Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Research Scientist Profiles
Dr. Mark Bayley
Mark Bayley, MD, FRCPC
Dr. Mark Bayley is Program Medical Director & Physiatrist-in-Chief at Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, and Medical Director for the WSIB Neurology Specialty Program of Altum Health at the University Health Network. He is Professor and Saunderson Family Chair in Brain injury Research at the University of Toronto in the Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Medicine. Mark’s research focuses on understanding how to speed brain recovery through exercise, virtual reality, telerehabilitation and functional electrical stimulation. Importantly, he has explored novel implementation strategies to bridge the knowledge-practice gap by making best evidence available to clinicians through smartphone apps (www.viatherapy.org) and Best Practices Guidelines in stroke, concussion and brain injury (https://braininjuryguidelines.org). His work has redesigned the stroke and brain injury rehabilitation systems in Canada.
Dr. Dinesh Kumbhare
Dr. Dinesh Kumbhare-focus of research Myofascial Pain Syndrome:
The focus of Dr. Kumbhare research is the development of objective, reliable biomarkers to diagnose myofascial pain syndrome. The current method of diagnosis is based upon subjective clinically derived criteria. He plans to develop biomarkers that are based upon pathophysiological principles and have imaging, neurophysiological and ultimately biochemical basis. Thus far, quantitative ultrasound techniques have been used to show excellent discriminative ability between healthy controls and participants who have myofascial pain. Further research that integrates this with clinical and neurophysiological measures is planned. This is anticipated to provide advancement in diagnosis with the proposal of new criteria based upon clinical and biomarkers. The newly developed criteria will be based upon underlying pathophysiology and have statistical/methodological rigor. He has submitted several grants and research papers and published more than 10 papers in peer-reviewed journals in 2018.
Some published papers are listed below:
- Upadhye S, Kumbhare D. Potential harms with long term glucocorticoid use. Amer J PM&R. 2018; 97(1):72-74. Senior Responsible Author.
- Kumbhare D, Ahmed S, Watter S. A narrative review on the difficulties associated with fibromyalgia diagnosis. Therapeutic Advances in Musculoskeletal Disease. 2018; 10(1):13-26. Principal Author
- Kumbhare DA, Ahmed S, Behr M, Noseworthy M. Quantitative ultrasound using texture analysis of myofascial pain syndrome in the trapezius. Critical Reviews in Biomedical Engineering. 2018; 97(1):72-74. Principal Author.
Find more about his publications:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Kumbhare%2C%20Dinesh%5BAuthor%5D
Dr. Rajni Nijhawan
Focus on Women's Cardiac Health and Patient Education
As a clinician teacher, Dr. Nijhawan is the principal preceptor and medical education placement coordinator for the cardiac rehabilitation rotation for undergraduate and postgraduate learners at the provincial, national and international level.
In collaboration with the interprofessional team in Cardiac Rehab, Dr. Nijhawan has been instrumental in providing leadership in the development and implementation of a multimedia and multilingual patient education program for people living with heart disease (www.cardiaccollege.ca) and diabetes (www.diabetescollege.ca).
Recently, she worked with a research team in India to illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of cardiac rehabilitation in patients post myocardial infarction and percutaneous coronary intervention at a tertiary care hospital in Chandigarh, India.
Link to abstract:
Dr. Paul Oh
A new study from Toronto Rehab found that combining aerobic and resistance training provides powerful benefits to patients who are recovering from a stroke.
Recommendations for combined aerobic and resistance training for stroke survivors have been in place for years, but few research studies exist demonstrating that it actually improves recovery. Moreover, there is no compelling evidence that combined training is more effective than aerobic training alone for post-stroke recovery.
“One focus area for the research team in cardiac rehab is around exercise training models in cardiovascular populations,” says the Department of Medicine’s Dr. Paul Oh. “What type and intensity, dose and frequency are associated with optimal gains in fitness and function?”
To address this important question, Dr. Susan Marzolini, a PhD scientist at Toronto Rehab, led a team that compared combined aerobic and resistance training with aerobic training alone in a group of stroke survivors with mobility deficits.
They discovered despite being prescribed 40 per cent less aerobic training, patients who received combined training had enhanced stroke recovery and showed greater improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness, strength and lean muscle mass. In fact, the combined training group gained almost five times more muscle mass than the aerobic only group.
The findings provide scientific evidence of the benefits of supplementing aerobic sessions with resistance training and support the integration of both types of training in stroke rehabilitation programs.
This work was supported by the Heart and Stroke Foundation Canadian Partnership for Stroke Recovery, and the Ontario Stroke Network.
Citation: Neurorehabil Neural Repair. 2018 Mar;32(3):209-222. doi: 10.1177/1545968318765692. Epub 2018 Mar 30.
Link to abstract: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29600726