Dr. Maryse Fortin PhD, CAT(C).

Dr. Fortin's primary area of research and clinical expertise is in musculoskeletal spine imaging and rehabilitation. Her research focuses on  understanding the role of the paraspinal musculature in the development and recurrence of low back pain and neck pain, using structural and advanced MRI and ultrasound imaging applications, with the aim of quantifying changes in muscle function and temporal degenerative changes as possible factors in persistent pain and disability.  

A further interest of hers is to clarify the effects of different types of exercise  therapy on the size, asymmetry, and function of the paraspinal muscles in chronic low back pain.

Daniel Wolfe     PhD (c)

Dan  graduated  from Concordia University with a B. Sc. in Exercise Science in 2018 and is currently completing his Ph.D under the supervision of Dr. Maryse Fortin. He is the recipient of a 2020 Mitacs grant for research investigating the effects of neuromuscular electrical stimulation on lumbar multifidus morphology and function in chronic low back pain patients. As a Certified Athletic Therapist, Dan is also particularly interested in the association between paravertebral muscle function and head injuries in athletes, and hopes his research can help identify muscle-related concussion risk factors.

Neda Naghdi     PhD (c) 

Neda graduated from  the University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences with a Master's degree in Physiotherapy. She is currently completing her Ph.D under the supervision of Dr. Maryse Fortin. Her research deals with musculoskeletal spine imaging, health, and rehabilitation. She uses different imaging techniques including MRI,  ultrasound and shear-wave elastography to better understand the role the paraspinal musculature plays in the development of chronic low back and neck pain. Neda is also interested in deep learning algorithms, specifically in the development of a convolutional neural network for the automatic segmentation of cervical muscles.

Brent Rosenstein     PhD (c)

Brent is currently completing his Ph.D. in Health and Exercise Science under the supervision of Dr. Maryse Fortin, and is a Human Anatomy Lab Instructor. He obtained his Bachelor of Science (2014-2017) and Master of Science (2017-2019) in Exercise Science, where he studied the effects of three different exercise-training protocols on cognition in older adults suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. His current projects study the effect of different therapeutic exercises on paraspinal muscle morphology and function in chronic low back pain. Overall, Brent is passionate about contributing to a healthier & happier society through research, teaching, community service, or participating in other positive initiatives. His research, combined with his unique experiences, have led him to establish a career goal of helping people live healthier lives, especially through exercise.

Meagan Anstruther     MSc (c)

Meagan Anstruther graduated with a Bachelor of Science - Honours Biology from Brock University (2014), and completed a Bachelor of Applied Health Sciences - Athletic Therapy (2019). She is currently completing her Master of Exercise Science under the supervision of
Dr. Maryse Fortin with a focus on connections between low back pain and lower limb injury and lumbar multifidus morphology and function in varsity athletes. As a Certified Athletic Therapist, Meagan is also completing her Graduate Assistantship with Concordia University Men’s Basketball as their Athletic Therapist.

Bianca Rossini     MSc (c)

Bianca Rossini completed a Bachelor of Science majoring in anatomy and cell Biology at McGill in 2017 and then, joined the circus to work as an artist. In 2022, she completed her Master of Science degree in Health, Kinesiology and Applied Physiology under the supervision of Dr. Maryse Fortin. The focus of her thesis was on assessing low back pain in circus artists using ultrasound. Bianca is continuing research in low back pain field and its musculoskeletal changes associated with pain in the circus community as well as in the general population. 

Alexa Roussac    MSc (c)

Alexa completed her Master’s degree in Health and Exercise science under the supervision of

Dr. Maryse Fortin and graduated in 2022. With previous BSc degrees in Psychology, Biology and Exercise science, Alexa master’s project investigated the effect of exercise on psychological factors in people suffering from chronic low back pain. During the completion of her Master' s degree, Alexa also worked as a trainer specializing in Olympic and Power lifting. 

Meaghan Rye    MSc (c)

Jessica Burdick    

Jessica graduated in 2022 with a Bachelor of Science in Honours Health, Kinesiology, and Applied Physiology from Concordia University. She completed her honours thesis project with Dr. Maryse Fortin, where she assessed the difference between two paraspinal muscle segmentation methods in subjects with chronic low back pain and found novel associations between epimuscular fat (i.e., fat accumulated on outside border of paraspinal muscle compartment) with age, BMI, and spinal level. She worked as a research assistant for the INSPIRE lab in 2022, segmenting magnetic resonance images for a study comparing exercise interventions targeting low back pain. As Jessica has a passion for research, she will continue her studies as a Master’s student in Health and Exercise Science at Concordia University with the hopes of developing an effective treatment for sustained weight loss post-bariatric surgery. 

Jenna Crook

Jenna recently received her B.Sc. from Concordia University's department of Health, Kinesiology and Applied Physiology with Honours in Athletic Therapy. She completed her honours thesis which focused on the correlative relationship of two imaging methods for quantifying fat content in the lumbar multifidus muscle using ultrasound echo intensity and fat water-based MR images. Jenna is currently preparing for the CATA national certification exam and is eager to begin a career as an Athletic Therapist. 

Sara Masi    

Sara is a 4^th year Athletic Therapy Honours student. Her current research focuses on assessing the agreement between two measurement methods used for quantifying paraspinal muscle fatty infiltration. While studies have shown that muscle composition measurements obtained from T2-weighted MR images using a manual thresholding technique as well as from fat-water images using the percent fat-signal-fraction (%FSF) method are highly reliable, the possibility of using methods interchangeably must be clarified.