. Hamilton already has CIHR and Michael Smith post-doctoral fellowship awards for a project which will have to be put on hold while he starts his new project, “Patient/Public Engagement Measurement and Evaluation Project within the BC Ministry of Health’s Patients as Partners Initiative”. In this project he will develop and evaluate quality indicators of patient engagement in health policy decisions. This is something that is badly needed and can improve health care and health for all Canadians.

There is a concept that I tried unsuccessfully to resist, because it is integral to being a good health scientist. When I started my postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Linda Li she introduced me to the idea of “grantsmanship.” By the way, it came along with an “F” word – “fundable.” Instantly, my brain shirked both concepts.

For many research trainees like myself, an ideal world of research would not involve applying for grants and trainee awards. One’s time would be spent conducting research and undergoing professional development. Thanks to Dr. Li, learning the art of grantsmanship has been an imperative part of my training. At this stage of my career my grantsmanship efforts have been focused on acquiring trainee awards rather than research grants. The basic tenets of grantsmanship are consistent between both efforts. This article however, does not suggest the 10 tips for winning a grant or award, nor does it purport to describe the key attributes of grantsmanship. This article merely shares my experience of being successful in acquiring highly competitive trainee awards, and the gratitude I have for all those involved in my success.

When I started my postdoc in 2015, it was completely funded by Dr. Li. Fortunately, before the end of the first year of my fellowship, I received a three-year Michael Smith Foundation of Health Research (MSFHR) Trainee award. The MSFHR award changed my life as it came at a point when I was contemplating discontinuing academic research. Essentially, my contributions towards advancing patient-oriented research have been dependent on being able to demonstrate that I am fundable. Fundable – meaning, beyond my experience and qualifications, I am in the right place, connected with the right people, and at a suitable point in time to provide a meaningful impact to society through my important research.

After applying for (and not receiving) a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Fellowship I took the criticisms of the reviewers into consideration, applied the following year and was successful. Essentially, it required persevering, moving passed failure, and leveraging constructive criticism. Within a few months, I won the prestigious CIHR Health System Impact Fellowship. This fellowship aims to nurture the next generation of health system leaders in Canada.

The previous year, I had been working toward our vision to make an impact to patient-oriented research through the ongoing Patient Engagement In Research Scale (PEIRS) Study. The PEIRS Study focuses on advancing the quality of how patients, family caregivers, and the public are included as partners on health research projects. This study would contribute to improving the extent to which research considers the values, needs, and preferences of patients and the public. I have a deep appreciation and respect for the members of my research team. The tenacity and passion of the patients on my research team have been a driving force of motivation for me.

The value of the work I do has never particularly been about me; it takes a team to demonstrate the significance and impact of our work to the community we serve. Throughout all of this, one key lesson learned from my supervisor is to be succinct, say all what is needed, not more, and in fewer words.

Excitement abounds around the Department of Physical Therapy following the approval from the Faculty of Medicine to open our very own student-led clinic: The UBC Physical Therapy and Research Clinic.  This fantastic initiative will provide rich clinical placement opportunities for the MPT students, the ability to integrate and support departmental research, a milieu to foster interdisciplinary collaborations across the Faculty of Medicine, and quality evidence-informed care to patient populations in the community.

The Steering Committee has begun moving forward on plans to open the clinic September 2019 in the Friedman Building on campus. This Committee brings a wealth of knowledge, clinical and entrepreneurial experience, and diverse points of view from various Faculty and Clinical Faculty.  Clinical Faculty member and CHES fellow Edwin Betinol has committed to the role of Implementation Manager. We have a wonderful group moving this project forward. Renovations will soon be under way in Friedman.

Each spring, the Healthcare Travelling Roadshow focuses on inspiring rural B.C. students to consider careers in health care. Co-ordinated through the Northern Medical Program, in conjunction with the Southern Medical Program, it brings together health professional students from around B.C. to showcase their fields at high schools.

This year, the roadshow visited three different regions: April 29 – May 5, Cassiar-Ft. Nelson (Smithers, Dease Lake, Watson Lake, Ft. Nelson); May 6 – 12, Columbia-Shuswap (Sicamous, Revelstoke, Nakusp); and May 13 – 19, Coastal region (New Aiyansh, Gingolx, Lak Kw’alaams, Metlakatla, Terrace, Kitimat).

