AGING SMART - Key Persons
Dr. Scott is a Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy, and a past President of the Physiotherapy Association of BC. His research targets a widespread problem, overuse injuries and chronically painful tendon disorder in workers and athletes. Alex's clinical research has been supported locally by organizations including WorksafeBC, Michael Smith Foundation, and the Health Sciences Association, nationally through CIHR, and internationally through the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, the Foundation for Physical Medicine and Resesarch, and others. He has enjoyed a number of international collaborations, including Oslo University, University of Washington, the Steadman Clinic, and many others. Locally, he collaborates with clinicians at the Alan McGavin Sports Medicine Centre, Vancouver General Hospital, Orion Health, and others. His work has been incorporated into widely used web-based clinical guidelines such as UpToDate©, the Achilles and elbow tendinopathy toolkits (Physiopedia), and several BJSM consensus statements. In addition to clinical research, Dr Scott has an NSERC-funded program investigating the mechanisms of tendon adaptation to mechanical strain. Alex is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy.
Job Titles:
- Chairman in Geriatric Medicine Division Head, Geriatric Medicine, Vancouver General Hospital President, Canadian Geriatrics Society
Dr. Ken Madden is a Professor of Medicine and holds the Allan M. McGavin Chair in Geriatric Medicine at the University of British Columbia. He is the President of the Canadian Geriatrics Society and the Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Geriatrics Journal. His lab has examined the effect of exercise interventions in older adults with Type 2 diabetes, the ability of different forms of exercise to impact arterial stiffness in subjects at high cardiometabolic risk, and the impact of sedentary behaviours on cardiometabolic risk factors. He has also examined the impact of age and diabetes on postprandial cardiovascular responses and orthostatic intolerance. He is division head of Geriatric Medicine at Vancouver General Hospital, and holds peer-reviewed grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, and the Canadian Diabetes Association. He is chair of the North American Regional Committee for the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics.
Job Titles:
- Associate Head, Education, UBC Department of Medicine / Clinical Professor
Job Titles:
- Associate Director, Institute of Computing, Information & Cognitive Systems
The primary focus of Dr. Hodgson's work is on computer-assisted orthopaedic surgery; the main goal is to improve the accuracy of performing surgical tasks (such as placing implants or reducing fractures) while minimizing use of and exposure to radiation and decreasing operative time. We are currently working in three main areas: 1. Using ultrasound to accurately locate bone surfaces in trauma and spinal surgery, 2. smart C-arm technologies to operate more accurately, efficiently and with less radiation exposure, and 3. bone-mounted robots for unicompartmental knee replacement surgeries.
Job Titles:
- Research Technician IT & AV
Barb oversees all audio-visual and technology related needs for the Centre for Aging SMART including computer hardware and software, network/printer access and permissions, and AV equipment. Please reach out to her if you require any IT support. She has been with the Centre for Aging SMART since 2016 and has more than eighteen years of experience in the technological field. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with family, travelling, and tending to her succulents and tropical plants.
Job Titles:
- Head, Department of Orthopaedics
- Professor and Head of the Department of Orthopaedics at the University of British Columbia
Dr. Masri currently serves as Professor and Head of the Department of Orthopaedics at the University of British Columbia, and Head of the Department of Orthopaedics at Vancouver Acute (Vancouver General and University Hospitals). His area of practice is restricted to Adult Hip and Knee Reconstruction and Replacement and to Musculoskeletal Oncology through affiliation with the BC Cancer Agency. He is the Head of the Musculoskeletal Tumor Group for the Surgical Oncology Network at the BC Cancer Agency. He is a member of the Executive and Board of the Canadian Orthopaedic Association, a fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, a fellow of the American Orthopaedic Association, a member of the Knee Society and the Hip Society. He has authored numerous research and review articles and book chapters, and has lectured extensively throughout North America and Overseas.
Ben Mortenson has been an occupational therapist since 1991. He is an associate professor in the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at the University of British Columbia and held a New Investigator Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (2016-2021). He is a principal investigator at the GF Strong Rehabilitation Research Program and International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries. He is an experienced mixed-methods researcher with over 150 peer-reviewed publications. His work is centered on four main populations: assistive technology users, informal and formal caregivers, individuals with spinal cord injury, and residents in long-term care. His research focuses on four overlapping areas: assistive technology, social participation, caregiving and outcome measurement. He was the 2021 recipient of the Award for Innovative Practice from the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapy.
