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Inspiratory Muscle Training in Lung Transplant Candidates and Implications on Early Post-Transplant Outcomes: A Pilot and Feasibility Randomized Clinical Trial

Recovery after lung transplantation may be challenging after a long stay in the intensive care unit or hospital after surgery. The structure and function of the diaphragm (most important breathing muscle) is very important for good recovery after surgery. Training this muscle before surgery may provide "extra reserve" to cope with the stresses after surgery. Rehabilitation guidelines suggest that inspiratory muscle training (IMT) combined with standard whole-body exercises prior to major surgery can reduce post-operative complications and expedite recovery. In major thoracic surgery or organ transplantation, the mechanisms and clinical benefits of IMT have not been well established. The lung transplant population represents a unique group to study the benefits of pre-operative IMT. We propose to study 100 lung transplant patients awaiting surgery who will be randomized to receive either: 1) IMT and standard rehabilitation or 2) standard rehabilitation alone across 4 centers in Canada. Participants in group 1 will use a well-established respiratory muscle training device to train twice daily until transplantation. All participants will undergo standard rehabilitation until the time of surgery and 3-months post-transplant. In a subset of the 100 patients, muscle biopsies of the diaphragm will be performed in the Toronto program at the time of surgery. This study will determine if the research design is feasible. Secondary measures will evaluate breathlessness, quality of life, diaphragm function and cellular characteristics, and clinical outcomes 3-months post-transplant. This study will provide a unique opportunity to understand whether IMT is feasible across 4 transplant centers and get an assessment of post-operative outcomes and mechanisms underlying IMT. This study may serve as a model for examining IMT as part of pre-operative rehabilitation in a number of patient populations undergoing major surgery.

Apply by 2023-03-08

Virtual
This opportunity is now closed

Canadian Society of Transplantation - Abstract Reviewer for Annual Conference

The Canadian Society of Transplantation (CST) hosts an annual conference, which will take place in Oct 2023. Researchers and clinicians submit summaries of their research (scientific abstracts and lay/plain language summaries) which are reviewed by their peers from the scientific committee, and also by patient-family-donor partners to determine their suitability for teh conference. Top rated abstracts are also selected for awards, with 2 awards for the best lay/plain language summaries, selected by PFD partners.

Apply by 2023-05-15

Virtual
This opportunity is now closed

Curating Critical Futurities in Transplant Medicine: Arts Practices as New Knowledge

“Curating Critical Futurities in Transplant Medicine: Arts Practices as New Knowledge” asks us to consider how the arts can be part of creating new knowledge and materializing new futures for people impacted by transplant medicine. Transplant medicine is a field marked by frictions: entanglements of self with other, graft with host; biomarkers, biopsies, devices, pills and surgeries blur inside with outside. A curative hope can be elusive as health is marked by the chronicity of other illness. In this event, our research team (consisting of academics, artists, students, and people with lived experience of transplantation) is proposing to create an exhibition of artistic projects and makings from a large multi-year arts-based study of psychosocial challenges and resiliencies across different solid organ transplantation programs. The project is embedded in a critical disability (and disability arts) framework, and we are hoping to engage people working in the biomedical side of transplantation with ways of knowing transplant differently, through the arts.

Apply by 2023-07-17

In person
This opportunity is now closed

Dragon's Den Judge for the Canadian Society for Transplantation innovation grant competition

This is a live "dragon's den" competition that will be held in-person at the Canadian Society for Transplantation Annual Meeting on Tues Oct 17th, 2023 in Winnipeg. You will serve as a judge for the competition along with 2 other panel members. You will hear 3 pitches for "innovation grants" for clinical research projects that are aimed to improve the outcomes and quality of life of transplant recipients. Along with a live audience and the judges, you will be involved with selecting the winner of this competition.

Apply by 2023-09-08

In person
This opportunity is now closed

Identification and Prioritization of Postoperative Outcomes in Research with Multidisciplinary Stakeholders and People Living with Kidney Failure

Are you a person with kidney failure that has had surgery? Or do you have a family member or loved one that has? If so, we are inviting you 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 up to 16 times more surgeries than people without kidney disease. They also have worse outcomes after surgery including a higher risk of heart attacks and death. Current research for people with kidney disease focuses on outcomes that doctors and researchers think are important. In this project, we are trying to identify what is most important to people with kidney failure as they have surgery, to learn more about these outcomes and understand if tools should be developed to predict the risk of those outcomes. 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. Please feel free to email Dr. Tyrone Harrison at tgharris@ucalgary.ca with any questions. Thank you for considering, Tyrone Harrison, MD PhD FRCPC Nephrologist and Assistant Professor Departments of Medicine and Community Health Sciences University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Apply by 2023-10-31

Virtual
This opportunity is now closed

"The Donor": Exploring kin, obligation & "the gift" through Film

Our research team is an interdisciplinary group of artists, social scientists, clinicians and people with lived experience of transplantation, and we are looking at different ways that artistic practices can help to create new understandings in relation to transplant experiences. Our project team has been working with filmmaker and liver transplant recipient Fraser Best, who has created a short documentary film about the relationship between him and his living donor and some of the unspoken feelings, thoughts and ideas that can take place within relationships in living donation. We are aiming to show the short film (16 min) to a small group of interested people online and then have a Q&A/discussion with Fraser and our project team. The discussion is part of our research: we're interested in understanding if this film offers insights around living donation that aren't often discussed in official or institutional settings and if the film prompts important reflections that aren't always or easily talked about relating to transplant and donation.

