Category: News

ACT Consortium Update

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Upcoming webinars

ACT Canada Support for Promoting Innovative Knowledge Mobilization (KM) of Clinical Trial Findings – Presented by the ACT KM Committee

Join this webinar on February 6 to explore knowledge mobilization for clinical trials in Canada, discover innovative strategies, and learn about the ACT Canada KM Committee’s initiatives and funding opportunities.

REGISTER HERE

CanReview: Advancing Clinical Trials Through a Pan-Canadian Single Research Ethics Review System with Susan Marlin, Donna Lillie & Matthew D’Ascanio

Join this webinar to learn about CanReview, a pan-Canadian initiative streamlining ethics reviews for multi-site clinical trials, enhancing collaboration, expanding access to underserved areas, and increasing Canada’s competitiveness.

The same webinar is offered on two separate dates.

February 18 REGISTER HERE

February 20 REGISTER HERE

CanReview Tactical Teams

The CanReview Collaboration is inviting experienced, passionate people from across Canada’s clinical trials community to help shape the future of trials by volunteering on one of CanReview’s tactical teams and groups. This includes individuals who identify as patient partners/people with lived experience.

Click here for more information on the tactical teams and scope of work. 

Contact info@canreview.ca before February 5 to submit an expression of interest!

Training Award

Applications for the 2025-26 CANSTAT Clinical Trial Biostatistics Fellowship Program are now open!

Applications for this one-year, paid fellowship are welcomed from individuals with MSc. or PhD in statistics, biostatistics, or a relevant health sciences discipline (e.g., public health or epidemiology) with a strong statistical or quantitative background.

Deadline to apply: February 21, 2025 

Click here for more information and to apply!

Upcoming Events

On February 24-26, for the 2025 Clinical Trials Training Summit, four Clinical Trials Training Programs – CTTPs (CANTRAIN, CAN-TAP-TALENT, STROKECOG, CBITN) unite to address key challenges in the clinical trials ecosystem in Canada and beyond.

Join us virtually or in-person for three motivating days in the company of a unique assembly of participants, ensuring a diverse, cutting-edge dialogue on advancing quality and innovation in clinical trials in Canada and worldwide.

  • To attend in-person, register by January 26 at 11:59pm.  
  • To attend virtually, register anytime.

Save your spot now and visit our Summit website for further details and announcements: https://wecantrain.ca/home/clinical-trials-training-summit-2025/

ACT Consortium Update – Funding Announcement and Call for Proposals

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RFA 5 – Funding Announcement
As part of ACT’s goal to expand Canada’s participation in international trials, they recently hosted a fifth request for applications to bring high impact randomized controlled trials to Canada that are initiated and are led by a non-Canadian country.

We are pleased to announce that CNTN Scientific Operations Committee co-lead Dr. David Collister had a successfully RFA 5 application endorsed by CNTN. His teams application on the Better Evidence And Translation for Calciphylaxis (BEAT-Calci) global platform trial, with Dr. Meg Jardine from the University of Sydney, was ranked as one of the top ten applications awarded to receive ACT funding for this call for proposals .
RFA 6 – Canadian Biotech Call for Proposals
Another key objective of the ACT Consortium is to facilitate collaboration between Canadian biotechnology groups and clinical trialists. Since most biotechnologies require RCTs demonstrating efficacy and safety to obtain regulatory approvals in Canada, the objective of this RFA is to fund trials evaluating products from Canadian-controlled biotechnology companies in partnership with ACT Network clinical trialists.

Applicants can request up to $400,000 (CAN) in funding to facilitate phase 2, pilot, or Vanguard trials.  Trials that assess safety, recruitment potential, and feasibility are also welcome provided they are an RCT.

Eligibility:

For an application to be eligible, it must fulfill the following criteria.

  • Trial must evaluate a biotechnology from a Canadian-controlled biotechnology company.
  • The proposal must be an RCT and not a product validation observational study.
  • The proposed budget must be CIHR eligible.

