Dr. Jackie Whittaker, Assistant Professor at UBC, and Research Scientist at Arthritis Research Canada is the recipient of a 2020 MSFHR Scholar Award for the research she’s leading to reduce the risk of OA (osteoarthritis) after knee injury with the SOAR (Stop OsteoARthritis) program.
SOAR is a new physiotherapy-guided program that targets risk factors for knee OA in youth and young adults that have injured their knee playing sport or recreational activity. SOAR was developed with patient partners, and is based on her clinical and research findings.
“When I reflect back on the many encounters that I had with patients who were suffering from persistent low-back, hip or knee pain, or a chronic tendonitis I can’t tell you how many times I thought to myself I wished I had met them when they first hurt themselves or first started experiencing pain as I believe that their condition could have been minimized through preventing, or rehabilitating fully, that precipitating event.” - Dr. Jackie Whittaker
We’re excited to see how Dr. Whittaker’s work will continue to strengthen our profession, and we’re not the only ones.
Fellow PABC member and colleague of Dr. Whittaker’s, Dr. Marie Westby, sent out a series of Tweets congratulating Dr. Whittaker on this honour. This act of support and comradery allowed us at PABC to find out about the news.
“I was thrilled to see Dr. Whittaker and her research on OA prevention after sport-related knee injury be recognized through this prestigious award. To my knowledge, she is only 1 of 2 physiotherapists /PT researchers in the past 5 years to receive the MSFHR Scholar Award. Our entire profession benefits when one of our members is acknowledged in this way as it brings much needed attention to the scientifically strong and clinically relevant research being done by PTs.” - Dr. Marie Westby
Congratulations, Dr. Whittaker! You can learn more about the MSFHR Scholar Award here, and read further about SOAR, here.