Launched in 2016, the Crohn’s and Colitis Canada PACE network is the first national network of IBD Centres of Excellence, with each centre housing a multidisciplinary team that specializes in the treatment and management of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

The teams at five leading IBD centres – Sinai Health System, McGill University Health Centre, McMaster University Medical Centre, University of Calgary and University of Alberta – work to advance best practices for health-care professionals and elevate the standard of care received by Canadians living with IBD.

Bernstein, director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinical and Research Centre at UM, and Graff, professor and head of the clinical health psychology department at UM, are joining the PACE network to find a way to make essential, personalized mental health, diet and nutritional care accessible to Canadians living with IBD. 

“In Canada, the mental health, diet and nutritional needs of individuals living with Crohn’s or colitis are not included in a typical care plan. The best way to provide care is with a qualified team that is able to address an individual’s unique needs through a holistic and personalized approach based on evidence,” says Susan Cowan, CEO of Crohn’s and Colitis Canada.

“We are proud to expand the PACE network to include the important research work of Dr. Bernstein and Dr. Graff to increase the accessibility of mental health, diet and nutritional care.”

Bernstein and Graff will develop an online screening tool that enables an individual to communicate their personal needs in regards to mental health, diet and nutrition. The health-care provider will use this information to deliver clinical education and interventions tailored to the disease-related needs identified by the individual.

Clinical education materials and mental health and nutritional approaches most commonly used during the pilot will be distributed to IBD clinics across the country to improve the overall approach to integrated patient care.

“Though people living with IBD and their health-care providers increasingly recognize the importance of the connection between the disease and mental health, too often these needs are not integrated as part of the IBD care, and there continue to be gaps in fully assessing and addressing them,” says Graff.

“Similar to mental health, people with IBD would benefit from expert guidance to address their nutritional health in the context of IBD. The project will determine the extent to which routinely identifying and responding to mental health and nutrition needs in the IBD clinic using a tailored approach can improve outcomes and quality of life,” says Bernstein.

Every project incorporated into the PACE network is selected after undergoing a competitive peer-review process, and aligns with Crohn’s and Colitis Canada’s promise to discover cures and improve quality of life for everyone affected by IBD. 

To learn more about the PACE network, please visit crohnsandcolitis.ca/PACENetwork.

About Crohn’s and Colitis Canada

Crohn’s and Colitis Canada is on a relentless journey to find the cures for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis and improve the lives of children and adults affected by these chronic diseases. We are the country’s largest volunteer-based organization with this mission and are one of the top two health charity funders of Crohn’s and colitis research in the world, investing over $130 million in research to date. We are transforming the lives of people affected by Crohn’s and colitis through research, patient programs, advocacy, and awareness. For more information, visit crohnsandcolitis.ca and follow us @getgutsycanada on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

In January, the milestone was celebrated at an international research conference in Nairobi, Kenya.

The partnership between the two institutions has been recognized as a best-practice example of North-South research collaboration. It is regarded as a model global health initiative and has received millions of dollars in funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The partners’ landmark discoveries include that HIV can be transmitted from mother to child through breastfeeding; that STIs such as gonorrhea and chlamydia increase susceptibility to HIV infection; and that some individuals have natural immunity to HIV.

“The collaboration has made a huge impact,” said Keith Fowke [B.Sc.(Hons.)/88, PhD/95], head of medical microbiology and infectious diseases in the Max Rady College of Medicine.

“U of M has been a global leader in making cutting-edge contributions to understanding HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, thanks to this partnership.”

At the conference, Dr. Ruth Nduati, professor of pediatrics at the University of Nairobi, spoke of the opportunities that the partnership has given to Kenyan scientists.

“This collaboration has been a gift to the young people of Kenya,” she said. “It has given them the possibility to dream that their work can be part of transforming the world.”

The collaboration began in 1980, after two doctors from opposite sides of the world met at a conference. Dr. Herbert Nzanze, head of medical microbiology at the University of Nairobi, convinced Allan Ronald [MD/61, B.Sc.(Med)/61, DSc./11], a UM research pioneer in infectious diseases, to come to Kenya to help combat sexually transmitted chancroid infections in men.

