In this issue

• Message from the CEO
• December 3: UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities
• A Champion for the SCI Community: Kevin Lamarque
• New Partnership Helps Canadian Military and Veterans Living with Spinal Cord Injuries
• Global Research Platform Version 2.0 Release
• RHI Project Showcase Debuts in Ottawa and Toronto
• Just Announced: Interdependence 2012 Call for Abstracts Deadline Extended to December 12
• In the News
• Quick Links and Related Resources

Dear friends and colleagues,

On the eve of December 3 the UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities, I welcome you to the last Rick Hansen Institute CEO newsletter this year.  If 2011 was a year of significant progress, 2012 will be a year of great promise as we continue to work in collaboration with dozens of partners and colleagues in order to meet our strategic goals – including a focus on secondary complications.

Of note in the last year:

• We continued to engage researchers, clinicians and consumers in Canada, and partnered with Accreditation Canada and Paralyzed Veterans of America, among others, to improve standards of care and ensure people with spinal cord injury receive the best care possible.
• We launched the web-based Global Research Platform Version 2.0 to collect data for the RHSCIR Study.
• We began working with researchers from across Canada in using national RHSCIR Study data to ask clinically relevant questions concerning the care of people with SCI across Canada.
• We continue to support the national Relay and related celebrations of the 25th Anniversary of the Man in Motion World Tour.

After kicking off in Newfoundland this summer, the 25th Anniversary Relay will make its way to Vancouver next May and coincide with the ground-breaking Interdependence 2012 Global Exposition and Conference, May 15-18, 2012, co-hosted by the Rick Hansen Foundation and Rick Hansen Institute.

We look forward with great anticipation to the new year and to your partnership as we work towards a world without paralysis after spinal cord injury and improved quality of life for those living with SCI.

Sincerely,

Bill Barrable, CEO
Rick Hansen Institute

December 3: UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities

Rick Hansen’s original Man In Motion Tour in 1986 served as a catalyst to make great changes in the accessibility of communities across Canada.

Did you know?

• Persons with disabilities, including persons with spinal cord injury, make up an estimated 15 per cent of the world’s population.
• Almost one-fifth of the estimated global total of persons living with disabilities, or between 110-190 million, encounter significant difficulties.
• A quarter of the global population is directly affected by disability, as care-givers or family members.
• RHI works in partnership with governments and researchers around the world to create a world without paralysis after spinal cord injury.
• Our work in SCI research benefits people affected by paralysis or lack of mobility due to other medical conditions.

Lamarque and Molly the cocker spaniel participate in the Rick Hansen  Relay in Halifax.

A Champion for the SCI Community: Kevin Lamarque

Kevin Lamarque (BA (Hons), MA) was recently recognised as a “Difference Maker” in his home community of Halifax.  He carried a commemorative medallion in the Rick Hansen Man In Motion 25th Anniversary Relay joining 7,000 others as they travel across Canada.  Kevin is Chair of Canadian Paraplegic Association (CPA) Nova Scotia, the former Director of the Department of Canadian Heritage in Nova Scotia and the newest member of the RHI Board of Directors.

Read the Q and A with Kevin Lamarque here…

New Partnership Helps Canadian Military and Veterans Living with Spinal Cord Injuries

From left: RHI CEO, Bill Barrable, CIMVHR Director Alice Aiken and Rick Hansen

In October, the Rick Hansen Institute and the Canadian Institute for Military & Veteran Health Research announced that they will work together to ensure that Canadian military and veterans living with spinal cord injury will benefit from knowledge and expertise generated through our translational research and best practice implementation projects.

The CIMVHR is an innovative organization that engages existing academic research resources and facilitates the development of new research, research capacity and effective knowledge exchange. With a network of academic researchers from across Canada, it will serve as a focal point for all interested Canadian universities who have agreed to work together to address the health research requirements of the military, veterans and their families.

Read the press release

Global Research Platform Version 2.0 Release

Designed and developed as a flexible and secure web-based tool to accelerate data collection and reporting for research and program operations, Global Research Platform (GRP) 2.0 was released earlier this month. The system, developed by the Institute, is currently hosting the national RHSCIR Registry Study. The Spinal Cord Perfusion Pressure Monitoring in Acute Spinal Cord Injury, or CAMPER, multi-centre clinical trial will be added in early 2012.

The RHI Global Research Platform provides a quick and easy way for researchers to set up studies and has the potential to accelerate the translation of evidence and best practices to reduce the incidence and severity of paralysis after SCI.

