This past week, McGill School of Physical and Occupational Therapy researcher, Dr. Tania Janaudis-Ferreira attended the Canadian Transplant Games in Toronto. Together with her research partner at the University of Toronto, Dr. Sunita Mathur, Dr. Janaudis-Ferreira co-founded the Canadian Network for Rehabilitation and Exercise for Solid Organ Transplant Optimal Recovery (CAN-RESTORE).
Last year, to raise awareness of the importance of exercise in solid organ transplant, Drs. Janaudis-Ferreira and Mathur visited 10 transplant centers across Canada, meeting over 280 healthcare professionals working in the area of transplantation. During this time, they developed the CAN-RESTORE’s informative website, and organized a patient educational symposium to prepare patients for the Canadian Transplant Games. This symposium was developed to provide an evidence-based and sustainable resource for clinicians across the country for years to come.
Dr. Janaudis-Ferreira was at the CAN-RESTORE booth at the Games Expo on Saturday and met many of the symposium’s participants. “It was great to experience the very positive energy at the Games and see that many of the participants of our symposium actually achieved their goal to prepare themselves for the Games”, reports Dr. Janaudis-Ferreira.
The Canadian Transplant Games is the largest organ and tissue donation awareness event in Canada, and took place in Toronto from August 8-13th, 2016. The games provided a venue for athletes ranging in ages 4-80+ to participate in friendly and fun competition is sports such as track and field, cycling, tennis, and swimming.
The overall goal of Dr. Janaudis-Ferreira’s current research is to improve care and rehabilitation outcomes of individuals with chronic lung disease and transplant patients.
More information about CAN-RESTORE can be found at: www.cntrp.ca/exercise and more information on the Canadian Transplant Games at http://games.canadiantransplant.com
More information on current SPOT research can be found at: www.mcgill.ca/spot/research.
August 15, 2016