A small lab was opened in Nairobi, and Manitobans started travelling back and forth to operate it. Ronald brought in one of his star students, Frank Plummer [MD/76], and engineered links with infectious disease specialists at other institutions, including the University of Ghent in Belgium and the University of Washington in Seattle.

Seeking to track down the source of the chancroid infections, the group opened a clinic in the shantytown of Majengo to assess female sex workers. They soon brought chancroid under control. But in 1985, they were shocked to discover that a high percentage of the sex workers had HIV/AIDS. They changed their focus to the growing epidemic.

More students came to join them, not just from Manitoba but from Belgium and Seattle. Kenyan medical students started going to Winnipeg and Seattle to further their training.

In the late 1980s, Plummer led a team – including Fowke, then a graduate student – in discovering that some Kenyan women sex workers who had been exposed to HIV infection were naturally immune to it. This breakthrough provided vital new information for HIV vaccine and drug development.

In 2007, a team led by UM professor Dr. Stephen Moses demonstrated that circumcision reduces men’s risk of HIV infection by as much as 60 per cent. This insight led to expanded circumcision programs throughout eastern and southern Africa.

The Manitoba-Nairobi partnership also developed HIV prevention and control strategies that included opening free clinics‚ educating sex workers and distributing condoms. Many of the strategies have successfully been implemented by other countries.

Today, the University of Nairobi STD/HIV/SRH Collaborative Research Group includes several other universities in addition to Manitoba, Ghent and Washington, including the University of Toronto, McMaster University and the University of California.

To mark the 40th anniversary, attendees at the conference included then UM President and Vice-Chancellor Dr. David Barnard and University of Nairobi Vice-Chancellor Dr. Stephen Kiama.

Reflecting on 40 years, co-founder Ronald, now distinguished professor emeritus in medical microbiology and infectious diseases, emphasized the links between science, public policy and clinical practice, and the priority of getting research results implemented so they can save lives.

“Global health needs to be further defined as a shared responsibility between scientific and academic leaders, governments and implementation processes that are demonstrated to the public, and to funders, as able to reduce disease burden,” he said.

Kenyan professionals have been vital to the collaboration’s research and clinical success. A number of Kenyan students who went abroad to study at universities affiliated with the collaboration eventually assumed health-system and research leadership roles in their home country.

Omu Anzala [PhD/97], currently director of the Kenyan AIDS Vaccine Initiative, earned his PhD at UM. Dr. Joshua Kimani, who became chief clinician for the collaboration, recalled a visit to Winnipeg that influenced his career path.

Back in 1987, Kimani was a third-year medical student when a Canadian – Dr. Frank Plummer – came to lecture his class on sexually transmitted diseases. “HIV had just come,” Kimani remembered. “People didn’t really understand it.”

Kimani and another student were so intrigued by Plummer’s talk that they volunteered at the Majengo clinic. That experience influenced them to specialize in infectious diseases. In 1989, they received funding from UM to spend three months in Winnipeg.

They did rounds at local hospitals and were awestruck to meet senior figures like Ronald, Dr. Robert Brunham and Dr. Joanne Embree, who were well-known members of the collaboration with their names on numerous research papers.

“By the time we came back home,” Kimani said, “we had seen a different world and been opened up to the opportunities in public health.”

Fowke, who has made more than 40 trips to Kenya in his career, said it was moving and inspiring to mark the 40th anniversary in Nairobi with an international network of colleagues and friends.

“With five generations of UM and UN researchers represented at the meeting, I felt tremendous pride in the vision of the founders, immense hope for the future – seeing the excellence of our students – and honoured to be part of this collaboration,” he said.

“UM researchers and students have improved the health of Kenyans and people around the world, and we should all take a moment to celebrate that accomplishment.” 

LARRY KROTZ and RADYUM STAFF

Remembering Dr. Frank Plummer

The celebration of the 40-year University of Manitoba-University of Nairobi partnership gave way to sorrow on Feb. 4, 2020 with the sudden passing in Nairobi of esteemed scientist Frank Plummer [MD/76], a leading figure in the collaboration.

The day before his passing in Nairobi, Dr. Frank Plummer was reunited with Hawa, a research participant who was found to have natural immunity to HIV nearly 30 years ago.

