Principal Investigator
B.Sc. [Occupational Therapy] (University of Alberta), M.Sc. [Rehabilitation Sciences] (University of British Columbia), Ph.D. [Rehabilitation Sciences] (University of British Columbia), Post-Doctoral Fellowships (University of Montreal & Simon Fraser University)
Associate Professor, Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia
Adjunct Professor, Simon Fraser University
New Investigator, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (2016-2021)
2021 recipient of the Award for Innovative Practice from the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapy.
Research Interests
Accessibility; Accessible recreation; Aging; Assistive technology; caregiving; Mobility; Occupational therapy; Outcome measures; Participation; Physical disability; Quality of life; Rehabilitation; Robotics; Self management; social participation; spinal cord injuryDr. Mortenson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Simon Fraser University and is a Principal Investigator at ICORD. He completed his B.Sc. in Occupational Therapy at the University of Alberta, followed by his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Rehabilitation Science at the University of British Columbia. He completed his post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Montreal, funded by a CIHR grant, and a post-doctoral fellowship at the Simon Fraser University, funded by a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship Award.
Dr. Mortenson’s research is focused on aging, social participation, outcome measurement, and assistive technology. His studies include four main overlapping populations: individuals with SCI, assistive technology users, residents of residential care facilities, and both formal and informal caregivers. Dr. Mortenson leads a study “Providing Accessible ReCreation Outdoors: User-driven Research on Standards (PARCOURS)” to inform the development of accessibility standards via a 3-year Federal grant (Accessibility Canada; 2021-2024). He is the principal investigator of a 7-year (2020-2026), interprovincial, SSHRC Partnership Grant entitled, “A Partnership for Improving Mobility, Access and Participation (MAP) Among People with Disabilities”. This was the first SSHRC Partnership awarded to anyone in the Faculty of Medicine at UBC. He has or has held over $7M in funding as a principal investigator (PI) or co-PI and almost $50M as co-investigator.
Dr. Mortenson’s research has important implications. His work on aging with SCI is relevant to a growing population. His research on wheeled mobility and social participation is applicable to individuals with a wide variety of diagnoses including SCI. Given the issue of caregiver burn-out, his findings may help find ways to improve the quality of their lives and help those they assist remain in their homes. By gaining a better understanding of the implications of assistive technology training and interventions, Dr. Mortenson hopes to increase the social participation of individuals who use these devices and to enable them to do activities that give meaning to their lives. Dr. Mortenson’s favourite aspects of working in ICORD is the collegial and supportive nature of everyone who works here. Dr. Mortenson deeply appreciates being surrounded by people with a common interest: to help people with SCI. Though his peers’ avenues of research may differ, everyone contributes to that shared objective. He also enjoys the view of the North Shore mountains above downtown Vancouver from his office window!
Currently recruiting for:
Recent Collaborations:
Dr. Mortenson is involved with the Canwheel team, which has fourteen investigators from a wide variety of fields (including ICORD researchers Dr. William Miller and Dr. Bonnie Sawatzky) from six universities across Canada with. The Canwheel projects are designed to provide a comprehensive, systematic, and unified approach to enhance the mobility of older adult wheelchair users.
He is also involved with SCIRE, Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Evidence, along with Dr. Miller and Dr. Janice Eng. SCIRE is a collaboration project between scientists, clinicians, and consumers, which aims to translate existing research knowledge into a concise and comprehendible format for health professionals.
Dr. Mortenson is collaborating with Dr. Louise Demers from the University of Montreal and the Consortium for Assistive Technology Outcomes Research (CATOR) group ona study to look at the effect of assistive technology interventions on users and their informal caregivers. . He is currently working with ICORD researcher Dr. Jaimie Borisoff on exoskeleton research and with Dr. Lee Kirby on scooter research.
Major Findings:
Wheelchairs in residential care facilities can both enable and restrain residents’ mobility and participation, according to a study done in 2012 by Dr. Mortenson and his colleagues. Quantitative work by Dr. Mortenson also suggests that improving residents’ wheelchair skills can improve the residents’ mobility and social participation.
As well, it was found that providing interventions on assistive technology users is beneficial to both the user and their formal and informal caregivers.
