INMD Connections - May 2012

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Message from Philip Sherman, INMD Scientific Director

INMD recently participated in the Canadian Society of Nephrology (CSN) Scientific Meeting, held April 25th to 29th in St. John's, Newfoundland. The meeting provides an opportunity for the clinical and research communities to come together and exchange ideas, participate in debates and hear about recent discoveries.

Photo of: Dr. Braden Manns

This year's well attended meeting included an impressive presentation by Dr. Braden Manns (U. Calgary), who is the nominated principal applicant of an INMD-funded project that is relevant to one of the INMD Strategic Priorities, Continuum of Care. The Canadian KidNey KNowledge TraNslation and GEneration NeTwork (CANN-NET), is a collaborative initiative to improve the care and outcomes of patients with, and at risk for, chronic kidney disease. Although less than 0.1% of Canadians have End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), the disease generates direct health-care costs of about $1.3 billion a year in Canada.

Through rigorous prioritization and validation exercises and in consultation with health services providers, including medical and nursing leads for renal programs across Canada, the CANN-NET investigators identified the timing of initiation of dialysis as the most critical area in Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) management for which new guidelines and knowledge translation activities would lead to improved outcomes and lower health care costs. The CANN-NET investigators will work with clinical nephrologists and multidisciplinary CKD clinics across Canada to close the gap between best evidence and local practices. They will also monitor care and patient outcomes, as well as the impact on the health care system. Given the paucity of clinical trials in nephrology, the researchers have also established a knowledge generation arm of CANN-NET – specifically a clinical trials network aimed at promoting multi-center trials that answer questions of importance to nephrology knowledge users.

This project has the potential to impact on quality of life, disease progression, the health system, and health care costs, since dialysis costs approximately $80,000 per person per year. We look forward to hearing about how this initiative progresses over the next few years.

Best Regards,

Philip M. Sherman, MD, FRCPC

IAB Chair gets recognition at ASN

Photo of: Drs. Stephanie Atkinson (McMaster U.) and Harvey Anderson (U. Toronto)

Congratulations to Dr. Stephanie Atkinson (McMaster U.), INMD Institute Advisory Board Chair. Stephanie was recently honoured as a Fellow by The American Society for Nutrition in recognition of her distinguished career and superior achievement in nutrition research and public service during an event honouring ASN Fellows, 50-Year Members and Past-Presidents.
Well done Stephanie!

Researcher Profile

Michael Walsh, MD, FRCPC
Assistant Professor, Division of Nephrology
McMaster University

Dr. Mike Walsh joined the Faculty of Health Sciences as an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics at McMaster University in July 2011. He received his medical degree, internal medicine and nephrology training, and Master's of Community Health Sciences from the University of Calgary. Dr. Walsh then completed a 3-year The Kidney Research Scientist Core Education and National Training Program (KRESCENT) post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Cambridge in England in the area of clinical trials of immunosuppressive treatments for autoimmune kidney diseases. He then completed training with a CIHR Randomized Controlled Trials (RCT) Mentoring Award at McMaster University under the guidance of Drs. PJ Deveraux and Amit Garg. He now holds a KRESCENT New Investigator Award.

Dr. Walsh's interest is in the conduct of large, prospective cohort studies and RCTs to improve the level of evidence used to guide care for patients with kidney diseases. He has made important contributions to RCTs dealing with alterations in the delivery of dialysis that improve patient outcomes and the prevention of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)–associated vasculitis (Hiemstra and Walsh et al. JAMA. 2010).

Currently, he is co-principal investigator of the world's largest RCT of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis. Forty percent of patients afflicted with this rare disease either die or have permanent kidney failure within 5 years of diagnosis. This RCT, which seeks to inform the use of more effective and less toxic treatments, is funded by CIHR and multiple international funding agencies as partners.

Report from the House of Commons' Standing Committee on Health

In December, 2011, INMD Scientific Director Dr. Philip Sherman participated in the House of Commons' Standing Committee on Health study of chronic diseases, health promotion and disease prevention. The Committee recently tabled a report in the House of Commons entitled "Chronic Disease Related to Aging and Health Promotion and Disease Prevention". The Committee heard about CIHR's support for health promotion and disease prevention research, and INMD's support for Obesity and Food and Health research, and made a recommendation that CIHR continue to support research that addresses chronic diseases.

Funding Results

INMD would like to congratulate the researchers that were successful in the following funding opportunities for the Small Health Organization Partnerships Program (SHOPP) and the Partnerships in Health Systems Improvement (PHSI) Program:

Doctoral Research Award – Priority Announcement: Digestive Health (SHOPP) in partnership with the Canadian Digestive Health Foundation

Principal Investigator: Maria Fernando (U. Calgary)
Supervisor: Derek McKay
Project Title: Regulation of macrophage activity by interleukin-6

Fellowship - Priority Announcement: Total Parenteral Nutrition (SHOPP) in partnership with the Canadian Nutrition Society and Baxter Corporation-Canada

Principal Investigator: Adam Rahman (McMaster U.)
Supervisors: Daren Heyland and David Armstrong
Project Title: Prospective audit of parenteral nutrition in high-risk hospitalized surgical patients in Canada

Partnerships for Health System Improvement (PHSI)

Principal Investigators: Geoff Ball and Angela Estey (U. Alberta)
Project Title: Working with Parents to Prevent Childhood Obesity: A Primary Care-based Study

Principal Investigators: Raj Padwal and Angela Estey (U. Alberta)
Project Title: Evaluating Self-Management and Educational Support in Extremely Obese Patients Awaiting Multidisciplinary Bariatric Care (EVOLUTION)

CIHR & Partner News

Planning Grants and Dissemination Events

INMD supports the Planning Grants and Dissemination Events programs as part of the Knowledge Translation aspect of our mandate. Both funding opportunities are now posted on the CIHR website. The maximum amount awarded for a single grant is $25,000 per annum for up to one year. The application deadline is June 15th!

CIHR on YouTube

Want to learn more about CIHR-funded research? Visit the Health Research in Canada YouTube channel and watch researchers discuss their work. Our growing collection of videos addresses topics ranging from traumatic brain injury to gestational diabetes.

Obesity & Mental Health Conference

Join the Canadian Obesity Network, the International Association for the Study of Obesity and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health for the Hot Topic Conference: Obesity & Mental Health June 26-28, 2012.

Feedback on the INMD Newsletter

INMD welcomes researchers, partners and other stakeholders to share news stories that relate to areas of our mandate. If you have interesting research results or developments, are organizing a conference or workshop, or wish to report on a past event, we would like to feature them in our newsletter or other communication materials.

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