The world-renowned infectious disease expert was 67 years old. Just days before suffering a fatal heart attack, he had spoken at the 40th-anniversary conference and enjoyed reuniting with many of the Kenyan women whose natural immunity to HIV his team had discovered in the late 1980s.

“Frank Plummer’s contributions to public health on a global scale were immense. Today we lost a giant,” said Brian Postl [MD/76], dean of the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences and a medical school classmate of Plummer. “Frank distinguished himself as a true leader and visionary.”

The Winnipeg-born Plummer, who joined the UM faculty in 1984, spent 17 years in Nairobi leading the collaboration. His work not only produced vital knowledge about the HIV epidemic in Africa, but led to prevention and control strategies that influenced worldwide health policy on sexually transmitted infections, saving tens of thousands of lives.

In Canada, Plummer’s leadership roles included serving as scientific director general of the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg and director general of the Centre for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control in Ottawa.

He led the Canadian laboratory response to the SARS outbreak in 2003 and the H1N1 influenza outbreak in 2009. At the time of his passing, he was distinguished professor emeritus of medical microbiology and infectious diseases at UM and was working to develop an HIV vaccine.

“The work of Dr. Frank Plummer has had a tremendous impact on global public health, and he was a prime example of dedication and passion in one’s profession,” said Dr. David Barnard.

Plummer’s many prestigious honours included the Order of Canada, the McLaughlin Medal of the Royal Society of Canada, the Prix Galien Research Award, the Canada Gairdner Wightman Award and the Flavelle Medal of the Royal Society of Canada.

“He was an outstanding, world-class researcher who was a dear colleague, mentor and friend to many of us lucky enough to work with him, and beside him,” said Keith Fowke [B.Sc.(Hons.)/88, PhD/95], head of medical microbiology and infectious diseases. “He will be dearly missed by all of us in the academic and scientific community.”

“The rates of IBD in Canada are among the highest in the world,” says lead author Heather Carney, a third-year pharmacy student, who was supervised by Dr. Kaarina Kowalec, assistant professor, College of Pharmacy, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences. “Separately, IBD and substance use disorder have a significant impact on quality of life. Our research is among the first to investigate substance use disorder in IBD and provides a foundation for future research of the burden and harms of comorbid IBD and substance use disorder.”

IBD is an inflammatory condition, encompassing ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s Disease, where the body launches inflammatory responses against the gastrointestinal tract, resulting in symptoms such as severe diarrhea, abdominal pain, weight loss and fatigue.

The study, conducted by Carney through a College of Pharmacy-funded Undergraduate Summer Research Award, also identified that people with IBD and who are men, smokers, those who have past or current anxiety disorders, and those with more pain are at greater risk for experiencing a substance use disorder.

For the study, Carney evaluated the prevalence and risk factors of substance use disorders in those with IBD using data collected from 247 individuals in Manitoba with IBD, recruited as part of a larger study investigating psychiatric comorbidities in immune-mediated inflammatory diseases.

Carney says that while it has been established that there is a strong association between IBD and several psychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder, there was minimal prior research of the association between substance use disorder and IBD.

Carney says they hope to see more resources allocated for prevention and harm reduction to help decrease the burden of substance use disorder in those with IBD as well as in the general population. She also hopes to see future research on the effect of substance use disorder on outcomes in IBD, which are still unknown.

“The prevalence of substance use disorder in those with IBD suggests an opportunity for screening and targeted interventions. We know substance use disorder can have a profound effect on the individual and the community – including issues at school or work, relationship difficulties, behaviour changes and legal problems,” she says.

The study’s co-authors are University of Manitoba faculty members/researchers Ruth Ann Marrie, MD, PhD; James M. Bolton, MD; Lesley A. Graff, PhD; Charles N. Bernstein, MD; Kaarina Kowalec, PhD and University of Calgary faculty member Scott B. Patten, MD, PhD.

Healing Lives: A Century of Manitoba Jewish Physicians has a free, public launch on Nov. 3 at 2 p.m. at the Berney Theatre on the Asper Jewish Community Campus. It also has a launch on Dec. 8 at 2 p.m. at McNally Robinson Booksellers, Grant Park.

