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Community members and those in the field of health research attended a special open house and interactive tour by research groups at Lawson Health Research Institute – celebrating the holiday spirit and the gift of hope that is made possible through hospital-based research.

A part of St. Joseph’s Health Care London, Parkwood Institute represents the next era in care, recovery and rehabilitation. Across the site, clinical and research teams in different disciplines and specialties are collaborating in new ways.

The teams that make up Parkwood Institute Research, a Lawson program, are conducting clinical studies with the goal of understanding disease and improving care for a wide range of patients.

“Many people in the community know the high-quality and compassionate care that is supported by the various clinical teams at Parkwood Institute,” says Dr. Cheryl Forchuk, Beryl and Richard Ivey Research Chair in Aging, Mental Health, Rehabilitation and Recovery, and Assistant Scientific Director at Lawson. “What most don’t know is that we have research teams working across these sites, with each other and research patients.

Researchers tackle the most important challenges and provide access to highly innovative and meaningful solutions that improve the lives of patients and their families, added Dr. Forchuk.

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At the open house on November 30, there were 11 interactive displays in the areas of cognitive vitality and brain health, mobility and activity and mental health. This included the Gait and Brain Laboratory, the Operational Stress Injury Clinic, wound care, the Mental Health Nursing Research Alliance and more: 

• The Mental Health INcubator for Disruptive Solutions (MINDS) of London Middlesex is a social innovation lab focused on developing, testing, implementing and evaluating disruptive solutions that promote the mental and emotional wellbeing of Transition-Aged Youth in our London-Middlesex community.
• The Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging (CCNA), supported by CIHR and many partners, is the premier research hub for all aspects of research involving neurodegenerative diseases that affect cognition in aging – including Alzheimer's disease. 
• A dynamic lab with the top neurorehabilitation evidence-based reviews in stroke, brain injury, spinal cord injury and multiple sclerosis, or insight into clinical trials of stroke rehabilitation using exoskeletons, exercise paradigms, pharmaceuticals, and clinical studies of psychosocial factors that influence chronic pain in brain injury and spinal cord injury populations.

The open house had a festive theme and each of the exhibits involved a problem solving element to encourage learning and foster teamwork.   

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Peggy Sattler, Member of Provincial Parliament for London West, and Terence Kernaghan, Member of Provincial Parliament for London North Centre, were among the over 300 people in attendance.

“This special open house opportunity is meant to be a fun experience where you were also learning about research,” explains Dr. Forchuk. “During this holiday season, we wanted to share our own gift of hope in the form of collaborative research that is making a real difference.”

See photos from the open house on Facebook. 

One in three Canadians is living with diabetes or prediabetes. When they experience complications like severe hyperglycemia (high blood sugar), they require emergency care. For many, one emergency department (ED) visit leads to multiple others. 

“There’s an increasing prevalence of diabetes in our population. It’s imperative that we support patients in managing the disease to prevent adverse outcomes and optimize health,” says Dr. Justin Yan, Associate Scientist at Lawson Health Research Institute and Emergency Department Physician at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC). “In our research, we wanted to see whether specialized diabetes care was associated with a reduction in recurrent ED visits and hospitalizations.”

Dr. Yan and his colleagues studied de-identified data from patients who presented with hyperglycemia to the EDs at LHSC’s Victoria and University Hospitals over a one-year period. They compared those patients who had been followed by specialized diabetes care at St. Joseph’s Health Care London (250 patients) to those who had not (206 patients).

At St. Joseph’s Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, patients with diabetes are supported by a dedicated team of endocrinologists, family physician diabetologists, certified diabetes educators (registered nurses and dietitians), nurse practitioners, pharmacists, social workers and social service workers. The multidisciplinary team provides specialized care and comprehensive teaching which includes diet and lifestyle management advice, exercise programs, help with medications and more. 

“Our team provides patient-centered multidisciplinary support to patients with diabetes” says Dr. Selina Liu, Associate Scientist at Lawson, Endocrinologist at St. Joseph’s and co-investigator on the study. “We work with patients to empower them to manage their diabetes with a goal of preventing serious complications, both acute and chronic, including those that can lead to ambulance calls, ED visits and hospitalizations.”

The research team found that patients who had received specialized diabetes care were less likely to revisit the ED due to hyperglycemia (9.6 per cent versus 32.5 per cent) and to be hospitalized due to hyperglycemia (5.2 per cent versus 14.1 per cent) within 30 days of their initial ED visit. 

“While further research is needed, our findings are important for a number of reasons,” notes Dr. Yan. “They suggest that follow-up with specialized diabetes care may prevent recurrent ED visits and hospitalizations. In addition to improving patient outcomes, this could equate to significant cost savings for the health care system.”

The team hopes this knowledge can be used to develop targeted interventions for patients who are at higher risk of returning to hospital for hyperglycemia. They are planning future studies to look at what factors contribute to a patient being at higher risk of adverse outcomes and what interventions are most effective in preventing them. 

The study, “Do adult patients with type 1 or 2 diabetes who present to the emergency department with hyperglycemia have improved outcomes if they have access to specialized diabetes care?,” is published in the Canadian Journal of Diabetes. It was funded by Lawson Health Research Institute’s Internal Research Fund.