Students showcase research in respiratory therapy

The respiratory therapy (RT) program at the College of Rehabilitation Sciences held its sixth annual RT Research Day on March 23 on the Bannatyne campus.

The day featured 20 research presentations from students in the second year of the three-year bachelor of respiratory therapy program, and two panel discussions with third-year students.  

Wide-ranging topics

The students presented a wide range of topics to guests attending in-person and virtually.

Second-year student Paul Tokar gave a presentation on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to wean patients off ventilators, and how that compares to conventional clinician-based strategies.

“Applications of this research would be good for rural hospitals, places that don't have any RTs, or where you have too many ventilated patients and nursing needs assistance weaning,” Tokar said.

He said some AI is used on ventilators in Winnipeg, but that more advanced AI has been used in Europe and shown promising results. He feels more research is needed, especially for patients in intensive care that have obstructive diseases like COPD or asthma. 

Simran Sandhu, also in her second year, discussed the effects of using electronic cigarettes during pregnancy.  

Last summer, she was involved in a research project with Dr. Christopher Pascoe, a physiology and pathology professor in the Max Rady College of Medicine on early life exposure to cigarette smoke.  

“That got me interested in exploring further, because vaping is so common now. There are so many youth vaping that don’t know the risks,” Sandhu said.    

Third-year panel discussions

The third-year students gave presentations as part of panel discussions, moderated by faculty.

Danielle Borbajo and Wintana Mokonnen were part of the morning panel and won an award for best third-year presentation.

Their presentation looked at how ultrasound can be used to assess the effectiveness of recruitment maneuvers – techniques used to re-expand collapsed lungs – during laparoscopic surgeries, which involves a small camera inserted through the abdomen.

“When people go for surgery, especially for laparoscopic surgeries, they experience excessive air in the stomach, and that can press up onto the lungs and cause the lungs to collapse. Recruitment maneuvers use ventilators to re-open the collapsed lung,” Mokonnen said.  

“We did a systematic research analysis and found there was up to a 45 per cent decrease in post-operative lung collapse when they used ultrasound versus when they didn’t. So, the answer was obvious to us that, yes, it does work.” 

Building community

Dr. Jithin Sreedharan, head of the RT department, opened the day with a message about the growing role of research in the program.

“As a department we are moving toward a future where every student is a critical thinker, every clinician is an evidence-based practitioner and every faculty member is a mentor in research and innovation,” he said.

The event also featured presentations from faculty members Dr. Mayson Sousa and Dr. Diana Sanchez-Ramirez, and Carlos Molina, a respiratory therapist from St. Boniface Hospital.

Molina presented a case study of a critically ill patient who was saved through esophageal balloon manometry, a method of measuring pressure on the esophagus that the patient’s RTs advocated for in his treatment.  

Sanchez-Ramirez, who organized the event, said she’d like to continue to bring in more presentations from clinicians in the community in the future. “I think it’s a great opportunity to bring everyone together and strengthen our RT community.”