Section of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND HIGHLIGHTS

Advocating for Improved Responsiveness in Mass Casualty Events: Dr. Vincent Gabriel, Director of the Calgary Burns program, was involved in evaluating responses to a recent mass casualty event as part of his academic program. After a series of interviews and analyses his team produced a manuscript titled “Burn mass casualty incident planning in Alberta” which was published in the journal Burns. The manuscript makes recommendations around health systems changes necessary to better deal with future mass casualty events.

Helping children with disability walk: Dr. Elizabeth Condliffe leads a program that uses robotic exoskeletons to help children with paralysis walk again. She recently hosted a CIHR Café Scientifique at Telus Spark for the public to discuss her work. She has received a SickKids Foundation and CIHR New Investigator Research Grant ($299,439) as well as a Mitacs award to support her cutting-edge robotics research. Dr. Condliffe’s work has attracted considerable attention from the media including articles like the following: https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/mom-raises-funds-robotic-legs-rare-disease

Leading nationally and internationally for Stroke Recovery: Dr. Sean Dukelow leads the CanStroke Recovery Trials platform (www.canadianstroke.ca), a group of 37 researchers who are conducting multiple clinical trials examining new treatments for stroke rehabilitation which have the potential to improve post-stroke outcomes. This includes the CAMAROS trial, for with Dr. Dukelow is the Principal Investigator. CAMAROS is evaluating a novel pharmacologic treatment for post-stroke motor recovery in 12 centres across Canada. Dr. Dukelow is also a member of the executive committee of the International Stroke Recovery and Rehabilitation Alliance (ISRRA, www.strokerecoveryalliance.com) which sets the agenda for stroke rehabilitation research worldwide.

 CLINICAL SERVICE

Clinical service during 2022 continued to be busy. Clinical services at Foothills Medical Centre transitioned to Connect Care in November of 2022. This meant the outpatient PMR clinics, which take place in the SSB, transitioned from paper charts to the fully electronic system. This was a massive undertaking by clinic staff and physicians to transition and required substantial effort and planning by clinic staff and support of management and physicians. 

Notably, in 2022, Dr. Vincent Gabriel, took over as Medical Director for the Calgary Firefighters Burn Treatment Centre. 

EDUCATION

The PMR program has 10 residents who were actively rotating through service areas during 2022. In addition to the core residents, 18 off-service residents participated in PMR inpatient services and clinics as well as two out-of-province residents. Our two graduating residents both successfully completed the Royal College Examination in PMR in June 2022.

RESEARCH

As a section, the group published 35 peer-reviewed journal articles. Members obtained over $2.5 million in new research in 2022. 

Dr. Gabriel worked with a collaborative team from UCalgary on a manuscript published in the prestigious journal, Cell.  

Dr. Dukelow’s team initiated the CAMAROS trial, a 12-centre study examining the impact of the drug, Maraviroc, on motor recovery after stroke.

RECRUITMENT

• Cancer Physiatrist – Dr. David Langelier

• Stroke Physiatrist - Dr. Sarah Frehlich

• Brain Injury Physiatrist – Dr. Ricky Kwok