New Investigators

Yukiko Asada

Joining NELS in 2005 as a New Investigator, Yukiko was a co-investigator with the ICE grant, and was responsible for ICE Project 2 on equity measurement. She joined the Management Committee to learn research team development and management.

Yukiko was a CIHR Scholar and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at Dalhousie.

Evolving from her book, Health Inequality: Morality and Measurement, Yukiko has applied her thinking to end of life care. She has presented her work as: Inequity and Vulnerability in End of Life Care: Ethical Analysis

Alix Carter

Alix is an Emergency Medicine physician at Capital Health and the Medical Director of Research, Emergency Health Services in  Halifax. She is appinted to the Dalhousie University Division of Emergency Medical Services. As a NELS ICE New Investigator, she worked with Rebecca Earle to investigate the documentation and needs for advance care planning for children and youth at the IWK Health Centre to support them in staying with their families in their own homes rather than be hospitalized while requiring palliative support. She also works with Jan Jenson and Andrew Travers on the role of the extended care paramedic. This work is reported in: Jensen J, Travers A, Bardua D, Dobson T, Cox B, McVey J, Cain E, Merchant R, Carter A. Transport outcomes and dispatch determinants in a paramedic long-term care program: a pilot study. CJEM. 2013;15(e):1-8 

Heather Castleden

In 2009 Heather was awarded a NELS ICE New Investigator award in for her proposed project, Traditional Stories of Death and Dying: Developing a Tool Kit for Aboriginal Palliative Care. She is an Assistant Professor in the School for Resource and Environmetnal Studies at Dalhousie.

Heather participated in the 2009 NELS ICE Poster Event with: ‘It’s not necessarily the distance on the map …’: Using place as an analytic concept to elucidate geographic issues central to rural palliative care  

She also presented at two NELS ICE Work in Progress sessions: When 'rural' becomes less than 'idyll': Exploring how place, politics and providers influence palliative care service provision in rural and remote communitites in the BC interior (presentation with audio)

“Not another interview!”: Photovoice modified to maintain cultural continuity and address inherent limitations with traditional research methods (presentation slides)

Trevor Dummer

In 2007 Trevor, a medical geographer, began working with NELS. He is a Health Geographer with Dalhousie University's Pediatrics Medicine and an Adjunct Lecturer in Dalhousie's Department of Community Health and Epidemiology. Trevor received his Doctor of Philosophy in Geographical Epidemiology at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne in the United Kingdom.

Trevor helped NELS develop a measure of deprivation using enumeration linked to census data and a driving time variable that correlates with measures of urban/rural status. Both deprivation and driving time are very important in the identification of vulnerable persons. NELS has helped Trevor gain an understanding of end of life research issues and awareness of the research occurring in Nova Scotia.

Trevor contributed to a paper and a poster on this work: Palliative Radiotherapy: Associations with age and nursing home residency for adults dying of cancer 2000-2005

Michael Iwama

In 2004-05 Michael  was a New Investigator with a CIHR palliative care NET grant on Palliative Care in a Cross Cultural Context, and was involved in preparing the letter of intent for the ICE grant.

In 2006 Michael published the book, The Kawa Model; Culturally Relevant Occupational Therapy, on a new theoretical framework in rehabilitation (which partially came out of his New Investigator work) which has brought his work international recognition. The model/framework is used across 6 continents and now published in a variety of other languages.

Michael moved to Toronto and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy and the Graduate Department of Rehabilitation Sciences at University of Toronto. He holds an adjunct appointment at the University of Queensland, Australia. Since working with NELS, he has given over 100 invited International lectures, 25 of which have been keynote addresses.

Jan Jensen

Jan is an Advanced Care Paramedic with Emergency Health Services in Halifax, a MAHSR gradute, and the research projects coordinator at the Dalhousie University Division of Emergency Medical Services. As a NELS ICE New Investigator, she worked with Andrew Travers to evaluate the new advanced care paramedic program introduced in long term care facilites to enable seniors to receive care in nursing homes or enable more direct transfers to hospital services if needed, instead of long waits in the emergency department when a 911 call was made. For this work, Jan gained qualitative methods expertise from Raewyn Bassett. Jan is a member of the research committee of the Canadian Association.This work is reported in: Jensen J, Travers A, Bardua D, Dobson T, Cox B, McVey J, Cain E, Merchant R, Carter A. Transport outcomes and dispatch determinants in a paramedic long-term care program: a pilot study. CJEM. 2013;15(e):1-8 

Sue Korol

Sue is an Associate Professorin the Department of Psychology at Cape Breton University. As a NELS ICE New Invesigator, she worked with Anne Frances D'Intino and others a project on end-of-life caregiving practices. A poster of her work is available and a publication is in progress.

Monique Lanoix

In 2008 Monique was a PhD graduate from the Université de Montréal who worked with NELS to develop an ICE literature database.Monique then accepted an Assistant Professor position in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. Her paper on Palliative care and Parkinson's disease: managing the chronic-palliative interface, was published in Chronic Illness, 2009 5(1).

Emily Marshall

Emily is an Assistant Professorin the Dalhousie Department of Family Medicine and Department of Community Health and Epidemiology. Commnecing in 2010, as a NELS ICE New Investigator, she worked with Melissa Andrew on a major study of Improved outcomes with a new model of dedicated primary care physician and team approach for long-term care facilities? A mixed-methods study. This work is now in the data analysis and reporting stage. An early summary is in NELS News 5.

Delores Mullings

Delores V. Mullings is an assistant professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland. As a NELS ICE New Investigator, Delores is studying end of life concerns for older people in rural Newfoundland.

Brenda Sabo

Brenda is an Associate Professor with the Dalhousie University School of Nursing and has a cross-appointment with the Faculty of Medicine in Palliative Care. She has been a psychosocial oncology therapist at the Nova Scotia cancer centre. She has published on psychosocial distress in caregivers. In 2015, she received a New Investigator award from NSHRF to undertake a scoping review of the facilitators and barriers to early transition to palliative and funding from the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute for research on Demystifying palliative care through arts-based knowledge translation: An innovative knowledge to action approach for engagement and communication among patients/families and healthcare professionals.

Yoko Yoshida

From 2007 to 2009, Yoko was a PhD candidate and new graduate affiliated with NELS. She worked as a Research Associate with Yukiko Asada to develop equity measurements.

Yoko became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Dalhousie University and remains associated with NELS.