8 minute read
CSM steps up: COVID-19
Many Albertans will remember March 12, 2020 as the day our province announced the first COVID-19 related restrictions. For our Cumming School of Medicine (CSM) community, it will also be remembered as the day our attention urgently shifted towards an unknown virus that caused the world to come to a halt.
The novel coronavirus has resulted in a challenging year for our research, scientific and clinical communities. More than ever, the focus has been on our experts to provide answers, solutions and care.
Advertisement
Despite the circumstances, our specialists stepped up, developing innovative ways to prepare front-line health-care workers, address supply shortages, track transmission, create vaccines, investigate the effects of the virus on the overall health and well-being of the populations we serve, and keep our local communities safe and informed.
In extraordinary times, the CSM continues to be a leader in research and a reliable source of information. This is because of the highly-skilled, devoted, passionate people who make up our CSM community, the generosity and support of our community members and strong partnerships with other faculties at the university and Alberta Health Services (AHS).
Together, we are contributing to conversations of global importance and changing the future of health in southern Alberta and around the world.
Community support fuels important research and education priorities within the Cumming School of Medicine, including our response to COVID-19 and the core infrastructure that supports this work. Giving to the CSM Impact Fund can help minimize the consequences of the pandemic in our community and beyond. For more information please visit:
cumming.ucalgary.ca/giving
Alberta timeline informed by Global News: globalnews.ca/news/7538547/covid-19-alberta-health-timeline/
March 17, 2020 - Alberta declares a local state of public health emergency
March 2020
The CSM quickly deploys its big data expertise to help the City of Calgary tackle the pandemic in real time. Highly skilled data scientists build the UCalgary Centre for Health Informatics COVID-19 tracker, a data-integrated system for decision-making and public use. The tool provides a provincial breakdown of when and where the virus is spreading, while contrasting Alberta’s data to the data of public health interventions taking place globally. The team monitors COVID-19 trends to ensure the province’s health system does not become overwhelmed.
March 2020
The CSM helps compile a list of volunteers to assist AHS with COVID-19 response efforts; more than 800 volunteers sign up to help.
March 27, 2020
Non-essential businesses in Alberta temporarily close; gatherings are limited to 15 people.
April 2020
Dr. Lianne Tomfohr Madsen, PhD
Dr. Gerald Giesbrecht, PhD
Dr. Catherine Lebel, PhD
A UCalgary team led by ACHRI researchers Dr. Catherine Lebel, PhD, Dr. Gerald Giesbrecht, PhD, and Dr. Lianne Tomfohr Madsen, PhD, surveys pregnant women across Canada to shed light on stress, depression and infant brain development during the pandemic.
April 2020
A COVID-19 outbreak at the Cargill meat packing plant, located in High River, spreads home to workers’ families and roommates. CSM alumnus Dr. Adam Vyse, MD ’93, and other members of the Calgary Zone Primary Care Network, mobilize a successful primary care pandemic strategy for the region. In addition to testing, isolating and contact tracing, the strategy places an emphasis on connecting with and supporting patients virtually for the duration of their illness.
April 13, 2020
Alberta Health offers COVID-19 testing to any Albertan displaying symptoms.
April 2020
Dr. Jayna Holroyd-Leduc, MD
The pandemic underscores the need for innovative strategies to better support continuing care residents. The Brenda Strafford Foundation Chair in Geriatric Medicine, Dr. Jayna Holroyd-Leduc, MD, and her team work with Calgary-based long-term care facilities to detect acute changes in residents’ conditions earlier to ensure the right care is provided in the right location.
May 2020
Dr. Dylan Pillai, MD, PhD
A team of CSM researchers, including study lead Dr. Dylan Pillai, MD, PhD, develop a new method to test for the virus that can provide results in 30 minutes without the need for high-tech equipment and reagents.
