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Dr. Chester Ho
Professor and Spinal Cord Injury Research Chair, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Alberta Facility Medical Director, Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital,
Alberta Health Services
“I’m hoping that after somebody has a spinal-cord injury, we will be able to develop a personalized approach, look at each injury individually,
find the right treatment, apply that treatment as soon as possible and maximize their recovery potential. The second thing I’m hoping for is that we will be able to support people in their rehabilitation no matter where they live, whether that is in metropolitan or rural areas.
We are in the process of building the Neuro-Rehabilitation Innovation Centre at the University of Alberta Hospital, which is a brand new rehabilitation space designed to deliver early rehabilitation for patients with spinal cord injuries and other neurologic conditions.
To have an early rehabilitation centre in an acute-care hospital is very unique because it gives people a head start on their rehabilitation, before they continue with their recovery at a rehabilitation hospital. That’s made possible only with donor support from the University Hospital Foundation.”
Dr. Ho’s research focuses on rehabilitation and health-care delivery for people with spinal cord injuries.
Turning Alzheimer’s disease into a mere memory
A transformative
$4 million matching gift sparks hope for a promising Alzheimer’s treatment
by TOM NDEKEZI
Imagine a world without Alzheimer’s disease. Philanthropist Don Hunter does that several times every day. His wife of 62 years, Sophie, doesn’t recognize him anymore. Nor does she know their children or grandchildren. When she’s not sleeping, she needs constant care.
“Alzheimer’s disease is an epidemic,” says Hunter. “It’s so bad, you wish you had it yourself instead of a loved one.”
Today, over 46,000 Albertans live with some form of dementia. The majority of these cases are Alzheimer’s disease. That number is expected to grow to over 200,000 by 2040 due to the province’s rapidly aging and growing population. The real-life impacts of the disease reach even further.
“One has to look at [dementia] through a very different lens than you might look at something like heart disease, stroke
or cancer,” says Dr. Jack Jhamandas, Distinguished University Professor at the University of Alberta, who has been researching dementia, and more specifically Alzheimer’s, for over 25 years. “This is not a condition that plays out in emergency rooms and in acute care medical settings; it’s played out in homes, living rooms, bedrooms and dens.”
Alzheimer’s current impact and looming prevalence is why there is so much excitement about a new drug candidate to come out of Jhamandas’s laboratory. Working with fellow University
of Alberta colleagues Dr. Lorne Tyrrell, founding director of the
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