Job Titles:
- Associate Editor of the Journals Radiology
- Department of Radiology, Department of Medicine
Dr. Forster joined UBC in 1991. He is also a Professor in the Department of Radiology, Head of MRI, Vancouver Coastal Region, and Director of Medical Imaging at Vancouver General and UBC Hospitals. He was recently Director of Diagnostic Imaging for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics/Paralympics Games. As an Associate Member of the Allan McGavin Sports Medicine Centre, he has been involved in the clinical, education, and research aspects of sports imaging for 16 years.
Dr. Forster is Associate Editor of the journals Radiology and British Journal of Sports Medicine, and is on the Honourary Editorial Board of Open Access Journal of Sports Medicine. He is the author of more than 80 peer-reviewed scientific publications and 90 educational exhibits. He has served as President of the Pacific Northwest Radiology Society and on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Association of Radiologists.
Calvin Kuo is assistant professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering. He obtained his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science from the California Institute of Technology, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. He was then a Killam Postdoctoral Scholar working with Jean-Sébastien Blouin in Kinesiology and Dinesh Pai in Computer Science at UBC. Calvin is broadly interested in sensing human motion and understanding how humans make sense of their own motion through a combination of wearable technologies and stochastic modeling approaches.
Job Titles:
- Clinical Assistant Professor
Dr. Hoppmann's research examines how key psychological factors such as social relationships and goals contribute to the successful mastery of challenges and foster healthy aging. Her projects involve in-depth investigations of everyday processes using novel daily life assessments (‘time-sampling') and track how such everyday life processes accumulate over time to manifest in long-term health outcomes.
Christina is a Senior Research Fellow within the Rehabilitation, Ageing and Independent Living (RAIL) Research Centre. Her research focuses on physical activity in clinical populations, specifically hospitalised patients, older adults, and people recovering from traumatic injury. Christina has a clinical background in physiotherapy and has worked in teaching and research at universities in Australia, the UK and Canada. She is currently a registered physiotherapist, an Adjunct Researcher with the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, an Honorary Research Fellow at Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, an Honorary Research Fellow of the Emergency and Trauma Centre, Alfred Health, and a Research Collaborator with the Centre for Aging SMART (Solutions for Mobility, Activity, Rehabilitation and Technology).
Job Titles:
- Clinical Assistant Professor / Department of Orthopaedics / MD MASc FRCSC
Job Titles:
- Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Faculty
Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Faculty of Epidemiology, School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr Rosano is a physician-scientist specializing in Population Neuroscience of Aging. She is the Associate Director for Clinical Translation at the Aging Institute, and her research group eBRAIN has made significant discoveries into the neurobiological drivers of successful aging.
Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Rehabilitation, Occupational therapy program at Laval University. Dr Mercier is the Scientific Director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Research in Rehabilitation and Social Integration (CIRRIS), merit researcher of the Fonds de recherche Québec-Santé (FRQS) and holder of the Chair of research in cerebral palsy at Laval University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the FACULTY
- Assistant Professor in UBC 's Department of Physical Therapy
Dr Clare Ardern is an Assistant Professor in UBC's Department of Physical Therapy. Her work brings researchers, patients, clinicians and health policy makers together to design digital health interventions for musculoskeletal problems. With expertise in sports medicine, rehabilitation and meta-research, Dr Ardern is interested in (i) breaking down barriers to people accessing quality musculoskeletal health care when and where they need it, (ii) measuring the impact of health research on public policy, the economy and society, and (iii) how high-calibre meta-research (including systematic reviews, network meta-analyses, and clinical practice guidelines) can help clinicians make quality decisions. She is also Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy (JOSPT) and JOSPT Open, and co-host of the popular weekly JOSPT Insights podcast.
