Babak Shadgan

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

Division:
Orthopaedic Research

Hospital Site:
Vancouver – Blusson Spinal Cord Centre

Dr. Babak Shadgan is a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR) Scholar, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Orthopaedics at the University of British Columbia (UBC), a faculty member at the UBC School of Biomedical Engineering, and a principal investigator at the International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD), where he is directing the Clinical Biophotonics Laboratory. 

He is a medical doctor specialized in Sports and Exercise Medicine, graduated from the Queen Mary College of the University of London with a Ph.D. in Experimental Medicine from UBC. He completed an AO/ASIF Fellowship in Osteosynthesis at the Center for Diagnosis and Out-patient Surgery”, Freiburg, Germany, and a fellowship on NIRS-Diffused Optical Tomography at Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging of Harvard University. His post-doctoral fellowship at UBC was focused on remote optical monitoring of muscle dysfunction in people with spinal cord injury.

With over two decades of medical practice and research, he has developed a specific knowledge in clinical biophotonics with a unique integrated transitional bedside-to-bench and bench-to-bedside approach. His current research is focused on the design and development of transcutaneous and implantable biosensors and interventions for continuous monitoring of skeletal muscles, the spinal cord, free tissue flaps, and internal organ hemodynamics, metabolism and function. 

Dr. Shadgan is a fellow, an instructor, and a conference chair at the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE). He is an advocator of multidisciplinary networking and collaborations between biomedical engineering and clinical scientists for innovative and applied technology development in medicine. 

As an Olympic sports physician, leading Medical & Anti-Doping Commission of the International Olympic-Styles Wrestling (UWW), Dr. Shadgan has been serving elite athletes at world championships and Olympic Games since 2002. He is currently involved in the special preparation of the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games under the COVID-19 situation. Dr. Shadgan is also actively working on designing and developing novel wearable biosensors and their applications in sports and exercise medicine.

Research Interests & Publications

Research Interests:

  • Musculoskeletal and Sports Medicine: Injury Surveillance, Injury Prevention, Sports and Performance Monitoring
  • Biosensing Technologies: Novel Applications of Wearable and Implantable Biosensors
  • Implantable Medical Device and Interventions
  • Clinical Optics and Biophotonics
  • Translational Clinical Research

Publications:

Katharina Raschdorf, et al. Evaluation of transcutaneous near-infrared spectroscopy for early detection of cardiac arrest in an animal model. Scientific Reports. 2023; 13, 4537. PMID: 36941315

Szabolcs Molnár, et al. Moderate and severe injuries at five international olympic-style wrestling tournaments during 2016-2019. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine. 2022; 21 pp.74–81. PMID: 35250336

Amanda Cheung, et al. Continuous optical monitoring of spinal cord oxygenation and hemodynamics during the first seven days post-injury in a porcine model of acute spinal cord injury. Journal of Neurotrauma. 2020; 37(21) pp. 2292-2301. PMID: 32689879

Babak Shadgan, et al. Optical assessment of spinal cord tissue oxygenation using a miniaturized near infrared spectroscopy sensor. Journal of Neurotrauma. 2019; 36(21) pp. 3034-3043. PMID: 31044642

Babak Shadgan, et al. Risk factors for acute compartment syndrome of the leg associated with tibial diaphyseal fractures in adults. Journal of Orthopaedic Traumatology. 2015; 16(3) pp. 185-192. PMID: 25543232

For more information regarding Dr. Shadgan’s published research, please click here.

Teaching Interests

Teaching Interests:

  • Sports Injuries, Prevention, Treatment and Functional Rehabilitation.
  • Clinical Optics and Biophotonics
  • Fundamentals of Applied Pathophysiology in Biomedical Engineering

Academic Background

  • PhD, The University of British Columbia, 2011
  • Dip, Football Medicine, UK Football Association, 2003
  • MSc, Sports Medicine, University of London, 2001
  • MD, Tehran Azad University, 1994