Dr. Teresa Liu-Ambrose is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Faculty of Medicine and Canada Research Chair in Physical Activity, Mobility and Cognitive Neuroscience. Her research focuses on defining the role of targeted exercise training to improve the health and quality of life of older adults. In particular, she aims to optimize function among those most vulnerable to both physical and cognitive decline.
Dr. Liu-Ambrose is also the Research Director of the Vancouver General Hospital Falls Prevention Clinic, Director of the Aging, Mobility and Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, and an associate member of the UBC Brain Research Centre and the Centre for Hip Health and Mobility.
Dr. Liu-Ambrose joined the UBC Department of Physical Therapy after completing a two-year post-doctoral fellowship in the area of cognitive science funded by both Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR). Among other awards, Dr. Liu-Ambrose is a recipient of the CIHR New Investigator Award (2011), the CIHR Institute of Aging Recognition Prize in Research in Aging (2005 & 2011), the Royal Society of Canada’s Alice Wilson Award (2006) and the MSFHR Career Investigator Award (2006). Her research has been featured by The New York Times and The Globe and Mail.
Dr. Stephen Read is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioural Sciences in the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles and the Attending Staff Psychiatrist for the Outpatient Geriatric Psychiatry Program at Greater Los Angeles Veterans Health Care System. A clinical and research psychiatrist with board certification in the subspecialties of forensic and geriatric psychiatry, Dr. Read has been qualified as an expert witness in United States federal and multiple courts.
Primarily a clinical geriatric psychiatrist, Dr. Read pioneered new approaches to clinical care in a diversity of settings. For outpatient care, he developed Psychiatric Home Physician Care Management for selected complex cases in private practice. One of the first geriatric psychiatrists to work extensively in long-term care, he received a commendation for his role in developing the Nursing Home Care Unit program at the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr. Read then became the founding Medical Director of the John Douglas French Center for Alzheimer’s Disease, where he developed skilled nursing programs for patients with differing care needs. Under Dr. Read’s direction, these programs were integrated with assisted living, community care, day care and acute psychiatric care programs.
Although his main research focus has been Alzheimer’s disease, Dr. Read has also investigated other causes of cognitive impairment (frontal lobe and sub-cortical dementias, stroke, prion disease, hydrocephalus), depression and psychiatric aspects of other disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, cortico-basilar degeneration and TTP (thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura). His efforts have contributed to fostering a multi-dimensional understanding of the function and expression of Alzheimer’s disease, as well as the differential effects of Alzheimer’s disease and other disease processes on patients and families.
An experienced teacher and public speaker, Dr. Read is also a member of several advisory boards including the Scientific Advisory Board of the French Foundation for Alzheimer Disease and the Alzheimer’s Disease Research programs at the University of Southern California, University of California Irvine. He reviews articles for several medical journals and has published more than 40 articles and chapters in peer-reviewed journals and other media. As part of his forensic work, Dr. Read has written on the question of the capacity to marry and has extensive experience in the analysis of undue influence and abuse.
Dr. Felix Durity is one of the most respected neurosurgeons in Canada who has dedicated his life to seeking out the best possible neurosurgical care for the people of British Columbia and beyond. He has provided vital education for the next generation of clinicians and researchers in BC and in Canada, as well as developing programs for neurosurgical care in developing countries in collaboration with local partners. Dr. Durity is now a professor emeritus in UBC’s Department of Surgery.
Dr. Felix Durity is one of the most respected neurosurgeons in Canada who has dedicated his life to seeking out the best possible neurosurgical care for the people of British Columbia and beyond. He has provided vital education for the next generation of clinicians and researchers in BC and in Canada, as well as developing programs for neurosurgical care in developing countries in collaboration with local partners.
Felix, now a professor emeritus in UBC’s department of surgery, was the first resident to be trained in neurosurgery at UBC. He later trained internationally with world renowned surgeons, ensuring that people in BC had access to a clinician capable of the most difficult and complex operations. During his chairmanship of The BC Medical Service Foundation, from 2006 to 2010, several impactful community-focused health care programs were accomplished. He also chaired UBC’s division of neurosurgery. While at UBC, he published more than 30 peer reviewed manuscripts and was able to increase research funding by more than 1600 per cent between 1991 and 1997. His dedicated commitment to teaching has been recognized with three undergraduate and postgraduate teaching awards.
Dr. Bruce Miller is a Professor of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and holds the A.W. and Mary Margaret Clausen Distinguished Chair. He directs the busy UCSF dementia centre where patients in the San Francisco Bay Area receive comprehensive clinical evaluations. His goal is the delivery of model care to all of the patients who enter the clinical and research programs at UCSF.
