Health research in Sudbury helping patients around the world

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The work being done at Health Sciences North Research Institute in Sudbury is about more than just exploring abstract ideas. Just ask Bill Crumplin, a retired Laurentian University professor and cancer survivor.

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Crumplin talked to the institute’s Expo of Creativity, Care, and Collaboration, held recently at Science North’s Cavern, about his experiences.

“Because of (gene) therapy, I now once again have saliva,” Crumplin said. “I went years without it after my cancer treatments. I had dry mouth. It affected my quality of life, my speech. I was part of this amazing research.”

His words touched the expo’s audience.

Dr. Deborah Saunders led this research. “My world is dentistry,” Saunders said. “I am a hospital dentist. A third of my work is treating side effects of cancer care in head and neck cancer patients. There are complications.

“What I have seen my patients experience made me want to create change and have better outcomes. Using gene therapy is novel … it is the only gene therapy study we are doing at (the research institute).

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“This has the potential to improve tens of thousands of people’s quality of life here and everywhere. Post-radiation treatment dry mouth is a common occurrence. Loss of saliva has so many negative impacts in the oral cavity, and from taste to digestion.

“Gene therapy is our new medicine. Maybe not in our generation, but it will be the future of health care. It’s pretty amazing what we are doing in research.”

Dr. Saunders summed up the importance of the event. “We are becoming a little bit more vocal because we want to promote research in the north. I help bring research from bench to bedside. A lot of what’s in this room is exactly what this is. My patients are my inspiration.”

Dr. Robert Olhe, meanwhile, provided the opening words to the Expo of Creativity, Care, and Collaboration that supported the importance of community and people in successful studies.

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“It is easy to get lost in the complexities of data, statistics, and forget that at the heart of every breakthrough are patients,” Olhe said. “They are individuals with stories of struggles, triumphs, of hope. Research is not an abstract concept. It is a series of patient narratives driving the innovation and change.”

The Health Sciences North Research Institute is an arm of Health Science North, Sudbury’s hospital. While the hospital is well known and prominent on the landscape of Sudbury, some of its other components and work, such as the research institute, are perhaps less evident.

“This is an open house that highlights some of the amazing research going on,” said Ian Lane, referring to the Expo of Creativity, Care, and Collaboration.

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Lane, now with Northern Ontario Angels, knows the value of the work of Health Sciences North Research Institute. “I worked here for six years. (This is) a great venue and opportunity … a great celebration that showcases innovation. It is wonderful to see a full room coming together.”

Science North’s Cavern was abuzz as a mix and mingle started the evening expo. A series of posters encircled the event. With each exhibit, there was someone (or two) to explain the roles and stories of facilitating research and moving health care forward.

From revolutionizing stroke care to surgical wound care, and substance abuse, the crowd circulated past the presentation boards asking questions and getting answers.

Dr. Stefano Priola and John Cesco, for example, talked about how Cesco’s post-car accident head injury led to research called “A New Intervention for Sudbdural Bleeding.”

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Both Cesco and Priola spoke from their perspectives about the process and solutions, and together on the positive outcome. It has the potential to help many with bleeds in the brain.

Alexander Wood of the HSN Simulation Lab demonstrated a cutting-edge simulator for health-care students.

“We provide high-fidelity training sessions for medical learners,” Wood said. “As close to real as we can. Nothing like the thorax simulator here has been done.

“In the world, (the Health Sciences North Research Institute) is doing it first.”

In the emergency environment, in critical care and in penetrating trauma, this training can be extremely valuable.

“We started this six months and ago and perhaps there is commercialization in the future,” Wood said.

The Local Journalism Initiative is made possible through funding from the federal government.

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