American Cancer Society honours U of T Professor Prabhat Jha for Groundbreaking research on tobacco control
U of T Medicine Professor Prabhat Jha was honoured with the 2012 Luther L. Terry award for Outstanding Research Contribution from the American Cancer Society for his globally influential work on tobacco control. Prof. Jha, who was presented with the award at a ceremony in Singapore, was recognized for his research on the epidemiology and economics of tobacco control, including a renowned 1999 World Bank report on which he was the lead author, Curbing the Epidemic: Governments and the Economics of Tobacco Control. The report was translated into over 25 languages and led to the first global treaty on tobacco, signed by more than 160 countries . . . .
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U of T Report Finds Millions of Canadians Still Struggle to Afford Food
Four million Canadians, including 1.15 million children, are living in households where it is sometimes a struggle to put food on the table, according to researchers at the University of Toronto.
Nearly one in eight households is impacted by food insecurity, which is defined as inadequate access to food because of financial constraints. At its mildest level, food insecurity means worrying about feeding yourself and your family before your next paycheque. As the problem gets worse, people can’t afford to have balanced meals. Then they begin to skip
meals, cut portion sizes and eventually go days without eating, all because they can’t afford the food they need. Those impacted often face physical and emotional hardships which compromise their health.
The study was led by U of T’s Valerie Tarasuk and her team at PROOF, a research project that identifies effective policy interventions to address household food insecurity. Building on a report they released last year, the team analyzed municipal data for the first time. Halifax had the highest incidence of food insecurity, with one in five households affected, followed by Moncton, Guelph and Barrie.
The report continues to chart some disturbing trends across the country. Food insecurity has persisted or grown in every province and territory since 2005; 2012 rates in Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories were the highest since Health Canada began monitoring the problem.
The team also discovered that 28 per cent of black and Aboriginal households reported some form of food insecurity — more than double the national average.
“Food insecurity takes a very real toll on people’s physical and mental health. Four million Canadians are now affected and the number keeps growing. We nee
d to act now to address this problem,” says Tarasuk, a Nutritional Sciences Professor at the Faculty of Medicine.
Some key points from the report include:
- There are 600,000 more Canadians affected by food insecurity now than in 2007-2008
- 62.2 per cent of food insecure homes are working households
- 70 per cent of households on social assistance are food insecure, with 29 per cent experiencing severe deprivation
- 45 per cent of households in Nunavut reported some level of food insecurity
The report, released today, is available here.
Four million Canadians, including 1.15 million children, are living in households where it is sometimes a struggle to put food on the table, according to researchers at the University of Toronto.
Nearly one in eight households is impacted by food insecurity, which is defined as inadequate access to food because of financial constraints. At its mildest level, food insecurity means worrying about feeding yourself and your family before your next paycheque. As the problem gets worse, people can’t afford to have balanced meals. Then they begin to skip
meals, cut portion sizes and eventually go days without eating, all because they can’t afford the food they need. Those impacted often face physical and emotional hardships which compromise their health.
The study was led by U of T’s Valerie Tarasuk and her team at PROOF, a research project that identifies effective policy interventions to address household food insecurity. Building on a report they released last year, the team analyzed municipal data for the first time. Halifax had the highest incidence of food insecurity, with one in five households affected, followed by Moncton, Guelph and Barrie.
The report continues to chart some disturbing trends across the country. Food insecurity has persisted or grown in every province and territory since 2005; 2012 rates in Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories were the highest since Health Canada began monitoring the problem.
The team also discovered that 28 per cent of black and Aboriginal households reported some form of food insecurity — more than double the national average.
“Food insecurity takes a very real toll on people’s physical and mental health. Four million Canadians are now affected and the number keeps growing. We nee
d to act now to address this problem,” says Tarasuk, a Nutritional Sciences Professor at the Faculty of Medicine.
Some key points from the report include:
- There are 600,000 more Canadians affected by food insecurity now than in 2007-2008
- 62.2 per cent of food insecure homes are working households
- 70 per cent of households on social assistance are food insecure, with 29 per cent experiencing severe deprivation
- 45 per cent of households in Nunavut reported some level of food insecurity
The report, released today, is available here.
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Faculty Creates New Decanal Position
The Faculty of Medicine has created a new decanal position — Associate Dean, Medical Education (Regional). The position will be integrated with the role of Vice President, Education at Trillium Health Partners and will have oversight of medical education based in Mississauga, and education at THP.
