Vancouver General Hospital

The Vancouver General Hospital Emergency Medicine Research Division has been active in high quality emergency medicine research since 1993. We are currently involved in over a dozen national and local, investigator designed studies.

Our research director is Jeff Brubacher. Other investigators include Riyad Abu-Laban, KaWai Cheung, Lyne Filiatrault, Kendall Ho, Corinne Hohl, Roy Purssell, and Nick Rose. Investigators are supported through a combination of competitive salary awards, academic funds from the department of emergency medicine and clinical funds set aside by the Vancouver General Hospital Emergency Physician Association to support research. Key areas of investigation include road safety, substance abuse, traumatic brain injury, knowledge translation and eHealth, adverse drug events, clinical decision rules, smoking cessation, sports medicine, quality assurance, sepsis, hyperbaric medicine, and falls in the elderly.

A pilot study on smoking cessation found that patients referred by emergency physicians to a provincial smoking cessation service had a 4-fold higher quit rate at 3 months! A randomized control trial of this intervention is underway. Our adverse drug events study demonstrated that patients presenting with these events have a 50% greater risk of spending additional days in hospital and a 20 % higher rate of outpatient health care needs. We launched a province-wide, five year study, that will analyze the effects of marijuana on driver responsibility in motor vehicle accidents. We are conducting an in-depth evaluation of BC’s new laws around impaired driving, speeding, and distracted driving. Early results indicate a 50.5% reduction in alcohol impaired road fatalities! In another CIHR funded study, patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) are being studied to understand the association between alcohol and outcome after TBI. Our site will soon be involved in a CIHR funded study investigating the association of energy drinks, alcohol and injury.

Please have a look at Vancouver General’s Department of Emergency Medicine’s latest newsletter.