Marie is 79 years old and loved to walk along the Vancouver Seawall every morning.

One day she was at home “rushing for the phone”, tripped and fell heavily to the floor. Marie sustained a nasty hip fracture.

She underwent a complicated orthopaedic surgery at the Vancouver General Hospital and recovered as best she could.

Marie never returned to her home. She uses a walker now and she is no longer able to enjoy her daily walks along the seawall.

Decreased mobility feeds into a vicious cycle of further muscle weakness and increased risk of falling; this combined with poor bone health sharply increases fracture risk.

The Centre for Hip Health and Mobility (CHHM) investigators and others have shown significant breakdowns in the recommended care pathway for bone health management after fall-related hip fracture.

Drs. Maureen Ashe (physiotherapist, MSFHR Scholar and CIHR Clinical Investigator) and Teresa Liu-Ambrose (physiotherapist, MSFHR Scholar) undertake research to better understand both falls risk factors (including the contributing role of cognition, balance and continence) and bone health to preventing fracture and improve outcomes after hip fracture.

Thus, Dr. Ashe proposes to incorporate both falls risk and bone health follow-up in a dedicated clinical service for older adults after a hip fracture. Dr. Liu-Ambrose is the only person worldwide to use functional MRI to study the link between the brain’s executive function, mobility and falls.

Both Drs. Ashe and Liu-Ambrose will utilize the CHHM Mobile Laboratory to travel to communities and regions of the province so as to reach and assess those at greatest risk of falls and fracture.