Year: 2014

Looking at New Ways to Improve the Patient Experience

By: Tiffany Scarcelli, MSc, OBI Management Fellow

When a child becomes seriously ill, there are many concerns, thoughts, and fears that arise in both the child and their family upon their first hospital visit. Will my child respond to treatment? Will they get the best care possible? What many people do not realize is that a child’s care goes beyond medications and procedures to encompass the child’s mental well-being. And often times, this is overlooked as part of their care. To address these concerns, the Hospital for Sick Children – one of the largest centres dedicated to improving children’s healthcare in North America – is doing something innovative. Continue reading “Looking at New Ways to Improve the Patient Experience”

Three Must See Technologies from the CP-NET Workshop

By: Nathalie Goodfellow, PhD, OBI Management Fellow

On March 24, I had the pleasure of attending the Childhood Cerebral Palsy Integrated Neuroscience Discovery Network( CP-NET), investigator workshop. The workshop was held at the Ontario Investment and Trade Center which had a spectacular view and even more impressive innovations. Attendees of the workshop were world-class researchers, clinicians, and entrepreneurs all passionate about improving our understanding and care for those living with cerebral palsy. Continue reading “Three Must See Technologies from the CP-NET Workshop”

Bringing Together the Brightest Minds to Beat Depression

By: Dipa Basu, PhD, OBI Management Fellow

1 in 10 Canadians will be affected by depression at some point in their lives. The remaining 9 will know someone who is affected. Depression is a mood disorder which can become isolating and debilitating, and in some cases, even life-threatening. However, innovative research within this field is bringing about major improvements in how we treat depression. Recently, I had the chance to attend an event that presented some very new ideas and approaches to conquering the burden that depression has on individuals and our society.
Continue reading “Bringing Together the Brightest Minds to Beat Depression”

Message from Dr. Donald Stuss, President and Scientific Director of OBI

86 billion: that is the number of neurons, or cells, estimated to make up the human brain. Within each cell there is a universe of complexity and activity. But the remarkable abilities of the brain to think, remember, respond, and feel, cannot be explained by just scaling up the individual actions of each cell. It comes down to the connections. No neuron works in isolation, in fact each cell is thought to make up to 10,000 connections with other cells; the outcome of this interconnectivity, some 100 trillion connections, is the network of the human brain. Continue reading “Message from Dr. Donald Stuss, President and Scientific Director of OBI”

Peering Into dementia

The eyes are said to be the ‘windows into the soul’. Now a novel technique is allowing researchers to take this romantic thought to a new level and use the eye as a ‘window into the brain’— to better understand and diagnose brain disorders. Continue reading “Peering Into dementia”

Helping The Patient Be Heard

A key priority of OBI is amplifying the patient voice in research. To this end, OBI has helped establish five Patient Advisory Committees (PACs) which connect patients, their families and their advocates with people working at the frontier of brain research. Continue reading “Helping The Patient Be Heard”

Your Brain Health: Practicing What You Preach

By promoting brain awareness across Ontario, OBI is helping people take charge of their own brain health. Need some inspiration? OBI staffers reveal their own brain-health tips. Continue reading “Your Brain Health: Practicing What You Preach”