Aug. 18, 2017 – A successful evening of SUPing with the Pop-PA Lab to say farewell to our research coordinator, Meghan O’Neill.
We will miss you – good luck in grad school!
Farewell SUPing Lab Outing
BCHL turning to app to help detect concussions in young players
This is an excerpt from an article that was originally published at cbc.ca on August 16, 2017. Read the full text here.
The British Columbia Hockey League will be employing a new app this season to help detect concussions in players.
The 16-to-20-year-old players on the Junior A hockey league’s 17 teams will take baseline tests before the start of the 2017-18 season that will be managed with the HeadCheck app, designed by a group of UBC kinesiology PhD students.
Whenever a player is suspected of having a concussion, the team’s medical staff can instantly compare their current status with earlier baseline tests.
Dr. Guy Faulkner receives federal funding to study PA and mental health
Congratulations to Dr. Faulkner who has received $597,149 to study physical activity and it’s impact on mental health and depression. Read about it here!
Erica Bennett receives SCAPPS Young Scientist Award
Erica Bennett, recent PhD graduate in Sport and Exercise Psychology with Dr. Peter Crocker and Dr. Laura Hurd, has been selected to receive the Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology (SCAPPS) Young Scientist Award (YSA).
Each year, three researchers from across Canada are selected to receive the YSA, with categories in Motor Behaviour, Sport Psychology, and Exercise and Health Psychology.
SCAPPS trainee members awarded with a YSA are selected on criteria of scholarly contributions to date and the quality of thesis-related research. Erica has been selected in the Exercise and Health Psychology category.
Erica’s doctoral research explored older physically active women’s body image. In particular, in her work she examined how cultural age and body norms emphasizing youthfulness and health influenced how older physically active women perceived, experienced, and coped with age-related changes to their health, body function, and appearance.
Prior to her PhD, Erica completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology at UBC, and her Master’s degree in Kinesiology (Sport and Exercise Psychology) at UBC under the supervision of Dr. Peter Crocker. She will be commencing a Post-Doctoral Teaching Fellowship at UBC in Kinesiology this September.
In her free time, Erica enjoys walking in the trails with her dog Lily, practicing yoga, and playing softball and golf.
Hanson, Kevin
For the past two decades the UBC men’s basketball team has been successfully guided by 1988 BPE/Kinesiology graduate Kevin Hanson. Always providing fans with competitive and exciting teams, Kevin has coached the Thunderbirds to five Canada West titles in addition to three consecutive medal finishes at the CIS (USports) national championships.
As of 2017 Hanson has been seven times named Canada West Coach of the Year and has been selected USports National Coach of the Year twice. Prior to arriving at UBC Kevin was four times named BCAA Coach of the Year and selected Basketball BC’s Coach of the Year on two occasions. He had coached Langara College Falcons to five provincial championships and two national titles. In his years as head coach at UBC, Kevin has guided the Thunderbird basketball team to more victories than any other men’s basketball coach in the school’s 100 plus year history.
Kevin as a student was no stranger to accomplishments as his Thunderbird basketball career was highlighted by his being selected a 1987 CIS Tournament All-Star while at the same time the former Thunderbird captain was setting school assist records. It was the year he graduated from Kinesiology that he commenced his coaching career with an Assistant Coaching position at Vancouver Community College, returning to UBC in 1994 to earn his Master’s degree.
Hanson has also been involved with Basketball Canada as head coach of Canada’s World University Games team, guiding it to several Games’ medals. Meanwhile he continues with his Assistant Coaches to build one of the most impressive men’s basketball programs in the country.
Fred Hume, July 2017
Forrest, Jean
Jean Forrest, 1983 Physical Education (Kinesiology) graduate, while at UBC was one of Canada’s outstanding field hockey players on some of UBC’s best teams. Ever since, she has been a tireless advocate for sport. Back in the early 1980s UBC was bestowed with National Team field hockey players under the able coaching of Gail Wilson – Jean Forrest (nee Mustard) was among those elite players. Her All-Star career was highlighted as a member of the 1982-83 UBC team one of UBC’s best in any sport, going undefeated and winning the national championship, a team ultimately inducted into the UBC Sports Hall of Fame. In addition to being selected to the l982/83 All-Canadian team Jean and four of her teammates were also members of Canada’s National team.
Since those heady days on campus Jean has worked extensively in sport and recreation management and marketing, largely on a volunteer basis. Utilizing the friendships, credibility, and pride she gained playing on a Varsity team, she “makes things happen” in the areas of her passion, sport and UBC. She served for six years on the Sport BC Board of Directors, volunteered with the YMCA, Canadian Olympic Committee, Field Hockey Canada, BC Sports Hall of Fame and UBC Sports Hall of Fame. She has been an elected member of the Vancouver Park Board and all the while, with her husband, raising a family who is also involved in sports.
Jean for years has been a big supporter of UBC, serving on the UBC Alumni Association Board of Governors and supporting UBC Athletics, a Thunderbird graduate who is only too glad to give back to the community and to UBC.
Fred Hume, July 2017
New Paper Out
Aug. 8, 2017 – New paper out by Dr. Guy Faulkner and PhD candidate Mark Duncan, titled, “The utility of the Health Action Process Approach Model for predicting physical activity intentions and behavior in Schizophrenia.” Read it here!
