ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Kelli Berzuk is a pelvic floor physiotherapist and the owner and founder of IPPC-Incontinence & Pelvic Floor Clinic (Division of Nova Physiotherapy) located in the Medical Arts Building. For over twenty years she has focused her clinical practice to the specialty of pelvic floor dysfunction and the treatment of bladder, bowel, and sexual dysfunction, pelvic pain and pelvic organ prolapse.

She is an advocate for the prevention and correction of pelvic floor dysfunction in women, men and children and has presented at hundreds of functions to raise awareness to the importance of pelvic floor health. Over the years it has become glaringly evident to her that most women with urinary incontinence suffer in silence and are unaware that help is available. Another concern is that women often do their pelvic floor muscle exercises incorrectly. It is her passion to educate on bladder health, available treatment options and what people can do to help themselves. Dr. Berzuk would like this information to be easily accessible to all women for the purpose of both prevention and correction of urinary incontinence.

She received her post-graduate pelvic floor education through the American Physical Therapy Association, Certification in Pelvic Floor Rehabilitation and Continence through the University of Melbourne, Australia, and a Master of Science and PhD in Urogyne-Colorectal Medicine at the University of Manitoba. Her Master in Science research thesis focused on validating a research tool used to measure pelvic floor function on a global perspective and her PhD research focused on the high prevalence of pelvic floor dysfunction and the need for raising knowledge and awareness to pelvic floor health and proper exercise, within the general female public.

She has received numerous provincial and national awards over the years including the Distinguished Service Award for the Canadian Physiotherapy Association, the Robert A. Macbeth Traveling Fellowship Award, the Leonore Saunders Mentorship award, the University of Manitoba Research Development award and the Women's Health Research Foundation of Canada Graduate Scholarship. Most notably, in 2012, Dr. Berzuk was nationally recognized within the first-ever graduating class of Canadian Physiotherapy Clinical Specialists and the same year awarded the Distinguished Service Award for her lifetime dedication to education, research and clinical practice in the field of Women's Health. In 2013, the University of Manitoba awarded her with the Distinguished Dissertation Award for her ground-breaking research thesis, "Effects of Increasing Awareness of Pelvic Floor Muscle (PFM) Function on Pelvic Floor Dysfunction (PFD)."

Dr. Berzuk sits on provincial, national and international Boards and Committees and has acted as a Reviewer for several international urogynacology journals for the promotion of research in pelvic floor health. In 2014 she accepted the role of President of the Women's Health Research Foundation of Canada, and was invited to become a member of the Editorial Board for the Current Sexual Health Reports journal.