“Point the way; pave the way; choose the team; then get out of the way,” was a common refrain from Dr. Clive Duncan and the ethos behind building what we now know as the Division of Orthopaedic Research.
“Tom Oxland and I did that and it worked … although we didn’t exactly get out of the way. We parented it the whole way through,” said Dr. Duncan.
The Division of Orthopaedic Engineering Research (DOER) at UBC originated in the 1997, when the Department—established in 1984—aimed to expand orthopaedic inquiry beyond surgery. This transition, guided by Drs. Robert McGraw, and later Clive Duncan, saw the department shift its focus to musculoskeletal care across the lifespan and promote interdisciplinary expertise by uniting orthopaedics, engineering and basic science.
- Wigod, R. (1999, May 10). Engineers and doctors collaborate for cures: [final edition, PDF]. The Vancouver Sun.
- Wigod, R. (1999, Aug 17). B.C. engineers apply skills to orthopedics: [final edition, PDF]. Prince Albert Daily Herald.
The four Rs of developing a research program
Recruitment and Retention; Recognition and Reward
Dr. Duncan understood that to develop a sustainable research program, the research division would need a dedicated faculty position. Faculty appointments would bring salary-based remuneration, career stability, academic expectations, and accountability. Earlier (but still common) models assumed that researchers and their teams would subsist on research grant funding, which is often precarious. Orthopaedic departments around the world have collaborations between engineers and doctors, and they do great work. But then funding dries up, and the projects stop.
“That model was an unattractive career path for the calibre of academics we needed to recruit. Fundamentally, we wanted our researchers to be full partners with our clinicians in our combined search for better solutions for our patients’ needs,” said Dr. Duncan.
“The key thing for a program to be sustainable is faculty appointments, permanent positions that you can build on with relationships, collaborations, and funding over not just years, but decades,” said Dr. Oxland.
Dr. Oxland, a biomedical engineer with expertise in orthopaedic biomechanics, joined UBC Orthopaedics in 1997. He took the role of Director of Orthopaedic Engineering Research under Dr. Duncan’s leadership as Department Head. Oxland came from the Maurice Müller Institute of Biomechanics, a prestigious biomedical engineering unit at the University of Berne in Switzerland. Shortly after, he was joined by Mr. Darrell Goertzen, a Canadian engineer Oxland had worked with in Berne.
“I convinced him to come,” said Oxland. “We said, let’s go and let’s set up the lab.”
Oxland and Goertzen began with two small offices in the Jack Bell Research Centre and eventually secured lab space in the VGH Research Pavilion. One of their first initiatives was to create a structure to bring people together. While DOER initially focused on engineering in orthopaedics, collaborations soon expanded to include clinicians and researchers in Family Practice, Kinesiology, Pediatrics, and Engineering, as well as faculty members from across UBC.
“There were these little pods of activity,” said Oxland.
Among Oxland’s priorities was consolidation: establishing lab space, recruiting faculty, and embedding engineers within a clinical department to ensure ongoing collaboration with surgeons.
At the same time, the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) had just launched, with a mandate to fund Canadian research and expand its access to critical infrastructure.
CFI as a driver for Orthopaedics Innovation
Drs Duncan and Oxland chose to focus on building capacity for the applied sciences because doing so would allow research faculty to apply new techniques and technology to clinical problems and treatments more quickly.
Dr. Duncan explained, “It seemed this would have the broadest application to subspecialties in Orthopaedics, such as Trauma, Spine, and Joint Reconstruction, among others. These were the most rapidly advancing fields of technology in the mid-90s and facilitated valuable collaboration with the implant industry—a key research and funding partner at the time.”
The launch of the CFI in 1997 was the first major commitment from the Government of Canada to fund substantial research infrastructure and ensure the sustainability of Canadian research programs. In CFI, Duncan and Oxland found the support they’d need to expand orthopaedic research at UBC.
The first CFI projects were funded in 1998. Forty-nine institutions received $198 million for more than 400 projects across Canada. This represented one of the largest investments in Canadian research at the time. Since its inception, CFI’s mandate has been to strengthen the capacity of Canadian universities, colleges, research hospitals, and non-profit research institutions. The aim is to support world-class research and technology development that benefits Canadians.
The initial wave of CFI funding in 1998 included $200K for Development of Orthopaedic Engineering Research Facilities, a project led by Dr. Oxland and funded through CFI’s John Evans Leaders Fund (JELF) to build state-of-the-art laboratories and attract and retain top researchers in Canada.
The Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (CORD), led by Dr. John Steeves, later became ICORD and first emerged in 1995. At the same time, the Division of Orthopaedic Engineering Research began to coalesce. This was the right moment to connect with CORD researchers and spine surgeons at VGH, and to put together a CFI application. That application, led by Dr. Steeves with Dr. Oxland and Dr. Marcel Dvorak as major users, marked the start of the ICORD research centre.
CFI awarded UBC $12.8 million in infrastructure funding to build the Blusson Spinal Cord Centre, which would eventually house ICORD. The British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund matched this award. Additional funding came from UBC, Vancouver Coastal Health, and the Rick Hansen Foundation (total award $32M). Their support helped create a dedicated spinal cord injury research centre. The Blusson Spinal Cord Centre opened on the VGH campus in 2008, housing ICORD and a mix of research and clinical programs.
To capitalize on these developing opportunities, Dr. Duncan and Dr. Bernie Bressler, then Vice-President, Research at Vancouver Coastal Health, asked Oxland and colleagues to work toward establishing a musculoskeletal research centre.
In 2004 Oxland and colleagues secured a second major CFI which also included investment from the Research Hospital Fund ($25M). This funding established the Centre for Hip Health & Mobility, which was renamed in 2023 and is now the Centre for Aging SMART (Solutions for Mobility, Activity, Rehabilitation and Technology).
A Critical Mass
In the early 2000s, the division hired new faculty, including Dr. David Wilson (2002) and facilitated the recruitment of Dr. Peter Cripton to Mechanical Engineering, sparking rapid growth. These hires brought together researchers, students, and trainees to form a strong community and boost research in biomedical engineering with colleagues like Drs. Rizhi Wang and Antony Hodgson at UBC and Dr. Steve Robinovitch at SFU.
Later, investigators like Dr. Heather McKay and Dr. Bonita Sawatzky expanded the division’s focus beyond engineering, leading to a more inclusive, interdisciplinary identity. Still at the VGH Research Pavilion, the group continued to grow with new faculty, students, and trainees, creating a critical mass. This environment drove rapid development in the division.
“A critical mass is exactly what it was,” said Dr. Wilson. “We established and grew a strong feeling of community: a group of trainees and faculty helping each other out to do important and impactful research.”
“In those first ten years, there was a lot of momentum,” said Oxland, who was appointed a Canada Research Chair T2 in Biomedical Engineering from 2001-2011. “It was an exciting time, with a lot of growth, a lot of good things happening. Today, the division has developed and we have several exciting research programs within ICORD, Centre for Aging SMART, and elsewhere within UBC Orthopaedics.”
Today, in addition to ICORD and the Centre for Aging SMART, Division faculty conduct research at several sites, including BC Children’s Hospital and UBC Hospital, and are engaged with clinician-scientists across the province.
“The Division of Orthopaedic Research fortifies UBC Orthopaedics with basic science, discovery research, and innovation. This is the foundation for changes and improvements to orthopedic practice,” said Dr. Wilson. “Clinicians define the clinical need and then work with research scientists to answer clinically motivated questions. The Division is only a success if we see collaboration between our division members and the clinical divisions.”
Long before the Division was established, basic science laid the groundwork for advances in orthopaedics. Building on this, faculty maintained strong relationships with clinicians and clinician-scientists, leveraging clinical experience to identify new avenues for investigation.
Dr. Duncan offers the example of Dr. Jonas Salk, a physician who developed the polio vaccine after entering virology. For Dr. Duncan, medical research reflects an ongoing pursuit of understanding disease.
“It is at the core of what we do in training and practice. At its simplest, it’s the informed evaluation of our interventions in clinics; at its highest level, it leads to treatments that profoundly impact the quality of life for our patients, the communities we serve, and society at large,” said Dr. Duncan.
A Community of Practice in Research
Dr. Duncan retired in his role as Head of the Department in 2006. In 2009, under Dr. Bassam Masri’s leadership as Department Head, the division changed its name to the Division of Orthopaedic Research, formally dropping the word ‘engineering’ to encompass the breadth of research within the Division.
By the late 2000s, the division shifted from rapid expansion to long-term sustainability, and a community of practice in research began to solidify. Clinical questions and patient concerns underpin much of the study that takes place under the banner of the Division of Orthopaedic Research, with new avenues in qualitative research forming as the nature of orthopaedic research changed across the discipline.