May 2020
Drs. Jim Kellner, MD
Francois Bernier, MD
A multidisciplinary team of researchers led by Drs. Jim Kellner, MD, and Francois Bernier, MD, investigates the genes and immune response of Alberta children in a pan-Alberta study focused on tracking the impact of COVID-19 on their young bodies. The research team will follow a cohort of more than 1,000 children and conduct studies on biological samples to better understand the unique genetic code of the virus.
May 2020
Rahul Arora, BHSc ’19
A team of CSM alumni and students develop an online dashboard, SeroTracker, to track global COVID-19 antibody testing studies. SeroTracker, mobilized by alumni Rahul Arora, BHSc ’19 and Tingting Yan, BHSc ’19, helps public health officials and researchers understand population immunity patterns in their countries, and monitor which groups have been most affected and study vaccine programs. This UCalgary-led project garners the interest of the World Health Organization and other international partners.
May 25, 2020
Two months after shutdown, Calgary joins Alberta in Stage 1 of reopening.
May-June 2020
Drs. Paul Arnold, MD, PhD
Iliana Ortega, MD
A Mathison Centre study led by researchers Drs. Paul Arnold, MD, PhD, and Iliana Ortega, MD, investigates the mental health impact of COVID-19 on vulnerable youth. The findings will help identify who is most impacted to develop targeted interventions and treatments for this population.
June 2020
Dr. Doug Mahoney, PhD
Dr. Doug Mahoney, PhD, re-focuses his experience with viruses by exploring whether one of the cancer treatments he works with can be modified and repurposed as a vaccine for COVID-19. In collaboration with other investigators and supported by philanthropy, Mahoney creates a viral vector vaccine — a type of hybrid vaccine which creates a memory response from the immune system so it knows to attack when exposed to the novel coronavirus.
June 2020
The Canadian Institutes of Health Research provide a second round of rapid funding for COVID-19 research funds eight CSM-led projects.
July 2020
Dr. Stephen Freedman, MD
Dr. Stephen Freedman, MD, leads a study to track how COVID-19 may be transmitted by children. To understand if and how likely children without symptoms are to transmit the virus, participants are tested and followed at 17 sites across North America.
July 2020
Dr. Gabriel Fabreau, MD
A group of researchers investigate the impact of COVID-19 outbreaks at meat processing facilities in Alberta, including Canada’s largest single location outbreak – the Cargill plant. Led by Dr. Gabriel Fabreau, MD, the project focuses on how the outbreaks began and the factors which led to their rapid spread.
August 1, 2020
Face coverings (masks) become mandatory in Calgary and Edmonton.
September 2020
Many schools reopen, as Alberta passes the one-million mark for COVID-19 testing.
October 2020
Supported by philanthropic donations from TransAlta and others, researchers at UCalgary, the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, AHS, and Alberta Precision Laboratories partner with the Stoney Nakoda Nations to connect remote communities to laboratory services and to deliver medical equipment and COVID-19 test kits using remotely piloted drones.
November 2020
The CSM announces the reopening of the Bio-safety Level 3 (BSL-3) lab allowing scientists and clinicians to safely advance their research into vaccines and treatments for COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. The university pools resources and partners with government and philanthropists, including Joan Snyder, to support reopening of this vital space in the Snyder institute for Chronic Diseases.
November 21, 2020
Intensive care units in Alberta approach capacity limits as hospitalizations rise.
December 15, 2020
Alberta’s first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine are delivered to health-care workers in Calgary and Edmonton.
January 2021
UCalgary researchers participate in an international multi-centre study evaluating decontamination methods to maintain respirator mask integrity and performance. An effective decontamination and reuse strategy would ensure a sustained supply and help combat future global supply shortages.
April 2021
COVID-19 vaccines become available to all Albertans 40 years of age or older. The province administers more than one million doses.
May 10, 2021
Alberta shows the highest vaccine hesitancy of all Canadian provinces. CSM dean Dr. Jon Meddings, MD, joined by infectious diseases expert Dr. Cora Constantinescu, MD, and UCalgary Chancellor Deborah Yedlin, pens Calgary Herald OpEd imploring Albertans to come together to end the pandemic.
