For the first time ever, research revenues of the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Medicine have exceeded the $100 million mark. The information was contained in the latest survey of the Association of Canadian Medical Colleges, which reported research revenues for the 16 Canadian medical schools for the fiscal year 2001-2002.
Commenting on the figures, Dr. Peter Walker, dean of the medical school said: “In 2001-2002, the actual research revenue for the University of Ottawa was $103.8 million. This new figure represents a 23.3% increase over last year’s numbers.”
The Faculty of Medicine is now 7th overall among Canadian medical schools in total research revenues. Revenues for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research stood at $22.4 million for 2001-2002, sufficient for a 6th place ranking nationally.
Studying safety among older drivers
A team of University of Ottawa scientists has initiated the first stage of a major national health research project to improve driving safety among older people.
A pilot study involving 100 older Ottawa drivers is just getting under way with the enrolment of the first participants at the end of October. The researchers, including leading geriatricians from the Faculty of Medicine, will use the results of the pilot to set the stage for a national multi-centre five-year study called CanDRIVE. It is expected that 3,000 to 5,000 drivers over the age of 70 will participate in the larger study.
The project is funded largely with $1.25 million from the New Emerging Teams (NET) Grant Program from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Institute on Aging. The CanDRIVE study has pulled together researchers from across the country with backgrounds in epidemiology, psychology, rehabilitation, medicine and sociology. Other members from the University include Drs. Frank Molnar, Shawn Marshall, Keith Wilson, Ian Graham, Ian Stiell and Larry Chambers.
Canadian physicians are legally responsible in seven provinces for reporting medically unfit drivers to their respective ministries of transportation. The goal of the study is to provide these physicians with a method of identifying older persons whose medical and functional limitations may make them unfit to drive.
“It was obvious there are few methodologically sound research studies to guide the decision regarding who is fit and who is unfit to drive,” says Dr. Malcolm Man-Son-Hing. He is a geriatrician with the Ottawa Hospital’s Civic Campus, a principal investigator in the project and an associate professor at the University of Ottawa.
Cancer researcher wins prestigious award
Dr. Stephen Lee, an associate professor in the Faculty of Medicine, has won the 2003 Harold E. Johns Award from the National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC).
Dr. Lee, who joined the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine in 1998, was awarded a scholarship from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research in 1998 and a Premier Research Excellence Award in 2001. He is working on the VHL gene, which is involved in several human cancers.
The NCIC award, valued at more than $450,000, will help support Dr. Lee’s future research work.
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