The sustainability of healthcare in BC hinges on innovation and technology to improve health, well-being, and independence while keeping people out of hospital. Existing and emerging technologies can and will have a big impact on healthcare. However, we have found that patients, caregivers, industry leaders, and clinicians all highlight patient education as a key factor in ensuring health technologies are used effectively in patient care. In person and interactive events are most effective for sharing health knowledge and can also provide community building and support systems. Our goal is to build awareness of existing and emerging health technologies for patients, caregivers and care providers by hosting a series of introductory workshops. Each workshop will have an expert introduce an existing or emerging health technology. Workshop participants will help to identify key information to include in one page technology summaries and short videos that will be distributed through our research-user network. The final workshop in the series will have graduate students presenting their research to help train public communication in the next generation of researchers and technology developers.
Research Location: Simon Fraser University - Surrey Campus
Effect of age-related spinal degeneration on older adult spinal cord injuries
Spinal cord injuries (SCIs) are becoming more prevalent in older adults, and the number of older adults is rapidly increasing. This is a challenge for healthcare professionals because the existing health issues and poor health of older adults may limit invasive surgical treatments. The most common form of SCI seen in older adults is caused by the neck extending beyond its typical range, damaging the spinal cord in a pattern that is different pattern than what is seen in younger adults. It is known that the risk of spinal cord injury and observed tissue damage is worsened by age-related degeneration in the spine; however, there is limited understanding of how these degenerative changes alter tissue damage caused by an SCI. The proposed study will consist of three objectives: (1) to measure the type and amount of degeneration typically found in older adults, (2) to simulate the spinal cord injury and use it to predict how tissue will be damaged (3) to predict how the tissue damage changes when the model includes spinal degeneration.