RHI Project Showcase Debuts in Ottawa and Toronto

RHI's CEO, Bill Barrable with Senator Nancy Greene Raine click here for more photos

An atlas of spinal cord injury related rehabilitation services delivery, a set of national standards for care, and a portable rehabilitation unit that reinforces residual connections between the brain and neurons to regain hand function: these were just a few of the translational research and best practice implementation projects highlighted in a unique showcase that debuted in Ottawa and Toronto this November.

In both cities, Members of Parliament, Senators, their staff and government officials saw the work being done on a number of coordinated fronts – innovation, collaboration, tools, resources and standards – in order improve the quality of life of tens of thousands of Canadians living with spinal cord injuries and related medical conditions.

The Ottawa event was generously co-hosted by the Honourable Alice Wong, MP for Richmond, BC, and Manon Perreault, MP for Montcalm, QC. The Toronto event was generously hosted by Elizabeth Wittmer, MPP for Kitchener-Waterloo.

The Rick Hansen Institute Showcase will be travelling to Edmonton and Victoria in the new year.

Just Announced: Interdependence 2012 Call for Abstracts Deadline extended to December 12

Incredible progress has been made in SCI research yet converting experimental discoveries into actual therapies remains a challenge. Interdependence 2012 brings together a wide range of current topics including the latest cellular therapies, current trends in technological innovations that are helping to restore function, advancements in managing secondary complications and the commercialization of SCI innovations. Global leaders and influencers will gather to showcase ground-breaking innovations, share insights and identify solutions to some of the critical challenges being faced in the fields of accessibility and SCI research.

Confirmed keynote speakers include: Hon. David Onley, David Suzuki, Ray Kurzweil, Charles Tator, Marcel Dvorak, Michael Fehlings, Armin Curt, and Susan Harkema among many others.

Don't miss out on this unique opportunity to share your research. Awards will be given for top SCI-related oral presentations among submitted abstracts in three categories: clinical acute, clinical rehab, and basic science. For the full list of eligible topics and abstract submission guidelines click here.

In the News

November 21, 2011 - Ottawa neurosurgeon and RHI researcher, Dr. Eve Tsai, voted most influential woman in the ‘Health’ category by Women of Influence magazine.
Read it here.

October 11, 2011 - Spinal cord breakthrough with acne drug
University of Calgary researchers , Dr John Hurlbert and Dr Steve Casha, are working on a spinal cord injury treatment are getting some help from the Man in Motion.

Read the full story at the Calgary Sun | Read about Dr. John Hurlbert and Dr. Steve Casha in our Stories section

October 10, 2011 - Electronic stimulation shows promise for quadriplegics
Harmandeep Saini needed someone to feed him, brush his teeth, give him his medication and put his bus token in the fare box after a motorcycle accident left him a quadriplegic three years ago. Today, the 25-year-old can do these things on his own, thanks to a promising new therapy that has given him back some control of his hands.

Read the full story at the Globe and Mail

September 15, 2011 - Edmonton-based technology breathes new life into physical therapy
Rick Hansen Institute funded project helping rehabilitate people who have lost upper body mobility due to strokes, spinal cord injuries, or other nerve or muscular damage - from the comfort of their homes.

Read or watch it on Global News: Global Edmonton | Alberta-based technology transforming physical rehabilitation

Conferences

Cervical Spine Research Society 2011, December 8-10, Scottsdale, AZ

• Podium presentation by Dr John Street: “Incidence and Impact of Acute Adverse Events in Patients with Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury”; as well as an ACT HPM (Health Progression Model) poster titled “Evaluating Long-term Health and Economic Outcomes in Traumatic Cervical Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) using a Health Progression Model”, both are co-authored by RHI Scientific Director, Dr Marcel Dvorak and RHI Director of Research, Dr Vanessa Noonan.

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting, February 17-20, Vancouver, BC.

• ICORD's symposium Curing Spinal Cord Injury: The Need for Global Collaboration will be moderated by Dr. Michael Fehlings (Toronto Western Hospital). Confirmed speakers include Rick Hansen, Dr. Wolfram Tetzlaff (UBC), Dr. Marcel Dvorak (UBC), Dr. Judy Illes (Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics), Dr. Charles Tator (U of Toronto) and Dr. Naomi Kleitman (NIH).

Quick links and related resources:

• Read our corporate brochure
• Visit our Media Room
• Get Facts and Figures on SCI
• Visit the Interdependence 2012 site
• Learn more about the 25th Anniversary of the Man In Motion World Tour