Teresa Liu-Ambrose, Associate Professor, Canada Research Chair and Michael Smith Scholar began her career in Physical Therapy after graduating from the University of British Columbia in 1994. After practicing for a couple of years she returned to school to pursue her interest in exercise as a tool to prevent injury and improve quality of life.
Her research focuses on defining the role of exercise to promote healthy aging and prevent cognitive and functional decline among seniors. Her research has frequently been featured in the popular media such as the New York Times and the Globe and Mail.
In 2008, Dr. Liu-Ambrose published Action Seniors!, a 12-month, proof-of-concept, randomized control trial among frail seniors with a significant history of falls. This study provided novel preliminary evidence that the Otago home-based strength and balance training program – an evidence-based primary falls prevention strategy – may also be an efficacious secondary falls prevention strategy. Most intriguing was the finding that the significant reduction in falls was in conjunction with improved executive functions rather than improved physiological function (e.g., improved strength and balance). Hence, this study was the first to suggest improved executive functions may be a mechanism in which exercise training reduces falls. This mechanism has not been suggested or examined previously despite that cognitive decline is an independent risk factor for falls. She is extending this work by examining how exercise improves cognitive function and whether type of exercise (aerobic or resistance) or cognitive enrichment programs have differing mechanism of action on cognitive improvement or preservation.
Dr. Liu-Ambrose frequently includes economic evaluations in her RCTs to increase the likelihood that her research is translated into practice and policy. Her findings have enhanced the design and delivery of exercise programs in British Columbia as evidenced by the formation of the Vancouver General Hospital Falls Prevention Clinic where she serves as Research Director. She has also produced helpful videos geared towards older adults as well as health professionals on the importance of exercise training in successful aging http://cogmob.rehab.med.ubc.ca/learn-more. You can see the impact on a person with stroke that her work contributes to in a video and learn more about her current projects at http://cogmob.rehab.med.ubc.ca/research.