Hey everyone, Emily here! It’s been a while since the last blog post so there is much to update you on; get ready for a good read!
Starting off, we have 2 new students helping us out with the project! First, I would like to introduce Amber. Amber is a second year Bachelor of Kinesiology student at the University of Alberta. She was looking to get undergraduate research experience, and contacted our lab with interest after reading about our objectives. She has been able to sit in on patient assessments and get all the building blocks to be a great helper in this project! This is one of her first research experiences and she’s happy to help!
Next I’d like to introduce you to our second student, Kam! Kam is a fourth year Human Kinetics student at the University of British Columbia - Okanagan, and she is joining us for her practicum this term. She was born and raised in the big city of Vancouver, BC and moved to Kelowna, BC, 3 years ago. She has been sitting in on patient assessments, and she is excited to have been given this opportunity to learn more about the Tele-Rehab 2.0 project!
Most importantly, Kam and Amber are going to be giving you readers more regular updates - and I’ll let them take over from here!
Updates! Within the few weeks we have been part of the team, we have both seen multiple new patients along with some improvements during their follow-up appointments, which is the absolute best to see. Seeing their improvements and happiness just makes your day!
We have recently applied for a new grant! Grant writing is a massive undertaking, but we’re always hopeful after we submit that things will work out. So everyone keep their fingers and toes crossed with us in the hopes to continue this project into the future! Along with this, we have recently finished our work on the initial grant from Alberta Innovates. We have data analysis in progress and will be publishing a paper soon, so keep your eyes peeled! It will be great to finally share our findings with all of you.
Today, we started training on the equipment for a new location! As part of our United Way grant, we have delivered equipment to supported living facilities in both Edson and Hinton. (Martin and Peggi had a lovely roadtrip early last week to drop everything off! The views were great, but the roads were pretty sketchy in parts). This is a new iteration of Tele-Rehab 2.0, as we don’t actually have a physio in Edson or Hinton to work with! Instead, we’ve partnered with a nurse, Margo, to bring Tele-Rehab 2.0 to any residents who need it. We are excited to be expanding and having the opportunity to meet, and of course help, a whole bunch of new people. Stay tuned for updates and their stories.
More exciting news! We recently met with Minister Copping (January 14), Minister Schweitzer (January 28), and we are meeting with Minister Shandro next week (on February 11)! This is all thanks to the lovely MLA Reid who has helped us spread the word on this project. The support has been instrumental in us receiving support and finding new patient to help! We want to give a big thanks where it’s due.
Finally, we’ve been fortunate to receive additional support from the Rural Health Practitioners Action Plan (RhPAP) to help bring another site on board! We’ll be working closely with RhPAP to help choose this site, and we’re super excited to spread the project even further and help as many Albertans as we can!
We’ll be posting more soon - check back for patient stories, updates, and more!