Dedicated to Discovery: Canada East Spine Centre Has National Impact From Here In New Brunswick
Founded in 2008 by orthopaedic spine surgeons, Dr. Edward Abraham and Dr. Neil Manson, Canada East Spine Centre (CESC) is committed to excellence in spine care research that includes a multi-disciplinary team of medical, research and academic professionals.
“At CESC, our primary goals are to evaluate our surgical care pathways and patient outcomes to identify possible gaps in care or identify populations at-risk for poor outcomes,” says Horizon’s Erin Bigney, Director of Research at CESC. “We strive to be always innovating to ensure the best possible outcomes for our patients.”
CESC is dedicated to collaborations on a national scale, with a significant involvement in the Canadian Spine Society and its’ Canadian Spine Outcomes and Research Network (CSORN) registry, which has 20 sites across Canada. CESC is the third largest contributing site in Canada.
“CSORN has provided the opportunity for orthopaedic and neurosurgeons across Canada to work together to improve spine patients’ care and outcomes,” says Horizon’s Eden Richardson, Research Manager at CESC and the national Data Quality Coordinator for CSORN.
CESC partners with the Saint John Regional Hospital which is also a Rick Hansen Spinal Injury Registry (RHSCIR) site led by Dr. Attabib.
RHSCIR is overseen nationally by Praxis Spinal Cord Institute based in Vancouver. Praxis leads global collaborations in traumatic and non-traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) research with 30 major centres across Canada “The translation of research for patients with SCI can enable a change into improving clinical practice” added Dana El-Mughayyar, Research Coordinator at CESC.
CESC’s commitment to transforming clinical care also comes into the form of novel clinical trials that address aspects of the treatment journey both prior to and following surgery.
The NB-Interprofessional Spine Assessment and Education Clinic (NB-ISAEC), is an award-winning collaboration Saint John ISAEC Coordinator, El-Mughayyar said:
“It’s crucial to reduce wait times and improve accessibility. This program [achieves that] by seeing patients within two weeks of their referral date and offering a personalized plan for their further recommended interventions.”
Amanda Vandewint, Research Coordinator at CESC and one of the leads on clinical trials, says
“Conducting interventional research is extremely exciting where the opportunity exists to introduce essentially small changes in clinical care that have the potential to dramatically alter the patient experience for the better.”
CESC aids in the development of tomorrow’s physicians through supporting multiple medical students each year in the completion of the mandatory research component of their training at Dalhousie Medical School and Memorial University. Strong ties are further maintained between CESC and the broader community through the Volunteer Mentorship Program that currently consists of 27 graduate and undergraduate students who bring a range of experiences and qualifications to CESC.
“The reasons behind CESC’s ability to positively influence patient outcomes is due to the magnitude of high calibre collaborations available here in Atlantic Canada, the generosity of our patients agreeing to participate in research initiatives and the commitment to excellence seen throughout Horizon,” says Bigney.
This innovation would simply not be possible without the generous donations of local businesses, foundations and families, including the Saint John Regional Hospital Foundation and The McCain Foundation and The Chesley Grant.
Banner photo: Core Research Team, pictured left to right: Dana El-Mughayyar (Research Coordinator), Eden Richardson (Research Manager), Erin Bigney (Director of Research) and Amanda Vandewint (Research Coordinator). Not pictured: Donna Eastwood (Clinical Research Associate).