Tuesday, November 19th, 2013
Blusson Spinal Cord Centre, 818 West 10th Avenue, ground floor
- 12:00-12:30 – information booths & lunch
- 12:30-13:00 – panel discussion
- 13:00-14:00 – guided tours of ICORD research areas including PARC
Vancouver, BC―Researchers, staff and clinicians at the Blusson Spinal Cord Centre are celebrating the fifth anniversary of the opening of the state-of-the-art building with a community open house on Tuesday, November 19th. Visitors can enjoy a light lunch while they learn about the innovative work being done in the building, participate in a panel discussion about the past, present and future of spinal cord injury research, and take part in guided tours of ICORD research areas.
The Blusson Spinal Cord Centre is home to the Rick Hansen Institute, the Brenda & David McLean Integrated Spine Clinic of Vancouver Coastal Health, and UBC’s ICORD spinal cord injury research group.
As part of the 5th anniversary celebration, a new Physical Activity Research Centre (PARC) for people with spinal cord injuries is officially opening within the Blusson Spinal Cord Centre. Funded by Government and private donors, PARC is a unique initiative of researchers at ICORD, a spinal cord injury research centre at the University of British Columbia and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute.
“Our vision for PARC was not only to provide an accessible fitness facility for the spinal cord injury community, but to provide a platform to bring ICORD researchers and members of the spinal cord injury community together as partners in the research process,” said Dr. Tania Lam, ICORD researcher and an Associate Professor at the UBC School of Kinesiology. Dr. Lam and her ICORD colleagues are working with PARC participants to study the effects of physical activity and fitness on people with spinal cord injuries. They hope that the results of this work will help to create improved strategies to increase physical activity participation and to raise awareness about the critical role of exercise in the life-long management of people living with spinal cord injury.
Equipment at PARC includes adaptive strength-training machines that can be used directly from a wheelchair, wheelchair-accessible upper and lower body bikes, and GameCycle ergometers that incorporate popular video games for cardiovascular training. Participants use Smart Cards to track their progress as well as providing raw data for researchers to analyze.
In addition to being a state-of-the-art centre for people with spinal cord injuries to work out and take part in research, PARC also provides valuable hands-on experience for UBC students considering careers in rehabilitation, physio- and occupational therapy, and other spinal cord injury-related areas. There are currently thirty students volunteering at PARC.
The initial PARC research studies were focused on people with traumatic SCI, but it is hoped that participation can soon be opened up to people with non-traumatic spinal cord injuries, such as those caused by illness or congenital conditions. Over the past several months, the number of participants at PARC has already increased from five to fifty, and while there is space for more, sustainable funding must be secured before enrolment can be expanded.
Grants from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, BC Knowledge Development Fund and Rick Hansen Foundation enabled the purchase of all the equipment at PARC, while start-up funding for three part-time paid staff and operations comes from Spinal Cord Injury BC, HAL Industries, and proceeds from the ICORD-Vancouver Cantata Singers annual Spinal Chord Gala.
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NOTE TO EDITORS Media Interviews are available; PARC participants will be on hand.
For media enquiries, please contact:
Faydra Aldridge, Director, Stakeholder Relations, VCH/VCH Research Institute | 604 875-4111 x 66687 | faydra.aldridge@vch.ca
Cheryl Niamath, Communications & Admin Manager, ICORD | 604 675-8844 | niamath@icord.org
Brian Lin, Senior Communications Coordinator | Public Affairs Office, The University of British Columbia | Vancouver Campus | 604 822-2234 or 604 818 5685 | brian.lin@ubc.ca
ICORD is a world leading health research centre focused on spinal cord injury. From the lab-based cellular level of understanding injury to rehabilitation and recovery, our researchers are dedicated to developing new treatments, strategies and cures from the time of trauma to post injury recovery. Located at Vancouver General Hospital in the Blusson Spinal Cord Centre, ICORD is supported by UBC Faculties of Medicine and Science, the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute and the Rick Hansen Foundation. Visit www.icord.org.