Professor in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact at McMaster University. Dr Raina is a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, holds a Canada Research Chair in Geroscience, and the Endowed Raymond and Margaret Labarge Chair in Research and Knowledge Application for Optimal Aging. Raina became a Member of Order of Canada in 2022 for his research in aging. He is the founding Scientific Director of the McMaster Institute for Research on Aging, and The Labarge Centre for Mobility in Aging, and is the lead principal investigator of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging including Healthy Brain and Healthy Aging Study. He is one of the founding members of the McMaster Optimal Aging.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor at the University of Victoria
Dr. Claudia Lai is an Assistant Professor at the University of Victoria in Health Information Sciences. As a researcher, educator, advocate and pharmacists with a deep understanding of health systems and health system integration, her research builds on her extensive professional experience from all levels of the health system (including home and community care, government, provider organizations, hospital, and academic settings). She holds a PhD in Health Services Research, Health Informatics, from the University of Toronto, Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation, Dalla Lana School of Public Health. After completing her PhD, she held a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Laval in Shared Decision Making and Knowledge Translation. Her research draws on advances in theory and methodology to explore ways to build more equitable digital innovations for diverse patient communities to better navigate the health system and make informed health decisions as they live and age at home.
Job Titles:
- Michael Smith Health Research BC Scholar / Assistant Professor
- Physiotherapist at McMaster University
Dr. Courtney Pollock trained as a physiotherapist at McMaster University and worked clinically for over 10 years prior to transitioning to full-time research, this experience informs her research. Dr. Pollock earned a MSc at the University of Western Ontario, a PhD in Rehabilitation Science at UBC and completed post-doctoral studies at Simon Fraser University. Throughout her training, she was supported by several competitive awards from major agencies including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada.
Dr. Pollock's research aims to: 1) comprehensively understand the fundamental mechanisms of motor control of walking balance and balance reactions and, 2) understand how neurological changes associated with aging, disease and injury impact these aspects of motor control and mobility. The overarching goal of her research is to advance rehabilitation practice by development and evaluation of innovative therapeutic interventions designed with sufficient levels of challenge to optimize the motor control of independent mobility.
Dr. Pollock's lab is located at GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre. She is accepting students interested in pursuing MSc and PhD degrees through the UBC Rehabilitation Sciences Graduate Program. Work in the Mobility and Balance Rehabilitation Lab will immerse students in a highly collaborative research environment addressing questions related to fundamental motor control of balance and clinically driven questions addressing balance impairment and mobility.
Job Titles:
- Professor
- Scientific Director, Shared Platform in Upright Open MRI Graduate Advisor, School of Biomedical Engineering
Dr. David Wilson is a Professor in the Department of Orthopaedics at UBC. He received his D. Phil. in Engineering Science from the University of Oxford for work on the 3-dimensional kinematics of the knee, followed by a fellowship in orthopaedic biomechanics. His research interests include sports medicine, joint reconstruction/ replacement, and medical imaging. Dr. Wilson is renowned for his research on the links between joint mechanics, clinical symptoms, and the success of orthopaedic procedures. His team has expertise in non-invasive assessments of cartilage health, including the use of emerging MRI techniques, such as delayed gadolinium-enhanced MRI of cartilage (dGEMRIC), to detect changes in osteoarthritic joints much earlier than conventionally possible. Dr. Wilson was awarded a Canadian Arthritis Network New Investigator award.
Job Titles:
- Michael Smith Health Research BC Scholar / Associate Professor / Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology, Simon Fraser University
Dr. Dawn Mackey is passionate about helping older adults to maintain mobility and independence. In her Aging and Population Health Lab (APHL) at Simon Fraser University, Dr. Mackey and her team are focused on designing, evaluating, and implementing effective strategies to support older adult mobility and health behaviour change. Her current areas of concentration are physical activity, falls and injuries, and fatigability.
Dr. Mackey's research with older adults spans community to long-term care settings. Her work is applied in nature and solutions focused. Her research is embedded in a knowledge exchange framework that supports translation of insights into actions. As such, she engages with stakeholders to design, conduct, and disseminate research to ensure impact.
Dr. Mackey received her BSc Honours and MSc in Kinesiology from Simon Fraser University. She received her PhD in Epidemiology from the University of California, Berkeley, and she continued her training in Epidemiology through a post-doctoral fellowship at the San Francisco Coordinating Centre at the University of California, San Francisco. Now as a faculty member, she is committed to providing outstanding mentorship to her trainees.
Dr. Mackey's research incorporates methods and techniques from epidemiology, biostatistics, and knowledge translation. These include clinical trials, feasibility and proof-of-concept studies, longitudinal cohort studies, causal inference, laboratory experiments, qualitative inquiries, knowledge synthesis, meta-analysis, and formative evaluation.