Published by the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada, the book is the product of several years of information-gathering and fundraising by a committee from the Jewish community. It includes a foreword by distinguished Jewish Canadian historian Irving Abella. 

“In the first half of the 20th century, and even later, Jewish physicians had to overcome prejudice,” says Dr. Jo Swartz, an anesthetist and U of M faculty member who was active on the committee and whose father, Dr. Mel Swartz, was a well-known urologist.

“They were so dedicated,” Swartz says. “They persisted and they excelled. They treated their patients with compassion.  And many of them explored the edges of science and medicine.”

With the goal of documenting the more than 400 Jewish physicians who have practised in Manitoba since 1881, the book committee received research assistance from the Jewish Heritage Centre, and from University of Manitoba medical archivist Jordan Bass.

A U of M website was established so that anyone with information or archival material could submit it. Eva Wiseman, an accomplished Winnipeg author, was hired to conduct further research and write the history.

Dr. Arnold Naimark, who was named the first Jewish dean of medicine at the U of M in 1971 and went on to become university president, also served on the book committee. It was important, Naimark says, that the publication be more than a who’s who.

“It’s not only about who these physicians were, but what they contributed, and how that played out in a social, political and economic context,” Naimark says.  

The book recounts how, from the 1880s through at least the first half of the 20th century, Manitoba Jews faced overt discrimination. They were excluded from many careers, but medicine was open to them. Although many encountered obstacles in obtaining internships and hospital appointments, practising medicine fit with the Jewish concept of tikkun olam, or “repairing the world.”

By the 1920s, Jews were well represented as students at the U of M medical college. Then, in the early 1930s under a bigoted dean of medicine, the college introduced a covert quota system to exclude many Jewish and other minority students. 

In 1943-44, a U of M mathematics lecturer named Shlomo Mitchell led a small group of Jewish students in gathering evidence of the quota system. Mitchell’s whistle-blowing cost him his job. But he and his group succeeded in ending the quota by exposing it to the Manitoba government.  As Abella writes, “It was the opening skirmish in the fight against anti-Semitism in Canada in the 1940s.”

Today, as Wiseman notes, the once-discriminatory college is named the Max Rady College of Medicine in honour of a Jewish physician. Rady graduated from the U of M in 1921 and was known – like many Jewish doctors of the pre-medicare era – for treating patients regardless of their ability to pay.

The social conscience of the Jewish medical community is a strong theme in Healing Lives, from the founding of the free Mount Carmel Clinic – which some dreamed would become a Jewish hospital – to a groundbreaking health-care scheme introduced in the late 1940s.

Under this plan, Winnipeg garment factory owners paid into a health fund. Garment workers also contributed a small percentage of their wages. The Mall Medical Clinic, which had been founded in a socialist spirit by predominantly Jewish doctors, was then paid by the fund to provide health services to the workers and their families.

It was, Wiseman writes, “the first union-industry prepaid medical plan in Canada, and perhaps in all of North America.”

Healing Lives profiles trailblazers such as Dr. Jack Hildes, the hero of Winnipeg’s 1953 polio epidemic and founder of the U of M’s Northern Medical Unit; Dr. Lyonel Israels, a hematologist who was the patriarch of cancer care in Manitoba; and Dr. Mindel Cherniack Sheps, one of the few Jewish women admitted to the medical school under the quota. Sheps, a public health expert, moved to Saskatchewan to advise the government on introducing medicare.

Other notable figures include, to name only a few, palliative care innovator Dr. Harvey Max Chochinov, renowned geneticist Dr. Cheryl Rockman-Greenberg, inflammatory bowel disease specialist Dr. Charles Bernstein and children’s health champion Dr. Dorothy (Osovsky) Hollenberg, a member by marriage of Winnipeg’s Hollenberg medical dynasty.

“Jewish physicians have taken their place in every aspect of the medical profession,” says Naimark.

“This type of research is unique in that it engages patients in all aspects of study and ensures results are relevant to the priorities that they have identified,” said Pedersen. “By working together and investing in these networks, we are helping Manitoba’s research institutions create the innovative solutions needed to support patients across this province and beyond.”

