November 20, 2013 — The Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College (CMCC) announced that a new Tier 2 Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation has been awarded to Pierre Côté, DC, director, UOIT-CMCC Centre for the Study of Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation. The CRC is valued at $500,000 over five years.
“CMCC is delighted to learn that Dr. Pierre Côté has been awarded this Chair,” said Dr. Jean Moss, President, CMCC. “This award recognizes his many contributions to the world of disability management and rehabilitation. I am confident that this will provide him the opportunity to continue to extend his research into key areas that will ultimately affect the health and well being of Canadians. ”
The primary objective of the research program led by Côté is aimed at reducing disability related to musculoskeletal (MSK) pain in Canadians. The number of Canadians reporting a disability between 2001 and 2006 grew by 750,000 people; yet, few interventions are effective in preventing or rehabilitating MSK disabilities such as back pain, whiplash injuries and arthritis.
Through the UOIT-CMCC Centre for the Study of Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation, Côté and his researchers are defining best practices for the prevention and rehabilitation of disability and contribute to policy development through knowledge transfer and exchange. As a faculty member at CMCC, Côté teaches and mentors chiropractic students in both the undergraduate and graduate studies programs.
“Back and neck pain are leading causes of disability worldwide. Yet, we know very little about the best ways to prevent disability in people with these conditions,” said Côté. “As a Canada research chair, I will focus on developing innovative ways to reduce the burden of disability by creating a transdisciplinary research program. I am very honored and humbled by this opportunity”.
Côté graduated from Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College (CMCC) in 1989. In 1996 he obtained a Master of Surgery degree from the University of Saskatchewan where he studied the epidemiology of neck and back pain in the general population. He received a PhD in epidemiology and a minor in research bioethics at the University of Toronto in 2002. In 2003, he was awarded a five-year New Investigator Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Côté is currently the chair of the Minor Injury Treatment Protocol Project funded by the Financial Services Commission of Ontario and the Director of the UOIT-CMCC Centre for the Study of Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation. He was recently appointed to a six-year term with the Research Council of the World Federation of Chiropractic (WFC).
Prior to joining CMCC, he was a scientist in the Division of Health Care and Outcomes Research at the Toronto Western Research Institute and an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. He was a member of the Scientific Secretariat of the 2000-2010 Bone and Joint Task Force on Neck Pain and its Associated Disorders and also held a 2010 appointment as Chair of the Catastrophic Impairment Expert Panel. Côté also holds appointments at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and at the Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto.
