Sareh Zarshenas and Andrew Ho presenting one-minute madness presentation at Toronto Rehab's 10th annual Research Day (Photo:UHN)
"Our mission is to solve big problems," said Dr. Geoff Fernie, Institute Director, Toronto Rehab Research, during his opening address at Toronto Rehab's 10th annual Research Day.
This set the stage for the more than 100 Toronto Rehab graduate students. Each had a minute to present how their research will solve a big problem faced by many. The consistent tie between all of the presentations was that the problems being solved focused on preventing disability, restoring function or enabling independence.
"As researchers, we need to ask ourselves what we are doing to the benefit of people." said Dr. Fernie.
In each of the 103 presentations, the graduate students illustrated how their research project will help people. Examples included aiming to eliminate swallowing issues for people who have survived head and neck cancers; influencing change to the building code for stairs in Canada; and determining how to implement family caregiver education for loved ones of stroke survivors.
The day's special guest was Her Honour Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, who provided an address about the importance of Toronto Rehab's work for Ontario and the world. She was on hand to help congratulate and recognize this year's recipients of the Team Excellence Award, TD Scholarships, the Joel Verwegen Award, the Hallisey Fellowship and the Mark Rochon Award.
Research Day's keynote address was presented by Dr. Anthea Tinker, Professor of Social Gerontology, King's College London, UK. She addressed the role of technology in caring for the aging population.