Dr. Miller is a behavioural neurologist focused in dementia with special interests in brain and behaviour relationships as well as the genetic and molecular underpinnings of disease. His work in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) emphasizes both the behavioural and emotional deficits that characterize these patients, while simultaneously noting the visual creativity that can emerge in the setting of FTD. He is the principal investigator of the NIH-sponsored Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and an NIH-funded program project on FTD called “Frontotemporal Dementia: Genes, Imaging and Emotions.” He oversees a healthy aging program supported through the Hellman Center, which includes an artist-in-residence program. In addition, he helps lead two philanthropy-funded research consortia, the Tau Consortium and Consortium for Frontotemporal Research, focused on developing treatments for tau and progranulin disorders respectively. Also, he has worked with the National Football League to help with the education and assessment of players related to brain health. Dr. Miller teaches extensively and runs the Behavioral Neurology Fellowship at UCSF.
Dr. Miller has received many awards including the Potamkin Award from the American Academy of Neurology, the Raymond Adams Lecture at the American Neurological Association, the Elliot Royer Award from the San Francisco neurological community, the UCSF Annual Faculty Research Lectureship in Clinical Science, the UCSF Academic Senate Distinction in Mentoring Award, and the Gene D. Cohen Research Award in Creativity and Aging from the National Center for Creative Aging. He has authored “The Human Frontal Lobes,” “The Behavioral Neurology of Dementia” and extensive publications regarding dementia. He has been featured in Fortune Magazine, The Charlie Rose Show, PBS NewsHour, The New York Times, and other media. For nearly three decades, Dr. Miller has been the scientific director for the philanthropic organization The John Douglas French Alzheimer’s Foundation.
This year’s Homecoming Weekend will feature three great UBC Thunderbirds teams, an outdoor movie and the first annual Great Thunderbird Trek. Make sure to join fellow UBC students, staff and alumni as we kick off the 2013-14 year.
More details & updates on Homecoming Weekend 2013 will be released in early August.
Schedule of Events
Friday September 13, 2013
5pm – UBC Women’s Soccer vs. Fraser Valley at Thunderbird Stadium
7pm – UBC Men’s Soccer vs. Trinity Western at Thunderbird Stadium
9pm – Outdoor Movie at Thunderbid Stadium (Movie title TBD)
Saturday September 14, 2013
11am – The Great Thunderbird Trek (Martha Piper Fountain to Thunderbird Stadium)
12pm – Tailgate Party at Thunderbird Stadium
2pm – Kickoff: UBC Football vs. Manitoba at Thunderbird Stadium
Tickets
For information on tickets, please visit www.gothunderbirds.ca/tickets
For more information about Homecoming Weekend 2013 please contact:
Leon Denenfeld
Marketing & Promotions Coordinator | Athletics
The University of British Columbia
Phone: 604-822-8337
leon.denenfeld@ubc.ca
Tuum Est: Leading Edge Medicine 2014
The UBC Medical Alumni Association presents Tuum Est: Leading Edge Medicine, an educational and intellectual discussion which focuses on cutting edge research and clinical outcomes which will benefit patients now and in the future. This CPD accredited program features leaders in their field doing ground-breaking research, engages the audience by creating opportunities for intellectual dialogue, and ensures that individuals will not need to take too much time away from the patients and working schedules. We hope that you will join us for what promises to be a dynamic, interesting, and valuable morning.
For more information and to register, click here.
Check out the latest issue of UBC Medicine Magazine, now available online.
UBC Faculty of Medicine alumni living in St. John’s and surrounding area are invited to join us for our latest ‘Here & Now’ event.
Meet up with other alumni living in your area and enjoy some good food, drinks and company!
Wednesday, June 5th, 2013
6pm
Bacalao, 65 Lemarchant Rd.
RSVP to med.alumni@ubc.ca or 604-875-4111 ext 67741
Partners in Compassion: Global Health in Nepal
Robin Love, MD’86
Partners in Compassion has a simple but impactful mission—to enhance compassionate care and comfort to the dying and their families. The hospice palliative care communities of Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada and Bhaktapur, Nepal have come together in friendship to share resources and learn from each other’s experiences and cultures.
A twinning partnership— a professional and social collaboration between organizations in different countries to achieve mutual benefits through combined efforts and a common vision —was initiated between the Nanaimo Palliative Care program and Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital in 2005. Each year a multi-disciplinary team, led by Robin Love, MD’86, travels to Nepal to provide support and training to its developing centre of excellence in palliative care.
The majority of the teaching is done at the bedside. Lectures to the larger hospital staff have also been held; in addition a formal two-week-long palliative care course was attended by 47 participants from other areas outside of the Bhaktapur twinning community. This group returned to their home communities with enhanced knowledge and techniques in palliative care.
Dr. Love’s wife, Deirdre, along with Susan Breiddal partnered with Health Canada to develop a twinning manual entitled ‘Canada’s Guide to Hospice Twinning’. Rather than expand the twinning partnership they developed, Love hopes to empower others to start their own twinning projects.
This hope is starting to be realized. Dr. Fraser Black and the Victoria Hospice developed a partnership in the Southern region of Nepal and Crossroads Hospice in Coquitlam formed a partnership in Accra, Ghana.
For more information about Partners in Compassion or setting up your own twinning project, please visit: partnersincompassion.com
