Focus on Impact

Sharing the indomitable resolve of the Calgary philanthropist and equestrienne whose gift helped ignite it, the RESTORE Network is reaching new heights with transdisciplinary research in spinal cord injury, stroke and movement impairment. In the Neuro RecoVR Treadmill Project, RESTORE researchers are developing treatments to help patients with neurological injury or disease learn to
walk better using an instrumented split-belt treadmill and integrated virtual reality (VR) screens. Every aspect of their gait is recorded, as they adjust and react to VR obstacles in this engaging form of rehabilitation.

In the Trexo Projects, researchers are testing robotic gait training to help children with mobility impairments get moving using an exoskeleton. Researchers want to know how it helps these young patients at home and in the community, as well as how it affects sleep, control of their body, walking and mood.

“In just two years, the RESTORE Network has skyrocketed to international recognition through publications in the top journals
in the world, millions of dollars in grants, numerous patents and other neurotechnology engineering and clinical trials changing
the lives of people in our community,” says RESTORE Network Director Dr. Aaron Phillips, PhD.

The network is supported by a $4.7-million gift from the estate of Edith Rodie to UCalgary and the Calgary Health Foundation. Rodie was a well-known southern Alberta equestrienne, coach and horse trainer who rode well into her 80s, despite living with a painful spinal condition.

The RESTORE team has already leveraged the gift to secure an additional $6.8 million from grants, industry and philanthropy with several other funding applications under review.

All these accomplishments would make Rodie very proud, her friend and estate executor says. “She would want her gift to impact peoples’ lives. It’s wonderful that the University of Calgary is honouring that,” Alberta lawyer Allyson Jeffs says.

The company has received approval from Health Canada, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and regulators in Europe, Australia and India, to roll out its StrokeSENS technology to clinicians and health systems.

It also partners with technology companies, such as global health technology giant GE Healthcare, to implement StrokeSENS
into existing clinical workflows to aid front-line clinicians in the triage and diagnosis of acute stroke.

“This is the future of stroke care and research and to be at the front edge of things is an amazing experience,” says Dr. Nishita Singh, MD, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow with the Calgary Stroke Program.

Dr. Singh, who moved from India to Calgary for the fellowship, is publishing research which shows StrokeSENS’s ability to identify clots and assess stroke severity is more accurate than the trained eyes of the average clinician.

She’s one of several young, highly qualified personnel training with the Calgary Stroke Program and contributing to the Calgary health technology ecosystem through Circle NVI. The neurologist-researcher and internal medicine clinician intends to continue her career in Canada and hopes to work at one of the future StrokeSENS implementation sites across the country.

“We’re a small, determined group of doctors, engineers and computer scientists. Everyone is so motivated to reach our goals and in such a short span of time we've won Health Canada approval. That’s very rewarding,” Dr. Singh says.

Circle NVI is joining the UCeed Health portfolio — a philanthropic fund to support, train and mentor startups — which is part of UCalgary’s innovation ecosystem to translate laboratory-based research to real-world impact.

Circle NVI is a subsidiary of Circle Cardiovascular Imaging, another groundbreaking startup out of UCalgary which began nearly 18 years ago, and offers a comprehensive reading and reporting solution for Cardiac MR and CT used in more than 1,000 sites in more than 40 countries around the world.

Pat and Jim Burns

For donors Pat and Jim Burns, owning cancer means supporting groundbreaking immunotherapy cancer research in memory of their son, Jeff. Being able to advance this work in Calgary, the city Jeff was so proud to call home, is a natural way to honour his life. “If it can save someone, it will be well worth it,” says Jim.

Helping the health -care system work smarter

Health-care spending reached $267.5 billion in Canada in 2019. It now represents an average of 37 per cent of each provincial budget, and the COVID-19 pandemic has further accelerated public health-care spending growth. We know that in its present state, our health-care system is not sustainable.

Backed by the philanthropic vision of David and Gail O’Brien, both Hon. LLD’10, the interdisciplinary team of researchers at the O’Brien Institute for Public Health is making major strides to inform transformational change in our health-care system. Key research projects include improving medical care in the home, improving the design of medical devices, medical environments, systems and procedures, using eHealth tools for better care and enhancing the patient and family care experience.

"We know there are innovative and effective ways to bring Canada’s health-care spending more in line with other comparable countries, while at the same time actually improving patient outcomes. And we believe the national initiative led by the O’Brien Institute is on track to achieve that goal — and, most importantly, to improve the health and wellbeing of our children and our grandchildren," says David O'Brien.

Highlighting gender-based research through the Women’s Cardiovascular Health Initiative

For years after her kids were born, Okotoks mother and corporate strategic advisor, Bonnie Eckert, BA’02, MBA’04, struggled with chest
pain and debilitating exhaustion from undiagnosed stiffening of her small blood vessels, caused by severe high blood pressure during pregnancy. There were countless trips to emergency with frightening symptoms, never certain how worried she should be.

“How many women out there are like I was – they put their kids to bed at night and then they go to emergency after they're all tucked in because everyone is taken care of?” Eckert says.

Too many women. In fact, cardiovascular disease is the leading killer of women in Canada, claiming a life every 20 minutes. Heart attacks go unrecognized in women up to 54 per cent of the time. This is because women often present with different symptoms than men, leading to later diagnosis and fewer options for treatment.

The Libin Cardiovascular Institute’s (LCI) Women’s Cardiovascular Health Initiative is working to change this. It’s a formal program focused on research, education and clinical care — with a strong emphasis on outreach. Launched in 2019, it has already attracted more than $6 million in philanthropic giving, including from many women donors. 

This is thanks to Libin’s exceptional strength in this area, which includes leading research by clinicians-scientists like Dr. Kara Nerenberg, MD, to prevent heart disease after pregnancy and by Dr. Sandra Dumanski, MSc’20, MD, to identify how lower levels of fertility hormone raise heart disease risk for young women with chronic kidney disease.

These physicians, along with Dr. Sofia Ahmed, MD, are tackling gaps in women’s cardiovascular health by contributing to a new chapter on sex and gender-related risk factors for cardiovascular disease in the Canadian Women's Heart Health Alliance ATLAS on the Epidemiology, Diagnosis,
and Management of Cardiovascular Disease in Women. It helps physicians recognize the unique aspects of women’s heart health care and provides policy-makers with the information they need to ensure equitable care for women with cardiovascular disease.

The LCI is working to recruit a world-class clinician leader who will establish a women’s cardiovascular clinic and associated translational research program and mentor rising stars to enhance the program. 

Eckert, who first learned heart disease can be caused by high blood pressure during pregnancy at a 2018 information session led by the LCI, now takes medication to treat her stiffened vessels. It has greatly reduced her symptoms and she’s safely exercising to rebuild her stamina. “I am so thankful for Libin and Dr. Nerenberg. I don’t even want to think where I’d be without them,” Eckert says.