Watch the video below to learn more about the CHANGE we're shaping.
The four pillars of CHANGE Health are:
Nutrition and meal preparation
Physical activity and lifelong wellness
Mental health and well-being
Family relationships and community connections
Our team
Dr. Doug Klein
Family PhysicianDr. Doug Klein has been involved in multiple health promotion activities in the community including neighbourhoods, community schools, and primary care. Dr. Klein has also been invited to give presentations worldwide on how to transform primary care settings to support nutrition and exercise interventions. Other topics of interest include teaching methods in primary care, the Doctor-Patient Relationship, Electronic Medical Records and Continuing Medical Education.
Sean Lessard
Associate ProfessorDr. Sean Lessard is Woodland Cree and is from Montreal Lake Cree Nation in Northern Saskatchewan Treaty 6 territory. Sean is a former youth worker, teacher and high school guidance counsellor. He is known for his research alongside Indigenous youth and communities in the development of innovative educational programming and in particular Indigenous youth empowerment, leadership, and wellness. Dr. Sean Lessard currently is an Associate Professor Secondary Education at the University of Alberta, in Indigenous Education and Teacher Education.
Serena Humphries
Research AssociateSerena is a Research Associate in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Alberta. Serena is a health services and policy researcher with diverse methodological training in health research methods, including program evaluation, qualitative and quantitative research methods.
Dr. Clark Svrcek
Family PhysicianDr. Clark Svrcek is a family physician in Calgary, Alberta and a clinical lecturer at the University of Calgary. Dr. Svrcek has strong interests in the health benefits of nature, the built environment, and active, healthy communities. When he's not working you can find him (or not) out in nature with his family, playing music, or desperately trying to organize thousands of digital photos.
Darren Nichols
Emergency PhysicianDr Nichols is a Family Medicine Emergency physician. He is previous ultramarathoner and passionate about healthy families and communities. He interested in socially accountable medical education and health care.
Amanda Radil
Ph.DAmanda Radil, Ph.D works in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Amanda is interested in motivation and emotions in learning, athletic, and health environments, with a goal of helping people live healthy lives. In her down time, she enjoys practising yoga, reading good books, and enjoying the outdoors.
Felicia Ochs
Wellness CoordinatorFelicia Ochs is a Treaty 6 settler living in Spruce Grove, Alberta, Canada. She is an educator who began teaching high school in Okinawa, Japan in 2002. This experience bridged her passion for public education reform, social justice and community development. Felicia is currently with Achieve Community Together and CHANGE Health Alberta, which focus on the Comprehensive School Health model and community engagement.
Publications
February 14, 2017
Family physicians provide care throughout patients’ lifetimes. They are typically the first and continuing point of contact for access to health services, support, and care, and they often deliver preventive care based on the effects of lifestyle choices on the health of their patients. An increasing number of people are developing preventable chronic conditions like hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.
February 14, 2017
Klein D, Humphries S, Kallio M, Madiha M. Program Description: CHANGE Exercise Intervention for Primary Care. Canadian Family Physician.
July 1, 2016
To describe the dietary, exercise, smoking, and alcohol use habits among physician faculty to determine if physician lifestyle behaviour is related to attitudes about and practices of patient lifestyle counseling.
June 30, 2015
E-health has been touted as the “single-most important revolution in healthcare since the advent of modern medicine, vaccines or even public health measures like sanitation and clean water”. Common areas of e-health include telemedicine, electronic patient records, computer-assisted surgery, and monitoring systems that are portable and/or wearable such as activity trackers. Some primary care physicians are engaging patients in self-monitoring, and goal setting through the use of novel e-health technologies. In 2013, wearable health-tracking technologies generated over US $1.6 billion, a number which is expected to rise to US $5 billion by 2016.
August 15, 2014
Metabolic syndrome (MetS) refers to a particular cluster of metabolic abnormalities (hypertension, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes, and visceral fat deposition) that can lead to a 1.5- to 2-fold increased relative risk of cardiovascular disease. Various combinations of healthier eating patterns and increased physical activity have been shown to improve metabolic abnormalities and reduce MetS prevalence.
January 22, 2014
The aim of the Building on Existing Tools to Improve Chronic Disease Prevention and Screening in Family Practice (BETTER) randomized controlled trial is to improve the primary prevention of and screening for multiple conditions (diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer) and some of the associated lifestyle factors (tobacco use, alcohol overuse, poor nutrition, physical inactivity). In this article, we describe how we harmonized the evidence-based clinical practice guideline recommendations and patient tools to determine the content for the BETTER trial.