Calgary, AB, June 11, 2018 – Paramedics in Calgary and surrounding areas are now able to increase capacity in the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) system, thanks to the CANet-funded project, CASMER, Community Alternatives for Syncope Management in the Emergency Room. CANet investigator, CASMER project lead and professor at University of Calgary’s Faculty of Medicine Dr. Satish Raj, together with a team of medical researchers, doctors, and paramedics, recently launched CASMER in Calgary and surrounding areas within a radius of 45-60 minutes. “Most patients with low-risk syncope, otherwise known as a temporary loss of consciousness or fainting, have excellent outcomes because the diagnoses – vasovagal syncope and initial orthostatic hypotension – are non-life threatening and thus, do not merit a trip to the hospital,” Dr. Raj says. Both, however, are continually recurring features of low-risk syncope, and alarm patients to such a degree that it often prompts unnecessary trips to emergency departments where tests and costs rapidly escalate. Even worse, often patients inconveniently have to wait several hours to be seen, adding to the overcrowding in the emergency departments. With CASMER, paramedics are now using simple checklists to determine whether syncope patients are low-risk or not. If they are low-risk, paramedics...

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...

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,...

London, ON, September 11, 2017 — The Cardiac Arrhythmia Network of Canada (CANet) is pleased to announce the Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS) has awarded Dr. Anthony Tang, Professor of Medicine at Western University and Scientific Director / CEO of CANet, as the 2017 CCS Research Achievement Award winner. Dr. Anthony Tang will be recognized at the CCS Awards Ceremony on Sunday, October 22nd, 2017, during the 2017 Canadian Cardiovascular Conference (CCC) in Vancouver, BC. “On behalf of the Cardiac Arrhythmia Network of Canada, I extend the sincerest congratulations to Dr. Anthony Tang for being named the recipient of the 2017 CCS Research Achievement Award for his long-standing dedication to research in improving the lives of people with cardiac arrhythmia and heart failure.”  said Dr. Pierre Boyle, CANet Board Chair. “Dr. Anthony Tang’s national and international research, as well as, his contributions and leadership to CANet and the arrhythmia community have been transformational. Highly respected among his colleagues, Dr. Anthony Tang is a researcher at the highest level of achievement. The Cardiac Arrhythmia Network of Canada is extremely proud of Dr. Anthony Tang’s accomplishments.” The prestigious Research Achievement Award was created in 1982 in recognition of research excellence. Dr. Anthony Tang...

(London, ON): The Cardiac Arrhythmia Network of Canada (CANet) and its partners are pleased to announce funding for five new strategic research grants (SRG) totaling over $2.8 million with an additional $2.8 million in matching funds. The Strategic Research Grants will fund research that brings together clinicians, engineers, social scientists, industry, government and patients, in an effort to reduce premature deaths and suffering caused by heart rhythm disturbances (arrhythmias). “The projects that are receiving funding will help CANet to meet our strategic goals to decrease hospital admissions and improve the quality of life for millions of Canadians with arrhythmias,” 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.” CANet invited applications for multidisciplinary, multi-sectoral and multi-centered research programs designed to impact the care and/or lives of people living with arrhythmias. After an intensive review process, CANet awarded the following five projects: Arrhythmias, such as atrial fibrillation, syncope, and other common heart rhythm disturbances affect millions of Canadians resulting in early unexpected deaths and reduced quality of life. Arrhythmias are projected to be the leading cause of death in Canada by 2020.  ...

(London, ON): Today marks the launch of Heart Month and an opportunity to bring to the forefront a heart condition that can be serious and sometimes overlooked. Millions of Canadians experience irregular heart rhythms, known as arrhythmias. In fact, arrhythmias are projected to be the leading cause of death in Canada by 2020. The Cardiac Arrhythmia Network of Canada is a national Network of Centres of Excellence committed to transforming the arrhythmia health care system by focusing on atrial fibrillation (AF), sudden cardiac death (SCD) and syncope (fainting). Although many arrhythmias may occur normally, others are more dangerous and can affect the supply of blood to the heart or other organs. Left untreated, this can sometimes lead to stroke, heart attack, heart failure, or SCD. Sudden cardiac death kills 40,000 Canadians a year, and only has an approximately 5 per cent survival rate. Stephen Blais, an Ottawa City Councillor, is one of those lucky few. “The work [CANet is] doing will make a demonstrable difference in the communities you live in…across Canada…and potentially worldwide,” said Blais. ”Thank you.” The costs associated with AF, SCD and fainting are staggering; when indirect costs such as the loss of productivity of the patients...

