advances in research

ADVANCES IN RESEARCH
Winter 2015/16
Mobility for Life
Encore!
“This convergence of
different genres of art and
music is a metaphor for
the partnership between
the McCaig Institute and
the Alberta Bone and Joint
Health Institute.”
- Marvin Fritzler
Oscar Lopez performs with the Alberta Ballet at Encore 2015.
Photo by Tara Whittaker
On October 6th Encore 2015 took place at the Jack Singer Concert Hall in Calgary. The concert, which
featured performances by Holly Cole, Oscar Lopez, Jens Lindemann and the Alberta Ballet, was a return of the “Music in Motion” series which supports excellence in bone and joint health in Alberta.
Presented by the Calgary Health Trust and hosted by Alberta music legend Tommy Banks, Encore 2015
raised over $900,000 for the McCaig Institute and the Alberta Bone and joint Health Institute. Within
the McCaig Institute, these funds will be used to support the Centre for Mobility and Joint Health, an
innovative new clinical research facility focusing on early stage diagnosis and treatment tailored to the
individual.
“This convergence of different genres of art and music is a metaphor
for the partnership between the McCaig Institute and the Alberta Bone
and Joint Health Institute,” said Dr. Marvin Fritzler, Interim Director of
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the McCaig Institute, during his comments at the event. “We are a multi‐disciplinary team, each with unique gifts and skills, a unique cadence
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McCaig Institute
for Bone and
Joint Health
and tempo if you like, all converging into a unified approach to the
most pressing issues of bone, muscle and joint health.”
Message from the
Director
A highlight of the evening was an appearance by nine-year-old Ava
Morgan. Ava and her family were invited on-stage to share their
story about how arthritis has affected their lives. Ava was diagnosed with arthritis two years ago and is a benefactor of leading
edge research and clinical care at the Alberta Children’s Hospital
under the direction of Dr. Susa Benseler.
“Her diagnosis two years ago, to say it was a blow is an understatement,” said Ava’s father, Jeff Morgan. “Kids just aren’t supposed
to get arthritis. Her treatment plan has become a family affair.
Marvin Fritzler
Yes, it has definitely changed us.”
During my tenure as Interim
Director of the McCaig Institute
for Bone and Joint Health, I’ve
seen some remarkable things
happen. Upon reflection, they all
seem to revolve around what can
happen when people pull
together.
“Ava represents what makes
the ABJHI and the McCaig Institute for bone and joint health
tick. The need for innovation
and collaboration from a wide
range of specialties and specialists has never been more pressing,” said Dr. Fritzler. “We
need to find new ways to accurately diagnose bone and joint
Ava Morgan (left) and family. Photo by Tara
Whittaker
diseases so that patients can be treated before they develop
chronic pain and irreversible problems with mobility. We need to
develop new and more effective treatments.”
The McCaig Institute for Bone and Joint health would like to thank
the organizing committee,
co-chaired by Ann and Marilyn McCaig, the Calgary
Health Trust and the many
sponsors of the evening.
Without the incredible support of the community, the
Marilyn McCaig, Holly Cole and Ann McCaig at
the pre-concert reception. Photo by: Tara Whittaker
work of the McCaig Institute would not be possible.
First and foremost, I’ve had the
honour of taking part in the
creation of the McCaig Institute’s
Centre for Mobility and Joint
Health. This world-class facility
will use state-of-the art imaging,
motion analysis and biomarker
technology to assess an
individual’s bone and joint health
on every level, allowing us to
diagnose issues and develop
personalized treatments faster
than anywhere else in the world.
I eagerly anticipate the official
opening of the facility in early
2016.
Our partnership with the Alberta
Bone and Joint Health Institute,
Alberta Health Services and the
Bone and Joint Strategic Clinical
Network is an emerging model of
how organizations can work
together to create solutions that
will improve the health care
system and health outcomes of
our patients.
The Encore event in October was
a glowing example of how the
collaboration of different musical
genres and community partners
can create something magical.
Under the leadership of Ann and
Marilyn McCaig and the Calgary
Health Trust, we saw some of
Canada’s top musicians join with
the Alberta Ballet to raise funds
for bone and joint health in
Alberta. Encore would not have
been possible without the support
of countless volunteers who
poured their hearts into the event.
Finally, we saw researchers,
physicians and sports heroes
come together to inform the
public about knee injury and
disease at two Wood Forums –
one in Calgary and one in
Edmonton. With the support of
the Wood family and the time and
effort of McCaig staff, trainees
and volunteers, these full-tocapacity events facilitated a vital
sharing of information between
researchers and the public.
As I prepare to hand over the
reigns of the McCaig Institute to
the new Director, I want to thank
everyone who is part of our
McCaig family for your support.
