Clinical Trials

Person-centered care is fundamental to high-quality health systems because it improves experiences people have with care, better aligns health services delivery with individual needs. This is achieved by integrating clinical data with both objectively collected patient reported outcomes (PROMs) and patient reported experiences (PREMs), which quantify the subjective aspects of a person’s health status and their experience with processes of care. Unfortunately, PROMs and PREMs in individuals living the cardiovascular disease are still generally collected through telephone and paper-based surveys in Alberta as outcomes in research studies. Although there are well developed and validated PROMs and PREMs for cardiovascular disease, there is a lack of electronic platform for collecting and reporting these measures back to care providers and patients so that they can use them to improve quality and outcomes of care in Alberta. This CIHR-funded study will develop an electronic platform needed to facilitate deployment of an electronic PROMs and PREMS system for cardiovascular disease into routine clinical settings

The IMPROVE CV Care study is part of the Strategy for Patient Orientated Research (SPOR)-Innovative Clinical Trials (iCT) Program under the Interdisciplinary Chronic Disease Collaboration (ICDC).

ACT: QuICR & OPTIMISE is a Pragmatic Phase III randomized open-label registry-based trial with blinded end-point assessment. Enrolled acute ischemic stroke patients will be eligible to receive intravenous thrombolysis (Alteplase or Tenecteplase) as per current guidelines.

Over the three year study period, 1,600 patients will be treated with tPA or TNK, with followup at 90 days. The primary outcome measure will be a modified Rankin Scale (mRS) 0 or 1 at 90-120 days.

Injured joints, especially the elbow, are at risk for permanent motion loss, also known as joint contractures. Joint contractures limit the function of a person due to the loss of elbow motion. For example, loss of elbow motion makes it difficult to perform activities of daily living such as feeding yourself, personal hygiene and dressing. Joint contractures are a recognized complication that occurs often after a fracture or dislocation of a joint. Current research suggests that mast cells, which are found in the joint, are key in causing the joint contracture. Mast cells are produced by our bone marrow along with other white blood cells and live in our tissues. They participate in healing after injury but in joint contractures they are over active. Research has been performed using a medication called Ketotifen. Ketotifen has been linked to stabilizing the mast cells and preventing the joint contracture. It is hoped that short-term use of this medication (Ketotifen) after a fracture or dislocation will prevent the contracture from occurring. This medication is not new. It is currently used in the treatment of Asthma. This research is continuing from another clinical study on people with elbow fractures or dislocations done in Calgary, Alberta Canada.