Compassion clubs and marijuana dispensaries in B.C., in particularly in Vancouver and Victoria, have been at the forefront of the movement to legalize and regulate cannabis in Canada. With such organizations having operated in Vancouver longer than in any other Canadian city, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute (VCHRI) clinician scientist Dr. Amrish Joshi wanted to study the relationship between cannabis dispensaries and the patients seeking out cannabis for their health conditions.

In the fight against bladder cancer, a new and unexpected hero is emerging: malaria. Recently published findings from a study led by Vancouver Prostate Centre (VPC) researcher Dr. Mads Daugaard show the efficacy of using a specific malaria protein to transport a toxin to bladder cancer cells in mice, reducing or deleting bladder cancer tumours entirely.

Seek shade and avoid the sun in peak hours. Those are two of the common suggestions for skin cancer prevention. But what if you can’t follow that advice? Outdoor workers—in construction, landscaping and road maintenance—can’t pick and choose when they’ll be outside. And they can’t seek out shade in an open worksite. These workers are in a high-risk category for skin cancer, and researchers are starting to focus on prevention strategies for them. 

Dr. Philip Cohen, a Research Scientist with Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute (VCHRI), has spent 35 years studying how to track and treat cancer using nuclear medicine—a medical specialty that uses radioactive substances in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. 

As a clinical professor of radiology at the University of British Columbia, Dr. Cohen has seen trial after trial fail to significantly improve detection and treatment options. But he is very excited about a new tracer he’s testing for prostate cancer. 

Many people know all too well the difficulty of getting motivated to exercise. It’s not easy. Transitioning from being sedentary to exercising regularly can feel like an uphill battle, but getting started is important. A growing mountain of evidence shows that regular exercise can drastically improve a person’s well-being and prevent major health problems later in life. And it’s never too late to get moving and reap the health rewards, says Dr.

Imagine not recognizing the face of a person you see every day, or even the face of someone you’ve known all your life, like a parent or sibling. Such is the reality for people with prosopagnosia – a selective visual problem caused by damage to the very specific brain circuitry responsible for taking the visual image of a face and recognizing it. Some individuals with prosopagnosia acquired the condition, e.g. due to brain injury or trauma, while others are born with it. 

Q: I don’t have any specific health issues–can I still participate in a clinical trial or research study?

Opening up narrowed veins from the brain and spinal cord is not effective in treating multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a study led by the University of British Columbia and Vancouver Coastal Health.

The conclusions about the so-called “liberation therapy,” which thousands of people with MS have undergone since 2009, represent the most definitive debunking of the claim that patients could achieve dramatic health improvements from a one-time medical procedure.