Press Releases

S.U.C.C.E.S.S. in Health Research for Different Ethnic Populations
April 23, 2012: The Arthritis Research Centre of Canada (ARC) and S.U.C.C.E.S.S. have come together to build awareness of a $2.5 million research study that targets a mix of ethnicities. April 2012 marks the start of recruitment for the research, which is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and aims to determine the cause of hip pain and its link to osteoarthritis.

IMPAKT-HiP: Finding the Cause of Hip Pain Will End the Suffering
August 16, 2011: To avoid most diseases, including many types of arthritis, recommendations often focus on diet and exercise such as, eat nutritious foods, exercise and maintain a healthy body weight. Given these guidelines, Kelly Barber, Assistant Chief of Coquitlam Fire and Rescue, should move through life effortlessly, but Kelly is currently recovering from a hip replacement.

News Stories

Arthritis treatment moving in a new direction
Arthritis Research Canada senior scientist, Dr. Linda Li talks about her research and the importance of physical activity.

IMPAKT-HiP: Preventing Hip Pain: Why is this study important?
Not enough is known about the cause of hip osteoarthritis. It is a disease that keeps people from doing the activities they love and often affects their ability to work. Many of those affected spend years suffering, slowly eliminating activities and limiting their lifestyle as the pain gradually increases. Believing that it’s just normal aches and pains which will go aware, often the symptoms are ignored. What results is hip osteoarthritis, occurring when cartilage is damaged.

Specialized upright scanners at UBC give researchers images that could help osteoarthritis patients
Researchers at the University of B.C. are using magnetic resonance imaging of joints under stress in the hopes of advancing treatments for osteoarthritis of the hips and knees. Using the only upright open MRI scanner of its kind in Canada, Vancouver Coast Health Research Institute’s Centre for Hip Health and Mobility can capture images of joints throughout their range of motion.

Study aims to prevent hip pain: Five-year project examines effects of activity and a common hip deformity
By determining the cause of hip pain, those behind a collaborative research project hope to find a means of changing the way hip pain is treated, as well as preventing osteoarthritis, a progressive joint disease, in future generations. A strong advocate for IMPAKT-HiP is West Vancouver resident Sheila Kerr, 57, who knows firsthand the challenges of hip osteoarthritis. “I look forward to seeing the results of this study,” she says. “I wish it had taken place years ago, as perhaps it could have influenced some of my choices in physical activities and prevented or slowed the progression of my joint problems”.

IMPAKT-HiP: Arthritis Afflicts All Ages
Not that long ago, people who suffered from arthritis were advised to take it easy and avoid too much physical activity. “Now we know it’s exactly the opposite — they need to get out there and get moving. And that in itself is an important research finding,” says Jane Aubin, scientific director, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis (IMHA).

No lying still in Vancouver hospital’s ‘Upright Open’ MRI machine
Researchers are trying to determine whether wear and tear over time causes pain and grinds away at the cartilage, leading to osteoarthritis.