Without you, we truly would not
be the world-class leaders in
bone and joint health that we are.
We consider you a vital part of
our team, and invite you to
envision with us what is possible
when innovation and
collaboration converge.
I wish you all a healthy and
joyous holiday season.
Using “big data” to transform health care
“Big data” is a term used to describe massive amounts of information that are collected quickly. For instance, every time you
use your loyalty or discount card for purchases, that information
is collected to track the spending habits and purchasing preferences of the public. Some people are nervous about how the
collection of data affects their privacy. But using de-identified
data is a safe and incredibly powerful tool that can be used to
help policy makers improve the health care system.
From the time a patient receives a diagnosis to the time they receive treatment, a tremendous amount of data is collected:
symptoms, test results, referrals, health claim details and treatment plans. All of this collected information as a whole could be
very valuable to health care policy makers, but making sense of
all these big data is an extremely complex and time consuming
process.
That’s where computers come in. Dr. Deborah Marshall, a
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McCaig Institute member, and her
team have been using computer
modeling methods called Dynamic
Cy Frank Travelling
Lectureship
Simulation Modeling, or DSM, to
help make sense of the staggering
amount of healthcare information
collected. They have developed a
way to use DSM to track patient flow
through the healthcare system –
from diagnosis to treatment – to see
if they can better allocate resources
and improve patient outcomes.
“Data by themselves are not necessarily helpful,” says Lina Burgos-Liz, a
Lina Burgos-Liz and Deborah Marshall
research associate on Marshall’s
team. “Computer models help organize the data to make them useful.”
By using DSM, researchers can explore how things affect each other. “We can
change a scenario to see how it affects the outcome,” explains Burgos-Liz. For
instance, if the way cases are triaged for surgery was changed, how would that
affect wait times for the patients and in the end how would it impact the way a
patient recovers?
“Our work is basically about how to make decisions better, so patients get the
right service at the right time,” says Marshall. “It’s about trying to improve the
health care system, so that people get better care.”
Dr. Deborah A. Marshall is the Canada Research Chair, Health Systems and Services Research,
the Arthur J.E. Child Chair Rheumatology Outcomes Research and Professor in the Dept. of Community Health Sciences at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. Her research
focuses on patient preferences, patient engagement research, cost-effectiveness analysis, and
dynamic simulation modeling of health services delivery to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of health care services. This project was funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health
Research (CIHR).
Former McCaig Institute Director
Dr. Cy Frank was internationally
known and acclaimed for his
visionary efforts to lead and
champion multidisciplinary
clinical research and the
application of this research in
health care settings. The
untimely passing of Dr. Frank in
March, 2015 initiated a desire to
continue his legacy and impact
on the disciplines that were the
passion of his academic and
public service careers.
The University of Calgary and the
Cumming School of Medicine, in
partnership with Alberta
Innovates-Health Solutions have
established a fund to create an
annual travelling lectureship to
honour Dr. Frank’s contributions.
The Dr. Cy Frank International
Travelling Lectureship will be a
highly publicized series of annual
lectures on important and timely
bone and joint health themes,
such as musculoskeletal health
and research, innovations in
healthcare modelling and
delivery and clinical research.
Individuals, organizations or
institutions wishing to contribute
to the lectureship, which will be
held in trust at the University of
Calgary, can visit the following
website: https://
netcommunity.ucalgary.ca/
medicine/cyfrank-lectureship or
contact Janelle Wakaruk,
Director of Development,
Cumming School of Medicine at
403-220-5151
Expressions of
Arthritis
On November 14th, children
with rheumatoid arthritis (RA)
gathered to express their
experiences, both physical
and emotion, through art.
The workshop is part of an
initiative called Expressions of
Arthritis where children with
RA are guided through a
creative process using a
variety of materials and
mediums. The November
session was lead by Artist
Leeanne Stringer, and
participants completed a
wintery owl scene using
acrylic on canvas and learned
various layering and
patterning techniques.
The Expressions of Arthritis
program is a partnership
between the Alberta
Children’s Hospital, the
McCaig Institute for Bone and
Joint Health and the
University of Calgary’s
Department of Art. The
program is also supported
with sponsored space and
personal support from the
Alberta Children’s Hospital
Foundation, the Mamdani
Family Foundation and the
Calgary Foundation.
An example of artwork from Expressions of Arthritis.
Wood Forum on knee injury
Within 12 – 20 years after a knee injury there is a ten fold increased risk of developing knee osteoarthritis. A scary statistic,
especially considering the number of young people who injury
their knees during competitive sports each year.
In October, a panel of experts from the McCaig Institute for Bone
and Joint Health spoke to the public in Calgary and Edmonton
about knee injuries in sport and the latest research findings in the
area. Both events were part of the Wood Forum, an initiative designed to bring the public, researchers and clinicians together to
discuss the impact of bone and joint diseases and injuries, and
learn about the latest cutting-edge research in the area.
