Dr. Alice Aiken recognized for founding research institute

Jeff Green | Jul 16, 2015

Harrowsmith's Alice Aiken started her military career in the navy as a ship's navigator in 1984. While in the military she took a degree in Physiotherapy at Dalhousie and served as a physiotherapist until she left the military in 1998. She completed both a Master’s and PhD program at Queen's and then joined the university’s Faculty of Physical Therapy in 2006, a department that she now chairs.

While that aspect of her career is impressive in its own right, it also serves as the basis for her research career.

In 2010, she was approached by former Brigadier General Bill Richard, who was about to retire as board chair of Kingston General Hospital.

“He thought we should do something for the country's veterans and that we should bring academics to the table to have a good look at the health needs of veterans. So, we built this institute and I became the science director,” she said.

The institute is called the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research (CIMVHR), and in its first five years it has grown from an idea to being comprised of more than 35 universities (including all major Canadian research universities) and 550 researchers.

What Dr. Aiken and her team were able to do, starting with just the support of Queen's, is put together a database containing health-related information from veterans across Ontario. This database is available to researchers who propose studies to the institute, and the CIMHVR has become a leader in health research among current and former military personnel and their families.

One of the first problems that had to be overcome was to find the health records of veterans in order to study them. Veterans’ Affairs only has records for veterans who have health issues of one kind or another when they leave the military. Other veterans who are discharged are not tracked.

However, when Canadian military personnel are discharged and then approach Service Canada for a health card, they are given one immediately; the three-month waiting period is waived in their case. This practice has created a record that was hidden in the database of the provincial health ministries. It took over a year of work to convince the Ontario Ministry of Health to release this information to the CIMVHR (void of all personal identification) but once that was accomplished, the institute gained valuable information to share with researchers and was able to sponsor an increasingly broad number of research projects.

“Certainly, ever since the Afghanistan war there has been an increased public interest in the health of veterans, and we have been able to sponsor many research projects in a short time to look at these issues,” she said.

CIMVHR has made this research accessible through publications, education opportunities, speaking engagements, media coverage, and an annual forum.

Research projects that have been completed include flight-related neck pain; recovering mobility after brain injuries; resiliency and readiness in military personnel; the impact of adverse childhood experience on mood and anxiety in military personnel; and the list goes on.

“Over the past four years I have been awed by the magnitude and rigor of research already being undertaken, and inspired by the capacity available to pursue new projects. We are eager to learn from the hundreds of CIMVHR researchers we work with across the country, and in turn we are honoured to be given the opportunity to support them as they focus on their work on military personnel, veterans and their families,” said Dr. Aiken in the CIMVHR’s four-year progress report in 2014.

Recently, Dr. Aiken has been honoured twice. In May she was named the Honorary Commander of 33 Canadian Forces Health Services, Kingston, and on July 10, the Honourable Erin O'Toole, Minister of Veterans Affairs, presented her with one of this year's ministry commendations for her contributions to the service of military veterans at a ceremony in Ottawa.