Professions represented included medicine, nursing, physical therapy, midwifery, pharmacy, dental hygiene, respiratory therapy, health care assistants, and cardiology technology.

Physiotherapy student Shayne Casey-Shaw participated in the Coastal roadshow. “I got involved in the program in hopes to inspire young students in rural communities to pursue their own unique passions and skillsets, and make a career out of it; being from a small town myself, I lacked that kind of inspiration in secondary school, but would have greatly valued a program like this. To share my journey into physical therapy with other young students was very special! I was also able to connect deeply with my fellow peers and presenters, learning more about interdisciplinary health professions. It was an honour to be part of the program, and I highly recommend the opportunity to other MPT students!

Nick Macdonald, a fellow physiotherapy student, was part of the Columbia-Shuswap roadshow. “My interest in participating in this experience was twofold. I wanted to explore novel rural communities that I may be interested in eventually working and living in. I also enjoy acting in the capacity of an educator passionate about their field. As an educator, I was able to provide high school students with information about the healthcare opportunities available to them while highlighting physical therapy as a career. Students participating in the roadshow were educated about various rehabilitation approaches to common orthopaedic conditions. Students had particular interest in discussing personal activity related injuries they experienced and learning best practices for their treatment. The highlight of my trip was visiting Nakusp. We were pleasantly surprised how welcoming the community and school were. It was inspiring to hear about the many student achievements at the high school we visited. For example, in a school of 100, a group of young entrepreneurs in the business club had successfully engineered and marketed flashers for fishing with the bulk of funds generated being directed to the schools outdoor recreation program. Our visit was topped off with a relaxing visit to Halcyon Hot Springs, an absolute must if you are passing through the area!”

MSc Candidate, Sarah Weller, is helping people with cancer reconnect with their bodies. Sarah is an Exercise Physiologist completing her MSc degree in the Rehabilitation Sciences program under the supervision of Dr. Kristin Campbell.

I love helping others learn what physical medicine their body needs to thrive, as mine has always felt best when it is moving regularly. For the past 13 years I have worked with thousands of individuals with cancer, focusing on prescribing exercise to improve physical outcomes, manage treatment side effects and to reconnect people with their body. My personal drive for evidence-informed practice has meant that staying up-to-date with the research literature has always been ingrained in my clinical work. Luckily I have always loved reading research and I really enjoy working with people to solve physical problems.

The exercise oncology literature has exploded over the past 10 years, yet a disconnect still exists between the implementation of research knowledge into clinical practice and supportive care. This is one of the main reasons I chose to start graduate studies in 2017. My goal is to bridge the gap between research and practice through implementation, knowledge translation and by bringing my clinical experience into the lab to drive the research questions that are being asked by patients and the clinical community. Ultimately, I want to enhance the lives of cancer survivors and I believe that research can positively impact the most people and can create meaningful large-scale change.

I am currently a MSc student in Rehabilitation Sciences at UBC with a focus on exercise oncology, under the supervision of Dr. Kristin Campbell. I love that through my studies I get to be part of the research in this area and combine it with real world application through my work in private practice. Over the past 16 months I have been fortunate to be involved in many projects including piloting the implementation of community-based prostate exercise programs, expanding the HealthLink BC 8-1-1 telephone line to include Physical Activity Services for Cancer and creating the Exercise Support page on the BC Cancer website. All of these projects were sustained after funding ended and continue to support cancer survivors to engage in exercise. My thesis work for my MSc focuses on changing the exercise behaviours of men with prostate cancer through an exercise counseling clinic. This work will help us to understand if exercise counselling and exercise professionals can be embedded more broadly into healthcare.

One of my other focuses of this year has been using social media to disseminate and translate research to a diverse international audience. I coordinate the CEPL #365papers on Twitter, which posts an exercise oncology paper daily on @cepl_ubc (check it out!). Additionally, I recently co-chaired the first international exercise oncology twitter conference, #ExOncTC, which engaged over 600 researchers, physicians, clinicians, trainees, exercise professionals and patients globally in over 19 hours of science. It was an amazing experience and really reinforced to me that there are now many ways to enhance engagement, discuss ideas and disseminate research internationally. It is my hope that through all of these different research endeavours we can start to create change and enhance the exercise services that are available to cancer survivors. By more closely integrating research and clinical practice, I believe we can get there and I look forward to what the future holds!

