The Women’s Health Research Institute (WHRI) is very pleased to congratulate the recipients of the 2022 Graduate and Fellowship Research Award in Women’s Health. This competition was supported thanks to the dedicated funding provided by the BC Ministry of Health, in partnership with the BC Women’s Health Foundation.
The WHRI launched this award in 2020 with a goal of creating a funding opportunity specific to our outstanding trainee community. This award provides salary support to WHRI-affiliated graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who are engaged in women’s and/or newborn health research under the mentorship of a WHRI member.
This year, the WHRI awarded two graduate-level awards and one postdoctoral fellowship-level award, valued at $21,000 each, for a one-year period.
Fellowship-level Award Recipient
Recipient
Dr. Lina Roa, Postdoctoral Fellow, UBC Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology (Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery)
Project Supervisor
Dr. Roxana Geoffrion, Associate Professor, UBC Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology
Project Title
Psychosexual and physiotherapy intervention for sexual health after childbirth trauma
Project Aims
To develop and test the feasibility of a multidisciplinary online intervention that combines cognitive behavioral therapy and pelvic floor physiotherapy for female sexual dysfunction after vaginal birth complicated by obstetric anal sphincter injury (OASIS). Using an existing online platform of evidence-based tools, a multidisciplinary intervention will be delivered to the specific population of female patients post childbirth trauma. This online intervention will be used in a future pilot randomized controlled trial to develop and measure effect size of the intervention compared to usual care for female sexual dysfunction postpartum.
Doctoral-level Award Recipient
Recipient
Danette Jubinville, Graduate Student (PhD), SFU Faculty of Health Sciences
Project Supervisor
Dr. Nicole Berry, Associate Professor, SFU Faculty of Health Sciences
Project Title
Safeguarding the Ceremony of Birth: Indigenous-Led Strategies for Improving Doula Care in Vancouver, British Columbia
Project Aims
To strengthen doula care for Indigenous people in
Vancouver, British Columbia by taking an Indigenous-led approach. Goals of this work include:
1) Establishing an Indigenous Advisory Circle of birth workers, community members, and Elders to guide data collection, analysis, and knowledge sharing activities;
2) Conducting qualitative research to generate new knowledge and make recommendations for improving doula care for Indigenous people in Vancouver and BC;
3) Building strategic partnerships with local, provincial, and national stakeholders who will receive our research results through an integrated knowledge translation approach.
Master's-level Award Recipient
Recipient
Kyle Amaral, Graduate Student (MSc), UBC Department of Medicine (Experimental Medicine)
Project Supervisor
Dr. Manish Sadarangani, Associate Professor, UBC Department of Pediatrics
Project Title
Immunogenicity of acellular pertussis vaccination in pregnant women with and without HIV, and their newborns in Uganda
Project Aims
To examine the amount and function of pertussis-specific antibodies in women living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) after acellular pertussis vaccination during pregnancy compared with women without HIV, and their infants, before and after their routine vaccinations. It is known that Ab is important in protection against pertussis, but there is no specific amount of Ab that is definitively protective. This work will help us to understand the role of Ab amount and function as it relates to pertussis immunization in pregnancy for women living with HIV, and may provide valuable information on the development of new vaccines.