 Deadline: The deadline to apply is Sunday January 5th, 2025 at 11:59 pm ET

Application Process:

The application portal can be found here: https://redc.phri.ca/redcap/surveys/?s=LDWA7RLTFJWLNNEM

If you have any questions about the applications process, please reach out to us at: ACT.Canada@PHRI.ca

Should you have any questions or require assistance, please reach out by December 20, 2024 to ensure a prompt response. Queries received after this date may not garner a response.

New podcast episode with Dani Renouf

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This episode of our podcast, CNTN Spotlight, features a conversation with Dani Renouf, a dietitian in Vancouver, British Columbia. During this interview, Dani how she got involved in research, the role that patient partners play in her research, how the support she received from research Dr. Michelle Wong was instrumental in progressing her research and her recent Kidney Foundation of Canada award to fund her study, Describing Gut Microbiota in People with Chronic Kidney Disease.

Click here to listen to the podcast or find the CNTN Spotlight podcast on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcast.

If you would like to share your latest research results, upcoming trial or research program with the nephrology community, email Alicia (amurdoch@cansolveckd.ca).

 

 

ACT seeking post-doctoral fellow

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The Patient Engagement Committee of the Accelerating Clinical Trials Consortium is hiring a post-doctoral fellow for 2 years.

 

The successful candidate will work daily as part of the ACT Consortium Patient Engagement Working Group to lead several key projects that will contribute to and support patient engagement in clinical trials across Canada. The ACT Consortium’s Patient Engagement Working Group brings together patients, caregivers, clinicians, and researchers with expertise in patient engagement in clinical trials. Patient engagement in clinical trials refers to partnering with patients and caregivers (often called “patient partners”) at various clinical trial steps.

 

The Post-doctoral Fellow will work to understand the current landscape of patient engagement in Canadian clinical trials (including existing resources and frameworks) and undertake a needs assessment to determine gaps/areas of need to support patient engagement in the design and conduct of clinical trials in Canada.

 

For more details or to apply, please visit https://www.ohri.ca/Careers/Details.aspx?CareerID=2957

Celebrating Success: Two CNTN endorsed trials selected for funding by CIHR’s ACT Consortium

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Congratulations to the two nephrology trials selected for funding by the Accelerating Clinical Trials (ACT) Consortium!

 

The objective of this request for applications was to fund partnerships with Canadian-controlled biotechnology companies and ACT/AEC Network clinical trialists. The consortium received 30 applications and selected 6 projects for funding up to $400,000 each.

Each proposal underwent a targeted peer review process where each application was reviewed by a total of 10 independent reviewers – 5 reviewers with experience in clinical trials and 5 reviewers with experience in biotechnology.

We are proud to announce that 2 of the 6 projects selected were endorsed by CNTN.

 

Dr. Michael Walsh, 
Dr. Peter Margetts, 
Dr. Pavel Roshanov – EQUAL Dialysis: Evaluation of Qidni Urea And metabolite cLearance in maintenance Dialysis

Biotech: Qidni

 

Dr. Matthew James, Dr. Neesh Pannu, Dr. Daniel Muruve – PONTIAC: Prevention of Nephrotoxin-induced AKI with Cilastatin Trial

Biotech: Arch Biopartners Inc. 

 

 

You can see the full list of awarded trials here

The ACT Consortium was established to advance and facilitate the implementation of high-quality, high-impact randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to improve global health. For more information on the consortium, visit www.act-aec.com.

Pragmatic Trials Training Program

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In January 2023, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) directed over $31M in support of seven clinical trial training platforms.  Western University received $3.7M to develop the HDRN Canada Pragmatic Trials Training Program through the leadership of Dr. Amit Garg, Nominated Principal Investigator, and Associate Dean, Clinical Research, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University.

