The purpose of this study is twofold: For Canadian healthcare graduates, we seek to learn about your thoughts on Health care providers who graduate from overseas. For internationally trained physicians, we aim to explore the challenges you face in the healthcare system. Your participation will help us know how to best integrate internationally trained physicians in the Canadian healthcare system.

Dr. Doreen Rabi and her research team would like to learn from African, Caribbean, and Black newcomer Albertans about their experiences of seeking health care in Alberta. If you volunteer to participate in this study, we will ask you to speak with two members of the research team for about one hour (60 minutes) about your health care experiences since arriving in Alberta. We will be be asking you questions about your background, what your health care needs have been, and how you have addressed your health issues along the way. Interviews or focus groups will be run online or in person.

Pregnancy increases the risk of blood clots in the leg veins (deep vein thrombosis) and lungs (pulmonary embolism). Injectable blood thinners called low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) may be prescribed during pregnancy to prevent or treat blood clots. This may include people who have a new or prior blood clot, or those who have strong risk factors for a blood clot. This can create a challenge around labor and delivery, because staying on blood thinners can increase the risk of bleeding and affect the ability to get an epidural or spinal anesthetic for pain control. There are different approaches around the world for managing blood thinners around during labor and delivery. Generally, blood thinners are stopped before delivery to prevent bleeding and are restarted after delivery to prevent blood clots. Sometimes, a planned delivery called an induction of labor is recommended. The safest time to stop and restart the blood thinners is not known and may influence being able to have a natural delivery or a planned delivery. The purpose of this research study is to help give doctors and future pregnant patients more information about the safety of different approaches that are used to reduce the risk of blood clots in pregnancy and after delivery.

The study will use a new screening test for rejection of transplanted kidney using urine CXCL10 testing. In the first year after kidney transplant, the patient will have urine CXCL10 measured at their routine clinic visits. This test will be used to see if the patient is at risk of rejection of transplanted kidney. If a patient is at risk of rejection, they may be “randomized” (like flipping a coin, heads or tails) to get a kidney transplant biopsy to check for rejection. Early diagnosis and treatment of rejection may help the kidney transplant stay healthy and last longer.

The purpose of this study is to learn more about immune side effects of cancer therapy so that we improve ways to diagnose and treat them. Immunotherapy medications are revolutionizing cancer treatment. They work by ‘repurposing’ the immune system to fight cancer. Unfortunately, when the immune system is turned on to fight cancer, it can also lead to autoimmune diseases such as arthritis, skin rashes, endocrine disorders, bowel inflammation. Because these autoimmune diseases are caused by the medication they are called, immune-related adverse events. Understanding the mechanisms behind these immune side effects may help us identify strategies to reduce them and allow patients to continue on these life-saving drugs. It also may help us better understand traditional auto-immune diseases not caused by the immunotherapy. You are being asked to participate in this study because (1) you may be a candidate for a cancer immunotherapy drug, now or in the future, OR (2) you are currently receiving or have received such a drug in the past. We would like to include you in our study, collect information from you through a questionnaire and your regular blood work and investigations at every visit, and follow you over time if you develop a rheumatic immune related side effect or if you already have an auto-immune disease and are treated or will be treated with immunotherapy. All information collected is part of your regular clinical follow-up, the only difference is that we would keep it in a database. Participation in this project will not affect your routine medical care in any way. If you decide to participate, you may still choose to withdraw from the study at any time without any negative consequences to the medical care, education, or other services to which you are entitled or are presently receiving.

Physical activity may be beneficial for patients who are preparing or recovering from organ transplants. Performing physical activity prior to or after transplant surgery may help improve how well the surgery is tolerated, reduce the amount of time in hospital, aid in recovery, and improve overall physical and mental wellness. The transplant wellness program (TWP) offers comprehensive wellness support for organ recipients to become more physically active before and after surgery. TWP will support wellness behaviour change, helping participants overcome barriers to physical activity through wellness behavior change coaching support as well as via participation in an exercise intervention (program). If you consent to the TWP, you will be offered a 12-week exercise intervention supervised by a Clinical Exercise Physiologist (CEP) and wellness behavior change support. You can participate in the 12-week exercise intervention before or after your transplant surgery. We will also be offering TWP maintenance resources such as group exercise classes, group wellness behaviour change support, and educational webinars after the 12-week exercise intervention. Even if you choose not to participate in the exercise intervention, you will still have access to these additional TWP maintenance resources. The purpose of this research study is to assess if the TWP exercise intervention and maintenance resources, including education and programs, will support wellness across physical (i.e., frailty, physical activity levels) and mental (i.e., depression, anxiety) health outcomes, and enhance the overall quality of life in transplant patients. We are also studying the association between the TWP (exercise intervention and maintenance resources) and markers of health care system use, such as number of hospital admissions and length of hospital stays.

We’re exploring how stressful childhood events might influence irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) symptoms in individuals. We are recruiting adults both with and without IBS. Participants will answer questions about stress, mental health, sleep quality and IBS symptoms.

We are conducting a research study examining how training load and short recovery periods influence fatigue during high-intensity cycling exercise. In a total of 8 visits, you will perform cycling while receiving muscle stimulations (non-invasive and painless) to measure your fatigue. The training sessions will involve both high-intensity interval training and continuous cycling.

This study looks at how lifestyle choices like exercise and diet, along with certain genes called HERVs, affect aging and telomere length in individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It will explore whether healthy habits can help slow down early aging in this population, who often face more health problems, like early menopause. By examining how these habits impact telomere length and whether HERV expression can show signs of early aging, researchers aim to help healthcare professionals and caregivers create personalized care plans to support healthy aging.

We are doing a study to find out how consistently the same clinician can assess hip and groin health in young athletes using a series of tests. These include movement screening, strength testing, and clinical tests for signs of injury. Participants will come to our lab for two short visits (30 minutes each), one week apart. The goal is to improve how we identify and monitor hip and groin problems early in active youth and young adults.