Dr. Marta Erlandson

Dr. Erlandson is a postdoctoral fellow in the Women’s Health and Osteoporosis Programs at the University Health Network, University of Toronto. Dr. Erlandson obtained an Honor’s BSc. in Kinesiology in 2005 from the University of Saskatchewan. She graduated with great distinction and was awarded the Dr. Gordon Gravie Prize for the most outstanding graduate in the College of Kinesiology. During all four of her undergraduate years, Dr. Erlandson was on the College’s Honor Roll and was awarded the Exchange Travel Scholarship to attend her third year at the University of Queensland in Australia where she was awarded the Dean’s Commendation for High Achievement. Dr. Erlandson obtained her MSc in 2007 and PhD in 2010 from the University of Saskatchewan and worked on the CIHR-funded Saskatchewan Pediatric Bone Mineral Accrual Study (PBMAS) and the Saskatchewan Growth and Development Study (SGDS). She received peer-reviewed funding from the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation and the Canadian Institute of Health Research for her graduate studies. She also received numerous scholarships and recognition from the College of Kinesiology as well as the College of Graduate Studies and Research at the University of Saskatchewan.
 
Dr. Erlandson has five first authored publications in the past three years.  She has presented her work at a number of local, national and international meetings; including the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, the American College of Sports Medicine and the North American Society of Pediatric Exercise Science (NASPEM). In 2007 and 2009, she received first place for her poster presentations at the University of Saskatchewan’s Life Science’s Conference. In 2008, Dr. Erlandson was award the NASPEM Student Research Award to examine musculoskeletal development in young recreational and precompetitive gymnasts.

Dr Erlandson holds full membership in a number of professional associations including the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, the American College of Sports Medicine and the Canadian Society of Exercise Physiology. Dr. Erlandson was a member of the University of Saskatchewan’s Varsity Track and Field team for five years and sat on numerous committees across campus including: President and Treasurer of the Huskies Athletic Council, Chair for the Kinesiology Graduate Student Society and Graduate Representative for the Local Health and Safety Board.

Dr. Erlandson’s research interests are in the area of female musculoskeletal health. Her graduate work focused on the potential role of gymnastics participation in childhood (especially among girls) as a preventative measure against the development osteoporosis. Dr. Erlandson used peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT) and dual x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) to explore the effect of impact loading on bone development. She will now be examining the potential of these novel imaging tools to capture muscle parameters and provide important information on how muscle changes around menopause and with aging. Muscle mass, density and function in women is an important evolving area that cuts across the lifespan and is currently understudied.

Research Project

The Relationship between Muscle Mass, Density and Size to Functional Measures in Postmenopausal Women

Skeletal muscle plays a key role in activities of daily living and is essential for maintaining balance and bone health. Aging is associated with a loss of muscle mass, strength and physical function. Women experience an accelerated loss of muscle mass and function around the time of menopause. This decline in muscle mass is termed sarcopenia. Sarcopenia is becoming a major public health concern and is costly to the Canadian health care system. The loss of muscle strength and mass has been found to result in falls, fractures, limitations to mobility and increased hospitalizations in older populations. Currently there is no established protocol for assessing sarcopenia and its related functional disability. Muscle imaging has the potential to play an important role in studies of the causes of sarcopenia as well as the response of the muscular system to targeted intervention. The proposed study will use two novel muscle imaging techniques to determine the best measures of muscle size and density and how they relate to functional ability and falls risk in healthy postmenopausal women, as well as in those with a history of falls who are at risk for fractures.
 
Two groups of postmenopausal women 50-90 years of age will be recruited for the study. The first group will consist of healthy postmenopausal women and the second group will include women who have experienced two or more falls over the past year. Muscle size and muscle density will be measured at the forearm and lower leg using two different imaging techniques. Function will be measured using a physical performance battery and grip strength. The relationship between muscle density, size and physical function will be explored as well as the ability of these tests to distinguish between individuals who have experienced a fall and those who have not. The knowledge gained from this study will be useful for preventative health initiatives both for identifying individuals who are at higher risk of experiencing a fall and for assessing the effectiveness of interventions aimed at decreasing falls risk.

2011-12 Ontario Women’s Health Scholars Award- Doctoral Award Winner

Caitlin M. Mulcahy

Caitlin Mulcahy is a doctoral student in Recreation and Leisure Studies at the University of Waterloo. Her primary research interests include gender, health, qualitative inquiry, and the family. Her doctoral dissertation focuses on motherhood, memory, and loss.  Caitlin has published several refereed papers and made many presentations on her research.  She has been recipient of numerous scholarships and awards including a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship.

Originally from Nova Scotia, Caitlin now resides in London, Ontario with her husband and two young children.  She holds an MA in Recreation and Leisure Studies from the University of Waterloo and a BA Honours in Sociology from St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia.