Now the team is pleased to announce that applications to the HDRN Canada Pragmatic Trials Training Program are being accepted. This two-year virtual pan-Canadian program will provide training to advanced learners across three streams: (1) future trial leaders (faculty-level trainees), (2) postdoctoral fellows, and (3) highly qualified personnel (employed in the public and private sectors). Funding will be made available to successful applicants across all three streams to facilitate their engagement in the program.

The application forms are available HERE.

Applications will be accepted until Friday, December 22, 2023 (5:00 PM Eastern).

The program will commence on April 15, 2024.

As described in the program overview, there will be an emphasis on experiential learning (for future trial leaders and postdocs in the program) through the development of a pragmatic trial protocol. Further, the program is aiming for highly qualified personnel employed by HDRN Canada member organizations to be involved, when possible, in a project-based learning experience. These projects will further HDRN Canada’s ability to support pragmatic trials research in the long-term. (Note, however, that the highly qualified personnel stream is not restricted to applicants from HDRN Canada.)

HDRN Canada is a distributed pan-Canadian network that supports multi-regional data access for transformative and world-leading health data use, working to shape a data future that better supports health and health equity.  HDRN Canada supports researchers in accessing multi-regional data housed in data centres across the country through its Data Access Support Hub (DASH). 

 

EnAKT LKD Trial Results are In!

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Patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) have the best chance for a longer and healthier life if they receive a kidney transplant. However, due to several barriers, many eligible patients today will never receive a kidney transplant.

 

The EnAKT LKD Trial was conducted to determine if CKD program-wide use of a multicomponent intervention could help eligible patients complete key steps towards receiving a kidney transplant. The trial included 20,375 patients who received care in Ontario’s 26 CKD programs over more than four years. Unfortunately, the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected intervention delivery, as CKD programs faced shifting priorities.

 

Acknowledging the complications brought by the pandemic, the trial team was unable to show the intervention increased access to kidney transplantation and living kidney donation, despite evidence of intervention uptake at the participating centres.

 

The intervention exhibited important strengths that could be used in future trials:

    • The trial resulted in a culture shift across participating centres where staff are committed to robust assessments of quality improvement initiatives.
    • The intervention was designed and implemented by diverse stakeholders, including administrators, healthcare staff, patients and nephrologists using new educational materials.
    • The extent of patient-partner involvement in the trial could pave the way for how we think about patient engagement in future trials. Patient partners played an integral role throughout the trial, including leading a key component of the intervention, the Transplant Ambassador Program.

While the team was unable to show this intervention increased access to kidney transplantation and living kidney donation, they are not giving up. They are deeply committed to addressing this complex and important problem.

 

 

ACT Portfolio Hospitals Identified

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The Accelerating Clinical Trials (ACT) Consortium has chosen 20 community hospitals from across Canada to join the ACT consortium as part of the community hospital portfolio. Each hospital will receive funding equivalent to a 1.0FTE Research Coordinator for 3 years to assist with enrolment in various ACT networks trials. If you are running trials or would like run a trial at one of these sites, please email Alicia at amurdoch@cansolveckd.ca. We would like to support and promote nephrology trials at these sites.

Cambridge Cardiac Care (Cambridge, ON)


‍Cape Breton Regional Hospital (Sydney, NS)


Centre Hospitalier Régional de Lanaudière (St-Charles-Borromée, QC)


‍Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital (Moncton, NB)


East Kootenay Regional Hospital (Cranbrook, BC)


‍Grace Hospital (Winnipeg, MB)

 

Health Sciences North (Sudbury, ON)
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Hôpital de la Cité-de-la-Santé (Laval, QC)
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Hôtel-Dieu de Lévis (Levi, QC)
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Humber River Health (North York, ON)
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Kelowna General Hospital (Kelowna, BC)
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Mackenzie Health (Richmond Hill, ON)
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Medicine Hat Regional Hospital (Medicine Hat, AB)
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Nanaimo Regional General Hospital (Nanaimo, BC)
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Niagara Health (St.Catharines, ON)
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Penticton Regional Hospital (Penticton, BC)


Queen Elizabeth Hospital (Charlottetown, PE)
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Qikiqtani General Hospital (Iqaluit, NU)
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Regina General Hospital (Regina, SK)
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Windsor Regional Hospital (Windsor, ON)

 

For more information about the ACT consortium, visit act-aec.ca.

