New simulation lab will study prevention of disease in long-term care homes cbc.ca - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from cbc.ca Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
SAINT JOHN, N.B. New Brunswick’s first ever long-term care simulation lab has officially opened in Saint John, giving researchers the chance to learn more about the spread of viruses - like COVID-19 - in long-term care facilities, and how to help prevent them. The newly-renovated research space is located in Loch Lomond Villa in Saint John, N.B. The lab has been built to replicate a typical double-resident room with a shared bathroom, tub facility and hallways. “In a simulated environment, you can control everything that happens,” says Rose McCloskey, nursing professor and the leader of the University of New Brunswick project. “We can introduce the variables we want to study, we can control things that we want to study, and so that’s one of the benefits of a simulated environment.”
Photo provided by UdeM.
A new health research chair in therapeutic cannabis is being created at the Université de Moncton.
Montreal-based Clinique la Croix Verte and the New Brunswick Health Research Foundation are providing $1 million in funding over five years.
Various cannabis-related research projects will be undertaken including the study of the human psychological and physiological response to cannabinoids.
Clinique la Croix Verte has been providing natural care products made from medicinal cannabis to its clients since 2014.
UdeM president and vice-chancellor Dr. Denis Prud’homme said the new research chair will lead to advances by improving the management of certain health issues.
“Initially, when you got the virus, it was thought you got it and either recovered or you died,” Lloyd said. They now know that some patients feel wiped out for months, experience sleep disturbances, brain fog and the inability to focus and other longer-term symptoms, she said, acknowledging the differences in symptoms people experience is something scientists are only beginning to comprehend. Emily Bodechon, a health-care worker and long-hauler in Quispamsis, is a patient participating. I got sick in March, said Bodechon, and was sick for four weeks. At the time everyone thought if you have mild to moderate symptoms, which she did, you would recover quickly, Bodechon said. But after a week-long reprieve from the illness, a new wave of symptoms arrived.
Dr. Vett Lloyd (courtesy Mount Allison University)
What will the long-term health effects and possible complications be for COVID-19 patients?
A study by researchers at Mount Allison University is now underway to find out.
Biology professor Dr. Vett Lloyd and her students began the project by launching an online survey last fall.
“We are learning more about this virus, and its variants, every day,” says Lloyd.
“Considering how many people have already been affected, and how many more will become infected as the pandemic continues, learning more about the long-term effects of COVID-19 is essential in measuring its full impact on people’s health globally.”