Former Olympic alpine skier Kelly VanderBeek was the emcee for
the Calgary Wood Forum and the keynote speaker at the Edmonton event. “We take our mobility for granted. Whether you are
walking downstairs for breakfast, racing down a ski hill, or skating
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after the puck, moving is something you
just don’t think
about… until you
can’t,” said VanderBeek in her opening
comments. The Calgary event also featured keynote speaker Robyn Regehr,
former defenceman
for the Calgary
Flames. Both VanderBeek and Regehr
experienced careerTannin Schmidt talks about lubricin at the Wood Forum in Edmonton. Photo by: Gin Quist Photography
ending knee injuries.
Dr. Carolyn Emery, a researcher at the University of Calgary (U of C) and Dr. Jackie Whittaker at the University of Alberta (U of A) spoke about the importance of injury prevention in youth sport and the incidence of post-traumatic osteoarthritis. Orthopaedic surgeons Dr. Nick Mohtadi from the U of C and Dr.
David Reid from the U of A presented research on the latest surgical interventions for knee injuries and
Dr. Tannin Schmidt, a researcher from the U of C spoke about potential treatments for arthritis using a
protein called lubricin.
The McCaig Institute would like to thank the
Wood family for their continued support, and
the countless volunteers who made the
events possible.
The annual Wood Forums are supported through the
Wood Joint Research Fund, an initiative created by Dr.
John and Mrs. Christena Wood that is now carried-on
by their daughter, Dr. Donna Wood in their honour.
Kelly VanderBeek, Donna Wood, Robyn Regehr and McCaig Institute
Business and Operations Manager Terri May at the Calgary Wood Forum. Photo by Andres Kroker.
“Discovering the secret
behind cartilage
regeneration is ‘the
Holy Grail’.”
- John Matyas Fritzler
John Matyas and reindeer
Can Rudolph help researchers understand cartilage regeneration?
Reindeer are best known for their sled-pulling abilities and their mythical red noses. But reindeer are
on the radar of scientists at the University of Calgary for a different reason – their antlers.
Reindeer antlers are made of cartilage and bone and are covered with soft, furry skin called velvet.
At the height of summer, male antlers grow an astonishing 1.5 – 2.0 centimeters a day – faster than
any organ of any animal. In the winter, the antlers fall off, only to regrow again in the spring in much
the same pattern. Dr. John Matyas, McCaig Institute member and professor in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Calgary wants to understand the causes behind this amazing
growth. “Antlers are the only mammalian organ that completely regenerates, year after year,” says
Matyas. “If we could understand how antler bone and cartilage grows and regenerates so quickly,
we may be able to apply that knowledge to the human skeleton.”
He believes it all has to do with stem cells.
Antler growth is triggered by hormones and begins in a small bump on the skull called a pedicle. Inside this pedicle there are stem cells—cells that can become any type of tissue—which in antlers diContinued next page...
vide and grow very quickly
in a controlled manner. The
stem cells in reindeer antlers are programmed to either make more stem cells
or turn into cartilage, bone,
nerve, or skin.
Antlers start off as cartilage,
which continues to grow
lengthwise at the tip. The
cartilage progressively mineralizes from its base to be
replaced by bone. Once the
antler has achieved its full
size, the velvet, which is rich in blood vessels and nerves, is shed and the bone dies, leaving the hardened
antler for the winter. About midwinter, hormones trigger cells called osteoclasts to eat at the base of the
antler, which eventually causes the antlers to fall off. Then the whole process starts again the next spring.
Matyas and his veterinary colleagues take samples of antler bone, cartilage, nerve, and skin to look at
their structures. They are studying the biology and growth of the tissues, trying to understand the role
stem cells play in their development. “In humans, once you damage cartilage, it doesn’t repair itself,” says
Matyas. “Discovering the secret behind cartilage regeneration is ‘the Holy Grail.’ If we can understand
what makes this explosive growth of cartilage in antlers, maybe we
can harness this process for tissue engineering.”
Contact Us
Dr. John Matyas is a member of the McCaig Institute for Bone and Joint
For more information about
bone and joint health research
or to join our mailing list, give
us a call:
Health, and a Professor of Comparative Biology and Integrative Medicine in
the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Calgary. His research focuses on the functional biology of joint tissues, the causes and
treatments of degenerative joint disease, and the pathobiology of chronic
joint pain. The funding for this project is provided by the National Sciences
and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).
McCaig Institute for Bone and
Joint Health (403) 210-6774
Or e-mail:
mccaig@ucalgary.ca
Website:
www.mccaiginstitute.com