Researchers at The Ottawa Hospital, affiliated with the University of Ottawa, are playing a lead role in nine new projects funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). These projects will advance science and improve health in areas such as joint degeneration, kidney disease, multiple sclerosis, chronic disease, surgical recovery, inflammatory bowel disease, blood clots, breast cancer and decision coaching.

Six of the projects, worth $4.9 million, will be administered at The Ottawa Hospital.

All of the projects with Principal Investigators or Co-Principal Investigators at The Ottawa Hospital are listed below.

• Joint degeneration: Drs. Paul Beaulé, Mario Lamontagne, Gerd Melkus and Andrew Speirs were awarded $711,450 to improve our understanding of pre-arthritic hip problems in young adults and develop approaches for early detection and prevention.
  • Co-Investigators: Catelas, Isabelle; Dinning, Stephen; Fergusson, Dean A; Poitras, Stéphane; Rakhra, Kawan S
• Kidney disease: Dr. Christopher Kennedy was awarded $822,375 to investigate how high blood pressure contributes to kidney disease, including the role of a protein called Nox5 which could be a target for new treatments.
• Multiple sclerosis: Dr. Rashmi Kothary was awarded $918,000 to investigate how factors called microRNAs control the formation of a protective sheath around our nerve fibres, and how this process could be harnessed to treated diseases such as multiple sclerosis.
• Chronic disease: Dr. Douglas Manuel was awarded $489,600 to develop a new approach for measuring how common chronic diseases affect quality of life, and the potential impact of lifestyle factors.
  • Co-Investigators: Bernier, Julie; Feeny, David H; Fisher, Stacey L; Funnell, Sarah; Hennessy, Deirdre A; Jackson, Rod; Jessri, Mahsa; Manson, Heather; Maskerine, Courtney; Orpana, Heather M; Pelletier, Louise; Rosella, Laura C; Taljaard, Monica
• Surgical recovery: Drs. Daniel McIsaac, Dean Fergusson, Rachel Khadaroo, John Muscedere and Monica Taljaard were awarded $1,136,025 to lead a national multi-centre clinical trial of a home-based exercise program to help frail, older people prepare for surgery.
  • Co-Investigators: Boet, Sylvain; Boland, Laura S; Breau, Rodney H; Bryson, Gregory L; Caycedo, Antonio; Eskander, Antoine; Forster, Alan J; Gagné, Sylvain; Holroyd-Leduc, Jayna M; Huang, Allen R; Johnson, Ana; Lalu, Manoj M; Lavallée, Luke T; Ma, Grace; Mccartney, Colin J; Mcelhaney, Janet E; Moloo, Husein; Nagpal, Sudhir; Nantel, Julie; Power, Barbara E; Saha, Tarit; Scheede-Bergdahl, Celena; Thavorn, Kednapa; Van Walraven, Carl; Wijeysundera, Duminda N
• Inflammatory bowel disease: Dr. Sanjay Murthy, Dr. Gilaad Kaplan, Kate Lee and Dr. Laura Targownik were awarded $845,325 to use administrative data to predict the future burden of inflammatory bowel diseases in Canada and the impact of biologic therapies on important health outcomes in this population. Dr. Murthy is Co-Principal Investigator on this project, which is led by Dr. Kaplan at the University of Calgary.
  • Co-Investigators: Benchimol, Eric I; Bernstein, Charles N; Bitton, Alain; Carroll, Matthew W; Coward, Stephanie; Jacobson, Kevan; Jones, Jennifer L; Kuenzig, M. Ellen; Lee, Lawrence; Morrin, Louise; Nguyen, Geoffrey C; Otley, Anthony R; Pena-Sanchez, Juan-Nicolas; Sadatsafavi, Mohsen; Singh, Harminder; Veldhuyzen Van Zanten, Sander J; Windsor, Joseph W
• Blood clots: Drs. Marc Rodger and France Gagnon were awarded $278,971 to investigate a possible epigenetic explanation for sex differences in the risk of recurrent blood clots. Dr. Rodger is Co-Principal Investigator on this project, which is led by Dr. Gagnon at the University of Toronto.
• Breast cancer: Dr. Luc Sabourin was awarded $855,270 to investigate the role of two genes in breast cancer (SLK and SOX10) and explore their potential as targets for new treatment.
• Decision coaching: Drs. Dawn Stacey, Janet Jull, Sascha Kopke and Maureen Smith were awarded $114,750 to  conduct a systemati review of decision coaching to help people prepare for making health decisions. Dr. Stacey is Principal Investigator on this project, which is administered at the University of Ottawa.
  • Co-Investigators: Boland, Laura S; Dunn, Sandra I; Graham, Ian D; Hutton, Brian E; Légaré, France; Lewis, Krystina B

Core Resources: The Ottawa Methods Centre is playing a role in all of the clinical research projects administered at The Ottawa Hospital. StemCore, ICES uOttawa and the Business Systems Integration Team (Mike Hendley) are helping with several others.

The Ottawa Hospital was among the top three hospitals in the country for bringing in highly competitive CIHR funding in 2017-18.

Learn how you can support research at The Ottawa Hospital and make a difference for patients in Ottawa and around the world.

The Ottawa Hospital: Inspired by research. Driven by compassion 

The Ottawa Hospital is one of Canada’s largest learning and research hospitals with over 1,100 beds, approximately 12,000 staff and an annual budget of over $1.2 billion. Our focus on research and learning helps us develop new and innovative ways to treat patients and improve care. As a multi-campus hospital, affiliated with the University of Ottawa, we deliver specialized care to the Eastern Ontario region, but our techniques and research discoveries are adopted around the world. We engage the community at all levels to support our vision for better patient care. See www.ohri.ca for more information about research at The Ottawa Hospital.

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Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Office: 613-798-5555 x 73325
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jganton@ohri.ca