September

A simple test could improve the treatment odds of patients diagnosed with breast cancer, thanks to new research at the University of Winnipeg.

The drug Tamoxifen, used to treat the majority of breast cancer cases, is ineffective in approximately half of all patients who receive it. Dean Reddick, a graduate student in the Master of Science in Bioscience, Technology and Public Policy program, is researching a way to identify these patients before treatment starts.

BC Emergency Health Services (BCEHS) has made significant progress in the first year of implementing the 3-year BCEHS Action Plan.

The bold plan focuses on improving ambulance response times for life-threatening and time-critical 9-1-1 calls, and enhancing services for patients who don’t require ambulance transport to hospital.

Permanent lung damage caused by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) starts much earlier than previously thought, even before patients are showing symptoms.

These are the findings of a study published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. The discovery, led by Dr Tillie-Louise Hackett, associate professor in the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Medicine, will dramatically change how patients are treated for COPD, the leading cause of hospital admissions in BC and Canada.

A recent study in NeuroImage demonstrates that exercise performed immediately after practising a new motor skill improves its long-term retention. The research shows, for the first time, that as little as a single 15-minute bout of cardiovascular exercise increases brain connectivity and efficiency. It’s a discovery that could accelerate recovery of motor skills in patients who have suffered a stroke or who face mobility problems following an injury.

Women in the postpartum period should be screened for anger in addition to depression and anxiety, new research from the University of British Columbia suggests.

Although anger has been recognized as an element of postpartum mood problems for some women, it has not been well studied and is not included in the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale screening tool. In a review of existing research, UBC nursing PhD student Christine Ou found anger to be a significant feature in postpartum mood disturbances.