The UBC Faculty of Medicine Southern Medical Program is launching a new research program aimed at progressing the research front when it comes to the prevention and management of chronic diseases.
Based at UBCO, the newly-introduced Chronic Disease Prevention Program will harness the strengths of researchers from the Okanagan and Vancouver campuses and Interior Health to support new discoveries and knowledge translation in this ever-pressing domain.
Kathleen Martin Ginis, a professor with UBC Faculty of Medicine and UBC Okanagan Faculty of Health and Social Development, is the founding director.
“Our end goal is to foster research excellence that’s responsive to the healthcare needs of our region’s communities both urban and rural, and advances the international research field,” she said.
“Our collective efforts will focus on new investigations in the areas of physical activity and nutrition/healthy eating, and diabetes, cardiovascular disease, neurotrauma and neurodegenerative diseases, and implementing those research findings into the community.”
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Three in five Canadians over the age of 20 live with a chronic illness and four in five are at risk. In Canada, 67 per cent of all deaths each year are caused by four major chronic conditions which are: cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular and chronic respiratory disease, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.
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