Reporting to the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, the Associate Dean, Medical Education (Regional) will collaborate closely with the Deputy Dean, the Vice-Dean, Undergraduate Medical Professions Education, the Vice-Dean, Postgraduate Medical Education, the Vice- Dean, Clinical Affairs and the Vice-Dean, Continuing Professional Development, and will be responsible for the strategic leadership of the undergraduate and postgraduate medical education programs delivered in Mississauga.
The mandate of this new position will include:
- oversight of medical education within the University and Hospital as well as integrated oversight for all THP hospital-based education
- delivering on an inter-professional education mandate that includes medical, nursing and allied health learners, among others
- building a sustainable infrastructure to enable effective strategic planning, prioritization of operational growth and efficient budgetary planning and oversight
A joint Advisory Committee will be struck in the near future that Dean Whiteside will co-chair with Michelle DiEmanuele, President and CEO of THP. A comprehensive search will be undertaken and further details, including the advertisement for the integrated position and the membership of the Advisory Committee, will be widely distributed.
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Solving the Sitting Dilemma
A new wheelchair sensory system developed through a collaboration with SensiMAT Systems and the University of Toronto’s Professor Milos Popovic is poised to help wheelchair users prevent their number one source of infection, hospitalization, and mortality: pressure sores.
For those who use wheelchairs, sitting is serious business.
“Take for example, the sad story of Christopher Reeve,” says Popovic, Professor at the Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering (IBBME) and Toronto Rehab Chair in Spinal Cord Injury Research at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute (TRI). “After his injury Christopher Reeve and his foundation poured millions of dollars into stem cell research. But in the end, he died from a pressure sore that could have been prevented by this inexpensive solution.”
It was cases like Christopher Reeve’s that led to the creation of the SensiMAT.
“We had one of those discussions,” says Popovic of his fateful meeting with SensiMAT System’s David Mravyan and his father Michael in 2007. The father and son team had been visiting the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute’s (TRI) Research Day when they fell into conversation with Popovic. “I’d been churning around in my mind two or three ideas that could be turned into products. One of those was a sitting cushion. We talked about what it should do, which patients it could help,” describes Popovic, who was named one of the University of Toronto’s Inventors of the Year in 2013.
According to recent data, there are 2.2 million people who rely on wheelchairs in the U.S. and Canada alone. Up to 350,000 of that number suffer from spinal cord-specific injuries, a population with the highest risk of developing pressure sores – with a 95% lifetime incidence rate of developing an ulcer.Pressure sores are caused by poor circulation and increased pressure – for instance, from prolonged periods of sitting in place – where the skin and surrounding tissues become damaged. Even a small sore that is treated effectively still carries with it a high risk of infection that can lead to surgeries, hospitalization, and in some cases, death. The cost of treating pressure sores is estimated at 14 billion dollars annually.
The SensiMAT, though, is designed to help wheelchair users prevent pressure sores from forming in the first place. The system consists of a sensor-lined mat tailored to fit a wheelchair user’s existing cushion. Once the user sits in their chair, Bluetooth technology sends signals from the pressure-sensing mat to a smart phone app that alerts the user when – and where – pressure has begun to build up, following traffic light colours: red for trouble spots, green for pressure-free zones.
As alerts can be monitored remotely, the system is also ideal for caregivers of those who are immobile or unable to respond to the app alerts. The simple and versatile design has also been sought after by Occupational Therapists who want to track their patients’ level of activity outside the clinical setting.
But the SensiMAT isn’t just for the most vulnerable populations. As Mravyan explains, “During our research we found that even people who are very active in their chairs and who diligently complete their pressure reliefs are at risk of developing sores.”
SensiMAT, which patented the technology in 2012, is now looking at ways to expand the sensory system for use in long-term care facilities. Rather than waiting for set rotation hours, the SensiMAT system could alert caregivers that bed-bound patients need to be moved. Data can also be collected over the course of weeks or even months, and could help care facilities determine the level of health and care of their clients.
“What this system offers is a quality metric for long term care reporting,” Mravyan states.
The SensiMAT is currently undergoing testing at the Lyndhurst Centre, part of the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. In March, SensiMAT Systems will launch a crowdfunding campaign to help the company bring this product to market. More info can be found at www.sensimatsystems.com or on Twitter @sensimat.
