New sports, physiotherapy facility opens at UBC

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Students, doctors, and physiotherapists have a new building to call home at the University of British Columbia.

The Chan Gunn Pavilion officially opened its doors Thursday. The two-storey, 20,000 square-foot space for the faculty of medicine houses a rehabilitation gym, research space, offices and clinic rooms.

Doctors and physical therapists are expected to treat around 3,500 patients a month while researchers will delve into the science of exercise.

“It brings together clinicians, researchers and patients all under one roof,” PhD student and physiotherapist Lyndal Solomons said. “Clinicians and researchers can bump into each other in hallway or after rounds. They can chat about their experiences and their ideas and devise meaningful researching projects.”

Solomons says this is the first permanent home for her program, Gunn intramuscular stimulation (IMS).

“It’s been so hard waiting for the building to be finished and for us to have a space to train IMS practitioners. So the biggest relief is having this room and we don’t have to be trudging beds from one side of UBC to the other,” she said.

The facility’s namesake, Dr. Chan Gunn pioneered the IMS method in an effort to find a non-surgical, non-pharmaceutical way of relieving chronic pain caused by nerve damage that had no responded to typical methods. Gunn donated $5 million to the building’s construction.

The rest of the $11.6 million budget came from the federal government and a $1 million donation from the Jack and Darlene Poole foundation for the gym.

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