Atrial Fibrillation research A total of $500,000, from the W.J. Henderson Foundation gift will support a novel new research study into Atrial Fibrillation. This condition is the most common type of arrhythmia – which is also known as an irregular heart rhythm. It affects approximately one in four Canadians and individuals with the condition have a three to five times greater risk of stroke than those without it. The new study is a partnership between KHSC and Providence Care and will be led by Dr. Benedict Glover. It will look at how lifestyle modifications could improve outcomes for patients as the risk of developing atrial fibrillation increases with age and with other factors such as diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure. “This will be an incredible study because we now have the absolute best technology in treating atrial fibrillation using catheters, computer systems and less invasive techniques. Now we are taking a step back and saying, wait a second, maybe if we treat those underlying conditions we could prevent hospitalizations and actually maybe even cause atrial fibrillation regression in patients that already have it,” said Dr. Glover, the Head of KHSC’s Electrophysiology Program. Glover continued, “lifestyle modification is probably the...

London, ON, February 16, 2018 — The Cardiac Arrhythmia Network of Canada (CANet) and its partners are pleased to announce funding of 10 research grants totaling over $4.4 million with an additional $10 million in matching funds. With this funding cycle, CANet continues to grow in scale and scope. The introduction of a dedicated Social Sciences competition advances CANet’s mandate to integrate the work of the social sciences and humanities better. CANet’s Commercialization Grant has further leveraged the investments of the NCE program surpassing CANet’s goal of securing an additional $40M in partner research contributions. “With firm commitments from Canadian partners, our inclusion of patients throughout our research process, and our mandate to remain solutions-driven, our latest round of research proposals have been funded. We look forward to the outcomes and impacts of this critical research that will improve patient care,” said Dr. Anthony Tang, CEO and Scientific Director of CANet. “We are grateful to our partners for providing the matching funds to help advance this important research.” Arrhythmias, such as atrial fibrillation, syncope, and other common heart rhythm disturbances affect millions of Canadians resulting in unexpected early deaths and reduced quality of life. Arrhythmias are projected to be the...

As CANet strives to improve the lives of Canadians living with arrhythmias, one of the issues that come to the fore is geography. How can we ensure people are getting the best care where they are when they need it? Dr. Ratika Parkash is an electrophysiologist at Halifax’s QEII Health Sciences Centre, and a Professor at Dalhousie University. Her innovative CANet-funded program, Remote Patient Management for Cardiac Implantable Electronic Devices (RPM-CIED) is an excellent example of a program that looks at how to serve people living in remote areas of Canada. There are currently approximately 120,000 Canadians living with either a pacemaker or an implantable defibrillator (ICD). Patients who have these devices are required to visit a cardiac device clinic at least once a year. Dr. Paul MacDonald, a cardiologist at Cape Breton Regional Hospital, explains the challenges that some patients face: “We are over 400 km away from the teaching centre where these are implanted and so while we have dozens of patients with these devices if they do need to be checked or monitored … it’s a really big deal. It’s a trip to Halifax, it’s a five-hour drive, it’s generally an overnight stay … often patients’ families...

One of CANet’s strategic business and capacity development targets is to launch 30-40 new talents in public and private research. Those new talents are known as Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP). To support our HQP and help them launch their careers, we have created the CANet HQP Association for Trainees (CHAT). The CHAT Executive Committee reports to CANet’s Training and Education Committee, with a goal of helping to guide the CANet’s strategy for offering networking and career development opportunities, building multi-disciplinary collaborative relationships, and facilitating research. Trainees are the lifeblood of our research … They offer a lot, both in terms of what they do today, but [also] the promise of what they’ll do 5 years from now, 10 years from now, 20 years from now. Satish Raj, MD, MSCI, FRCPC Professor of Cardiac Sciences, Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta, University of Calgary One of the primary initiatives available to CHAT members is the Trainee Day held annually in conjunction with CANet’s Scientific Conference. Trainee Day 2017, held at the Westin Nova Scotian on Wednesday, September 13, featured interactive sessions on topics like statistics, knowledge translation, abstract writing, and patient engagement. The speed networking session gave attendees a chance to learn...

Dr. Anthony Tang, CANet’s Scientific Director and CEO, received three prestigious, peer-nominated awards during the 2017 Canadian Cardiovascular Congress in Vancouver, B.C. On Sunday, October 22, at the CCS Recognition Awards ceremony, Dr. Tang was presented with the CCS Research Achievement Award. The award is given in recognition of research excellence, and winners are nominated by CCS Members, Deans of Canadian Medical Schools, and Heads and Program Directors of Cardiovascular Programs in Canada. He also received the CHRS Annual Achievement Award, which recognizes CHRS members who have made outstanding contributions in their career within the cardiovascular heart rhythm field. Winners are nominated by CHRS members who feel the person’s career has significantly aided the growth of and support to the heart rhythm field and who has highly respected attributes relative to this award. The respect and admiration that his colleagues have for Dr. Tang were clearly displayed that evening – both through the awards themselves and with the standing ovation that Dr. Tang received. On Monday, October 23, Dr. Tang was honoured to receive the inaugural Magdy Basta award from CHRS. This award was developed to honour Dr. Basta, an electrophysiologist who trained in London and worked in Halifax until...