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U of T Professor Honoured for Changing the Landscape of Genetics Research
The Genetics Society of America has given the 2014 Edward Novitski Prize to University of Toronto Professor Charles Boone. The prestigious award, named after a pioneering American geneticist, recognizes exceptional ingenuity in genetics research.
Boone and his colleagues invented a method to discover and map gene interactions among the thousands of genes that make up an organism’s genome. Their technology — synthetic genetic array (SGA) analysis — allows researchers to test the potential for genes to work together as pairs. Because this technology is automated, it can test millions of possible gene combinations to generate a survey of genome-wide genetic interactions.
“It’s a wonderful honour, especially since it recognizes some very accomplished scientists from many different fields of genetics,” said Boone, a Professor in the Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research and the Department of Molecular Genetics. “Our work is highly collaborative, so this award is really a shared honour.”
Boone developed SGA technology in yeast — a single-celled organism with a quarter as many genes as humans. Yeast offer an excellent model for understanding the general principles underlying human genetics and disease. Researchers have since adapted SGA-like approaches for other systems, including human cells, and are using them to explore therapies for cancer and many other diseases.
Over more than 10 years, Boone’s team detailed their major insights into the breadth and organization of yeast genetic interactions in three papers published in the journal Science. Together, other researchers have cited those papers more than 3,600 times.
Professor Brenda Andrews is the Director of the Donnelly Centre, and her lab has collaborated with the Boone lab for years. Andrews said that in order to reap the benefits of the human genome project, researchers must understand how genetic variation and interactions influence disease phenotypes — the observable qualities that result from the interaction of genes and environment.
“Dr. Boone's invention of methods that automate yeast genetics has allowed his group to map the first genetic interaction network or wiring diagram for a cell,” said Andrews. “These diagrams lay the essential groundwork for understanding how genes interact in complex diseases, and will guide the development of new ways to treat illness.”
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Faculty of Medicine hosts Brain Bee
What brain region processes fear and anxiety? Which drug can break up blood clots to improve the outcome of a stroke? Where are neurotransmitters stored? More than 100 high school students from across the Greater Toronto Area tackled questions like these in an intense, elimination-style “Brain Bee” held today at the Faculty of Medicine . . . .
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Groundbreaking research collaboration creates a new economic cornerstone for Canada
The Governments of Canada and Ontario, with IBM and a consortium of seven universities led by the University of Toronto and Western University today announced they are collaborating to establish a new Ontario-based $210 million dollar research and development initiative that will create 145 new highly skilled jobs in Ontario and a new economic cornerstone for the country.
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Researchers say supervised consumption facilities would improve health of people who use drugs in Ottawa and Toronto
Toronto and Ottawa would both benefit from the creation of supervised injection facilities, according to research released today. Such facilities could improve the health and reduce harm among people who use drugs, and could also reduce public drug use, according to research led by Prof. Ahmed Bayoumi (Dept. of Medicine) of St. Michael’s Hospital and Dr. Carol Strike of the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health.
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U of T Medicine’s 10th Annual Education Achievement Celebration recognizes teachers and mentors
Outstanding teachers and mentors from the Faculty of Medicine were honoured Monday night at the 10th Annual Education Achievement Celebration. The celebration recognizes U of T Medicine's commitment to providing high-quality teaching and learning experiences by honouring educators at every level.
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Message from the Dean: UME Accreditation is complete—thank you for a tremendous effort across the Faculty
Dear Faculty of Medicine friends and colleagues,
The LCME-CACMS accreditation survey visit of the Undergraduate Medical Education program has just concluded. The visit was the culmination of eighteen months of intensive reflection and self-study by faculty, staff, and students regarding all aspects of the UME program. This included a rigorous evaluation of the institutional environment, the curriculum in the MD program, support for medical students, quality of faculty, and resources available for education.
The preliminary report received from the survey team was very positive, and highlighted the excellent preparation in which the medical school engaged. The determination of accreditation status is the responsibility of the LCME and CACMS, which will both be meeting in the fall to review the survey team’s full report.
We sincerely thank the entire Faculty of Medicine community for its tremendous ongoing support of the MD program, and we especially wish to acknowledge the contributions of all those who participated directly in the accreditation process.
Martin Schreiber
Senior Academic Coordinator, LCME-CACMS Accreditation
Jay Rosenfield
Vice-Dean Undergraduate Medical Education
Catharine Whiteside
Dean, Faculty of Medicine and Vice-Provost, Relations with Health Care Institutions
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