2014
SUMMER STUDENT RESEARCH PROGRAM
Deadline for posting projects online: January 24, 2014*
Instructions to supervisors
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If you have yet to identify a student partner for your SSRP project you may submit a completed Project Registration and Description
form for posting on the SSRP website. Interested students will be able to view your project description and contact you. It is your
responsibility to find an appropriate student partner for your SSRP application.
*If you have already identified a student for your SSRP project, you should not post your project online. You need only work with
your student partner to submit a completed application package by the application deadline (February 14, 2013; 4:00 pm).
Supervisors may submit more than one project for posting on the website; however, only one completed application per supervisor
will be accepted for the competition and put forward for adjudication. Multiple applications will be disqualified.
Faculty members who wish to post their projects on the SSRP website are encouraged to submit this document to the Student
Research Coordinator, Linda Herbert, as early as possible at linda.herbert@ubc.ca.
Additional information on the SSRP, including application forms, funding terms, adjudication criteria and program procedures can
be found on the SSRP website: med.ubc.ca/ssrp.
Content boxes will expand as you type but please be mindful of the text limits; the actual application form will not allow extraneous
material.
PROJECT REGISTRATION AND DESCRIPTION FORM
Applications will be accepted from:
Both MD & non-MD Undergraduates
MD undergraduate students only
non-MD undergraduate students only
Additional notes to potential applicants:
Project Title:
Missed or Neglected Sleep Problems, Moving Us Further Down the Road to Polypharmacy?
Hypothesis:
Missed and/or neglected sleep problems in children with neurodevelopment disorder/disabilites lead to
therapeutic interventions relying on medication strategies (e.g. psychostimulants and/or atypical antipsychotics) which soley focus on daytime sequelae.
Keywords: Provide approximately 5 key words that describe the proposed research project.
'poly-pharmacy' 'sleep disorders' 'neurodevelopmental disabilties/disorders' 'participatory research'
Some SSRP funding is only available for specific research topics*. To assist us in assigning funding to
successful projects please indicate whether your project is related to any of the following:
Leukemia/ Lymphoma/ Hodgkin’s/ Myeloma or other blood cancers
Oncology
Surgical Oncology
Kidney Disease
Muscular Dystrophy
Diabetes
Psychiatry/ Mental Health
Pharmacology
Neurology
Cardiology
Pulmonary
Rheumatology / Arthritis
Community-based research
Clinical Genomics
Statistics
International
*Please note that funds are also available for general medical research and all projects will be considered for this funding.
Some SSRP funding (from CIHR) is only available to student-supervisor teams where the supervisor
holds other sources of peer reviewed funding. Please indicate if the supervisor holds other sources of
peer reviewed funding. Note that the other funding does not need to be for this specific project.
Yes
No
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Revised: November 28, 2013
2014
SUMMER STUDENT RESEARCH PROGRAM
Deadline for posting projects online: January 24, 2014*
To assist with adjudication assignments indicate the type(s) of research applicable to this project
(select all applicable):
Basic Science
Clinical
Other (please specify):
Educational and/or Curricular
Health Systems & Services
Population Health
Background and Summary of Proposed Research. (In 400 words or fewer – please write in lay terms)
If this is an ongoing project of >8 weeks duration clearly indicate the expected project outcomes at the end of
the 8-week funding period.
Background: Sleep is very important for the wellbeing of all children and has a major impact on the health and
everyday activities of children and their families. There is a high rate of sleep problems among children.
Unrecognized sleep problems may lead to cognitive and behavioural dysfunction and mood disorders. The
prevalence of sleep problems is even higher in children with Neurodevelopmental Disabilities/Disorders, and
the negative affects of non-restorative sleep on functioning and development can be more severe. Clinicians
often focus exclusively on challenging/disruptive daytime behaviours resulting in prescription of
psychostimulants and/or atypical antipsychotics, without prior differential diagnosis of a possible sleep problem.
Our own preliminary data show emerging evidence that children with missed and/or neglected sleep disorders
show deterioration of sleep problems in response to modern pharmacotherapeutic options.
The Framework: The research is supported by the following Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) (in
alphabetic order): Act-Autism Community Training, Children’s Sleep Network, Down Syndrome Research
Foundation, IDIC-15, Rare Diseases Foundation and the following Research Networks: Canadian
Pharmacogenomics Network for Drug Safety, NeuroDevNet (funded by Canadian Networks of Centres of
Excellence) and Treatable Intellectual Disability Endeavour in BC. Access to their members and research
facilities will extend the breadth and the depth of this student research endeavour. We are interested in
supporting trans-disciplinary thinking for overcoming disciplinary boundaries and are looking forward to
students’ applications.
Project Overview/Outcomes: Students will be working in a health care setting together with NGOs and
researchers from social/natural sciences. They will be involved in a clinical data collection project with focus on
challenging/disruptive sleep/wake behaviours and current therapeutic strategies with particular emphasis on
medications and poly-pharmacy. Based on our collaborative participatory research concept, students will collect
the clinical data by carrying out functional sleep/wake behaviour assessments with families, using an innovative
digital tool (app).
At the end of the 8 week funding period, students will have participated in frontier research (clinical data
collection using the app) and will come to understand the strengths and limitations of the applied methodologies
and assessment methods. They will learn how to approach new (research) challenges and how to develop and
contextualize research that exceeds specialty based confounded view points (see Deliverables for Students).
Deliverables for Families: The data collected by students will be immediately shared with patients and
professionals and validated over the funding period. Deliverables for the NGOs/researchers: understanding the
dimension of challenging/disruptive sleep/wake behaviours, therapeutic strategies including poly-pharmacy.