Research

Women’s family memory-keeping as gendered work: A feminist auto ethnographic excavation of the memories our mothers keep for us

My doctoral research was inspired by witnessing the loss of my mother’s memory to Huntington’s Disease, a devastating neurological disease characterized by movement disorder, cognitive deterioration, and affective disturbances; it is genetic, and it is without cure.  My mother had a wonderful memory.  One of her favourite activities was to haul her “bags of treasures” out of the closet and go through them with us, sifting through years of hospital bracelets, childhood drawings, school reports, photographs, and graduation caps.  These activities, these acts of remembrance, anchored us as a family, as siblings, as individuals.  Now, as our mother’s memory begins to fade, and as we are faced with our own genetic testing and diagnoses, those “treasures” she kept become reminders not only of who we once were as a family and as individuals, but who our mother once was as well.  Hence, I proposed to study motherhood, the collection of family memory, and the loss of family memory for my doctoral dissertation.

Family memory involves anything from remembering birthdays, anniversaries, and old family stories, to creating scrapbooks, photo albums, and blogs.  The “family memory keeper” is a gendered role, one typically filled by women.  My research explores how women come to take on this role, as well as how families cope when that memory is threatened or lost.  From the fifteen interviews I have completed thus far, emerges a moving and deeply impactful picture of motherhood, memory, and loss.  I have interviewed mothers attempting to continue their “memory work” in the face of post-partum depression, breast cancer, and an inoperable brain tumour.  I have interviewed caregivers, children, and siblings dealing with the loss of their mother’s memory. Finally, I have interviewed my own siblings, father, and mother, to better understand how families cope both with genetic disease and with the loss of a mother’s memory.  A deeper understanding of the hidden stresses and responsibilities that accompany women’s role as “memory keepers” can inform professionals working with women in mental health, long-term care, or palliative care.  And disseminating knowledge about the meaning of women’s “memory work” for their families can also help provide better care for families facing their mother’s decline, disease, or death.  The results of this study will also be shared with the Huntington Society of Canada in the hopes that such collaboration will result in a better understanding of this rare disease and the impact of this disease on families.

2011-12 Ontario Women’s Health Scholars Award- Master’s Award Winner

Anna Maeva

Anna Maeva is an MSc student in Medical Bio-imaging at the University of Toronto in the Department of Medical Biophysics. She was born in Moscow and moved to Windsor, Ontario at the age of six with her family, where she attended an Immersion French School. Growing up in Windsor she attended an enriched program at Vincent Massey Secondary School where she competed in the Canadian National Science Fair, placing with a bronze medal. This sparked her love for the sciences and she continued to pursue and graduated with an Honours Bachelors degree in Chemistry with a minor in physics from the University of Windsor. After a summer volunteering in the Radiology Department at Harvard, studying medical imaging techniques, she was accepted to the Medical Biophysics Department at the University of Toronto where she is currently pursuing a Master’s program in the field of High Frequency Ultrasound under the mentorship of Dr. Stuart Foster.

Anna has published several earlier research works in the field of diagnostic ultrasound. She has held two summer NSERC USRA awards, renewable scholarships, an Outstanding Scholars award and has been on the Deans and Presidents Honour rolls. Most recently she has held a School of Graduate Studies internal scholarship.

Throughout her childhood and adult life Anna has also had a passion for both the visual and performing arts. She has studied piano since the age of three, performing and placing in many national festivals. She has also studied classical guitar, saxophone and voice. Anna enjoys painting, sculpting and graphic design as well as fashion design and hopes that she can one day master the art of sewing.

Since an early age, Anna has been involved with many charitable including the Rotary International Windsor Chapter, the Windsor Safety Village and several resting homes. She was the vice president of Rotaract1918 Chapter, helped organize Red Bull Air races and the SSS Russia Canada Hockey Games. Anna also had the privilege of being chosen as a Mascot for the Olympic torch bearing event in Windsor. She has also served on many student councils and university committees. Most recently Anna competed for the preliminaries of Miss Universe, placing in the top 20 for the Regional Pageant.

Sports play a crucial role in both leading a healthy lifestyle and stress management. Anna is an avid runner, enjoys tennis, soccer, swimming, biking and skiing as well as yoga, kickboxing and Pilates.

Research Project

High Resolution Supersonic Shear Wave Imaging

Elastography is an imaging technique based on the elastic properties of tissue. It is quickly gaining acceptance at low ultrasound frequencies in breast and liver screening. This technique has been extensively explored using modalities such as Magnetic Resonance and Ultrasound. The drawbacks of MRI are that it uses external palpation, is expensive and has long waiting times. Ultrasound provides a cost and time effective approach to tumor detection, which is non invasive, non toxic, and now has the ability to initiate shear waves at depths using specially constructed push pulses. Being in its infancy for clinical applications of shear wave imaging for clinical breast imaging it does not have the sufficient resolution to detect subtle elastic variations in tissue.  This is important when trying to detect small tumors or ones that vary slightly from the surrounding healthy tissue. Similarly these approaches have not been applied to the study of animal models of disease where high frequencies and resolution are crucial.

Implementing high frequency shear waves technique will provide a new tool for the detection of and characterization of disease models in small animals as well as a more precise and sensitive tool for evaluating and quantifying small tumors in many cancer models such as the breast and ovaries, where small tumor detection is key for health assessment.