Job Titles:
- Member of the FACULTY
- Chairman in Applied Public Health
- Professor and Chair in Applied Public Health
Dr. Guy Faulkner is a professor and Chair in Applied Public Health in the School of Kinesiology at UBC (appointed July 2015). Broadly, his research has focused on two inter-related themes: the effectiveness of PA promotion interventions; and PA and mental health. He has extensive experience working with hard-to-reach populations primarily those with serious mental illness; and extensive experience developing and evaluating mhealth physical activity interventions that include the use of wearable devices such as Fitbits. He was named as a Clarivate Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher, 2020 and 2021 for being internationally named as one of the most highly cited researchers ranked in the top 1% by citations for social sciences by Web of Science. He currently serves as chair of the ParticipACTION research advisory committee (2010-present) and is a member of the Research Work Group for the 2012-2023 National Active Healthy Kids Canada Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth. In 2013, Faulkner was honoured with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in recognition of outstanding contributions to making PA a priority in Canadian communities.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor
- Senior Research Scientist, Arthritis Research Canada Michael Smith Health Research BC Scholar / Associate Professor
Dr. Jackie Whittaker is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of British Columbia and a Research Scientist at Arthritis Research Canada in Vancouver, Canada. She holds a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar Award. As a recognized clinical specialist in musculoskeletal rehabilitation and clinical epidemiologist, her research takes a lifespan approach to preventing painful musculoskeletal conditions, with a particular emphasis on knee injuries and post-traumatic osteoarthritis. This includes reducing the burden of sport-related knee injuries through injury prevention, improving our understanding of the long-term consequences of knee injuries, and developing and evaluating practice support tools (e.g., the Acute Knee Injury Practice Support Tool) and exercise-based interventions to promote knee health (e.g., Stop OsteoARthritis - SOAR). Central to her research is understanding how gendered environments disadvantage women and gender-diverse persons and contribute to them experiencing a disproportionate burden of poor musculoskeletal health across the lifespan, and an integrated knowledge translation approach involving patients, health professionals, coaches, and other stakeholders throughout the research-to-practice continuum. Jackie co-leads an international consensus for preventing osteoarthritis after traumatic knee injury called OPTIKNEE. Her research is guided by 21 years of clinical practice.
Job Titles:
- University Killam Professor and Canada Research Chair
Dr. Eng is a University Killam Professor and Canada Research Chair in the Department of Physical Therapy. She directs a large interdisciplinary research team in neurological rehabilitation with the G.F. Strong Rehabilitation Research Program.
Dr. Julia Schmidt's research focuses on improving everyday life for people after brain injury through investigation of neurological and cognitive-psychological impact of brain injury to determine effective individualized interventions.
Dr. Schmidt is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at the University of British Columbia. She completed her BSc(OT) at the University of Alberta. Her PhD was obtained from the University of Queensland, Australia, with a focus on the efficacy of cognitive interventions for people with traumatic brain injuries. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Brain Behaviour Lab at the University of British Columbia, exploring the neurophysiological profile of youth with concussion.
Job Titles:
- Head of the Department of Orthopaedics at the University of British Columbia
- Head, UBC Department of Orthopaedics
Dr. Kishore Mulpuri is the Head of the Department of Orthopaedics at the University of British Columbia, as well as a Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon at BC Children's Hospital. He completed his medical and orthopaedic training at Kasturba Medical College in Manipal, India, prior to pursuing orthopaedic fellowships at the Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide, Australia, the Melbourne Orthopedic Group, and Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. Dr. Mulpuri also completed a clinical research fellowship in orthopaedics at BC Children's Hospital.
Job Titles:
- Member of the FACULTY
- Associate Head Research Director, Clinical Exercise Physiology Laboratory
Dr. Kristin Campbell, BSc, PT, PhD is a licensed physical therapist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of British Columbia. She also holds an appointment in the Cancer Control Program at the BC Cancer Research Centre. She is a member of the Oncology Division of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association and a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine. She completed her PhD in exercise physiology at the University of Alberta and a Fellowship in Public Health at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre. Her research focus is on the role of exercise in cancer prevention, rehabilitation and survivorship has been funded by the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute, Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research and Physiotherapy Foundation of Canada and others. She is the co-lead of the 2019 exercise guidelines for cancer survivors from the American College of Sports Medicine and an associate editor for Physical Therapy, the journal of the American Physical Therapy Association.
