Linda Heppenstall was quick to restart her exercise routine after fracturing her hip in her kitchen in early 2020. “I closed the fridge and then tried to open it again quickly, and I slipped on the floor,” recalls the 69-year-old retired dentist who is also the mother of three grown children, as well as a recent grandmother. 

“I have always exercised to get rid of stress; and, I have always loved to play sports,” she says. “I played a lot of field hockey when I was young — and quite a bit of tennis and squash — and hiked a lot.”

Researchers have discovered evidence of brain shrinkage and cognitive decline among individuals with mostly mild SARS-CoV-2 virus infection. Published in the journal Nature in March 2022, the first longitudinal imaging study of its kind compares the brain scans of people taken before and after the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Vancouver, B.C. - Scarcity of a drug central to the treatment of critically ill COVID-19 patients inspired British Columbia researchers to develop a novel dosing strategy that resulted in more people being treated with smaller doses of a life-saving drug.

The seat belt is one of the most important safety features in a motor vehicle, saving around 1,000 Canadian lives each year. Yet, since its development in the 1950s, little empirical evidence has been gathered about how wearing a seat belt protects females and males of different ages. 

The researchers, led by Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute researcher and UBC urology assistant professor Dr. Ryan Flannigan, hope the technique will one day offer a solution for people living with presently untreatable forms of male infertility.

“Infertility affects 15 per cent of couples and male factors are a contributing cause in at least half those cases,” says Flannigan, whose lab is based at the Vancouver Prostate Centre at Vancouver General Hospital.

Concussion follows a traumatic brain injury that violently jostles the head and brain, and one that can leave lasting mental scars. Around 10-20 per cent of adults will develop post-concussion symptoms that persist beyond three months after their injury. Left unchecked, they can lead to long-term disability, dramatically reducing a person’s ability to function and enjoy daily life. 

Research conducted by team members from the Division of Orthopaedic Trauma at Vancouver General Hospital and the University of British Columbia (UBC) is re-writing the book on how long it takes patients to recover — both functionally and physically — from the most severe of orthopaedic injuries: pelvic and acetabular fractures.

Sometimes you have to push boundaries to advance medical science. 

That is exactly what Dr. Eric Yoshida, a principal investigator with Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute and the former medical director of the BC Liver Transplant Program, and his team did in 2021 when they successfully completed an orthotopic liver transplant into a young patient with active COVID-19. 

It was the first successful instance of such a transplant in Canada and only the second one recorded worldwide. 

The most common cardiac arrhythmia, atrial fibrillation (AF), affects up to 500,000 Canadians and contributes to approximately one quarter of strokes among people over 40 years of age. Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute scientist Dr. Jason Andrade — who was named a ‘World Expert on Atrial Fibrillation’ by Expertscape — shares his insights into the latest approaches to prevent and treat AF.