Co-chaired by Drs Keith Brunt and Petra Kienesberger, this group supports our local researchers who study discovery and biomedical science to advance our understanding of biology and disease of animal and human health.

Interested in joining the Discovery Science Research Group? Contact Dr. Brunt at keith.brunt@dal.ca or Dr.  Kienesberger at pkienesb@dal.ca for more information.

Co-chaired by Drs. Daniel Dutton and Shane Journeay, this group studies how social factors, financing systems, organizational structures and processes, health technologies, and personal behaviours affect access to and delivery of health care.

Interested in joining the Health Services Research and Population Health Group? Contact Dr. Dutton at Daniel.Dutton@dal.ca or Dr.  Journeay at shane.journeay@Dal.Ca for more information.

Co-chaired by Drs. Pamela Jarrett and Julie Easley, this group brings together  researchers interested in advancing clinical care, health outcomes, and medical education. We focus on patient care, health systems, diagnostics, treatments, and how knowledge and skills are taught, learned, and evaluated across all levels of training. We also support clinicians and clinical researchers who are involved in mentoring students, residents, and fellows, and welcome those engaged in Quality Improvement research and practice.

Interested in joining the Clinical Research Group? Contact Dr. Jarrett at pgjarret@dal.ca or Dr.  Easley at julie.easley@horizonnb.ca for more information.

Dr. Tony Reiman, MD, SM, FRCPC
Department of Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology

As a medical oncologist, the work Dr. Anthony (Tony) Reiman does in a clinical setting drives the research he does in the lab and the clinic, bridging the gap between those two places by asking questions like: “What patient is going to benefit from which treatment? Can we try and understand the biology of their cancer? Can we use that information to figure out what treatment that patient should get?”

To work out new ideas for cancer drug treatments or treatments that work by harnessing the immune system to manage and treat cancer, Dr. Reiman involves his patients in his research by linking together information about their cancer, treatment, and outcomes to gain a better understanding of their disease.

When asked what continues to draw him to his research, Dr. Reiman credits his patients.

“On a regular basis, I’m faced with sitting in front of a patient, telling them we’ve done what we can and don’t think they’re going to live much longer with this cancer,” he says. “I think where there’s such a big problem, there’s also a huge opportunity for improvement and patients are very enthusiastic and motivated to participate in research that might benefit future patients – if not themselves – and that’s very noble. So, it’s those difficult conversations with patients that motivate me to try and be a part of the solution. I believe research is a big part of that solution.”

One of the cancers Dr. Reiman is particularly interested in is multiple myeloma, which is a largely incurable bone marrow cancer. He is part of a strong multiple myeloma research community nationally and internationally, and it is with the Canadian team that Dr. Reiman works together on several projects. One of these projects is the Terry Fox Pan-Canadian Multiple Myeloma Molecular Monitoring (or M4) study and it is being led from the Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick laboratory in partnership with the Terry Fox Research Institute, the University of New Brunswick, and cancer centres and academic/research institutions across the country.

Dr. Reiman’s work with multiple myeloma is keeping his lab busy. “Samuel Abegunde, our PhD student, is studying something called the Hippo pathway and myeloma,” Dr. Reiman explains. “And we’ve got Helmi Alfarra, our postdoctoral fellow, who’s studying something called natural killer cells and their interaction with myeloma. His work actually links to our M4 study.”

He is also part of a group called the Atlantic Cancer Consortium, which includes researchers in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. They collaborate on research involving patients with different types of cancer in hopes of building an infrastructure for cancer research that can be shared across the region and the country and, in so doing, become a part of something called the Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres. With funding from the Terry Fox Foundation, federal government, and local funders, this national initiative is an exciting one that Dr. Reiman believes Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick will become more involved in as it goes along.

As the founding Assistant Dean of Research at DMNB, Dr. Reiman is extremely proud of the research program at Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick.

“I grew up in Saint John, left for a while, and came back,” he says. “In the time since I returned, we’ve built the DMNB research facility and recruited a team of researchers who have been very successful in obtaining external funding from national organizations to do their excellent work, to train the next generation of researchers, and to contribute important research at the same time. I’m pleased that this has come along from the ground up and added a meaningful dimension to the research community in Saint John, in New Brunswick, and at Dalhousie. I’m proud that, in Saint John, with the growth of academic medicine and DMNB that we’ve been able to extend that into the clinical setting to the benefit of patients and clinicians as well as researchers.”