Job Titles:
- Canada Research Chair in Senior
- Head of IDEA Lab / Assistant Professor
Dr. Lillian Hung is Canada Research Chair in Senior care, the founder and head of IDEA lab (Innovation in Dementia & Aging). Her research examines how technology and environment impact the care experiences of persons with dementia. She has expertise in patient-oriented research and knowledge translation. She is committed to facilitating connectivity between academia and practice, working collaboratively with interprofessional practitioners to find practical solutions to address pressing problems in care settings. Her current research includes:Virtual Reality, Telepresence robot, Dementia TV, Learning Health System, Virtual care.
Dr. Linda Li is Professor and Harold Robinson/Arthritis Society Chair at the UBC Department of Physical Therapy and holds a Canada Research Chair in Patient-oriented Knowledge Translation. She is also a senior scientist at Arthritis Research Canada where she leads the Arthritis & Implementation Science Program (https://arthritis.rehab.med.ubc.ca/). Her research focuses on the integration of wearables and apps to support health professionals in promoting physical activity and chronic disease self-management. Her work in implementation science includes studying strategies for engaging people with lived experiences in the research process. Dr. Li is a recipient of the American College of Rheumatology - Association of Rheumatology Professionals (ARP) Distinguished Scholar Award (2015) and the ARP Distinguished Educator Award (2022), recognizing her leadership in both arthritis research and education.
Job Titles:
- Founding Director of SCI Action Canada
Dr. Kathleen Martin Ginis joined the School of Health and Exercise Sciences at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in July 2016. She was appointed to the UBC Department of Medicine as the Reichwald Family UBC Southern Medical Program Chair in Preventive Medicine in July 2017. From 1999-2016, she was a faculty member in the Department of Kinesiology, McMaster University, where she also served as Inaugural Director of the McMaster University Physical Activity Centre of Excellence.
Dr. Martin Ginis is the Founding Director of SCI Action Canada (www.sciactioncanada.ca), a national alliance of community-based organizations and university-based researchers working together to advance physical activity participation in people living with spinal cord injury. She is also the Principal Investigator of the Canadian Disability Participation Project (www.cdpp.ca). The CDPP is a SSHRC-funded Partnership Grant that brings together nearly 50 university, public, private and government sector partners to enhance community participation among Canadians with physical disabilities.
Dr. Martin Ginis has received nearly $11 million in research funding as a Principal Investigator ($20M in total research funding), including $4M from SSHRC to fund three community-university research partnerships. She has published over 300 peer-reviewed research articles and book chapters.
Her research frequently appears in the media and has been featured on CBC's Quirks & Quarks, and in The Globe & Mail, The National Post, The New York Times, "O" The Oprah Magazine, Men's Health & Fitness, and Shape Magazine, among others.
In 2014, the Government of Ontario recognized Dr. Martin Ginis's long-standing contributions to science designed to improve the lives of people with spinal cord injury, by awarding her the Ontario Medal of Good Citizenship.
Dr. Martin Ginis resides in Kelowna, British Columbia. She is an avid runner and traveler.
Job Titles:
- CIHR Applied Public Health Chair in Gender and Sex in Healthy Cities Lead, Cities, Health, and Active Transportation Research Lab ( CHATR )
- RESEARCH COLLABORATORS
Dr. Meghan Winters is an epidemiologist interested in the link between health, transportation, and city design. She received her PhD in 2011 from the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Centre for Aging SMART at Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, studying on older adults' mobility and the built environment. Dr. Winters joined the Faculty of Health Sciences as an Assistant Professor in July 2011.
Dr. Michael Cox is a molecular and cellular biologist who earned his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of North Carolina for studies on how oncogenes impact neuronal growth and differentiation. He began his work on cell signaling networks in prostate cancer at the University of Virginia. His research program is dedicated to understanding how prostate cancer, the most frequently diagnosed male malignancy, initiates and progresses and to finding ways of halting advanced disease progression. His work focuses on early genetic changes in prostate cells, how resulting tumor cells respond to growth factors in the presence or absence of testosterone and how these cellular changes allow prostate tumor cells to utilize these growth factors to aid development of testosterone independence. With colleagues at the Vancouver Prostate Centre and University of British Columbia, he is developing combinatorial antisense and small molecule drug strategies that decrease the responsiveness of tumor cells to growth factors and has shown that prostate cancer cells treated in this way are more sensitive to testosterone deprivation or treatment with other chemotherapies. These are first steps in developing effective treatments for patients with advanced prostate cancer.
