International Women's Day 2020

In celebration of International Women’s Day 2020, I was fortunate to attend a stimulating talk by Australian journalist and award-winning author Catherine Fox titled, “How to achieve real culture change in gender equity.”

Catherine debunked common myths about women that have propagated the workplace. She stressed that gender inequality is due to bias not gender differences in behavior or performance, and she emphasized that the concept of merit is subjective and prone to gender bias.

She believes we collectively have the tools to address the gender gap, so it’s imperative we move forward with implementation in this area. And we all need to amplify what women do in the workplace. Gender inclusive workplaces benefit us all!

I can’t wait to check out Catherine’s latest book, “Stop Fixing Women.”

Get Dressed, Get Moving, Get Better - #EndPJParalysis

Did you know that many older adult patients in rehabilitation hospitals accumulate as few as 400 steps per day? Being so physically inactive impairs their rehabilitation and has detrimental effects on their transition home and future recovery.

What are the barriers to greater in-hospital mobility? That was the purpose of an interactive #EndPJParalysis workshop I attended in February at Caulfield Hospital, spearheaded by geriatrician Dr. Amelia Crabtree. Amelia brought numerous stakeholders together to tackle this problem, including front-line nursing staff, nurse managers, researchers, executive staff and patients. Through role plays, we identified common barriers to mobility on multiple levels (staff, patients, carers, and system) and problem-solved possible solutions.

A core barrier that emerged during the workshop was the tension between patient mobility and hospital fall prevention policies, which is an issue that has been written about by Growdon et al.

Kudos to Amelia on hosting a terrific workshop on such an important topic. I had a lot of fun attending and learned so much!

Happy to be visiting Australia

Dawn is pleased to be a visiting professor at Monash University in Melbourne from February to June 2020.

She is affiliated with the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine in the
Pre-hospital, Emergency and Trauma Research Unit, headed by Dr. Belinda Gabbe.

She is also affiliated with the School of Primary and Allied Health Care and their new Rehabilitation, Ageing and Independent Living (RAIL) Research Centre, directed by Dr. Keith Hill.

During her time in Melbourne, Dawn is working primarily with Senior Research Fellow Dr. Christina Ekegren on studies about older adult trauma and injury, fall prevention, and physical activity promotion. She is also exploring the city’s amazing restaurant, coffee, and yoga culture. Namaste : )

Dr. Mackey delivered keynote address at the European Falls Festival 2019 in Umea, Sweden

Dr. Mackey attended the European Falls Festival in Umea, Sweden on Oct 1-2, 2019. She delivered a keynote presentation, entitled, “Breaking new ground! Compliant flooring to prevent fall-related injuries in older adults: Results from the Flooring for Injury Prevention (FLIP) Study.”

The Falls Festival displayed excellent examples of innovative practice and research in fall and injury prevention. A key take-home messages from Dr. Sallie Lamb (Cochrane Systematic Review author from University of Exeter) was that we have very solid evidence that strength and balance exercise programs prevent falls among community-dwelling older adults. What we need to do now is focus on implementing exercise to make a real public health impact.

Thank you to Festival conveners, Drs. Clemens Becker, Chris Todd, and Erik Rosendahl, for the invitation to attend. The Festival was organized expertly, from the opening ceremony delivered by the Umea choir to the instructor-led exercise breaks between talks that were so helpful for breaking up sitting. Umea was a beautiful city, with a picturesque river and incredible assortment of outdoor public art.

Aksel completed his Honour's Thesis

Congratulations on defending your B.Sc. Honour’s Thesis Aksel!

Aksel was an Honour’s Thesis student in the APHL from September 2018 to April 2019 (…this post is long overdue). His thesis was titled, “Using Activity Monitors to Measure the Effect of Intra-Articular Knee Injection on Daily Walking Patterns in Older Adults with Osteoarthritis.”

Aksel obtained a great introduction to the research process from designing his study, obtaining ethics approval, recruiting participants, collecting, analyzing and interpreting data, and writing his thesis.

Like all researchers, he encountered obstacles along the way, but importantly, he persisted and found creative ways to overcome them. Congrats Aksel and best wishes in the future!

Ashley finished her M.Sc.

Congratulations to Ashley who successfully defended her M.Sc. thesis, “Evaluation of an Exercise Program Delivered Prior to Hemodialysis.”

Ashley’s research was situated in community-based hemodialysis units in the Fraser Health region of British Columbia. Her study aimed to determine the effects of a pragmatically-designed 12-week exercise program delivered prior to hemodialysis on physical performance, mental health, and quality of life of hemodialysis patients. She also explored patient and staff experiences with the exercise program.

Her research drew on partnerships with nephrologists in Fraser Health and helped Fraser Health better understand how to support health of hemodialysis patients. Recently, Ashley was awarded a Planning Award from the BC SUPPORT Unit Fraser Centre to involve patients in improving the design of the exercise program and create an implementation plan to continue offering the program in Fraser Health.

Ashley’s committee members were Drs. Fabio Feldman (SFU BPK and Fraser Health Authority) and Trisha Parsons (Queens University, School of Rehabilitation Therapy). Her external examiner was Dr. Sharlene Greenwood (King’s College London).

Congratulations Ashley, and good luck with your future research.

Tim defended his M.Sc. thesis

Tim defended his MSc thesis titled, “A Model of Health: Using Business Analytics to Identify Older Adults with Heart Disease.”

Tim’s research was inspired by an overarching goal to assist healthcare decision makers to optimize the delivery of chronic disease prevention interventions. He used neural networks to develop statistical models to predict heart disease using demographic, lifestyle, and health information from >15,000 older adults enrolled in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging.

Thank you to committee members Drs. David Whitehurst (SFU Health Sciences) and Guy Faulkner (UBC Kinesiology) for important contributions to Tim’s research, and to examiner Dr. Andrew Wister (SFU Gerontology) for thoughtful feedback on his thesis. Great work Tim!

Congratulations Stephanie!

Stephanie successfully defended her MSc thesis titled, “Activity monitor reliability and validity in community-dwelling older adults.” Keep an eye out for the publication of her research in the months to come!

Thank you to committee members Drs. Dave Clarke (BPK) and Scott Lear (Health Sciences, BPK) for substantial contributions to Stephanie’s research, and to examiner Dr. Maureen Ashe (UBC) for thoughtful comments on her thesis.

Well done Stephanie!