Given that a growing number of elderly people choose to continue living at home, but need some support to live independently, community homecare services are an increasingly important part of our health care system. Recent reports indicate that the community healthcare workers who provide these services have the highest injury rate among all health care professionals in BC. With his postdoctoral research, Dr. Il Hyeok Park aims to reduce the injury rate and the cost of injuries to the health system. Dr. Park is investigating three interventions to reduce injuries: educating community healthcare workers about proper lifting techniques, using a new assessment tool to gauge possible risks at work sites, and providing mechanical lifting equipment. This project should help improve community healthcare workers’ health and the quality of homecare services.
Research Location: University of British Columbia - Point Grey
Effects of context on coping responses of parents in universal newborn hearing screening programs
Early identification of hearing loss in newborns is associated with improved cognitive, speech, language, and social-emotional outcomes. Yet a high proportion of parents withdraw from universal newborn hearing screening programs following the first screening, even if the screening indicates a need for further testing. This is thought to be due, in part, to parents’ anxiety and stress over the initial results. Brenda Poon is investigating how the screening program environment affects the way parents cope with the stress of discovering their newborn child may have hearing loss. Based on her findings, she hopes to recommend developing services in universal screening programs that are sensitive to parents’ emotional and coping responses at each stage of the screening. With improved services in place, parents may be less likely to withdraw their child from screening programs before the infant’s hearing status can be confirmed, allowing for earlier intervention.
Sociality of pain behaviour: Potentiation by an audience
Effective pain management depends upon successful pain assessment, which is measured through careful attention to a patient’s verbal and nonverbal communications. This task is complex, because the way a patient expresses pain during assessment is influenced by the presence of health care practitioners, family members and other patients. In spite of tremendous recent advances in understanding the physiology and pharmacology of pain, the complex social relationships affecting pain communications are only now beginning to be studied. Melanie Badali’s earlier research focused upon the role of memory as it affects children’s and parents’ assessments of the child’s pain. Now, she is examining how people communicate pain if they believe the person observing can assist in relieving the pain. Melanie anticipates her investigations will help improve the accuracy of pain assessment and management, thereby ultimately reducing suffering from acute and chronic pain.
Transcriptional regulation of HIV LTR and mechanism of HIV latency and reactivation
Anti-retroviral therapy for HIV typically suppresses the virus in patients’ blood to undetectable levels, enabling people with the infection to live symptom-free. However, some T cells are latently infected by HIV and remain unaffected even by prolonged treatment. These latently infected cells and other lymphocytes pose the major barrier to eliminating HIV infection, and provide a latent reservoir for the virus to reactivate. Long-term anti-retroviral treatment can also cause HIV resistance to therapy in some patients. An alternate strategy is therefore needed to target the latently infected virus and ultimately cure AIDS. Dr. Jiguo Chen is researching how HIV-1 establishes latency and how it reactivates. He and other colleagues in the Sadowski lab have isolated and identified a complex of several transcription factors termed RBF-2 (Ras-responsive element binding factor), which binds to HIV long terminal repeat (HIV-1 LTR) and represses HIV-1 transcription during latency. He believes that this complex plays a role in establishing and maintaining latency. He is using several different experimental strategies to determine the role of RBF-2 and to learn how it works during latency and reactivation, so new drug therapies can be designed to clear HIV from patients’ immune systems.
Susceptibility genes and environmental risk factors in Alzheimer's Disease
Dr. Robin Hsiung is researching the genetic and environmental origins of Alzheimer’s disease. The disease is the most common type of dementia, affecting five per cent of seniors aged 65 and older, and 40 per cent of people over 80. People suffering from Alzheimer’s often need costly treatments and placement in care facilities. Recent advances in molecular genetics have led to the discovery of at least four genes involved in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. However, a number of genes that are believed to be connected to the disease have yet to be confirmed. Robin will examine samples and data from two large Canadian studies of people with Alzheimer’s and other cognitive impairments. His research will identify the genes and environmental risk factors that indicate susceptibility for Alzheimer’s disease. Understanding how these risks can be modified will enable the development of new educational programs and therapies that may decrease the incidence and financial burden of this disease.