Pedersen noted these four Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR) projects connect researchers, health professionals, patients and policy makers across the country to improve the health of Canadians living with chronic diseases. The networks received a combined total of $10.1 million including $3.1 million in provincial funding through Research Manitoba, $6 million from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and an additional $1 million from local research partners.

“We thank our funding partners for providing the support our researchers need to engage in the demanding clinical research these complicated matters require,” said Digvir Jayas, vice-president (research and international) and distinguished professor, University of Manitoba. “Today’s announcement means the University of Manitoba is even better positioned at the forefront of these crucial fields of inquiry. I would like to congratulate the scientists on their successful research programs to date and wish them all the best as they now delve deeper into these topics of great importance to so many of us.”

There is a strong University of Manitoba presence across SPOR networks and this latest significant long-term funding will enhance the university’s success in chronic disease research.

ABOUT THE NEWLY FUNDED SPOR RESEARCH PROGRAMS

Inflammation, Microbiome, and Alimentation: Gastro-Intestinal and Neuropsychiatric Effects: the IMAGINE-SPOR chronic disease network

Principal Investigators: Drs. Charles Bernstein and Laura Targownik, Internal Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences

This network is a national collaboration of patients and scientists that will look at how gut bacteria and diet affect the course of inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome, and at the anxiety and depression associated with these disorders.

Listening, Learning, Leading: Canadians Seeking Solutions and Innovations to Overcome Chronic Kidney Disease (Can-SOLVE CKD)

Principal Investigators: Drs. Allison Dart (Pediatrics & Child Health/Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba), Paul Komenda (Internal Medicine) and Navdeep Tangri (Internal Medicine), Rady Faculty of Health Sciences

This network will improve care for people with kidney disease. It aims to reduce the number of people who require dialysis or organ transplants, or who develop related illnesses that are debilitating or deadly.

CHILD-BRIGHT: Child Health Initiatives Limiting Disability – Brain Research Improving Growth and Health Trajectories

Principal Investigators: Drs. Kristy Wittmeier (Pediatrics & Child Health/Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba), Gina Rempel (Pediatrics & Child Health) and Ana Hanlon-Dearman (Pediatrics & Child Health/Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba), Rady Faculty of Health Sciences

This network will achieve brighter futures for children with brain-based developmental disabilities and their families by creating novel interventions to optimize development, promote healthy outcomes, and deliver responsive and supportive services across the life-course.

SPOR Network in Diabetes and its Related Complications

Principal Investigators: Drs. Paul Fernyhough (Pharmacology & Therapeutics/St. Boniface Albrechtsen Research Centre) and Jon McGavock (Pediatric & Child Health/Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba), Rady Faculty of Health Sciences

This network will transform the health outcomes of people with diabetes and its related complications. It will facilitate important and meaningful connections between patients, their primary healthcare providers, and specialists to achieve improved health care and significant cost savings within the health system.

Bernstein’s lecture: “Made in Manitoba Research: Advancing our understanding of inflammatory bowel disease,” will take place at 7 p.m. in the Robert B. Schultz Lecture Theatre, St. John’s College, 92 Dysart Road.

All are welcome and admission is free. A reception celebrating all 2016 Rh award winners will follow the lecture.

The 2016 Terry G. Falconer Memorial Rh Institute Foundation Emerging Researcher Awards were originally established in 1973 by the Winnipeg Rh Institute, now the Winnipeg Rh Institute Foundation, from funds set aside from the sale and production of medical formulae. The awards were renamed in 2016 in memory of Terry Falconer, former chair of the Winnipeg Rh Institute Foundation. These honours are given to academic staff members who are in the early stages of their careers and who display exceptional innovation, leadership and promise in their respective fields. The winners each receive $12,000 toward their research program. Typically, one award is given in each of the following areas: applied sciences, creative works, health sciences, humanities, interdisciplinary studies, natural sciences and social sciences.

APPLIED SCIENCES 

Puyan Mojabi.

Puyan Mojabi (electrical and computer engineering) advances the development of electromagnetic inversion, a process in which internal properties of a domain of interest are found from external electromagnetic field observations. Mojabi’s current research focus is on innovations in microwave imaging, Arctic microwave remote sensing, and antenna characterization and design. This research has broad applications in many fields such as: medicine (breast tissue imaging); geophysics (oil exploration); Arctic remote sensing (snow and sea ice thickness); antenna design, measurement and diagnostics; agriculture (grain bin imaging); environmental engineering (soil moisture); and industrial non-destructive evaluation.

