All Awards

Congratulations to Dr. Jacob Hutton, DEM Postdoctoral Research Fellow, for receiving the 2025 Health Research BC Research Trainee Award! This prestigious award supports researchers dedicated to high-quality work that improves health outcomes. Since its inception in 2001, Health Research BC has awarded over 1,400 Research Trainee awards, fostering career growth in research, biotech, and health policy. This investment strengthens B.C.’s health research system and prepares it for future challenges.

Jacob’s project “Validation and Implementation of a Wearable Cardiac Arrest Detection System in Clinical and Community Settings” is located at the Centre for Advancing Health Outcomes.

Read the announcement from the Faculty of Medicine.

Project Title: Real-World Validation of Machine Learning Algorithms for a Wearable Cardiac Arrest Detection System

Funding amount: $348,074

This project aims to design a cardiac arrest detection system using wearable sensors that can “witness” cardiac arrests that occur in private locations, with the capacity to call 9-1-1. This project will utilize several sensors within smartwatches and rings to monitor participants in palliative care, medically assisted dying, and intensive care unit settings at the time their heart stops (i.e., cardiac arrest). Using artificial intelligence methods, data will be used to validate highly accurate artificial intelligence algorithms that can be run on a smartphone to immediately identify when a cardiac arrest occurs.

New approaches are needed to rapidly detect cardiac arrest and facilitate an emergent professional response. This study aims to identify the most effective sensors for detecting cardiac arrest and to link them to a smartphone app that alerts paramedics for timely interventions. With widespread use, this system has the potential to significantly improve outcomes for cardiac arrest in the general population, especially within high-risk subgroups.

Dr. Jeffrey Brubacher

Project Title: The association between cannabis and motor vehicle collisions – looking beyond THC

Funding amount: $1,644,750

This research will build on the Cannabis and Motor Vehicle Crashes (CMVC) study, which has measured drug and alcohol levels and obtained police reports of injured BC drivers since 2011. Police reports are reviewed to determine which drivers caused the collision. In their analysis, they will compare drug detection rates in drivers who caused the crash with drivers who were “innocently involved” in a collision.

Dr. Corinne Hohl

Project Title: Optimizing outcomes for patients presenting to emergency departments with opioid poisoning

DEM Researchers: Brian Grunau, Andrew Kestler and Jessica Moe

Funding amount: $1,526,175

The research project aims to address the significant impact of the toxic drug crisis in Canada, where 21 Canadians die every day from opioid-related poisoning. Emergency Departments are critical access points for individuals who use drugs, yet the care provided to these individuals is often variable and lacks evidence-based standards. The project’s objectives are to establish a pan-Canadian registry of Emergency Department patients presenting with opioid poisoning, harmonize data collection across participating sites, describe variations in patient characteristics, clinical practice and outcomes, and derive a clinical decision rule to predict the risk of dying within 60 days.

The research team comprises experts in various fields, including emergency and addictions medicine, biostatistics, and knowledge mobilization. Importantly, individuals with lived/living experience and their families have been involved in developing the proposal and will continue to contribute throughout the study. The expected outcomes include advancing healthcare delivery, improving patient and provider experiences, and enhancing population health and health system sustainability for individuals with opioid poisoning. This research is crucial for addressing the opioid crisis in Canada and has the potential to significantly impact patient care and outcomes.

Dr. Brian Grunau, DEM Assistant Professor and the supervisor of Dr. Asamoah-Boaheng, commends, “It has been an absolute pleasure to work with Michael during his postdoctoral fellowship. He is a brilliant epidemiologist who takes the time to understand the key clinical gaps in knowledge and employs innovative statistical models to effectively address clinically relevant questions that impact patient care.”

Congratulations Dr. Asamoah-Boaheng!

A total of 23 Research Excellence Clusters at UBC Vancouver have received funding support for the 2025/26 academic year, and Dr. Kendall Ho and Dr. Corinne Hohl have both been awarded funding for their new research clusters.

The Research Excellence Clusters are interdisciplinary networks of researchers who address societal and cultural problems by collaborating to solve challenges that transcend the traditional boundaries of departments, institutions, and funding agencies. Funding for clusters at UBC Vancouver is awarded through the Grants for Catalyzing Research Clusters (GCRC).

Dr. Kendall Ho’s research initiative, Artificial Intelligence and Technology-Enhanced Emergency Care Collaboration Centre (ATECCC), brings together researchers, healthcare professionals, and technology experts to explore how “Digital Health” (DH) can improve patient care. With challenges like long emergency room waits and rural service closures, ATECCC investigates if DH options, such as telemedicine and AI-assisted health decision-making, are effective and safe for patients, aiming to alleviate overcrowding and enhance doctors’ availability.

Dr. Corinne Hohl’s research cluster, Implementing a Learning Health System in Emergency Addictions Care, focuses on the urgent need for emergency department (ED) interventions to address the ongoing toxic drug crisis. Many overdose victims visit EDs before fatal outcomes, yet there is limited evidence on how to engage high-risk individuals, prevent harm, and provide effective treatments. To tackle the lack of infrastructure and resources for research in EDs, the initiative will establish a provincial learning health system that fosters collaboration among clinicians, researchers, decision-makers, and individuals with lived experience, creating a culture of shared learning and accountability.

Congratulations to Dr. Kendall Ho and Dr. Corinne Hohl!

View 2025/26 Catalyzing Research Clusters Grant (GCRC) recipients

Congratulations to Dr. Kevin Clark, Provincial Program Director of the UBC Department of Emergency Medicine (DEM) RCPSC-EM Residency Program, for being recognized for his outstanding service to postgraduate medical education (PGME) at UBC with a PGME Program Director Award.

“It is awards like this that show educators are valued. I feel that all the meetings, collaboration,  programming and other new initiatives in our residency program over the last few years are paying off and this is one reflection of that hard work. I am so pleased and honoured to receive this great acknowledgment of my leadership.” – Dr. Kevin Clark

Dr. Clark has served as the Provincial Program Director of the residency program since 2019. In addition to this role, he is also a Clinical Associate Professor with the UBC DEM, Distributed Education Lead for UBC PGME, and is a trauma and emergency physician at Kelowna General Hospital. He has been with the DEM since completing his residency training in 2005.

Each year PGME recognizes the excellence of many of the faculty and staff involved in our programs who show dedication in program leadership, support of their program and their impact on education and learning in all facets of residency education.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Clark for receiving this award and thanking him for his ongoing commitment to residency education.

Dr. Emily Lostchuck, UBC Emergency Medicine Fraser resident, was awarded a 2022 CAEP Junior Investigator Grant for her research project named “Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID) in the Emergency Department”. The project aims to characterize the presenting patient characteristics, diagnosis and managements of PID in Canadian emergency departments (ED).

“I am honoured to have the opportunity to use this funding to better support the health and wellbeing of people with uteri and/or their adnexa in the Emergency Department and I hope my work contributes to the ongoing development of gender equity in the ED.”
– Dr. Emily Lostchuck

PID is a common and comorbid disease affecting people with uteruses and their adnexa (PWUA), however only 35 per cent of American ED cases of PID are managed appropriately. Emergency medicine societies around the world, including CAEP, have promoted gender equity within emergency medicine. A key component of achieving gender equity is measuring disease in PWUA.

As there is currently minimal Canadian literature available regarding epidemiology, diagnosis and management of PID, Emily aims to increase the available literature with this study.

For more information on this year’s grant winners, visit https://caep.ca/research/grant-competition/grant-winners/.