The results of the CIHR Spring 2024 Project Grant Competition have been announced. Advancing Health Scientists are leading four of the projects funded in this round, including one project under this competition’s Priority Announcement. An additional sixteen projects are being supported by Advancing Health Scientists as co-investigators.
Before clear multiple sclerosis symptoms appear, there is a period called the “prodromal” phase, which can last months to years and includes subtle signs that multiple sclerosis may develop later. Identifying people in this early phase is important because early treatment might delay or prevent severe symptoms. However, there is currently no reliable method to predict who is in this phase. Advancing Health’s Dr. Ehsan Karim is leading a team to create a reliable tool (an algorithm) to calculate the likelihood of someone being in this early phase by studying over two decades of health data.
Each year thousands of patients experience failure of their first kidney transplant. Even if their kidney fails, patients usually continue taking reduced doses of the same immunosuppressant drugs they were on when their transplant was functioning. However, using these immunosuppressant drugs comes with risks, including infections, cancer, and heart disease. Currently, there are no evidence-based guidelines for using immunosuppressant drugs in patients with failed transplants, leading to wide variations in treatment. Advancing Health’s Dr. John Gill, supported by Advancing Health’s Dr. Jagbir Gill, is leading a pilot study aiming to assess whether a large multi-center trial is feasible to determine if continuing immunosuppressant drugs can exclude patients from receiving a second transplant without increasing the risk of adverse events.
Emergency departments are key places for drug users to seek help, but the care they receive is inconsistent and not always based on evidence. For this Priority Announcement: Pandemic Preparedness and Health Emergencies Research project, Advancing Health’s Drs. Brian Grunau and Andrew Kestler, supported by Advancing Health’s Dr. Frank Scheuermeyer, are aiming to establish a pan-Canadian registry of emergency department patients presenting with opioid poisoning, harmonize data collection across participating sites, describe variations in patient characteristics, clinical practice and outcomes, and derive a clinical decision rule to predict the risk of dying within 60 days.
There are significant challenges with sustained engagement in opioid agonist treatment among people with opioid use disorder, particularly for individuals with a serious mental disorder, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Advancing Health’s Dr. Bohdan Nosyk will be leading a project, supported by Advancing Health’s Drs. Joseph Puyat and Angela Russolillo, to understand the effectiveness of pharmacological treatment patterns for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. This project will use population-based data from rural and urban areas of Ontario and British Columbia to describe treatment patterns for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and care models for individuals on opioid agonist therapy.
Advancing Health’s Dr. Najib Ayas is a co-investigator on a project examining how driving and cognitive performance changes after a series of 12-hour nightshifts and identify factors that improve or worsen driving performance.
Advancing Health’s Dr. Rachel Carter is a co-investigator on a project evaluating a Compassionate Community volunteer navigation approach supporting older persons living with life-limiting illness and frailty in rural communities.
Advancing Health’s Dr. Annalijn Conklin is a co-investigator on a project investigating the influence of socioecological factors on the pace of reproductive aging and the risk of cardiometabolic diseases in peri- and post-menopause.
Advancing Health’s Dr. Alana Flexman is a co-investigator on a project evaluating and comparing the effectiveness of virtual and in person anesthesiology consultations.
Advancing Health’s Dr. Anne Gadermann is a co-investigator on a project studying long term development in children exposed in utero to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and stimulant medication.
Advancing Health’s Drs. Troy Grennan, Bohdan Nosyk, and Wei Zhang are co-investigators on a project evaluating the impact of internet-based testing on syphilis and gonorrhea.
Advancing Health’s Dr. Adeera Levin is a co-investigator on two different projects. The first project aims to determine the effective care strategies in Long COVID clinics from Quebec and then share them nationwide. The second project aims to investigate the role of inhibin beta C, a protein increased in the blood of those with chronic kidney disease, is involved in impaired kidney function and kidney scarring.
Advancing Health’s Dr. Linda Li is a co-investigator on two projects. The first project, with co-investigator and Advancing Health Research Associate Alison Hoens, falls under the Priority Announcement: Female Athlete Health. It is a randomized controlled evaluating the impact of the virtual SOAR program (Stop Osteoarthritis) for young people at high risk of early onset knee osteoarthritis. The second project Dr. Li is a co-investigator for is implementation research to improve scale-up of the delivery of evidence-based community exercise programs for stroke.
Advancing Health’s Dr. Sarah Munro is a co-investigator for a project to improve abortion access supports and services for Indigenous Women, Two Spirit and LGBTQIA+ people in Canada.
Advancing Health’s Dr. Srinivas Murthy is a co-investigator for two separate projects. The first project funds a living systematic review & network meta-analysis of interventions for post COVID-19 conditions. The second project funds an adaptive clinical trial aiming to find out which of the antibiotics currently used work best in pediatric populations to fight Staphylococcus aureus infection.
Advancing Health’s Dr. Angela Russolillo is a co-investigator for a multi-site collective case study that aims to describe eight-to-ten representative high support housing programs in Canada, including support services offered, key program characteristics, and resident and staff perspectives and experiences.
Advancing Health’s Dr. Jason Sutherland is a co-investigator on two projects. The first project includes Advancing Health’s Dr. Christian Schütz as a co-investigator looking to improve health and criminal justice outcomes through community, hope and healing by evaluating BC’s prison based therapeutic community. The second project Dr. Sutherland is a co-investigator for falls under the Priority Announcement: Breast Cancer Survivorship. It compares oncologic, surgical, and patient reported outcomes between breast conserving surgery and mastectomy in breast cancer patients.