Dr. Liu-Ambrose is a Professor, Canada Research Chair and a physical therapist in the Department of Physical Therapy. She directs the Aging, Mobility and Cognitive Health Lab, as well as the Falls Prevention Clinic at Vancouver General Hospital.
Dr. William Miller is a Professor in the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at the University of British Columbia. He pursued his undergraduate Occupational Therapy program at the University of British Columbia, followed by his MSc. and PhD at the University of Western Ontario and his Post-doctoral Fellowship at the University of British Columbia.
Dr. Miller's research interests include wheeled mobility devices, determinants of wheelchair use, measurement tools (development and evaluation), balance and ambulation confidence, and assessment of assistive technology (e.g. wheeled mobility devices) used to enable mobility disabled adults (e.g. individuals with lower limb amputation, spinal cord injury, and stroke).
Dr. Miller also provides research mentorship to both professional entry level MSc and PhD students. He is also involved with the American Journal of Occupational Therapy as an Editorial Board Member, and the CIHR Post-Doctoral Trainee Award Committee as a Reviewer.
Job Titles:
- Principal Scientist, Active Aging Research Team
Professor McKay is known internationally for her study of: (i) myriad factors (e.g. physical activity) that influence the health of children and mobility, social connectedness and overall health of older adults; (ii) design, implementation/scale-up and evaluation at sccale of effective community-based health promoting interventions, and (iii) knowledge mobilization. Professor McKay convenes highly effective, interdisciplinary research teams. She connects academic scholars with cross-sectoral community and government stakeholders to "move research into action" to enhance the health of children and older adults. Professor McKay led eight CIHR and Peter Wall Institute of Advanced Studies teams that focused on aspects of older adult health (>$10M grant funding) in different settings (e.g. home, community, built environment).
Jennifer Davis is a CRC (Tier 2) in Applied Health Economics and a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Career Scholar. Jennifer is an Assistant Professor at UBC-Okanagan in the Faculty of Management. Her career goal is to improve the health of Canadians through applied health economic evaluation and outcomes research. Jennifer's research focuses on conducting economics evaluations alongside randomized controlled trials (i.e., cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analyses) in a variety of clinical settings that include falls, mobility, cognition and chronic conditions. A core part of Jennifer's current research program includes health outcomes research (i.e., exploring the value of patient reported outcome measures) in the fields of healthy aging (i.e., cognition, mobility, chronic conditions). Jennifer also enthusiastically contributes as a co-director of operations of the Falls Prevention Clinic at Vancouver General Hospital. Dr. Davis is working collaboratively on an initiative to apply proven cost-effective and cost-saving secondary falls prevention interventions for high risk older adults across BC. Jennifer also acts as an associate editor of the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Job Titles:
- Clinical Associate
- Principal Scientist, Active Aging Research Team / Clinical Associate Professor
Dr. Sims-Gould is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Family Practice at the University of British Columbia.
Dr. Sims-Gould is a dedicated sex and gender health researcher who applies novel methodological and engagement approaches to understanding broad public health concerns, particularly those related to older adults and "adding life to years". She works with diverse stakeholders to ensure that her research is inclusive and reflects real needs (and questions). With her strong commitment to knowledge mobilization, Dr. Sims-Gould ensures that her research findings are ‘brought back' to stakeholders in the public sphere using dynamic and engaging knowledge translation tools, such as film.
Dr. Sims-Gould is directly involved and currently leads several research projects focused on the intersection between older adult health, culture, mobility and gender. She is a Principal Scientist for the Active Aging Research Team.
Dr. Sims-Gould holds degrees in Biology (BSc), Gerontology (BA), and Social Work (BSW & MSW) and an interdisciplinary PhD. Dr. Sims-Gould also received post-doctoral training and work experience in two distinct settings - UBC's Department of Sociology and the Centre for Aging SMART at Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute with Dr. Karim Khan (Scientific Director of IMHA, CIHR). Dr. Sims-Gould was recognized for her scholarship with a Canadian Institutes of Health Research New Investigator award and a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar award. This diversity of experience across disciplines and professions and in collaboration with many community stakeholders has uniquely positioned her to address multi-faceted issues in aging and health with a focus on sex and gender.
