Education Resources
Education Resources
Dr. Peter N. McCracken Legacy Scholarship
Dr. Peter N. McCracken has been recognized for many accomplishments throughout his distinguished career. His greatest passion was always the well-being of his patients. His dedication left a lasting impression on patients, their families, staff and colleagues, as well as learners of all disciplines. Second only to his commitment to his patients, was his passion for teaching. He demonstrated great versatility in sharing his knowledge to clinicians of all disciplines. Throughout his many years of practice in Edmonton, he gave much to the advancement of geriatric medicine both in his clinical work and in research, especially in the area of Alzheimer’s and other dementias. It is thanks in large part to his leadership in geriatric medicine that seniors in our province have access to the leading edge care that they do today.
The Dr. Peter N. McCracken scholarship is awarded annually to a student in Medicine or a graduate student in another health discipline, with a special interest in geriatrics. Selection will be based on academic achievement and the evaluation of the individual as a role model for excellence in clinical care and research.
Applications are now being accepted for this award. Applicants must submit a proposal outlining specific achievements that illustrate the competencies of clinical excellence, role modeling and leadership amongst their peers, as well as research acumen. The scholarship recipient will be announced at the Dr. Peter McCracken Memorial Lecture (TBA).
Please go the application form online at Dr. Peter N. McCracken Legacy Scholarship | Department of Medicine (ualberta.ca)
Deadline for applications is 4:00 pm August 16, 2024
2023 Award Recipient
Olawunmi Olagundoye holds a medical degree, a Master of Science degree in Psychology, and a Master of Philosophy honors degree in Family Medicine. A physician with experience in health data, she piloted a geriatric clinic pilot scheme and implemented an EMR system at the General Hospital, Lagos, Nigeria. She is currently a PhD student in the Geriatric Medicine division at the University of Alberta. She has won several awards including the Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship and the Canadian Institute of Health Research's Summer Program in Aging training grant. Her research interests include health services research, epidemiological, interventional, operational and implementation studies, quality improvement initiatives, and the development/validation of standardized tools.
In her doctoral research project, she will synthesize evidence from the literature, perspectives of older men with urinary incontinence (UI), and expert opinions to co-develop an evidence-based, patient-centered, self-management intervention aimed at improving UI-related quality of life, using the intervention mapping framework as a co-creation strategy and a community-based participatory research approach.
2022 Award Recipient
Jananee Rasiah is a doctoral candidate under the supervision of Dr. Greta Cummings in the Faculty of Nursing, College of Health Sciences, University of Alberta. Jananee is an experienced educator, creative administrator, and early career researcher. She was recognized as one of Edmonton’s Top 40 under 40 in 2021 for her significant career accomplishments, including co-ownership of production company, FRAME Productions. Jananee also volunteers her time as a board director for the Alberta Registered Nurses Educational Trust (ARNET).
Jananee’s research interests are in frailty, aging, and patient engagement. For her dissertation research, she is examining population-based administrative data to better understand the characteristics of older adults in home care, their frailty status, and their hospitalization patterns in Alberta. This renewed understanding is important because it will inform home care coordination measures to ensure that older adults living with frailty can age in place and help reduce unnecessary hospitalization and associated health care costs. Jananee is committed to developing a vital program of research in gerontology that will translate new knowledge to health care administrators and policymakers in Alberta and enhance the health and wellbeing of older adults.
2020 Award Recipient
Trina Thorne has been a registered nurse in Edmonton for over 17 years and a Nurse Practitioner for the past 6 years. Her clinical experience spans Family Medicine, Vascular Surgery, Critical Care, Home Living, Supportive Living & Long-term Care. Trina started her PhD program in 2019. Her nursing background helps her understand the factors that affect best practice implementation and how individuals with dementia experience the health system. Her research aim is to develop neuroscience based, trauma-informed interventions that will improve the experience of both providing and receiving care in long-term care settings.
2020 AWARD RECIPIENT
Nick Anthony Millar is an internationally educated nurse from the Philippines, who is currently a PhD in Nursing student under the supervisory of Dr. Kathleen Hunter. He received his Bachelor Science in Nursing at Far Eastern University, Manila, before subsequently completing his Bachelor’s in Nursing at Athabasca University and Master’s Degree in Nursing at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Throughout his career, he has been passionate about the care of older persons with a specific focus in hospital settings. Currently, he is a healthcare leader in his workplace, where he supports the delivery and improvement of care of older persons in acute medicine units. Nick’s doctoral research aims to understand the transition process that acute care hospitals undergo when adopting senior friendly care (SFC) models. Through the discovery of a framework, he envisions to lay out a blueprint in implementing SFC for other hospitals intending to align their health services with the specific needs of older persons during an acute illness.
Dr. Anh N.Q. Pham,
2019 Award Recipient Summary of Project
Summary of the Risk Factors for Incidence of Dementia in Primary Care Settings
My project used electronic medical records from the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network to create a Canadian cohort to conduct a retrospective analysis to (1) determine the number of incident diagnoses of dementia among community-dwelling seniors; (2) describe demographic and clinical characteristics of people living with dementia in community; (3) describe current situation of modifiable cardiovascular risk factors being managed in primary care; and (4) compare the risk of developing dementia in seniors (aged 65 and older) with and without modifiable cardiovascular risk factors.
The cohort identified 39,066 patients who were 65 or older and did not have a dementia diagnosis in or before 2009. During nine years of follow-up, 4,935 individuals developed dementia. Overall, the number of patients with dementia or heart disease risk factors increased slightly but steadily over the nine-year follow-up period.
Age were associated with an increase in risk for incidence of dementia in all ages, HR = 1.13 (95% CI, 1.12-1.14) and 1.05 (95% CI, 1.04-1.06), respectively, for people aged 65-79 and people aged 80 and over. History of depression also increase dementia risk by 38% and 34%. There was association with social index, smoking history, osteoarthritis and diabetes mellitus in people aged 65 to 79 but not in those aged 80 and older. Sex, hypertension, obesity and dyslipidemia diagnosed and managed in primary care did not significantly predict dementia onset. Antihypertensive and statin use was not associated with risk of diagnosis. People with dementia are more likely to weigh less and to lose more weight than those who have not been diagnosed with the disease.
Diabetes mellitus and underweight increase the risk of dementia developing. Monitoring BMI and managing change in BMI in primary care may help to diagnose dementia earlier which might be a good reference for family medicine and public health to plan an advanced treatment strategy for people in need. Routine screening for cognitive decline on older adults with those two conditions might benefit to provide early diagnosis and support for those in needs.