Invest in Graduate Students for a Healthier Canada Rehabilitation medicine graduate students conduct research and acquire clinical skills to improve quality of life for those living with disability, injury or disease. Help train the researchers and clinicians our society needs.
Grad student Gabriela Constantinescu presents on her swallowing therapy app.
The expertise, research and innovations generated by rehabilitation medicine graduate students support active, healthy lifestyles and foster independence for our aging population. Donor-supported scholarships remove financial barriers, facilitating students’ quests for knowledge to improve quality of life for those living with disability, injury or disease.
Thinking Outside of the Clinic
The Need for Innovative Solutions
“The PhD program has helped me become a better critical thinker. It has made me feel more confident to advocate for our patients and fight for changes to how we provide care,” Constantinescu says. Along with a team of researchers and engineers, she is now developing a smartphone app to improve the lives of head and neck cancer patients.
For most head and neck cancer patients a steak dinner is out of the question. Weakened swallowing muscles turn the simple pleasure of eating into a stressful and potentially lifethreatening experience. While swallowing exercises can help build strength, barriers to treatment can impede the road to recovery.
The app connects to a small device under the patient’s chin, which tracks the activity of muscles during swallowing exercises and provides real-time feedback. “It’s like a FitBit, but for your swallow,” explains Constantinescu. This makes it easier for patients to practise the exercises at home, while at the same time enabling clinicians to track progress remotely.
Speech-language pathologist Gabriela Constantinescu, ’05 BSc, ’08 MSc, experienced this first hand while working at the Institute for Reconstructive Sciences in Medicine. She saw patients face long waits to get in to see clinicians, and found the therapy to be time-consuming and inconvenient — often requiring multiple visits a week to the clinic.
With more than 70 per cent of head and neck cancer patients suffering from swallowing difficulties, Constantinescu’s research has the potential to improve the quality of life for thousands of Canadians by making therapy more accessible and effective.
Frustrated with the status quo, she returned to the University of Alberta, her alma mater, to pursue a PhD in rehabilitation science and help make a lasting difference in her field.
Donate online at uab.ca/rehab150
The rehabilitation needs for survivors of diseases such as cancer increases as our population ages. Your support of graduate students, like Constantinescu, helps generate the rehabilitation researchers and professionals our society needs for years to come.
“The PhD program has helped me become a better critical thinker. It has made me feel more confident to advocate for our patients and fight for changes to how we provide care.” — GABRIELA CONSTANTINESCU, ’05 BSc, ’08 MSc
Shape the Future of Rehabilitation Medicine As Canada’s population ages, there is a growing need for services such as speech therapy for stroke survivors, physical therapy for people experiencing chronic pain, and occupational therapy to support aging-in-place. Seniors currently comprise approximately 17 per cent of the Canadian population, and by 2031 almost one-in-four Canadians will be 65 or older.
About the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine The University of Alberta is home to North America’s only free-standing Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine. Your gift to the Canada 150 Alumni Award in Rehabilitation endowment will help remove financial barriers for UAlberta alumni in each of the following graduate programs: •
MSc/PhD in Rehabilitation Science Rehabilitation scientists conduct research to examine the theoretical bases of rehabilitation medicine and develop innovative solutions to clinical problems.
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MSc in Speech-Language Pathology Speech language pathologists identify, assess, treat, manage, educate and help prevent language, speech, voice, fluency, cognitive and other related communication disorders, as well as swallowing problems.
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MSc in Occupational Therapy Occupational therapists help people get back to everyday activities. They work with people of all ages who have experienced an illness affecting physical or mental health, an injury or a disability.
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MSc in Physical Therapy Physical therapists help people stay active by preventing and managing the effects of congenital diseases, illness, chronic diseases, neurological conditions, accidents and the stresses and strains of everyday life.
Rehabilitation clinicians and researchers support active, healthy lifestyles and foster independence throughout a person’s lifespan. Your investment in graduate students will help meet the demands of Canada’s changing demographic. “We need to make it more attractive for alumni to come back to the university and to develop solutions to problems they face every day in the clinic,” says Constantinescu.
Canada 150 Alumni Award in Rehabilitation Your gift to the Canada 150 Alumni Award in Rehabilitation endowment will ensure that a UAlberta alumnus pursuing a graduate degree has the necessary financial support to become one of the rehabilitation professionals and researchers our society needs. As Canada turns 150 in 2017, help set the direction for rehabilitation medicine for the next 150 years and beyond. Together, we can improve the lives of those living with disability, injury or illness. Goal: $150,000 for the Canada 150 Alumni Award in Rehabilitation. This endowed fund will support graduate awards each year in perpetuity.
To make a donation or for more information, please contact: John Voyer Assistant Dean, Development Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine 780-248-5781 | jvoyer@ualberta.ca
Gifts of any amount are welcome and appreciated, and may be provided over time. A charitable tax receipt will be issued by UAlberta for eligible donations. AP: 05562 | September 2017