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Revised: November 28, 2013
2014
SUMMER STUDENT RESEARCH PROGRAM
Deadline for posting projects online: January 24, 2014*
Outline the student’s role in the project including the potential benefits they will gain as a result of their
involvement. This should include their anticipated interaction(s) within the research team, individual duties,
available resources (training, facilities etc.) and opportunities for the student to learn new skills. Clearly indicate
which items will be completed during the 8-week funding period and which (if applicable) will be completed
before or after the funding period if the student and supervisor have chosen to also work together outside of the
funding period. Project feasibility is considered during the adjudication process.
The Setting: Students will carry out the functional sleep/wake behaviour assessments after receiving
comprehensive training by members of our research network (qualitative interviewing for functional
assessments, family & medication history). Data collection and qualitative interviews by students will be
facilitated by NGOs. Gathered data will be reviewed with families and a supervisor prior to Family Rounds
(structured knowledge dissemination activities with invited speakers at NGO facilities); a functional
assessment report will be accomplished by students and provided to the family and their health care team. In
follow up, the validity of this report will be evaluated with community-based health care professionals.
Deliverables for Students: Students will gain first hand clinical research experience, have the opportunity to
work with community and university based practitioners and professors in a unique participatory research and
integrated knowledge translation activity. Students will be encouraged to communicate/present their findings
to community-based professionals and/or results to partnering NGOs. Exemplary student team projects will be
awarded by supporting their abstract submissions to local and/or (inter-)national conferences (e.g.
NeuroDevNet, American Academy of Sleep Medicine). In addition, select students may get the opportunity to
continue as research assistants with work study support in the fall.
Networking/Faculty: The research project will link students to a sustainable research network of local, national,
and inter-national health care professionals, researchers and students.
Academic Faculty (in alphabetic order):
Dr. Linlea Armstrong; Dept. of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
Dr. Bruce Carleton; Div. of Translational Therapeutics, Dept. of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
Dr. Nina Di Pietro; Brain Research Centre, National Core for Neuroethics, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
Ms. Jennifer Garden; MCl.Sc. (OT), MSc. Registered Occupational Therapist, Sleepdreams
Dr. Wendy Hall; School of Nursing, UBC
Dr. Osman Ipsiroglu; Div. Developmental Paediatrics, Dept. of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
Dr. Chris Loock; Div. Developmental Paediatrics, Dept. Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
Dr. William McKellin; Dept. of Anthropology, Faculty of Arts, UBC
Dr. Julie Petrie-Thomas; Developmental Consultant, Psychology Department/Neonatal Follow-up Program,
Children's & Women's Health Centre of BC
Dr. Amy Salmon; School of Population and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, UBC; Institute of Health
Economics, Edmonton
Dr. Sylvia Stockler; Div. Biochemical Disease, Dept. of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
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Revised: November 28, 2013
2014
SUMMER STUDENT RESEARCH PROGRAM
Deadline for posting projects online: January 24, 2014*
Please indicate if your project requires the following and indicate their status as appropriate. This will
help clarify the scope of the project for the adjudication panel as well as allow our partner institutions to liaise
with successful applicants as needed:
This project requires ethics approval (human or animal):
Yes
No
If yes please indicate if you:
Already have approval
Will obtain approval before the SSRP funding period
Intend for ethics application to be a focus over the funding period
*Please note that as ethics approval can be a lengthy process it is recommended that this be obtained well in advance of the funding period unless the
intention is for this activity to form a major part of the SSRP-funded portion of the project.
This project requires access to electronic medical records:
Yes
No
If yes please indicate if you:
Already have approval
Will obtain approval before the SSRP funding period
Plan to obtain approval during the SSRP funding period
Research Affiliations (complete as applicable)
Some SSRP funding is only available to projects with specific affiliations. Please indicate if you and/or your
project are affiliated with any of the following (select all that apply):
BC Cancer Agency
Child and Family Research Institute
Providence Health Care Research Institute
Vancouver Coastal Heath Research Institute
Women’s Health Research Institute
Fraser Health Authority
Interior Health Authority
Northern Health Authority
Authority
Vancouver Coastal Health
Vancouver Island Health Authority
UBC Point Grey
UBC Okanagan
Island Medical Program
Northern Medical Program
Vancouver Fraser Medical Program
Other (please specify):
Provincial Health Services
Southern Medical Program
Project Location Information (where the project work will be conducted)
Research Centre and/or Institute: Facilities of collaborating NGOs
Hospital: Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children
Program or Unit:
Additional information (building, lab etc.):
City or Region: Vancouver
Supervisor’s Information
Supervisor Surname:
Ipsiroglu
Supervisor Given Name:
Osman
FoM Department/School (Main FoM Appointment):
UBC FoM Department of Paediatrics
UBC FoM Division (if applicable):
UBC FoM Division of Developmental Paediatrics
Additional Affiliations (Department/School, Centre, Hospital, unit etc.):
Thompson Rivers University, Adjunt Professor
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Revised: November 28, 2013
2014
SUMMER STUDENT RESEARCH PROGRAM
Deadline for posting projects online: January 24, 2014*
Main Phone:
Cell / Secondary Phone:
E-mail Address:
oipsiroglu@cw.bc.ca
Academic Appointment at UBC:
Clinical Associate Professor
Preferred contact method (for students)
Phone supervisor
Email supervisor
Phone alternate contact
Email alternate contact
Alternate Contact’s Information
Contact’s Name:
Mai Berger
Contact’s Role:
Clinical Research Assistant
Contact’s Phone Number:
604-453-8300 ext. 8408
Contact’s E-mail Address:
mai.berger@cw.bc.ca
Additional Information:
Please contact Ms. Mai Berger [mai.berger@cw.bc.ca] for the Application Package and to obtain any additional
information.
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Revised: November 28, 2013