Physical Activity and Arthritis Care with Manny Ester
In case you’re new to Arthritis Research Canada’s Trainee Network, we believe that helping scientists develop their careers is the best way to ensure we continue to find answers for millions of Canadians living with arthritis.
Arthritis Research Canada is home to over 40 research trainees. These trainees conduct research under the mentorship of leading experts in a variety of disciplines – from rheumatology to physiotherapy, pharmacy, health economics and more.
Over the next year, we’re profiling these amazing, up-and-coming arthritis scientists and the projects they lead. Next up is Dr. Manuel (Manny) Ester, a post-doctoral researcher working with Dr. Claire Barber at the University of Calgary’s McCaig Institute for Bone and Joint Health.
Manny, tell us about your background.
I’m German Canadian. I moved to Canada when I was a little kid and have been interested in research for a long time.
When I was younger, my grandpa battled cancer for many years. That got me interested in understanding chronic conditions and trying to do something that could make a difference for people with chronic conditions one day.
Volunteering at a golf tournament that raised funds for exercise oncology research
How did you get involved in arthritis research?
I first learned about Arthritis Research Canada through my supervisor, Dr. Claire Barber, who is a scientist with the organization and a rheumatologist herself. I met Claire around two and a half years ago. Before that, I was working a lot with cancer populations and physical activity. She was interested in doing research that was related to physical activity and helping rheumatology populations, and I was curious about thinking about physical activity in different contexts. Arthritis was an area where I hadn’t done any work in previously.
How did you become interested in studying physical activity?
I was a competitive athlete for most of my life and played soccer. During my undergraduate degree, I started to work at the fitness centre at my university and as a personal trainer.
It was separate from my research interests, but over time I realized I could combine these two things and could do research around helping people with different chronic conditions stay physically active. It was the perfect blend of my personal interests and my desire to help people.
What is your current research focus? What are you working on?
All of the work I do focuses on creating practical solutions that help make physical activity easier. Whether it’s for patients or for providers, we try to understand why people are having challenges being physically active, or why healthcare providers aren’t supporting their patients as much as they should be.
From understanding the challenges that people and providers face, we try to think about how to use research to create practical, actionable solutions for people. How can we create tools to support physical activity or to become and stay physically active? My expertise involves thinking about the behaviour change: the psychology of both physical activity counseling and actual physical activity habits. Using the psychology behind it is what helps us be effective and make a difference.
Bouldering at the Okotoks Erratic
What do you hope this research achieves?
I’m hoping to make a practical, meaningful difference in the lives of people living with arthritis and other chronic conditions. I hope that by taking this practical angle to my work that we can make a change in the healthcare system to better support physical activity, and help people with arthritis and other chronic conditions live their lives to the fullest.
We know how powerful physical activity can be for your physical and mental health, your confidence and living well. Not everyone is going to want to be a marathon runner or hiker, but everyone can use physical activity as a way to help themselves.
What do you hope this research achieves?
There’s a lot of challenges that come with living with arthritis. Luckily, due to medical advances, people are living relatively well with arthritis and have good disease management. But there’s still so much that needs to be done in terms of addressing long term challenges and gaps: things like facing long term fatigue and figuring out what life with arthritis can look like.
There’s so much research that’s needs to be done beyond just managing the condition. I want to help people be able to live meaningful, full lives.
What does it mean to you to be part of Arthritis Research Canada?
Arthritis Research Canada gave me the opportunity to work closely with patient partners and patient populations, which has been really meaningful. It also gave me the opportunity to connect with different passionate researchers, whether it’s rheumatologists, physiotherapists, students with different research interests or people who are at different stages in their careers.
Research can have its ups and downs, but having a network that supports you makes a huge difference. I think Arthritis Research Canada does a great job of fostering connection and bringing people together.
What does it mean to you to be part of Arthritis Research Canada?
I’m continuing to work in the direction I’m working in right now, since there still opportunities and potential to think about how we make research practical for people that are living with arthritis and other conditions.
It’s been encouraging to see the team at Arthritis Research Canada put emphasis on putting research into practice. I hope that continues to grow.
