The 2024 CNTN Research Symposium: A Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the morning of May 2nd, 2024, over 40 people attended the Annual Canadian Nephrology Trials Network (CNTN) Research Symposium in Montreal, Quebec. The meeting kicked off with Dr. Karthik Tennankore providing an update on the initiatives and plans of the Accelerating Clinical Trials (ACT) consortium, which included an overview of the community hospital portfolio project that provides funding for full-time research coordinators to assist with enrolment in ACT network trials and introduced CNTN’s part-time research assistant, Omo Enilama. 

Four new trials were presented, including:

  • Drs. Kristin Clemens and Louise Moist – OK-TRANSPLANT: Obesity management for kidney TRANSPLANTation: a vanguard study for an innovative randomized controlled trial, embedded in routine care
  • Dr. Adeera Levin – EASI-KIDNEY: Aldosterone Synthase Inhibition and Empagliflozin in CKD
  • Dr. Matt James​ – Prevention of Nephrotoxin-induced AKI with Cilastatin Trial: PONTIAC trial
  • Dr. Amber MolnarDIAL-Bicarb: Effects of a Lower vs. Higher Concentration of Dialysate Bicarbonate​

OK-TRANSPLANT, PONTIAC and DIAL-Bicarb were recipients of funding from the ACT Consortium awards last year.

Following the Annual CNTN Research Symposium, CNTN members — Dr. Bhanu Prasad, Dr. Ayodele Odutayo, and Nancy Verdin — presented their research at the Canadian Society of Nephrology’s Annual General Meeting. 

Dr. Bhanu Prasad, Communications and Engagement Committee member, provided three poster presentations on his research: 

Dr. Ayodele Odutayo, Scientific Operations Committee Member, presented “The Association of Quantitative and Semi-Quantitative Proteinuria with Heart Failure and Other Adverse Outcomes in Atrial Fibrillation”. 

Although Nancy Verdin was unable to attend, her poster, “Redeveloping KidneyLink, an Online Tool for Connecting Canadians to Kidney Research,” was accepted to the meeting. She is a Scientific Operations Committee Patient Partner Member.  


Le matin du 2 mai 2024, plus de 40 personnes ont assisté au symposium de recherche du Réseau canadien d’essais cliniques en néphrologie (RCEN) qui a eu lieu à Montréal au Québec. Le Dr Karthik Tennankore a démarré le symposium en faisant le point sur les initiatives et les projets du consortium Accelerating Clinical Trials (Accélérer les essais cliniques – AEC). Il a notamment donné un aperçu du projet de portefeuille des hôpitaux communautaires qui finance des coordinateurs de recherche à temps plein pour aider à l’inscription aux essais du réseau AEC et a présenté l’assistante de recherche à temps partiel du RCEN, Omo Enilama.

Quatre nouveaux essais ont été présentés, dont :

  • Les Dres Kristin Clemens et Louise Moist – OK-TRANSPLANT : Prise en charge de l’obésité dans le cadre d’une TRANSPLANTATION rénale : une étude d’avant-garde pour un essai contrôlé randomisé innovant, intégré dans les soins de routine
  • Dre Adeera Levin : Inhibition de l’aldostérone synthase et empagliflozine dans la maladie rénale chronique
  • Dr Matthew James – Prévention de l’IRA induite par la néphrotoxine avec l’essai sur la cilastatine : Essai PONTIAC
  • Dr Amber MolnarDIAL-Bicarb : Effets d’une concentration plus faible ou plus élevée de bicarbonate de dialyse

OK-TRANSPLANT, PONTIAC et DIAL-Bicarb ont bénéficié l’année dernière d’un financement du consortium AEC.

À la suite du symposium annuel de recherche du RCEN, les membres du RCEN, le Dr Bhanu Prasad, le Dr Ayodele Odutayo et Nancy Verdin, ont présenté leurs recherches lors de l’assemblée générale annuelle de la Société canadienne de néphrologie.

Le Dr Bhanu Prasad, membre du comité de communication et d’engagement, a présenté trois affiches sur ses recherches :

Ayodele Odutayo, membre du comité des opérations scientifiques, a présenté « The Association of Quantitative and Semi-Quantitative Proteinuria with Heart Failure and Other Adverse Outcomes in Atrial Fibrillation » (L’association de la protéinurie quantitative et semi-quantitative avec l’insuffisance cardiaque et d’autres résultats indésirables dans la fibrillation auriculaire).

Bien que Nancy Verdin n’ait pas pu être présente, son affiche, « Redeveloping KidneyLink, an Online Tool for Connecting Canadians to Kidney Research » (Réaménagement de KidneyLink, un outil en ligne pour connecter les Canadiens à la recherche sur le rein), a été acceptée à la réunion. Elle est membre du comité des opérations scientifiques en tant que patiente partenaire.