Karim Khan named Scientific Director of the CIHR Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis
This article was originally published on The Faculty of Medicine’s website. View the original article here.
Karim Khan, Professor in the Department of Family Practice and outgoing Co-Director of the Centre for Hip Health and Mobility, has been appointed the new Scientific Director of the Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
Dr. Khan, who assumes the role October 1, will work with the Canadian musculoskeletal, skin and oral health communities to identify research priorities, develop research funding opportunities, build partnerships and translate research evidence into policy and practice to improve the health of Canadians and people around the world. Finally, as a member of CIHR’s leadership team, he will participate in setting and implementing CIHR’s strategic direction.
In keeping with his new role, Dr. Khan will step down from his co-leadership role (which he shares with Pierre Guy) at the Centre for Hip Health and Mobility which has received major funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation. He will continue to pursue his research responsibilities in the Faculty of Medicine and the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute on a half-time basis.
“There are preventive measures and existing solutions to musculoskeletal, joint, skin and teeth problems,” Dr. Khan said. “I look forward to working with my colleagues at CIHR, community partners and patients to improve the health of Canadians through knowledge translation and new discoveries.”
Dr. Khan has been a professor at UBC since 2000, where he also holds an appointment in the School of Kinesiology. He has co-authored the best-selling textbook “Brukner & Khan’s Clinical Sports Medicine,” now in its fifth edition, and has a track record of over 300 highly cited peer-reviewed publications.
Since 2008, Dr. Khan has also been the editor-in-chief of the high-impact British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM). In the pursuit of knowledge translation and stakeholder engagement, he established the BJSM social media accounts, podcast and blog that have reached millions of viewers and listeners.
“I’m grateful to Dr. Karim Khan for accepting the position of Scientific Director of the CIHR Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis,” said Roderick McInnes, CIHR’s Acting President. “Dr. Khan is truly a leader in his field and his appointment is both a boon for CIHR, which has gained a new expert voice around its management table, and to patients living with musculoskeletal health conditions.”
Musculoskeletal conditions affect 11 million Canadians over the age of 12, and this number is expected to rise as the baby boomer generation ages. Conditions include: osteoporosis, which is estimated to affect 1.5 million Canadians; arthritis, which strikes more than 4.2 million Canadians; psoriasis, a chronic skin condition which affects nearly 1 million Canadians; tooth decay and periodontal disease, which causes millions of Canadians to lose teeth, endure pain and develop oral infections.
“Karim Khan’s appointment to this important national post is a reflection of his enormous contributions to the field, especially in promoting physical activity for public health,” said Robert McMaster, the Interim Executive Associate Dean, Research, the Vice President, Research for Vancouver Coastal Health and the Executive Director of the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, which includes the Centre for Hip Health and Mobility. “Canadian efforts to improve musculoskeletal health and arthritis will be in good hands with Dr. Khan, and we expect his skills in knowledge translation and public engagement will prove immensely useful in this new role.”
Participate in the OMiCS Pilot Study August 2017
A Q&A with Anne Lasinsky
Anne Lasinsky, PhD student in the School of Kinesiology, focuses her research on the health of children and adolescents, seeking to create opportunities for kids to have happy, healthy, and active childhoods.
In the fall, Anne will join Dr. Eli Puterman, Associate Professor in the School of Kinesiology and Canada Research Chair Tier 2 in Physical Activity and Health, on the OMiCS Study.
What is the OMiCS Study?
OMiCS is the Optimizing Movement in Children Study. Our team knows that being active makes kids healthier, but we want to further understand how being active could change children’s health at the cellular level.
The study is designed to compare children’s behaviour (physical activity, physical competency, sleeping, and screen time) with their biological and health assessments. By doing this, our team hopes to understand more about the relationships between activity and health.
Why is the OMiCS Study important?
Our goal with the OMiCS study is to use a personalized medicine approach to better understand the health of kids across all levels of physical activity. It is now known that physical activity helps improve our health in many ways, including a lower risk of chronic disease and obesity, and improved self-esteem and mental health. Most children still struggle to get the important physical activity that they need to see these benefits, though.
Children who are physically active show improved musculoskeletal and cardiovascular health, and have a decreased risk of developing chronic conditions including type 2 diabetes and obesity.
Active children also show decreased incidences of anxiety and depression, as well as improved socioemotional development and self-esteem. All of these factors point to the abundance of benefits provided by physical activity, and serve as the motivation behind our study: why do children with increased levels of physical activity demonstrate these health benefits?
What is happening next in the OMiCS Study?
The Pilot phase of the study begins in early August, and we are actively seeking healthy 10-year-old children to participate. We ask families to visit three times here at UBC. The first day is an orientation day. The second day is when we’ll collect things like the child’s height and weight, as well as blood and hair samples. The third day is a science camp day, where kids will get to play games and learn about some of the science behind OMiCS. At the completion of the study, families will get a report about their physical activity, and the overall health of their child.
How can interested families get involved?
Interested families should visit www.omicskids.com to learn more about the study. The first visit for the upcoming pilot is set to launch on August 3rd. Children and parents will receive an honorarium.
Interested families should contact: ubckin.omicskids@ubc.ca