Faculty who began their careers as residents and trainees became leaders within the Division; Dr. Brian Kwon, who completed his orthopaedics residency at UBC in 2000, was appointed Director of ICORD in 2024. Faculty who played a key role in building the Division in the early years took on leadership roles: Dr. Heather McKay led the Centre for Hip Health & Mobility from 2006 until 2016, and Dr. Wilson became Research Division Head with UBC Orthopaedics in 2020. Newer faculty, including Drs Dena Shahriari and Babak Shadgan, have brought new research priorities and a strong vision for how the Division will evolve.
The Division of Orthopaedic Research transformed UBC Orthopaedics by embedding basic and applied science into clinical practice, building lasting research infrastructure, and setting a national standard for interdisciplinary musculoskeletal research. Early investments in research infrastructure, including ICORD and the Centre for Aging SMART, faculty recruitment, and core research facilities at multiple hospital sites across the province have expanded the scope of research collaborations locally and globally.
At the Department level, research is a formal priority. Among the goals of the Department’s strategic plan is a commitment to making “insightful discovery through groundbreaking research in orthopaedic healthcare, pushing boundaries of understanding and positively impacts practices and patient outcomes.”
In order to see that goal through, the Department has committed to funding its own research initiatives, integrating research in education and clinical practice, and encouraging engagement with research in residency and fellowship training. The Orthopaedic Academic Excellence Award program, launched in 2024, has enabled UBC Orthopaedics faculty to leverage internal funds to secure larger awards from external and federal funders; resident SEED grants have enabled learners to strengthen research pathways and establish research programs at the beginning of their careers.
Research infrastructure and resources are essential, but the secret ingredient that makes the Division of Orthopaedic Research so special is that it grew organically out of a culture nurtured over decades. The continuity of faculty service over the past 30 years has ensured that the community that grew out of those early years continues to grow and nurture subsequent generations. That culture and commitment to interdisciplinary partnership has enabled much of the research emerging from the department, especially since the research centres were built.
“Right now, we’re reaping the benefits of work so many people did 20, 30 years ago. The future of the department is growth, and we are working actively on determining what the next generation of orthopaedics researchers will look like,” said Dr. Wilson.
“We have trained dozens and dozens of scientists and engineers. UBC has a strong reputation in biomechanics research, and students from around the world come to work with many of our faculty members. I’m excited to see how we continue to evolve.”
Division of Orthopaedic Research Timeline
- 1984
Department of Orthopaedics is born
The Department of Orthopaedics is established as a distinct department within the Faculty of Medicine at UBC.
- 1995
CORD
Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (CORD) emerges, later developing into ICORD
- 1997
Dr. Tom Oxland is recruited to UBC
Oxland becomes Director of Orthopaedic Engineering Research. Oxland and Duncan establish the Division of Orthopaedic Engineering Research (DOER) within the Department of Orthopaedics.
- 1998
First CFI JELF funds awarded
First major CFI funding round awards $200K to develop Orthopaedic Engineering Research facilities at UBC.
- 2001
Oxland CRC Tier 2
Dr. Tom Oxland is awarded one of the first Canada Research Chairs; from 2001-2011, he holds a CRC Tier 2 in Biomedical Engineering.
- 2002
Dr. David Wilson joins UBC Ortho faculty
Dr. Wilson and other faculty join DOER, leading to expanded capacity within the Division.
- 2002
CFI for ICORD
ICORD receives $12.8 million in CFI funding, with matching funds from the British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund, and additional funding from UBC, Vancouver Coastal Health, and the Rick Hansen Foundation.
- 2004
CFI for Centre for Hip Health & Mobility
Major CFI/Research Hospital Fund award ($25M) helps establish the Centre for Hip Health & Mobility (renamed Centre for Aging SMART in 2023).
- 2006-2016
Dr. Heather McKay leads Centre for Hip Health & Mobility
- 2006
Dr. Clive Duncan retires
Dr. Clive Duncan retires from his role as UBC Orthopaedics Department Head and is succeeded by Dr. Bassam Masri.
- 2008
Blusson Spinal Cord Centre opens at VGH
The new Blusson Spinal Cord Centre houses ICORD and related clinical and research programs.
- 2009
DOER becomes Division of Orthopaedic Research
- 2010-2012
Tom Oxland leads ICORD
Dr. Oxland serves as Acting Director from March, 2010 until June, 2012
- 2020
Dr. David Wilson becomes Head, Division of Orthopaedic Research
- 2023
Centre for Hip Health & Mobility renamed Centre for Aging SMART
- 2024
Dr. Brian Kwon leads ICORD
Dr. Brian Kwon appointed Director of ICORD, continuing leadership from within the UBC Orthopaedics community.