New podcast episode with Dr. Stigant

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This episode of our podcast, CNTN Spotlight, features a conversation with Dr. Caroline Stigant, a nephrologist and climate activist in Victoria, British Columbia. During this interview, Dr. Stigant discusses environmentally sustainable kidney care, the committees of the CSN and ISN that have been developed to tackle this issue, as well as some of the research that she is conducting.

Click here to listen to the podcast or find the CNTN Spotlight podcast on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcast, I Heart Radio and Google Podcast.

If you would like to share your latest research results, upcoming trial or research program with the nephrology community, email Alicia (amurdoch@cansolveckd.ca).

 

 

 

Study looking for kidney, surgical or anesthesia HCP participants

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Invitation to participate in a study to help identify research priorities for people with kidney failure after surgery

You are invited to participate in a study to identify research priorities for people with kidney failure having surgery, approved by the University of Calgary Health Research Ethics Board (REB23-0749, Principal Investigator Dr Tyrone Harrison) “Identification and Prioritization of Postoperative Outcomes in Research with Multidisciplinary Stakeholders and People Living with Kidney Failure”.

People with kidney failure have over 16 times more surgeries than the general population. Unfortunately, guideline recommended strategies to risk stratify surgical patients are not informed by patient priorities and perform poorly for people with kidney failure, making it difficult for clinicians to engage with patients in shared surgical decision making.

In this study, we want to engage with patients, caregivers, researchers, and healthcare providers to identify and prioritize which postoperative outcomes are important to research in this patient group, and to identify targets for future risk prediction models.

Your involvement in the study will involve the completion of approximately three or four 10-minute surveys as part of a Delphi process.

If you are interested in participating, please click this link https://survey.ucalgary.ca/jfe/form/SV_9mZmv4Ffety6LxY and we will be in contact with further information and an electronic consent process.

 

Par la présente, nous vous invitons à participer à une étude qui vise à établir les priorités de recherche pour les personnes atteintes d’insuffisance rénale qui subissent une intervention chirurgicale. Cette étude, intitulée Détermination et hiérarchisation des résultats postopératoires dans la recherche en collaboration avec des intervenants multidisciplinaires et des personnes vivant avec une insuffisance rénale, a été approuvée par le comité d’éthique de la recherche en santé de l’Université de Calgary (REB23-0749, investigateur principal : Dr Tyrone Harrison).

Les personnes atteintes d’insuffisance rénale subissent au moins 16 fois plus d’interventions chirurgicales que la population générale. Malheureusement, les stratégies recommandées par les lignes directrices pour stratifier les risques des patients qui subissent une intervention chirurgicale ne tiennent pas compte des priorités de ces derniers et sont peu efficaces dans le cas des personnes souffrant d’insuffisance rénale. Il est donc difficile pour les cliniciens de participer à une prise de décision partagée en matière de chirurgie avec les patients.

Dans le cadre de cette étude, nous souhaitons collaborer avec des patients, des aidants, des chercheurs et des professionnels de la santé afin de déterminer et de hiérarchiser les résultats postopératoires qui sont importants pour la recherche dans ce groupe de patients, et de définir des cibles pour de futurs modèles de prédiction du risque.

Votre participation à cette étude consistera à répondre à trois ou quatre sondages d’une durée de 10 minutes chacun réalisés au moyen de la méthode Delphi.

Si vous souhaitez participer à cette étude, veuillez cliquer sur ce lien https://survey.ucalgary.ca/jfe/form/SV_eLQtzzSMuPxIc5g. Nous communiquerons avec vous pour vous fournir plus de renseignements et vous indiquer la marche à suivre pour obtenir votre consentement par voie électronique.