Spotlight: C2E2 Member - Boris Sobolev

A health services researcher and Professor at the School of Population and Public Health, the University of British Columbia focuses on access, processes and outcomes of care delivery.

Research interest: Hip Fractures

In a new article recently published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, researchers from the Canadian Collaborative Study of Hip Fractures  recommend a “two-sunset” policy for the timing of hip fracture repair.  Using expertise in causal inference available at C2E2, health outcomes were compared for the same population of patients as if they were surgically-treated on different days after admission to hospital, without resorting to a randomized experiment.

“If all hip fracture surgeries were within two days of admission, one in six deaths among delayed surgeries would have been avoided,” say Dr. Boris Sobolev and Dr. Pierre Guy, lead authors of  Mortality Effects of Timing Alternatives for Hip Fracture Surgery.

The "two sunsets" recommendation is stricter than the current 48-hour standard and places the emphasis of managerial efforts on ensuring timely access to operating room for patients whose surgery might have been delayed due to late admission or hospital transfer.  

Dr. Sobolev presented the study findings at the 2018 Fragility Fracture Network Global Congress in Dublin, Ireland. His talk was awarded the best oral presentation in Health Policy category.

Most Recent Publication:

Sobolev et al CMAJ 2018

Sheehan KJ, Sobolev B, Guy P. Mortality by timing of hip fracture surgery: factors and relationships at play. J Bone Joint Surg Am 2017;99:e106.

Sheehan KJ et al for the Canadian Collaborative on Hip Fractures. In-hospital mortality after hip fracture by treatment setting. CMAJ 2016; 188: 1-7. Link

Other Publications:

Sobolev B, Guy P, Sheehan KJ, Kuramoto L, Bohm E, Beaupre L, Sutherland JM, Dunbar M, Griesdale D, Morin SN, Harvey E for the Canadian Collaborative on Hip Fractures. Time trends in hospital stay after hip fracture in Canada, 2004-2012: Database study. Archives of Osteoporosis 2016; 11: 13; DOI: 10.1007/s11657-016-0264-5. Link

Sheehan KJ, Sobolev B, Chudyk A, Stephens T, Guy P. Patient and system factors associated with mortality after hip fracture: a scoping review. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders. 2016; 17:166: 1-13. Link

Sheehan KJ, Sobolev B, Bohm E, Sutherland J, Kuramoto L, Guy P, Hellsten E, Jaglal S for the Canadian Collaborative on Hip Fractures. Constructing episode of care from acute hospital records for studying effects of timing of hip fracture surgery. Journal of Orthopaedic Research 2016; 34(2): 197-204.

Sobolev B, Sheehan KJ, Kuramoto L, Guy P. Risk of second hip fracture persists for years after initial trauma. Bone 2015; (75): 72-76.

Sobolev B, Sheehan KJ, Kuramoto L, Guy P. Excess mortality associated with second hip fracture. Osteoporosis International 2015; 26(7): 1903-1910.

Guy P, Sobolev B, Sheehan KJ, Kuramoto L, Lefaivre K. The burden of second hip fractures: provincial surgical hospitalizations over 15 years. Canadian Journal of Surgery. 2017; 60(2): 8616

Sheehan KJ, Sobolev B, Guy P; Canadian Collaborative Study of Hip Fractures. Response to "After hours surgery and mortality: the potential role of acute care surgery models as a factor accounting for results". CMAJ. 2017 Feb 6;189(5):E220. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.732865.