The 2017 Canadian Cardiovascular Congress in Vancouver, B.C. was another successful event, packed with informative sessions, fun events, and ample opportunities to network and collaborate. Our Network members were well represented throughout the program – starting with funded investigator Dr. Andrew Krahn as the Meeting Chair. Dr. William McIntyre— one of CANet’s CHAT leaders—was the Training Program Planning Committee Chair, helping to plan an engaging roster of sessions that featured some additional CHAT members, like Dr. Katherine Allan (CHAT co-leader) and Dr. Zardasht Oqab. A highlight of the congress was the CCS Awards Ceremony on Sunday, October 22, 2017. Several CANet network members were recognized for their accomplishments. Dr. Ratika Parkash, a CANet funded investigator and the Chair of this year’s Public Forum in Halifax, received the CCS Atrial Fibrillation Research Award for her study Reversal of atrial substrate to prevent atrial fibrillation (RASTA-AF). Dr. Parkash is doing innovative work that will help CANet reach its goal of reducing atrial fibrillation hospitalization and emergency department visits by 20%. Click here to read about her Remote Patient Management for Cardiac Implantable Electronic Devices (RPM-CIED) program and her Computer Simulated Atrial Fibrillation Tool to Reduce Hospitalizations and Emergency Department Visits project. Dr....

On Saturday, October 21, 2017, as part of the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress in Vancouver, B.C., we hosted Arrhythmia Care in the Community, a symposium focused on exploring arrhythmia care practices in community healthcare settings. For this inaugural event, we reached out to Network members and community cardiologists across Canada, along with a group of 80 guests gathered to discuss CANet’s goals and their impacts on Canadians living with arrhythmia. Dr. Anthony Tang, Scientific Director and CEO of CANet, welcomed everyone and identified the four key goals to be met by creating strong partnerships between academic and community cardiologists: Identify patients at risk of arrhythmia Identify existing needs to help provide arrhythmia care efficiently and effectively in the community Identify how to conduct arrhythmia research in the community Identify barriers and solutions to help patients to be cared for at or close to home Esteemed members of CANet then gave brief presentations describing areas of focus within CANet’s strategic plan, research projects they are currently pursuing, and the opportunities these projects present for engaging with members of the community. Follow the link below to learn more about each speaker and to download their presentations. [gdlr_button href=”https://canetinc.ca/events/2017-canet-symposium” target=”_blank” size=”medium” background=”#33647f” color=”#ffffff”]CLICK HERE...

On Wednesday, September 13, 2017, the Cardiac Arrhythmia Network of Canada (CANet) hosted Arrhythmia Care: Exploring Innovations and Advancements in Treatment and Management, its second annual Public Forum. Over 170 people filled the Commonwealth Ballroom at the Westin Nova Scotian hotel in Halifax, eager to learn more about arrhythmia research, treatment and care. Dr. Ratika Parkash, the Chair of the Public Forum planning committee and a clinician scientist at the QEII Heath Sciences Centre, welcomed everyone and introduced Dr. Bryce Pickard, the Managing Director and COO of CANet. Dr. Pickard described CANet’s goals and the vital role that patients play in the network – as committee members, as project co-leads, and as advisors. CANet focuses its research attention on three arrhythmia-related tracks: atrial fibrillation, sudden cardiac death, and syncope (fainting). Dr. Allan Skanes (London Health Sciences Centre), Dr. Paul Dorian (St. Michael’s Hospital) and Dr. Venkatesh Thiruganasambandamoorthy (Ottawa Hospital Research Institute) highlighted projects that CANet has funded and the exciting results they are producing – like VIRTUES and the Canadian Syncope Risk Score. CANet was especially excited to have Dr. Sears, an internationally-recognized expert on the psychological care and quality-of-life outcomes of patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators, present at the...

The Cardiac Arrhythmia Network of Canada (CANet) was pleased to host its 2017 Annual Scientific Conference in beautiful Halifax, Nova Scotia on September 14-15, 2017. This year’s conference, titled Arrhythmia Care: Disruption, Innovation, Transformation, provided our network with a detailed update on CANet’s progress and also presented members with valuable ideas and tools in hopes of inspiring them in their quests to transform arrhythmia care in Canada. Prior to the opening of the conference, CANet hosted a Public Forum on the evening of September 13. Members of the community were invited to join CANet Network Investigators, local arrhythmia care support providers and patients to learn about arrhythmia care and innovations and advancements in its treatment and management. To read additional details, visit: https://canetinc.ca/news/2017-public-forum-recap Over 160 attendees filled the Commonwealth Ballroom at the Westin Nova Scotian, as we kicked off the conference with the keynote speaker, Richard Alvarez, former President and CEO of Canada Health Infoway. Mr. Alvarez gave a compelling and insightful look into the power of digital innovation to modernize and sustain Canada’s health care system. One such digital innovation—and one of the CANet’s greatest accomplishments so far—is the development of VIRTUES, a virtual integrated reliable transformative user-driven e-health system....

More physicians will soon be evaluating an innovative radio frequency (RF) needle developed by Baylis Medical Company Inc. as part of a cross-Canada clinical trial in people with atrial fibrillation (AF). It is the most common heart arrhythmia abnormality and accounts for the majority of arrhythmia-related emergency room visits and hospital admissions. Previous studies have demonstrated that the RF needle can be faster, safer and more effective than a mechanical needle for unrelated procedures. Positive results from the CANet study would complement and expand this growing body of evidence. The 150-patient, multi-centre randomized controlled trial is being sponsored by the Cardiac Arrhythmia Network of Canada (CANet), a national research network that brings together health care professionals, academia, government, industry, not-for-profit organizations, and patients to evaluate and put into practice innovative technologies that improve patient care. The study is one of several CANet-supported projects aimed at reducing AF-related emergency department visits and hospitalization, and the latest in a series of such projects in which Baylis has collaborated. “Baylis is excited to be partnering once again with CANet, which shares our passion for improving patient care and working with hospitals to facilitate the adoption of safe and effective technologies,” says Kris Shah,...