HEALTH SCIENCES

Ji Hyun Ko.

Ji Hyun Ko (human anatomy and cell science) uses engineering and mathematical approaches to design new ways of looking at how the brain works. He seeks to find a better understanding of brain abnormalities in neurological and psychiatric disorders, using the development of functional brain imaging methods such as MRI and PET. He is developing imaging-based biomarkers and imaging-guided brain stimulation therapies for Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorders and traumatic brain injuries. His research allows for better diagnosis and prognosis, and to monitor disease progression and treatment responses more accurately. 

Kathryn Sibley.

Kathryn Sibley (community health sciences) studies the process of knowledge translation in rehabilitation sciences, a specialized area of health care dedicated to optimizing physical function and quality of life. Using an integrated knowledge translation research approach, where the end-users of rehabilitation research are involved in the research process from start to finish, her studies identify critical rehabilitation research-to-practice gaps and test methods to close them; promote more consistent research practices to ensure rehabilitation treatments can be accurately compared across studies; and develop new research communication strategies. She was recently awarded a Canada Research Chair in Integrated Knowledge Translation in Rehabilitation Science. 

HUMANITIES

Etienne-Marie Lassi.

Etienne-Marie Lassi (French, Spanish and Italian) conducts research that focuses on the way ordinary people experience life, relate to their social and geographical environment as well as to other peoples and cultures by studying imagined realities such as legends, novels, plays, and films through which social imaginaries are expressed. His research and teaching interests include Francophone African literature and cinema, film adaptation and novelization, postcolonial theories, and environment in literature and film. The notion of identity, of how people view themselves, is central to his research. 

INTERDISCIPLINARY

Neil Bruce.

Neil Bruce (computer science) investigates vision from a computational perspective. Understanding how people view, sample, and process information is critical to many application domains including interface design, marketing, medical diagnosis and in everyday life. His research involves the use of artificial intelligence for computer vision systems, and the application of computational methods and serves as a hub, connecting a variety of disciplines including computer science, neuroscience, psychology, chemistry, imaging and statistics. Bruce provides solutions to important problems in computer vision such as object recognition, scene understanding, and foremost, mechanisms to focus attention or processing on certain parts of an image to deal with the complexity of vision problems.

NATURAL SCIENCES

Juliette Mammei.

Juliette Mammei (physics and astronomy) studies the most fundamental properties of matter. She uses high energy polarized electron beams to measure various nuclear and nucleon properties, and even to search for new forces that have never been discovered. The most exciting aspect of her research is to use this method of scattering electrons to measure the weak nuclear charges of protons and electrons so precisely that deviations from the theoretical predictions will indicate the existence of new fundamental forces that have never been seen before. This new forces may be responsible for unexplained phenomena such as why we live in a matter universe instead of an antimatter one, and what dark energy and dark matter are.

SOCIAL SCIENCES

Chad Lawley.

Chad Lawley (agribusiness and agricultural economics) studies the economics of environmental and agricultural policy issues, including pre-emptive invasive species trade measures, land use and habitat conservation in agricultural landscapes, and supply management of the Canadian dairy and poultry industries. His most recent research has explored issues of farmland ownership, including the implications of farmland tenure for adoption of conservation practices and the impact of farmland ownership restrictions on farmland prices. Chad has recently completed two projects examining the effects of BC’s carbon tax on fuel use by BC households.

The designation recognizes extraordinary, internationally-recognized, scholarly or creative achievement and an exemplary teaching record.

The newest Distinguished Professors are Dr. Charles Bernstein [MD/85] in internal medicine and Bingham Chair in Gastroenterology Research, Dr. Diana Brydon in English, film and theater and Canada Research Chair in Globalization and Cultural Studies, and Dr. Pat Martens [PhD/99] in community health sciences.

They were recognized at Spring Convocation 2014.

Dr. Patricia Martens, department of community health sciences

Dr. Patricia Martens

Dr. Martens is a Senior Scientists and former Director of the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, an internationally acclaimed research centre at the University of Manitoba that focuses on population-based health services, public health and population health research. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a member of the Order of Canada and a Fellow of the International Lactation Consultants’ Association.

