Research:

Members of the Division continue to be active in the Arthritis Research Centre (ARC), located in Vancouver. The Arthritis Research Centre includes faculty from the Division of Rheumatology, the Department of Orthopedics, the Department of Health Care & Epidemiology, the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the School of Rehabilitation Sciences, as well as faculty from the Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Studies at St. Paul’s Hospital, and the Centre for Hip Health and Mobility and the Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Evaluation at Vancouver Acute. 

On July 26, 2010, the Arthritis Research Centre was visited by the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health.  Minister Aglukkaq came to announce funding of four substantial team grants distributed across Canada, one of which is held at UBC, and is a team grant on hip osteoarthritis. Overall, it was a very exciting day.

The Minister awarded a Canadian Institutes of Health Research grant titled “CIHR team in investigations of mobility, physical activity, and knowledge translation in hip pain (IMPAKTHIP)”.  UBC faculty involved in the team included Drs. Jolanda Cibere, John Esdaile, Donald Garbuz, Jacek Kopec, and Linda Li.  A grant of this size has many investigators and collaborators whose input and membership on the research team is essential to being able to perform the research and whose participation reassures the reviewers that the proposed projects are feasible.

The application assesses one of the most exciting discoveries in recent years - that subtle deformities of the hip combined with excessive physical activity particularly with major hip flexion (hockey, soccer, jogging, tennis, etc) may be a major cause of hip osteoarthritis. If correct, individuals at risk could be identified and the disease prevented.

Current research is funded by the Canadian Arthritis Network (of the Networks of Centres of Excellence), The Arthritis Society of Canada, National Institutes of Health (U.S.) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.  Faculty members hold scholarships from the Arthritis Society of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and Canadian Arthritis Network. 

Drs. Ken Blocka, Andrew Chalmers, Jan Dutz, Alice Klinkhoff, Jennifer Reynolds and Kam Shojania have been actively performing clinical trials at the Arthritis Research Centre. The research focus is primarily on the study of new, very powerful biological agents in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis and myositis.

For the last few years, Dr. Ian Tsang has been working closely with the Guangzhou Traditional Chinese Medicine University in Guangzhou, China, to develop innovative ways to establish clinical evidence for Traditional Chinese Medicine. He has participated in several conferences related to evidence-based medicine in China as a speaker and panel member. He has also published on the subject.

For more information about Arthritis Research in British Columbia, go to the Arthritis Research Centre of Canada http://www.arthritisresearch.ca