Dr. Courtney Pollock was recently appointed as an Assistant Professor in July 2018.

I undertook my clinical training as a physiotherapist at McMaster University, graduating in 1998. I enjoyed working clinically in a variety of areas of musculoskeletal and neurorehabilitation. I worked a great deal in sport with a focus on para-sport and I remain involved in this. Currently, I serve as  an International Rowing Classifier for the Fédération Internationale des Sociétés d’Aviron and am active in continued development of the sport internationally.

As a clinician I was curious about gaps in knowledge that I felt were important to understanding how we challenge people during rehabilitation so despite the fact that I firmly stated I would never go back to school when I graduated from Mac in 98, I returned to full-time academic life in 2009. I worked under the guidance of Drs Jayne Garland and Michael Hunt here at UBC during my PhD training and went on to a postdoctoral fellowship at SFU with Dr. James Wakeling.

My research aims to comprehensively understand the fundamental mechanisms of motor control of walking balance and balance reactions and understand how neurological changes associated with aging, disease and injury impact these aspects of motor control and mobility.  The overarching goal of my research is to advance rehabilitation practice by developing and evaluating innovative therapeutic interventions designed with sufficient levels of challenge to optimize the motor control of independent mobility.

I am thrilled to join UBC as a faculty member and look forward to opportunities to work with students, clinicians and faculty.

Meet Master of Physical Therapy first year student, Jasmine Mander.

Jasmine is a former captain and midfielder for the UBC Thunderbirds women’s soccer team that won the National Championships in 2015.

Jasmine with Andrew Latham, a Coach Educator who was part of Jasmine’s national certification process

How are you connecting your background in sport coaching and Physical Therapy?

I’m a Canadian and US Soccer Federation B National Licensed coach – I was both lucky (and naive) enough to complete these courses prior to turning 20 – a little record that I get to hold in North America that I’m sure will be beat by some of the other young coaches emerging in our community. Throughout the year I may work with anywhere from 3-5 teams, and I’m currently coaching with the Vancouver Whitecaps FC, and Fusion FC. Some of my responsibilities include planning the season curriculum, leading training sessions, organizing travel tournaments, and communicating with families weekly.  It is not uncommon to lead a session for 6-8 year olds and then 16-18 year olds one hour later. Having the ability to wear different hats and consider age appropriate language, feedback styles, and developmentally appropriate training are aspects I’m finding may be relevant when working with different populations in the health care profession as well.  I’m also finding the MPT program is allowing me to reflect on my own coaching and if I spend enough time considering physical periodization, injury prevention and recovery – for example, the program has already served as a catalyst to ensuring players complete a baseline concussion test.

Why are you pursuing a career in Physical Therapy?

Like many former athletes in this year’s cohort, my interest in Physical Therapy stemmed from being a patient all too often – it wasn’t until my varsity career at UBC was winding down that I began to place a new importance on my health with the vision of what it may look like after university – it was during this time I gained a deeper appreciation for the role Physical Therapists play in supporting daily living, and recreational activities.

What are you looking forward to most during your time in the program?

As part of the Northern and Rural Cohort, I am particularly looking forward to our placement opportunities next year. While it’s been less than three months, I’m learning more about some of my incredibly accomplished and intelligent classmates and I’m looking forward to growing our relationships during the only time in our lives where we may be subject to each others company all day!

Do you think your experience as an athlete will shape your practice?

I’ve been lucky to have been influenced by some great coaches like Jason Jordan at Fusion FC and Emma Humphries when she was at the Vancouver Whitecaps.  An important thing I learned from them is to ensure people are always the priority – they never treated us like x’s and o’s on the field. I was fortunate to play under the guidance of Marisa Kovacs, we won a National Championship within 6 months of her coaching at UBC and I really think the environment she created had everything to do with it. I will look to follow these great coaches’ model into the health care profession and consider each patient as a person as well.

Samantha Smith graduates from the program in November and is working toward being a top notch PT and Olympic athlete.

What inspired you to pursue a Masters in Physical Therapy?
I chose physiotherapy as a profession because I love health and human movement! Sports and movement are what make me the happiest, and I want to share that with others. Furthermore, I hope to emulate the great therapists that have helped me during my career to help the next generation of athletes.

