UOIT and CMCC host disability prevention and rehabilitation research event

The University of Ontario Institute of Technology's (UOIT) Faculty of Health Sciences recently hosted a special event with the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College (CMCC) in Toronto, Ontario to foster research collaboration in the areas of disability prevention and rehabilitation.

The inaugural Research Day held at CMCC gave faculty members and students from both institutions a chance to present their most recent discoveries as well as their works-in-progress through platform and poster presentations.

"These types of events are crucial for helping individuals affected by chronic conditions or disabilities, because they bring together scientists from different research areas, all of whom are interested in identifying new solutions to assist people with disabilities," said Dr. Pierre Côté, Director, UOIT-CMCC Centre for the Study of Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation, a joint research-focused initiative between UOIT and CMCC.

"The inaugural Research Day provided a forum for knowledge transfer and exchange between scientists who study disability from extremely different perspectives – from the gene and cell standpoint all the way up to the community level," Côté said. "It also offered an opportunity for scientists to reflect on how knowledge is generated in this field. Moreover, it exposed students from both institutions to the area and importance of disability prevention and rehabilitation."

Event speakers included:

• Dr. Jean Moss, President, CMCC
• Dr. Margareta Nordin (keynote speaker), Research Professor in the Departments of Orthopaedics and Environmental Medicine, School of Medicine, New York University
• Dr. Michael Owen, Vice-President, Research, Innovation and International, UOIT
• Dr. Jay Triano, Dean, Graduate Education and Research Programs, CMCC
• Dr. Ellen Vogel, Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences, UOIT

The UOIT-CMCC Centre for the Study of Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation research team is comprised of: Dr. Pierre Côté, Sharanya Varatharajan, Dr. Patrick Loisel, Dr. Heather Shearer, Dr. Maja Stupar, Angela Verven, Dr. Craig Jacobs, Dr. Jessica Wong, Dr. Danielle Southerst, Poonam Cardoso, Dr. Hainan Yu, Kristi Randhawa and Debbie Sutton.