(London, ON): The Cardiac Arrhythmia Network of Canada (CANet), a national research network funded by the Government of Canada through the Networks of Centres of Excellence with its partners have awarded two Strategic Research Grants (SRG) and one Major Industry-partnered Research Grant (MIRG) totaling over $1.3 million with an additional $6.79 million in matching funds. The Strategic Research Grants will fund research that brings together clinicians, engineers, social scientists, industry and government, centered on patients – in an effort to reduce premature deaths and suffering caused by heart rhythm disturbances – or arrhythmias. The Major Industry-partnered Research Grant Program is to support new transdisciplinary research projects which are primarily industry-focused. “The projects that are receiving funding will help CANet to meet our strategic goals and work towards achieving our vision of early detection, effective prevention, efficient and timely treatment of arrhythmia and related conditions, for all Canadians,” said Dr. Anthony Tang, CEO and Scientific Director of CANet. “We are grateful to our partners for providing the matching funds which will help us achieve success.” CANet invited applications for multidisciplinary, multi-sectoral and multi-centered research programs designed to impact the care and/or lives of people living with arrhythmias. After an intensive review...

New IBM Cloud-based analytics platform will accelerate research for leading heart disorders   TORONTO, ON – 20 Oct 2016: IBM (NYSE: IBM) and the Cardiac Arrhythmia Network of Canada (CANet), a Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) funded national network dedicated to arrhythmia research and development, are joining forces to launch Heart-SIGN (System for Information Gathering and Networking), a cloud-based analytics platform designed to manage, monitor, store, correlate and analyze data generated from all CANet research projects. CANet will use IBM BigInsights on Cloud and Watson Analytics to build an informatics platform to help spark new ideas and share research related to heart rhythm disturbances. Findings will be derived from and used within its network of more than 100 healthcare professionals, patients, academia, government, and industry experts. By incorporating IBM’s advanced predictive analytics and cognitive capabilities, Heart-SIGN will act as a data resource for arrhythmia research and clinical practice, and provide a platform for research-based and clinical initiatives to help researchers identify specific needs, track patients through the system, and measure outcomes. In addition, the platform will offer researchers evidence-based recommended starting points for analysis, enable interaction in natural language, and visualize results on a single, dynamic interface to gain further...

The Cardiac Arrhythmia Network of Canada (CANet) is pleased to announce that two of our Network Investigators were the successful grantees for the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s Emerging Research Leaders Initiative Competition (ERLI) competition. Grantees were announced today.  The Emerging Research Leaders Initiative (ERLI) is an establishment grant program for researchers at the transition stage from post-doctoral fellow to early professional career stage in the areas of cardiovascular and/or cerebrovascular research. This initiative aims to support successful early career launch of new investigators. Funding for the awards has been made possible through a partnership with the Heart and Stroke Foundation. Through this initiative, the funds will create a set of conditions conducive to the successful career launch of emerging research leaders in the cardiovascular, and/or cerebrovascular health research domains. CANet is pleased to award $50,000 per year for 3 years ($150,000 each) to the following grantees: Lin, Steve (Rescu, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael’s Hospital) Optimizing Cerebral Oxygenation And Metabolism In Cardiac Arrest Mentor: Dorian, Paul Network Affiliation: Cardiac Arrhythmia Network of Canada Roberts, Jason (Department of Medicine, Western University) GENEtic Predictors of Successful Atrial Fibrillation Treatment (GENE-AF) Mentor: Tang, Anthony S.L. Network Affiliation: Cardiac Arrhythmia Network of...

Catheter ablation had substantially better outcomes over aggressive drug therapy A Canadian-led clinical trial has demonstrated that catheter ablation – a procedure used to treat dangerous heart rhythms by inserting wires into the heart to cauterize short circuits – is a better treatment option for recurrent ventricular tachycardia (VT) than increased drug therapy. VT is a rapid deadly heartbeat that often causes sudden death. “VT caused by heart attack scar can be very difficult to deal with, and can have quite a severe impact on both survival and quality of life,” said Dr. John Sapp, principal investigator, CANet investigator, electrophysiologist at QEII Health Sciences Centre and professor of medicine at Dalhousie University. “Until now, we really didn’t know what the best treatment was when our first-line drug therapy wasn’t enough.  Heart rhythm researchers across Canada and patients who suffer from VT worked together to discover that catheter ablation is a better option for most than increasing the drug dosages.” The multicenter, multi-national study, Ventricular Tachycardia Ablation versus Enhanced Drug Therapy in Structural Heart Disease (VANISH), was published today in the New England Journal of Medicine and announced simultaneously at the late-breaking clinical trials session of the Annual Scientific Conference of...