We are pleased to announce that effective March 4th, 2010, the ICORD Centre, located in the Blusson Spinal Cord Centre, Vancouver Coastal Health, was repositioned from the UBC College for Interdisciplinary Studies to the Faculty of Medicine. This change to the reporting relationship of ICORD reflects both the strong interprofessional focus across health disciplines for research and patient outcomes and the strong connections to Vancouver Coastal Health and the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute.

Another aspect of change relating to governance is that effective March 14, 2010 Dr. John Steeves concluded his role as Founding Director, ICORD.  We are grateful for the significant contributions that Dr. Steeves and his team of researchers have made to the world of spinal cord research since ICORD was created in 1995 with the support of Rick Hansen and then-UBC President Dr. David Strangway.  Since then, there have been many important milestones achieved:  the creation of the Rick Hansen Man-in-Motion Chair in Spinal Cord Research, and the opening of the Blusson Spinal Cord Centre at Vancouver General Hospital in 2008, that was funded by an award of $12.8 million from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, with matching funds from the BC Knowledge Development Foundation, and from UBC, Vancouver Coastal Health and the Rick Hansen Foundation.  Currently a wide array of researchers (principal investigators and trainees, technicians and staff) are maintaining an interdisciplinary, collaborative research and training environment. The focus on having multidisciplinary researchers together is accelerating the discovery, development and validation of therapies and practices to promote full functional recovery and improved quality of life after spinal cord injury.

Effective March 15th, 2010 we are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Tom Oxland, P.Eng. as the interim Director of ICORD.  Dr. Oxland, a biomechanical engineer, is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Applied Science and the Department of Orthopaedics in the Faculty of Medicine. He holds the Canada Research Chair in Spine Biomechanics.  The objectives of his current research are to enhance the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of clinically relevant musculoskeletal problems with a focus on spinal cord injury and the treatment of the aging spine. Dr. Oxland is also collaborating with the Centre for Hip Health and Mobility in the area of management of and prevention of bone loss.