What are you looking forward to most this upcoming year?
The upcoming year is full of exciting events from both an academic and athletic perspective. In the upcoming year, I am looking forward to starting to work as a physiotherapist! I am also excited for the upcoming gymnastics season. The qualification process for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics starts in the winter of 2019. I hope to qualify a spot for Canada at the games.

What is the best piece of advice you can give students in the program?
The best advice I can give, is to accept compromise, and set realistic expectations. At many points throughout the program I had to reduce either training time or study time. As someone who likes to give 100% effort to both athletic and academic endeavours, compromising was hard. However, being strategic about when to focus more on school versus sports is what enabled me to do both!

What was your first job?

Samantha Smith competing in the world championships

My first job was coaching gymnastics! I started at 14. When I started my physiotherapy schooling, I realized that coaching gymnastics has a lot of similarity to teaching movement patterns to patients!

What makes you laugh?
Doing sports with friends makes me the happiest!

What is your most healthy habit?
I think my healthiest habit is my obsession with the outdoors. When I am stressed, my go-to activity is a long run.

What’s next on your BC bucket list?
I love back-country skiing. Next on my BC bucket list is exploring the backcountry near Pemberton.

Many treatments have been recommended for the treatment of chronic tendon pain (tendinopathy). The diversity of possible treatments can challenge patients and their treatment providers. This free webinar will take an evidence-informed approach while presenting a contemporary understanding of chronic tendon pain and the best supported approaches to manage it. The results of a recently completed placebo-controlled trial for knee tendon pain will also be presented.

Associate Professor, Dr. Alex Scott, directs the Tendon Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation Laboratory. His research targets a widespread problem, overuse injuries and chronically painful tendon disorder in workers and athletes. He maintains active collaborations with Oslo University, Umeå University, and University of Paris. His work has been incorporated into a widely used web-based clinical guideline (UpToDate©).

Dr. Scott’s teaching interests include the principles of mechanobiology and tissue healing-core concepts for the physiotherapy profession. He encourages students to think biologically, and to maintain a questioning and open approach to the art and science of physiotherapy. Building students’ confidence in the concepts of mechanobiology and tissue pathology will empower them, as clinicians, to advocate for an active rehabilitation approach with patients and colleagues.

When: Dec 13, 2018 12:00 PM (PST)

Registration required: Click here to be directed to the registration site

Dr. Whittaker will join the Department in July 2019 expanding our musculoskeletal expertise.

I undertook my clinical training as a physiotherapist at the University of Alberta, graduating in 1993. Between 1993 and 2015 I worked clinically, primarily in musculoskeletal private practice, in both the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. During that time I received certifications in manual and manipulative therapy (FCAMPT), acupuncture (CAFCI), dry needling (CGIMS), ultrasound imaging and was recognized by the Canadian Physical Therapy Association as one of eight original clinical specialists in musculoskeletal physical therapy.

As a clinician, I encountered innumerable patients with chronic musculoskeletal disorders that I believe would have benefited enormously if it had been possible to either prevent, or rehabilitate fully their condition when it first started. The desire to improve the care of these patients was the motivation for undertaking a PhD in Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation from the University of Southampton, which I completed in 2012. I continued my research training with a postdoctoral fellowship focusing on epidemiological and biostatistical approaches to prevent osteoarthritis after youth sport-related knee injuries at the Sport Injury Prevention Research Centre, University of Calgary (Faculty of Kinesiology) from 2012-2015. In 2015 I joined the University of Alberta, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, Department of Physical therapy as an Assistant Professor and served as Research Director of the Glen Sather Sports Medicine Clinic.

The goal of my research is to generate and implement knowledge that will influence a shift in the management of chronic musculoskeletal conditions such as osteoarthritis towards preventing and/or delaying their onset. This includes developing a greater understanding of the consequences of musculoskeletal injuries suffered as a youth or young adult, optimizing healthcare pathways and health outcomes for youth and young adults that suffer a musculoskeletal injury, and optimizing function and reducing disability in adults that develop osteoarthritis pre-maturely as a result of an injury. In addition I have strong interest in the appropriate application and referral for diagnostic imaging by physiotherapists.

Beyond my work, I am a passionate sports (soccer) fan, traveller and enjoy spending time in the outdoors with my partner and our dogs.

I am excited to join the amazing faculty and staff in the UBC Department of Physical Therapy and look forward to re-integrating into the physiotherapy community in the greater Vancouver area and continuing my research.