ICORD Trainee Claire Jones from the Orthopaedic & Injury Biomechanics Lab was awarded Margaret H. Hines award for best oral presentation award May 18 at the Ohio Injury Biomechanics Symposium. This is a prestigious international conference held annually at Ohio State University and there were many excellent papers presented there this year. Claire is a graduate student studying with Dr. Peter Cripton. Her co-authors were Dr. Brian Kwon and Mr. Jae Lee.

ICORD Researcher Dr. Janice Eng has won the 2010 YWCA Women of Distinction Award in the category of Health and Active Living.

Dr. Eng is a researcher in the ICORD program at VGH and Brain Research Centre at UBC Hospital. She is a professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia (Department of Physical Therapy). Her research focuses on human movement, including balance, walking and reaching. Dr. Eng works with patients and study participants at GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre at the Blusson Spinal Cord Centre at VGH. Learn more about her work here.

The Women of Distinction Awards began in 1984 to honour, encourage and recognize women whose outstanding activities and achievements contribute to the health and future of the community. They are recognized nationally as one of the most prestigious awards for women.

The 2010 YWCA Women of Distinction event took place on June 1 at the Westin Bayshore. 

Effective March 4th, 2010, ICORD was repositioned from the UBC College for Interdisciplinary Studies to the Faculty of Medicine.

This change to the reporting relationship of ICORD reflects both the strong interprofessional focus across health disciplines for research and patient outcomes and the strong connections to Vancouver Coastal Health and the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute.

Also, effective March 14th, 2010, Dr. John Steeves concluded his role as ICORD’s Founding Director. Dr. Steeves and his team of researchers made significant contributions to the world of spinal cord research since ICORD was created in 1995 with the support of Rick Hansen and then-UBC President Dr. David Strangway.  Since then, there have been many important milestones achieved:  the creation of the Rick Hansen Man-in-Motion Chair in Spinal Cord Research, and the opening of the Blusson Spinal Cord Centre at Vancouver General Hospital in 2008, that was funded by an award of $12.8 million from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, with matching funds from the BC Knowledge Development Foundation, and from UBC, Vancouver Coastal Health and the Rick Hansen Foundation. Currently a wide array of researchers (principal investigators and trainees, technicians and staff) are working together in the interdisciplinary, collaborative research and training environment of the new Blusson Spinal Cord Centre. The focus on having multidisciplinary researchers together is accelerating the discovery, development and validation of therapies and practices to promote full functional recovery and improved quality of life after spinal cord injury.

Dr. Tom Oxland, P.Eng. became the interim Director of ICORD on March 15th, 2010. Dr. Oxland, a biomechanical engineer, is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Applied Science and the Department of Orthopaedics in the Faculty of Medicine. He holds the Canada Research Chair in Spine Biomechanics, and is co-director of ICORD’s Orthopaedics and Injury Biomechanics Lab. The objectives of his current research are to enhance the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of clinically relevant musculoskeletal problems with a focus on spinal cord injury and the treatment of the aging spine. Dr. Oxland is also collaborating with the Centre for Hip Health and Mobility in the area of management of and prevention of bone loss.