The World Burns Congress was held in Vancouver in October 2007.  The WBC was attended by 654 people, burn survivors and their families from all over the world.  This marked the first time that the Congress was held outside of the U.S. WCCMT attended the Congress and provided massage therapy in the Wellness Center attached to the Congress.

In February of 2008 WCCMT partnered with Vancouver General Hospital in the implementation of a pivotal study designed to explore the use of massage therapy for Burns and trauma patients. Massage therapy will be offered initially to in-patients and then eventually expanded to include outpatients at the hospital.

The project will run for one year.  It is the intention of the study to examine various aspects of massage therapy for burns plastics and trauma patients and eventually publish these findings. At the completion of this year and of course pending the outcomes of the study VGH will then make a decision about whether or not massage therapy will become a permanent part of medical treatment for BPT patients in future.

The project is well underway and presently WCCMT student interns under the leadership of Vienna Ng, RMT (Outreach Supervisor) and Rich Ingram, RMT (WCCMT Clinic Manager) are providing massages to BPT patients at VGH.

This is an exciting new area of work for massage therapy and provides us with yet another opportunity to make a difference and demonstrate the value and efficacy of massage therapy for burns, plastics and trauma patient’s in a hospital setting.  Hopefully this will open up an exciting new realm of career opportunities for Registered Massage Therapists in hospital settings.

We know from a previous study published in Massage Magazine, November 2007 titled “Plastic Surgeons enlist massage therapists onto cosmetic surgery teams” that massage therapy can reduce swelling and healing time, relieve lymphatic congestion, increase elasticity of tissue, lower blood pressure and reduce anxiety for plastic surgery patients.

We can anticipate a reiteration of these findings as well as important new findings related to massage therapy and burns and trauma patients.