Apply by 2023-11-20

Virtual
This opportunity is now closed

Qualitative Study: Gathering patient perspectives on inducing immune tolerance with regulatory T cell therapy

Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are naturally-occurring immune suppressing cells that are critical for the prevention of inappropriate immune responses and for the regeneration of damaged tissue. The use of Tregs as a 'living therapy’ to prevent autoimmunity and transplant rejection is considered hugely promising and currently Tregs are being tested in early-phase clinical trials.  One limitation of current cell therapies is the fact that they are typically isolated from patient blood or a stem cell donor before being expanded to large numbers in the lab and re-infused into the patient. In this model, one patient generates one batch of cell therapy product. As this process is hugely complex and expensive, this limits the accessibility of this therapy.  Our group has been working to manufacture off-the-shelf clinical-grade Tregs that can be infused into transplant recipients to reduce the likelihood and severity of transplant rejection. We are the first group in the world to use human thymus tissue instead of blood as the Treg source. A portion of thymus is routinely removed during infant heart surgery and usually disposed of.  As the thymus is the place where Tregs are produced, we can isolate very healthy Tregs from a small amount of thymus tissue and grow them into large numbers. They are then frozen in batches so they can be used as an off-the-shelf therapy for unrelated individuals (allogeneic approach). The ability to treat several patients from one donor source with a readily-available product vastly reduces the cost and increases the accessibility of this cell therapy. To date, all Treg-based therapies tested in the clinic have been shown to be safe. While they are generally linked to reduced requirements for drug-based immune suppression and reduction of graft rejection, this emerging therapy would likely be much improved by use of healthier and genetically-modified Tregs. We plan to test our thymus-derived Treg approach for the first time in humans as a therapy to reduce graft vs. host disease (GVHD) after a blood stem cell transplant. A blood stem cell transplant is potentially a curative treatment for patients with chemotherapy-resistant blood cancers. However, GVHD, which occurs when the new immune system rejects the recipient’s tissue, is a devastating and common side effect of this type of transplant. Reducing the risk and severity of GVHD could greatly improve patient health outcomes. We are currently applying for Health Canada approval for this clinical trial and if successful, aim to do the first-in-man phase 1 trial in 2025 (funding allowing). As part of this project, we are trying to understand the patient’s perspective on the use of Treg cell therapies to induce tolerance in transplant patients.  

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Virtual
This opportunity is now closed

Generative Artificial Intelligence among Transplant Patient Partners

Artificial intelligence has had an increasingly prevalent role within the healthcare system within the last few decades in streamlining the medical processes. Significant research has explored the credibility of AI tools in forecasting conditions and optimizing decision-making processes and there remains significant interest in incorporating AI in in healthcare among the medical community. AI has the potential to improve self-management of complex conditions such as pre and post-solid organ transplant procedures due to its learning process. Forms of generative artificial intelligence such as natural languaging processors (NLPs) can further target the patient-facing side given their adaptability from a language comprehension lens. Large language processing can simplify difficult data and make it accessible to all audiences. This makes it an important area of exploration — understanding how patients feel about the advent of this technology and how they can use it to improve patient education moving forward. Given that patients are the center of the clinical experience and given the increased focus on patient-centred care and increased accessibility of generative AI tools, we need to examine the role of generative AI in the patient experience in clinical care, such as transplants. Understanding the experiences of transplant partners will allow us to tailor the transplant educational narrative and direction for patients to prioritize comprehension and autonomy. This will also, therefore, streamline the already complex transplant process.

Apply by 2024-04-30

Virtual
This opportunity is now closed

Assessing prospective users’ acceptance of using a new mobile health application during the transplant journey

The transplant journey is overwhelming. Many people find that preparing for and living with a transplant is mentally, emotionally, and physically challenging. During the transplant journey, people are asked to adopt new health behaviours, monitor, and record their health status, attend many appointments and tests, and manage complex medications.    A new mobile health application (app) is being developed by people with transplant experience, healthcare providers, researchers, and developers. The app will improve access to tailored education and provide tools for patients to manage their health. The purpose of this study is to learn about whether patients and care partners plan to use the app. We also want to explore how participants might use the app to manage their health and wellness. This study is being conducted by researchers from the University of Saskatchewan. 

Apply by 2024-01-31

Virtual
This opportunity is now closed

Patient perceptions on shared decision-making about deceased donor kidneys

Transplantation is a life-saving therapy for patients with kidney disease, but patients continue to deteriorate on the waitlist. Meanwhile, sometimes physicians decline deceased donor kidney offers on behalf of their patients without a discussion with them. The purpose of this study is to learn about how people feel about decision-making about deceased donor kidneys. We also want to learn what people know about how kidneys are allocated and how they feel about less than ideal kidneys. Finally, we’d like to learn about how people prefer to be educated about this topic. This study is being conducted by researchers from the University of Saskatchewan and University of Montreal. --- La transplantation est un traitement vital pour les personnes atteintes d’une maladie rénale. Cependant, certain(e)s patient(e)s décèdent en attente de cette intervention. Il arrive que des médecins refusent les offres de reins de donneur(euse)s décédé(e)s au nom de leurs patient(e)s sans en discuter avec eux car ils jugent les reins non optimaux. L’objectif de cette étude est de recueillir l’opinion des patient(e)s et des proches aidant(e)s à propos de la prise de décision relative aux reins de donneur(euse)s décédé(e)s. Nous souhaitons également découvrir ce que les gens savent de l’attribution des reins et ce qu’ils pensent des reins dont l’état n’est pas optimal. Enfin, nous cherchons à savoir comment les gens préfèrent être renseignés à ce sujet. Vous êtes admissible à participer à cette étude si vous êtes une personne ayant subi une transplantation rénale, un(e) candidat(e) à une transplantation ou un proche aidant(e). En participant à l’étude, vous devrez répondre à un questionnaire en ligne.

Apply by 2024-02-29

Virtual

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