Help support the Kawakami Prehabilitation Clinic
About the Kawakami Prehabilitation Clinic
The vision for the Kawakami Prehabilitation Clinic focuses on the concept of “care before surgery.” This is becoming more well utilized in clinical medicine as more “proof of concept” studies are published in peer-reviewed journals. Prehabilitation as defined by the American College of Surgeons is “a process of improving the functional capability of a patient prior to a surgical procedure so the patient can withstand any postoperative inactivity and associated decline.”
An alternative definition coined by the Perioperative program associated with McGill University in Montreal {the best-established pre-habilitation program in Canada}, is “the process of care, initiated before surgery, whereby patients’ physical, nutritional, medical and mental conditions are strengthened while waiting for surgery in order to face the surgical insult and facilitate postoperative return to preoperative conditions.”
Dr. Jun Kawakami and his wife, Julie
On August 30, 2021, Dr. Jun Kawakami lost his battle with pancreatic cancer. Just as he touched so many people in his life – his death has left a large hole in the hearts of many. Jun was an amazing father, husband, son, friend, and surgeon. With your ongoing support, our goal to continue the creation of the Prehabilitation Clinic that Jun envisioned at the Prostate Cancer Center, is becoming closer to a reality.
Care Before Surgery
Prehabilitation prepares individuals to ‘weather the storm’ of their operation and to avoid or overcome complications. The clinic will bring together highly trained experts in pre- and post-operative care programs, along with cardiologists, exercise specialists, physiotherapists, medical oncologists and researchers. We will empower patients, as well as their caregivers, to take an active role in ensuring the best possible recovery after surgery.
The Prostate Cancer Centre is committed to excellence in patient care and delivers clinical programs that offer medical treatments, physician led information sessions, post-operative care, clinical research, MAN VAN mobile clinics and advocacy in our community.
Prehabilitation Programs
Initial 6-Week Program
Preparing patients after a prostate cancer diagnosis, individuals will be scheduled for a visit with a physician for a detailed individual intake including mental health scales, quality of life scales, impotence and incontinence screening, screening for chronic disease (including sleep apnea) and detailed physical (including body fat percentage/visceral fat/muscle mass percentage, blood pressure, heart rate, etc.).
Patient Optimization Program
Lifestyle changes and rehabilitation to prepare for surgery to optimize surgical outcomes and minimize chances of side effects of the surgery itself. For patients with chronic disease, complicated medical conditions or those in need of extensive teaching on how to optimize themselves physically, access to additional physician visits/enhanced triage with specialists would also be available.
Individual Physiotherapist Assessment
Detailed exercise prescription in order to increase fitness (improve cardiovascular health, decrease visceral fat and increase muscle mass) to help with surgery. Also teaching anti-leakage exercises and pelvic floor physiotherapy.
Access to group or online Educational Seminar
Nutritional information, how to address and optimize mental health, how to improve motivation, creating healthy habits.
Pillars of Care
1. Establish successful, outcome driven and measured, pre- and post-operative care programs – staffed with a highly trained, interdisciplinary team of health practitioners – for patients undergoing surgery/cancer therapy.
2. Empower patients, as well as their caregivers, to take an active role in ensuring the best possible recovery after surgery.
3. Develop – through research, education and other means – patient-centered strategies and multidisciplinary interventions to optimize mental and physical outcomes.