As Dr. Reiman looks toward 2022, he hopes that the new year will present more opportunities to be able to reconnect with people a little more as we make our way through the pandemic. He notes that some of the best vacations he has ever been on are the ones where he visited with family and friends across Canada and is hopeful that those kinds of trips will be able to happen again soon.

Dr. Reiman loves to spend his free time with his family and enjoys skiing with his son when the weather is snowier. Partial to music from the 60s and 70s, he is also currently learning how to play the guitar by “listening to old music and then trying to figure out how I can make it myself.”

Coming back to his work, at the heart of what makes Dr. Reiman a truly exceptional researcher and clinician is his devotion to his patients.

“I’m just really pleased with the opportunities to continue to serve our patients both with patient care and research,” he notes. “I think it’s exciting that there’s new developments happening on a daily, sometimes weekly, basis that we’re a part of and I think that this work provides more than a lifetime worth of stuff to look forward to.”

Dr. Colleen O'Connell, MD, FRCPC
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

As a rehabilitation physician, Dr. Colleen O’Connell’s research focuses on neuro-rehabilitation treatments and outcomes, and she works with interdisciplinary teams in treating persons with impairments due to spinal cord injury, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, neuromuscular diseases, and multiple sclerosis. The research related to this specialty addresses a person’s function and quality of life, which was a key factor in shaping Dr. O’Connell’s research pursuits.

“It is a fascinating field with continual advancements in understanding how the brain and spinal cord can adapt and recover to injury,” says Dr O’Connell. This, in turn, can lead to innovative therapies like robotic walking devices, electrical stimulation, and exercise programs that can help improve mobility and independence!

Internationally, there has been emerging evidence that electrically stimulating the spinal cord of someone who has had a spinal cord injury shows promise in improving symptoms such as: problematic spasticity and blood pressure regulation, reducing impairment in areas such as sexual function and sensation, and possibly recovery in paralyzed muscles. Up until recently, there have been few large collaborative trials on this intervention and no access to trials in Canada.

So, to better understand and identify important parameters (e.g. what parts of the spinal cord or nerves should be stimulated or what rehabilitation should accompany stimulation), Dr. O’Connell is part of a national collaborative of Canadian researchers, clinicians, and patients that are working together in a non-competitive way to pool their skills, knowledge, and labs to try and address these questions. “Our team extends across surgical, research, and rehabilitation programs across six provinces with two to three pilot projects being conducted over the next ten months,” Dr. O’Connell shares. “Our ultimate goal is to facilitate large national trials and advance the science.”

Over the course of the April to June 2021 quarter, Dr. O’Connell saw a record for the highest number of clinical trials initiated at their site for the treatment of ALS. Four new clinical drug trials are being initiated on top of the two already in progress with each representing a different therapeutic target in the disease.

“Our small clinical trials team, Shane McCullum and Susan McCully, have worked above and beyond to allow our relatively small site to participate, and we are the only site east of Quebec for a number of these trials,” says Dr. O’Connell. “Prior to this year, we have never had more than three ALS drug trials occurring at the same time and could sometimes go a few years without even one. The state of research globally has exponentially increased in rare diseases and, with new biologics coupled with a greater understanding of the pathophysiology and genetics of motor neuron diseases, I believe there is reasons for hope in this terrible disease.”

Looking ahead, Dr. O’Connell cites an ambitious project to optimize transition to home for seniors discharged following orthopedic or neurologic admissions for surgery or rehabilitation that she is working on with a “dynamic transdisciplinary” New Brunswick team. In this unique collaboration that includes the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at UNB, Ability NB, the Anthropology Departments at UNB, the Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital rehabilitation unit, the Stan Cassidy Centre for Rehabilitation, and the Canada East Spine Centre, they will undertake rich assessments of mobility, exercise, and activity adherences, and study the barriers to effective transitions and potential solutions through virtual care.

When it comes to research in New Brunswick, Dr. O’Connell loves the “culture of inquiry” and “the engagement of students and trainees in research” to help build capacity for the next generation. “In New Brunswick, because we are small, we can be agile, focused, and our closed-connectedness means we can quite literally knock on the door of potential collaborators,” shares Dr. O’Connell.

International work, however, is what predated Dr. O’Connell’s medical career and is what attracted her to medicine in the first place. In 2002, she founded Team Canada Healing Hands, which has been providing education, mentoring, and rehabilitation support teams in low-resourced countries for almost 20 years.