Techniques employed in the labs:
- Semi-structured interviews
- Standardized measurements of cognition
- Participant observations
- Randomized control trials
- Mixed methods research
Affiliation with organizations and societies:
- Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, University of British Columbia
- GF Strong Rehabilitation Research Program
- Canadian Association on Gerontology (CAG)
- Canadian Society of Occupational Scientists (CSOS)
- Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (CAOT)
Awards
Some of Dr. Mortenson’s recent major awards and accomplishments include:
- CAOT Award for Innovative Practice (Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists, 2021)
- Elite Reviewer for 2020 (Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 2021)
- Legacy Travel Award (Canadian Association of Gerontology, 2013)
- Post-doctoral Scientific Prize (CIHR, 2012)
- Banting Post-Doctoral Fellowship (2012-2014)
- CIHR New Investigator Award (2016)
Trainee Awards
| Year | Name | Award |
| 2021 | Pegah Derakhshan | Four Year Doctoral Fellowship (4YF) (UBC) |
| 2020 | Ethan Simpson | Presentation Award (Rehabilitation Research Program Day) |
| 2020 | Farrukh Chishtie | President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award (UBC) |
| 2020 | Miriam Manna | Awarded best poster prize for day 2 of the 2020 (ICORD, Trainee Symposium) |
| 2019 | Gurkaran Singh | 3rd prize for Junior category poster (ICORD, Trainee Symposium) |
| 2018 | Oladele Atoyebi | Four Year Doctoral Fellowship (4YF) (UBC) |
| 2016 | Emma Smith | Fellowship award (3 year duration) & Alzheimer Society Research Program (ASRP) funding (CIHR & Alzheimer Society) |
| 2016 | Kristine Theurer | UBC’s nominee to the SSHRC Talent Award competition (SSHRC) |
| 2017 | Alison Williams | CIHR Canada Graduate Scholarships-Master’s Award (CIHR) |
| 2017 | Alison Williams | Rising Star Award (VCHRI) |
| 2017 | Dominique Gélinas-Bronsard | Best poster award (Centre of research in interdisciplinary rehabilitation (CRIR) Student Colloquium) |
Current Lab Members
| Undergraduate Students | Masters Students | Ph.D. Students | Occupational Therapy Students | Postdoctoral Fellows | Research Staff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miriam Manna | Pauline Koh | Oladele Atoyebi | Bethany Hase | Dr. Nolwenn Lapierre | Jodine Perkins |
| Himani Prajapati | Pegah Derakhshan | Susanna Miller | Dr. Alfiya Battalova | Jose Arias Bustamante | |
| Olatiowuluwase Olatona | Tyrone Scales | Angela Eugenio | Karen Boley | ||
| Murveena Jeawon | Farrukh Chishtie | Allie Wood | Ori Ben-Ari | ||
| Bahareh Kardeh | Riley Louie* | Rachel Wong | Rosemary Cheung | ||
| Ethan Simpson | Michael Prescott* | Ashley Stewart | Tania Jagpal | ||
| Loubna Kalaaji | Lisa Simpson | Rachel Yiu | |||
| Gina Tsai | Gillian Bever | ||||
| Sophia Sauvageau | |||||
| Nicole Banting | |||||
| Alice Xu | |||||
| Gurkaran Singh | |||||
| Jennifer Zhang | |||||
| Zach Lauzière-Fitzgerald | |||||
| Nola Morey | |||||
| Katrina Moorthy | |||||
| Michelle Cheng | |||||
| Ellie Gang | |||||
| Brianna Tang |
* has graduated in the past year
Recent publications
- Theurer, KA et al.. 2022. "It Makes You Feel Good to Help!": An Exploratory Study of the Experience of Peer Mentoring in Long-Term Care.. Can J Aging. doi: 10.1017/S0714980821000611.
- Best, KL, Mortenson, WB, Lauzière-Fitzgerald, Z, Smith, EM. 2022. Language matters! The long-standing debate between identity-first language and person first language.. Assist Technol. doi: 10.1080/10400435.2022.2058315.
- Kirby, RL et al.. 2022. Qualitative experiences of new motorised mobility scooter users relevant to their scooter skills: a secondary analysis.. Disabil Rehabil Assist Technol. doi: 10.1080/17483107.2022.2063422.
- Prescott, M et al.. 2022. Providing Accessible Recreation Outdoors-User-Driven Research on Standards (PARCOURS): Protocol for a Multiphase Study.. JMIR Res Protoc. doi: 10.2196/33611.
- Manna, M et al.. 2022. Patient perspectives and self-rated knowledge of nerve transfer surgery for restoring upper limb function in spinal cord injury.. PM R. doi: 10.1002/pmrj.12811.
