Dr. Darryl Adamko: Little Lungs, Lessons Learned
Release Date: 01/08/2023
Exercise Your Right to Breathe: Dr. Brianne Philipenko & Asthma
Researchers Under the Scope
Brianne Philipenko (MD) was midway through her respirology fellowship in Calgary when the Covid-19 pandemic shut down the city. She started interval workouts at home using Nike’s fitness app — when inspiration struck. “Coming up with a creative, innovative way to allow people to access an exercise program outside of the typical organized pulmonary rehabilitation in a gym setting was something that I became really interested in,” said Philipenko.. As a respirologist, Philipenko was already frustrated by the lack of ‘mainstay’ guidelines on incorporating exercise...
info_outline
Dr. Sarah Forgie: Why the New Dean of Medicine Taught Herself the Ukelele
Researchers Under the Scope
In this episode, we gain insight into Dr. Sarah Forgie, the new Dean of the College of Medicine. She discusses her innovative teaching methods, her career as a pediatric infectious disease specialist, and her vision for advancing Saskatchewan’s College of Medicine. Dr. Forgie also shares the story behind her decision to learn the ukulele. Born to family physicians, Dr. Forgie grew up in Lynn Lake, Manitoba, a remote fly-in mining community. Her family later relocated to Winnipeg, where Dr. Forgie credits much of her motivation to her mother, who encouraged her to pursue both medicine and...
info_outline
Grey Area: Dr. John Howland on Cannabis & Budding Brains
Researchers Under the Scope
A behavioural neuroscientist in Saskatoon is uncovering marijuana’s effects on fetal brain development. After recently winning a five-year CIHR grant of $960,076 in the spring of 2024, Dr. John Howland’s lab at the University of Saskatchewan is expanding its work examining prenatal exposure to cannabis smoke. Howland’s teams will assess the way cannabis exposure alters higher brain functions like memory and learning in both rats and mice. Compared to cannabis injections in the past, the professor of Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology at the College of Medicine said exposing...
info_outline
Innovating and Bridging Gaps in IBD Care: Dr. Juan-Nicolás Peňa-Sánchez
Researchers Under the Scope
Growing up in Columbia had a profound impact on Dr. Juan-Nicolas Pẽna-Sànchez. In this episode, hear why the former family physician pivoted, becoming Saskatchewan's lead in finding the best ways to treat Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis in rural and Indigenous patients. Even as a teenager, Juan-Nicolás Peña-Sánchez could see stark differences in health for those who had medical coverage — and those without, thanks to his stepfather, an emergency department physician. “I used to go with him sometimes on shifts to learn and shadow him,” said Peña-Sánchez said. “The...
info_outline
Cuts Like a NanoKnife: Dr. Mike Moser
Researchers Under the Scope
"When I got into medical school, the last thing in the world I wanted to be was a surgeon because I couldn't stand the sight of blood," said Dr. Mike Moser. Fast-forward to the present day, where Moser is now one of Saskatchewan's top kidney transplant surgeons, winning last year's Golden Scalpel Award for Pre-clerkship Education, the 2022 Logan Boulet Humanitarian of the Year Award, and numerous teaching awards. In this episode, the professor of general surgery at the University of Saskatchewan's College of Medicine takes us back to one pivotal day where everything changed, propelling...
info_outline
Walking the Talk: Dr. Daniel Fuller on Urban Health and Mobility
Researchers Under the Scope
As an undergrad, Daniel Fuller didn’t have a car, nor was he keen on taking the bus. “I rode my bike to university every day in the fall and then just kept on going and never stopped,” said Fuller, a former national and international canoe/kayak athlete. As he pedaled, Fuller watched the way people used trails, sidewalks and roads. “I really started to get into active transportation, how people move around cities and how we can get people active -- outside of the sport environment,” said Fuller, now an associate professor in Community Health and...
info_outline
Anatomy of Success: Three Researchers, Three Grants, One Goal
Researchers Under the Scope
From the laboratory to saving lives, this episode brings together three outstanding researchers from the University of Saskatchewan’s Department of Anatomy, Physiology, and Pharmacology (APP) as they discuss their work and its implications for cardiac care. Dr. Michelle Collins, Dr. Scott Widenmaier, and Dr. Changting Xiao are all recent recipients of research grants from Heart & Stroke (formerly the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada). In Canada, one per cent of newborns have congenital heart defects. Thanks to advances in cardiac care, up to 85 per cent of these...
info_outline
Dr. Jacob Alhassan and the Politics of Expendability
Researchers Under the Scope
"Pushing politicians to do what is good for the health of the people, there's no way around it," said Dr Jacob Alhassan. Born and raised in a rural Ghanaian village, Alhassan grew up without electricty and paved roads. He watched women die in childbirth. He grew resentful of health systems that left the poorest people to fend for themselves, while the rich thrived. Alhassan decided to take action. At first, he thought he would study hard to become a local hospital administrator. Partway through his university years, Alhassan began to dream even bigger. In this episode, he looks back at his...
info_outline
Dr. Sabira Valiani: Creating Connections in Critical Care
Researchers Under the Scope
Dr. Sabira Valiani was one of the frontline physicians working inside Saskatoon’s critical care units four years ago, during the initial lockdowns of the Covid-19 pandemic. “It was really weird,” said Valiani. Valiani said ‘a lot of light bulbs went off in my head’ amid the automated stillness of the unit, as she watched ventilators breathing for heavily sedated patients. Covered in head-to-toe personal protective equipment, staff in the intensive care unit struggled to simultaneously treat patients, communicate with family members, and enforce hospital...
info_outline
Dr. Daphne Yau on Blood Sugar & Brain Health
Researchers Under the Scope
Daphne Yau can trace her interest in endocrinology back to a beta-cell physiology experiment during her master’s degree, working with laboratory mice with Type 2 Diabetes. “It was the part of the pancreas that makes insulin,” she said. “It was fascinating. It also made me realize that maybe pure laboratory research wasn't quite for me." From there, her interest in hormones and fluctuating blood sugar levels grew. Yau is no stranger to medicine. Her mother was a pharmacist, while her father and aunt both worked as physicians. Following in their footsteps, Lou completed her...
info_outlineDiagnosing pulmonary diseases ilike asthma in young children is still largely a matter of trial and error, according to Saskatchewan’s top pediatric respirologist.
As viruses and colds tear through schools and daycares across North America, Dr. Darryl Adamko wants to change that.
“If you have asthma this year and you're not taking your inhaled steroids, well you're rolling the dice,” said Adamko, who’s watched an influx of young patients over the past few months at the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital in Saskatoon.
In children, problems with breathing are the leading cause of hospitalizations.
Undiagnosed asthma and other pulmonary conditions in children mean small patients have a a much tougher fight when they’re infected by Covid-19, RSV or influenza.
“You have to be taking those preventative drugs first before the virus finds you,” said Adamko.
That’s why he’s pinning down biomarkers for pulmonary disease in a familiar tool for family doctors: urine samples.
“We still really don't have a great test for like preschool kids. It's just history for the most part,” he said.
Using mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, he and his team have spent more than a decade analyzing urine samples and refining their methodology.
“Now that we've got enough urine samples analyzed that, I think we've got a good signal,” said Adamko.
His research today is aimed at creating a urine test that would give giving family doctors and paediatricians a faster, more efficient way to diagnose pulmonary conditions long before kids arrive at the hospital.
In this episode, he explains why a resurgence of RSV after years of Covid restrictions has hit young patients hard.
“It's really bad for little babies. It loves the smallest little airways,” Adamko said. “This year the problem is we've got a bunch of two-year-olds, and one-year-olds who have never seen these viruses.”