Congratulations to Ali, who was awarded a President’s Award for Enhancing the UBC Experience! Ali was recognized for the incredible level and depth of support, community-building, and all-around excellence she brings to her work. We are so proud of you!
Read more about Ali’s award here.
Former undergraduate student and now lab staff member, Maya, recently published an article on the knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to pelvic floor muscle training among people with spinal cord injury. This survey included people with SCI from across North America and revealed that that while people with SCI are interested in this type of therapy, very few people have tried pelvic floor muscle training. Read the full article here!
Our recent publication explores how the pelvic floor muscles are active during walking and jogging in able-bodied men and women. This is the first paper to characterize pelvic floor muscle activity during the entire gait cycle and hints at how these muscles work during physical activity to prevent incontinence. Check out the full paper here.
Special thanks to everyone who participated in this study!
Congratulations to our Master’s student, Gevorg, who successfully defended his thesis “The effect of transcutaneous tibial nerve stimulation on the corticomotor excitability of the abductor hallucis and pelvic floor muscles” in August 2021.
We wish Gevorg all the very best in his next academic chapter at UBC’s Masters of Physical Therapy program.
Gevorg’s thesis is available through UBC cIRcLe here.
Check out our recent publication on the effects of exoskeleton-assisted walking to improve urogenital outcomes, such as urinary incontinence, for people with spinal cord injury. Preliminary data from this paper was first presented by Dr. Lam at the 2019 International Continence Society in Sweden, and we are excited to publish the final results! Read the full paper here.
Our Master’s student, Gevorg, and Lab Manager, Ali, published an article about the effects of seated boxing and battle rope exercises on trunk muscle activity for people with motor-complete spinal cord injury. This paper adds to the growing body of literature that people with high-thoracic and cervical motor-complete injuries have some degree of voluntary muscle activation in their abdominal and lower back muscles. Read the whole publication here.
This work was a part of Konrad’s undergraduate directed studies project. Way to go team!
Our undergraduate student, Xueqing Zhou, recently published a systematic review and meta-analysis on how exercise-based therapies may help improve urogenital outcomes in people with spinal cord injury. Our findings suggest that there may be some benefit of exercise therapies for bladder and sexual health, but current evidence is insufficient to make any recommendations at this time. The full paper can be found here.
This manuscript was developed from Xueqing’s undergraduate directed studies project – well done, Xueqing!
Last week, we received notice that Alison’s Master’s work has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Neurotrauma. Alison’s study explored the extent of residual innervation of the pelvic floor muscles in people with motor-complete spinal cord injury (mcSCI). She found that people with mcSCI retain some residual innervation to this muscle group, but possibly via indirect cortical pathways. To read more, click here!
Congratulations to authors Alison Williams, Gevorg Eginyan, Emily Deegan, Mason Chow, Dr. Mark Carpenter, and Dr. Tania Lam.
In June 2020, master’s student Gevorg received a Rising Star Award from VCHRI. These awards recognize outstanding efforts by VCHRI trainees in areas of service, research excellence, and other contributions to the VCH community. Click here to read more. Way to go, Gevorg!
In April 2020, Gevorg was awarded a CIHR Canadian Graduate Masters Scholarship.
Maya and Gevorg demonstrate a new TMS set-up
The CGS M award program provides funding to 3,000 graduate students across Canada who have demonstrated a high standard of achievement. Congratulations, Gevorg!