“Because of our extensive work in Haiti, I was asked to respond with an international aid organization to the Haiti earthquake, where I worked in disaster response targeting spinal cord injuries and amputation,” says Dr. O’Connell. After this experience, Dr. O’Connell’s publications on the challenges and treatment of such injuries in earthquakes and the gaps in rehabilitation response strategies in disasters have pushed the international community to recognize the important role of rehabilitation in disasters. She is now working with the World Health Organization on developing standards for management of spinal cord injuries in disasters.

In her free time, Dr. O’Connell is happy when she gets to fit in a 5 km run and then relax with a nice, local craft beer or test out a new cocktail recipe. “Kind of balances things out,” she jokes. Dr. O’Connell also loves to travel and visiting southern Africa remains a highlight for her with incredible experiences like tent camping at the base of Great Zimbabwe, kayaking on the Zambezi, and spending time in smaller villages in Mozambique meeting and interviewing landmine survivors.

With the end of the COVID-19 pandemic in sight, Dr. O’Connell is already working on a “Where Will We Go in 2022?” list, which will involve a plane and a long flight!

Dr. Pamela Jarrett, Associate Professor, Division of Geriatrics, Department of Medicine

Co-Section Chair, Health Services Research, Research Council, DMNB

As a geriatrician, most of the patients and families Dr. Pamela Jarrett cares for have memory problems related to dementia with the most common cause being Alzheimer’s Disease. Bearing witness to the significant impacts of this disease on the lives of those it affects – as well as their families – inspired in Dr. Jarrett a real passion for research and dementia. In her words, it “is all about how to make a difference for these patients and their families.”

The primary focus of Dr. Jarrett’s research is the complexity of dementia and its impact on both the person along with health and social care systems. She describes this topic as both “extremely interesting” and “absolutely needed as our population ages and we see more people affected every day.”

Most recently, Dr. Jarrett’s dementia-related research has been focused on two main things. The first area is related to the prevention of dementia and what lifestyle changes can be made in mid-life that might have an impact on developing dementia in later life. This research is being co-led by Dr. Jarrett and Dr. Chris McGibbon at the University of New Brunswick (UNB) Fredericton in conjunction with national researchers in the Canadian Consortium for Neurodegeneration and Aging (CCNA).

The second area of focus is how to improve care for those with dementia in primary care in the community. This work is also in collaboration with CCNA national researchers and international partners. Dr. Jarrett is co-leading this with Dr. Shelley Doucet and Dr. Alison Luke at UNB Saint John. Dr. Jarrett considers herself fortunate to have two large teams of researchers working with her on these projects in New Brunswick and has continued to work on these endeavours throughout the pandemic, modifying the projects to meet the needs of this challenging time.

These two research projects will take two to three years to complete and Dr. Jarrett is hopeful that the findings will lead to real-world results that will prove helpful to New Brunswickers and those beyond our province at risk of developing dementia or living with the disease. She expects further research in this area and a growth of the New Brunswick-based research teams.

According to Dr. Jarrett, the research community in New Brunswick is second to none. She notes how instrumental the New Brunswick Health Research Foundation (NBHRF) has been in supporting her work here in the province and believes they should be commended for their dedication to helping grow research in New Brunswick. In her opinion, these research opportunities have allowed for a diverse group of professionals and organizations across the province to work with other researchers nationally and internationally.

“It is truly amazing how many people are interested in research in this area,” says Dr. Jarrett, “The interdisciplinary nature of this research has brought engineers, epidemiologists, kinesiologists, dieticians, pharmacists, psychologists, nurses, physiotherapists, policy makers, family doctors, and specialists together to work through all of this. What a privilege.”

Looking ahead at 2021, Dr. Jarrett – like everyone else – is very much looking forward to returning to some sort of normalcy. “To be able to sit in a room with family and friends and hug again would be the best day ever,” she shares, “We can all look forward to that again as we continue to move through this challenging time doing the right thing every day, all the time.”

When Dr. Jarrett is not seeing patients or leading research projects, her time with family and friends is what brings her the most joy. Their time spent together during the pandemic remains a definitive silver lining for Dr. Jarrett; although, she has also found solace in weaving and knitting. These hobbies produced several scarves and hats for her loved ones at Christmas this year!