Job Titles:
- Professor
- Scientific Director, CIHR - Institute Musculoskeletal Health & Arthritis
Karim Khan, professor in the Department of Family Practice and the School of Kinesiology, has achieved international recognition for pioneering clinical trials of exercise training among seniors vulnerable to falls and osteoporotic fractures. He is currently in his second term as Scientific Director of CIHR-Institute Musculoskeletal Health & Arthritis (IMHA). He was a leader in the field of tendon injuries where he published key studies on pathogenesis, imaging and prognosis as well as co-developing the most widely used patient-rated outcome measure.
Professor Khan has coauthored more than 300 peer-reviewed publications with over 34,000 citations (H-index 99), that span high-risk clinical groups such as those with tendon injuries, osteoporosis, and those at risk of falls. Professor Khan was appointed as Scientific Director of the Canadian Institute for Health Research's Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis (CIHR-IMHA) in 2017.
From 2008-2020 he served as Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM), the highest ranked journal in sports science/medicine. He pioneered the use of social media channels for knowledge translation in the discipline: YouTube videos, podcasts, a mobile app and large communities on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. He is the co-author of the best-selling sports medicine and sports physiotherapy textbook Brukner & Khan's Clinical Sports Medicine.
He received the Prime Minister's Medal for service to Australia (2000), Honorary Doctorates from Universities in Norway (2018) and Scotland (2019) and was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to sport and exercise medicine, and to the promotion of physical activity for community health (2019).
Kim oversees administrative functions at the Centre for Aging Smart and manages human resources and finance. A member of the Operations team since 2013, Kim has fifteen years of experience at UBC, including work with the Rick Hansen Institute and the Department of Orthopaedics. When she's not at work she enjoys writing fiction, reading books, and practicing yoga.
Job Titles:
- Centre As an Associate Member
- Clinician Scientist
Marie joined the Centre as an Associate Member in 2016 after completing her post-doctoral research through the School of Public Health, U of Alberta. For her postdoc, she developed quality indicators (QIs) for rehabilitation before and after elective total hip and knee replacement surgery. She has worked at the Mary Pack Arthritis Program for 30+ years and is currently a PT Clinical Resource Therapist in Rheumatology. She is a 2020 Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research VCHRI funded Health Professional Investigator whose research focuses on the implementation and evaluation of these QIs using patient and clinician targeted strategies with the aim of improving rehabilitation care equity and patient outcomes and experiences in this growing patient population. She was a core member in the development of the Active For Health toolkit which is a repository of high quality physical activity resources and tools for clinicians and people living with chronic conditions in BC. (https://www.healthlinkbc.ca/healthy-eating-physical-activity/active-for-health)
Job Titles:
- Clinical Assistant Professor / Department of Orthopaedics / MD MASc FRCSC
Job Titles:
- OPERATIONS TEAM
- Provincial Manager - Injury Prevention
Since 2016, Megan has been the Provincial Manager for Injury Prevention at the BC Centre for Disease Control a member of the BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit, and a research collaborator at the Centre for Aging SMART at VCH. She has a passion for injury prevention and over 18 years of public health experience in Canada, Australia, Cambodia, Kenya, and Tanzania. Megan provides leadership in the province of British Columbia and currently chairs multiple committees including the BC Provincial Public Health Injury Prevention Committee and the BC Injury Prevention Alliance. Through her work Megan facilitates guidance and recommendations on injury prevention to the Ministry of Health, and the Provincial Public Health Executive committee. Megan holds an MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a BHK in Exercise Science from the University of British Columbia.
Job Titles:
- Associate Dean ( Graduate and Postdoctoral Education ), Faculty of Medicine
Dr. Hunt's research interests focus on identifying changes in movement patterns and biomechanics as a result of injury or disease. His group uses state-of-the-art real-time motion analysis techniques to analyze movement pattern differences between injured and healthy individuals. He then uses this information to develop targeted treatment approaches that aim to optimize function and/or prevent disease progression. His primary population of interest is individuals living with osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee. He has identified key gait deviations exhibited by those with OA that have the potential to alter the loading patterns at the knee - a known risk factor for disease progression. He has also studied the role of exercise and movement retraining on biomechanical (joint loading) and clinical (pain, function) disease characteristics. Dr. Hunt works closely with experts in wearable technology, physical therapy, and neuroscience.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia
Dr. Gilbart is an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia, with appointments to the Division of Athletic Injuries and Arthroscopy and the Division of Upper Extremity Surgery in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. Dr. Gilbart is a member of the Canadian Orthopedic Association, American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine and the Canadian Association of Sports Medicine.