Winter 2010 - St. Joseph's Health Care London

30
Bench to Bedside …
and Beyond
World-class care for spinal cord injury is reaching patients in
their own living rooms through the first-of-its-kind Internet
clinic developed by researchers at the Aging, Rehabilitation
and Geriatric Care Research Centre (ARGC) of Lawson Health
Research Institute. Pressure ulcers are a painful reality for spinal
cord injury patients in wheelchairs. Particularly challenging is
the fact that many Canadians live in remote locations, hours
from specialized wound treatment. These patients do not
get timely access to the expert care required to minimize the
impact of these potentially devastating wounds. Researchers
have created a unique solution: a pressure ulcer Internet clinic.
Experts located at Parkwood Hospital, part of St. Joseph’s
Health Care, London, work with home care providers over the
Internet using high-tech tools, such as digital photography and
video consultation.
“Patients who otherwise would have to travel to a specialized
centre to receive assessment can be seen in their own home,”
says David Keast, ARGC research centre director. With this
approach, researchers are bringing the services to the patient—
in the patient’s living room. The goal is better patient outcomes
with faster healing, along with reduced clinic visits and health
care costs.
Vim & Vigour · WINTER 2010
online
Learn More
The Aging, Rehabilitation and Geriatric
Care Research Centre is located at
St. Joseph’s Parkwood Hospital. There,
researchers are working to help people
age well, stay healthy and enjoy freedom
of movement. Find out more at
www.lawsonresearch.com/
v1.0/website/research_
themes/ARGC/HTML/our_
research.htm.
For anyone, amateur or pro, recovery from
injury requires specifi c, targeted exercises plus
general fi tness. “There’s a lot of balance, endurance
and postural routine correction. It can be
quite involved,” Perez says.
After surgery, Stanish prescribes gentle aerobic
activity—such as walking, swimming or riding
an exercise bike—for six to eight weeks before
returning to play.
“We know that the spine loves to be loaded and
unloaded, but it hates rotation,” Stanish says.
A Game CHANGER
erez notes that although injuries
are commonplace, golf fi nally is
being taken seriously as a sport,
and it’s evident in the training.
“In the past, golfi ng wasn’t
viewed as all that athletic. It was
a leisure thing you did on Sunday,” Perez says.
But this notion has changed at all levels of the
game. “Now you train for it like you would
any other sport,” she says.
What caused the shift? Perez credits the PGA
for helping to alter the way golf training and
preparation are approached. “A medical unit now
travels with the PGA Tour, and they have a gym,”
she says. Players also have altered their personal
training regimens.
“To prepare for play, many golfers used to just
golf. Now [some players] do yoga,” Perez says.
She requires all her patients to do likewise.
Weir’s own training efforts have paid off.
In 2009, he placed second in the AT&T Pebble
Beach National Pro-Am and fi nished among the
PGA’s top 30 golfers for the year. Weir’s desire
to persevere will help ensure that he remains
a contender for years to come, a fi ghter whose
struggles give him the resolve to face whatever
challenges he may encounter.
‘‘If you’re sitting still and resting on what
you’ve done in the past and are happy with that,
you’re obviously going to slip,’’ Weir told The
Associated Press in 2009. ‘‘I’ve never been that
type of guy, that type of player. I always want to
be better than I was before.’’