Dr. Martens has been involved in various national committees, including Governing Board of the Canadian Foundation for Health Innovation, and Canadian Institutes of Health Research Advisory Boards. She has received various research career awards, and in 2010 she was named the YM/YWCA Woman of Distinction for Health & Wellness. She has been invited to speak at over 400 conferences around the world, and has published over 300 articles, reports, book chapters and abstracts. Her research interests include studies on health status and healthcare use, inequities, mental health, child health, and breastfeeding.

Dr. Martens began and co-directs The Need To Know Team, a collaborative research group of university academics working with planners from Manitoba’s 5 Regional Health Authorities and the Manitoba Department of Health. This Team’s research impact on health policy and planning was recognized through receipt of the prestigious CIHR’s national KT Award for Regional Impact in 2005. In 2013, she received the R.D. Defries Award, which is the highest award of the Canadian Public Health Association. It is given for outstanding contributions in public health. Then, in 2014, she received the Justice Emmett Hall Laureat award for a lifetime of groundbreaking work that promotes the ideals articulated by Justice Emmett Hall: equity, fairness, justice and efficiency in Canada’s health system.

Dr. Charles Bernstein, department of internal medicine

Dr. Charles Bernstein

Dr. Bernstein is an internationally acclaimed expert in gastrointestinal and inflammatory bowel disease who has won numerous awards throughout his career, including the Rh Award for Outstanding Contributions to Scholarship and Research in the Health Sciences (1999). He received the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada Research Scientist Award (2001-2005), which he again won the following year (2005-2011), and in 2007 his peers voted him into Best Doctors Canada. In 2008 he was elected to the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and in 2012 he was elected into the Royal Society of Medicine Health Sciences Division.

Dr. Bernstein earned his Medical Degree from the University of Manitoba in 1985 and completed his postgraduate training in internal medicine at the University of Manitoba. He has held many appointments at the University of California, Los Angeles and at the University of Manitoba since 1991, the year he received his Gastroenterology Board Certification from the Royal College of Physician and Surgeons of Canada and successfully completed the American Board of Internal Medicine’s Gastroenterology Certifying Examination.

Dr. Bernstein is currently the Bingham Chair in Gastroenterology Research, the Section Head of Gastroenterology at the University of Manitoba, and Director of the University of Manitoba Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinical and Research Centre, which he had led since 1994. This Centre has allowed for some of the most thorough population studies ever done in this field. One major project was the Manitoba IBD Cohort Study (a CIHR funded study), which followed approximately 350 patients for 10 years and is still ongoing, providing data describing predictors of outcomes: how IBD will evolve in certain scenarios and what determines disease outcomes. Other studies have examined the effects IBD has on bones, found links between IBD and asthma, and one study has recently homed in what could be a possible IBD-causing bacterium. His students, colleagues and collaborators throughout the world respect his vast expertise. He has published extensively in well-known specialty journals and has been an invited lecturer locally, nationally and internationally.

Dr. Diana Brydon, department of English, film and theatre

Dr. Diana Brydon

Dr. Brydon is a Canada Research Chair in Globalization and Cultural Studies and an internationally acclaimed literary critic known for her multifaceted and groundbreaking contributions to postcolonial literary and cultural studies.

Through her research at the University of Manitoba’s Centre for Globalization and Cultural Studies, which she directs, Dr. Brydon assesses and develops ways in which research into globalization and the analysis of cultural practices can contribute to furthering trans-cultural understanding and interdisciplinary collaboration to address some of the challenges posed by globalization. Many common sense views of globalization are not supported by the evidence. By drawing on humanities and social sciences methods and perspectives, Dr. Brydon examines globalization and what it means for Canadian culture and Canada’s place within a changing world system.

She has a strong record of bringing people together in collective projects that are shifting the terrain of knowledge production within interdisciplinary and transnational projects. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2008, she has published nine books, three special journal issues, 46 refereed articles, 38 book chapters, six chapters in refereed conference proceedings, and 53 book reviews. Her work has been translated into Chinese, Polish, and Portuguese.