Molecular characterization of the virulence protein secretion machinery of Enteropathogenic E. coli
Enteropathogenic and Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli are disease-causing bacteria that cause severe diarrhoeal illness and death in young children and susceptible individuals. Often associated with hamburger disease, these bacteria are extremely dangerous when consumed, secreting proteins that cause cell disruption and damage to the human digestive tract. The resurgence of these bacteria in regional and rural water supplies also poses a considerable threat to the health of populations. Dr. Nikhil Thomas is working to improve the understanding of the mechanisms these bacteria use to cause disease. He aims to identify bacterial proteins that interact with each other to cause infection in the digestive tract. By understanding the mechanisms and strategies these disease-causing bacteria use, antimicrobials and treatments can be tested, with the ultimate goal of a vaccine to prevent disease.
Influences of proprioceptive illusions on human action
Research indicates that people can experience sensory illusions when visual and tactile information are spatially separated. This has important implications for telesurgery, a procedure that permits surgery to be performed at a distance, but where information from the touch of hands and visual information presented on a monitor are separate and feedback is delayed. Manipulating tools under these conditions has not been as precise as hoped for. Erin Austen’s research is studying how a misperception of limb position and movement can affect the ability to accurately grasp, reach or move objects. She is also identifying ways to minimize any negative impact of such sensory illusions. The results of this research will increase understanding of how the brain coordinates behaviour and will contribute to the design of new technology in telesurgery, prosthetic limbs, telerobotics used to perform actions from a distance, and miniaturized tools for minimally invasive surgical procedures.
Stroke and hemispatial neglect: The efficacy of stimulus alerting on patient rehabilitation
Dr. Bettina Olk is interested in discovering new ways to rehabilitate patients who have suffered a stroke. Her research focuses on hemispatial neglect, a defective ability to perceive items in space opposite to the side of the brain affected by the stroke. For example, a right hemisphere stroke can cause a person to neglect items that appear on the left side. The person may fail to eat food on the left side of a plate or ignore cars coming from the left. During her research training in Germany and England, Bettina extensively studied the impairments caused by hemispatial neglect. Recent research suggests that a short warning tone can help the brain temporarily overcome this disorder and perceive items opposite the brain lesion. Bettina is studying this phenomenon to determine how long the effect lasts, what kind of warning tone works best, whether a different stimulus could be equally effective, and whether non-visual symptoms of hemispatial neglect are also affected. From this work, she hopes to develop effective ways for stroke patients to overcome the disorder.
Evaluation of the quality of supported employment programs' implementation in BC and of vocational outcomes of people with serious mental health problems
The World Health Organization estimates that 90 per cent of people with mental health problems who are ready to enter the workforce are unemployed. Dr. Marc Corbière is examining the factors that help people with a serious mental illness obtain and maintain a job. He is assessing factors such as self-esteem, social supports, past work experience, barriers to employment, psychiatric diagnosis, the severity of mental health problems and cognitive functions. Dr. Corbière is also evaluating the implementation of supported employment programs for people with mental illness in BC. This research will help programs tailor vocational support services to the needs of mental health consumers to ensure more people with mental illness are able to find and keep a job.
The effects of two training regimens on body balance, reaction time, muscle strength and bone strength in postmenopausal women with Osteoporosis: A six-month RCT
Because they have low bone mass, women with osteoporosis are at increased risk of fractures caused by falls. Reducing both bone loss and the risk of falling are essential in helping women prevent fractures. While previous research has shown that regular physical activity can optimize bone health and reduce the risk of falling by improving muscle strength, reaction time, and balance, little is known about what types of exercises are most effective. Teresa Liu-Ambrose is examining which exercise program works best for women who are at risk for falls: exercises that focus on either strength or agility, or programs that incorporate exercises for strength and agility equally. The findings from Teresa’s study will be incorporated into community-based exercise programs throughout BC to help women with osteoporosis reduce their risk of falls and fractures. In addition to improving quality of life for women with osteoporosis, a decrease in fractures would also lessen the enormous health care costs associated with fall-related injuries.