ACT National Training Framework

 

 

 

 

 

The ACT-AEC National Training Framework brings together clinical trials training opportunities from the 7 CIHR Funded Clinical Trials Training Platforms (CTTP) as well as additional training resources to support a range of learners (e.g., trialists, trainees, clinical research professionals, patients and the public, etc.) and learning styles from the ACT Consortium’s Clinical Trial Units (CTU), Clinical Trials Networks (CTN), and Portfolio Hospitals (PH). Their collective goal is to accelerate clinical trials by building capacity and sharing knowledge and best practices across the ACT Consortium.

 

The website hosts a large library of education resources and listing of upcoming opportunities including webinars, in-person learning, Training & support awards, Internships, Mentorship, Community of practice for research, Patient engagement resources and knowledge mobilization resources.

 

Click here to visit the website and see what resources are available!

 

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

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.

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

Congratulations to Drs. Sam Silver, Amber Molnar and Ann Young and teams for being selected for funding by the Accelerating Clinical Trials (ACT) Consortium! Stream 1 for this request for applications was dedicated to novel trial designs. With a total funding pool of $1.5 million, 2 of the 8 trials selected were CNTN endorsed trials:

 

Dr. Samuel Silver (Kingston, ON; Queens University) and Dr. Amber Molnar (Hamilton, ON; McMaster University): Dial-Bicarb: The Dial-Bicarb Trial investigates dialysate bicarbonate levels
 

Dr. Ann Young (Toronto, ON; Unity Health Toronto and St. Michael’s Hospital): KidneyCare Outreach: Vanguard phase of a population-based randomized clinical trial to strengthen kidney care delivery for patients at high risk of kidney failure

 

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.

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

Congratulations to Dr. Michael Walsh and Dr. Amit Garg and teams for being selected for funding by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR)’s Accelerating Clinical Trials (ACT) Consortium! Of the 43 trials that applied for funding, 2 of the 11 trials selected were CNTN endorsed trials: 

 

Dr. Amit Garg (London, ON; Western University and the London Health Sciences Centre): Effect of a Multi-Component Quality Improvement Intervention on Patient Access to Kidney Transplantation and Living Kidney Donation (EnAKT-LKD)
 

Dr. Michael Walsh (Hamilton, ON; McMaster University and the Population Health Research Institute): Aldosterone blockade for Health Improvement Evaluation in End-stage renal disease (ACHIEVE) 

 

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.
 

This most recent call for proposals was designed to support ongoing and active, Canadian-led, high-impact RCTs that required additional funding for successful completion. All recipients of this ACT grant will publicly report their results by January 15, 2025. 

 

We look forward to learning their results! 

First virtual symposium

 

Thank you to all of those who attended our first virtual symposium. It was a great success and we are excited to host another in early 2021. If you are interested in presenting, please email Alicia at amurdoch@cansolveckd.ca.

For those who were unable to attend, you can view the recording of the session here. Listed below are the start times of the individual presentations and their titles:

Dr. Sam Silver presents his trial, Promoting Kidney Recovery after Acute Kidney Injury Receiving Dialysis, at 11:20.

Dr. Bhanu Prasad presents his trial, Renal denervation in patients with loin pain hematuria syndrome – a feasibility study, at 43:05.

Dr. Ron Wald gives an update on the PHOSPHATE trial, Pragmatic randomized trials of High Or Standard PHosphAte Targets in End-stage kidney disease, at 1:20:50.

Dr. Michael Walsh discuss the recruitment challenges with his multi-centre, multi-country trial – ACHIEVE, Aldosterone Blockade for Health Improvement Evaluation in End Stage Renal Disease, at 1:58:40.

 

OPTIONS Vasculitis study looking for patients

If you’re a patient with vasculitis or kidney disease that lives in Canada, the United Kingdom, or the United States, please help us out by taking 15 minutes to complete a survey regarding patient value and preferences about plasma exchange in ANCA associated vasculitis.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/optionsvasculitis

All responses are anonymous. Your answers will help patients and doctors with shared decision making about plasma exchange in patients with vasculitis and kidney disease as well as inform clinical practice guidelines. Thanks!

Cannabis survey looking for participants

Dr. David Collister, CNTN Scientific Operations and Executive committee member, is co-principal investigator on a study, “CANNAbis for the treatment of symptoms in advanced CKD and dialysis: a patient survey (CANNA-CKD)”

This study is an online survey of adults with kidney disease (including chronic kidney disease, dialysis or transplant). The survey consists of 15 questions and should take no longer than 10 minutes to complete. It collects information about your use of recreation and medicinal cannabis use.

The goal of this survey is to determine the recreational and medicinal cannabis experiences of patients with advanced chronic kidney disease or those on dialysis. We would also like to evaluate your willingness to participate in future studies of cannabis for symptoms related to kidney disease.

All responses are anonymous and it does not collect any personal health information. The results of this survey (and a physician survey) will be used to determine which symptoms to pursue funding for clinical trials of cannabis in patients with kidney disease. The results of the physician survey were recently published and can be found here.

The survey is available at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TCCWJFX. For questions related to the survey, please contact Dr. Collister at david.collister@phri.ca.