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Training the next generation of clinical trial leaders
By Houda Houbeish
New Western-led program will grow Canada’s capacity for high-quality clinical trials, strengthening evidence-based care nationwide
By Houda Houbeish
A new program aims to strengthen London’s role as a leading centre for clinical trials. The Western Clinical Trials Leadership Program will train clinicians and researchers to design and lead high-quality studies, generating stronger evidence to guide health-care decisions across Canada.
“This initiative reflects a commitment from the London research and health-care community to invest in its future,” said Dr. Amit Garg, associate dean of clinical research at Western’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and a nephrologist at London Health Sciences Centre.
Clinical trials are essential to modern medicine. When done well, they fill critical evidence gaps faster, more efficiently and more affordably than other research approaches. Yet many treatment decisions are still made without strong evidence, underscoring the need for more robust, well-designed trials in Canada.
By equipping faculty across disciplines with the tools, mentorship and infrastructure to lead high-quality clinical trials, we are building the next generation of trial leaders. As they grow, they will help move our entire community forward by generating the evidence that guides health-care decisions.
Associate Dean, Clinical Research
Beginning in October 2026, up to 15 Western faculty members, selected through a competitive process, will start the program. Participants will receive mentorship from experienced clinical trial leaders and practical support in areas such as research methods, ethics and patient engagement.
Over 20 months, participants will attend expert-led sessions and hands-on workshops to develop their own clinical trial protocols. They will also receive feedback from reviewers who serve on Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) funding panels and guidance from Indigenous knowledge keepers.
A timely response to a growing need
Led by Western University, in collaboration with the Academic Medical Organization of Southwestern Ontario (AMOSO) and regional hospital partners, the program responds to a growing need for guidance and mentorship, helping London researchers design and conduct clinical trials more effectively.
That need is something Dr. Eldon Loh, associate professor and pain management specialist at St. Joseph’s Health Care London, knows well. While conducting his own research in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, he recognized that clinical trialists often lack dedicated operational support.
After building a skilled team to support his own studies, he expanded the effort into a city-wide initiative: the Parkwood Rehabilitation Clinical Research Unit (PRCRU) at St. Joseph’s. Today, the unit supports researchers at every stage, from startup and ethics approvals to participant recruitment, data collection, analysis and manuscript preparation.
With initiatives like the PRCRU providing the operational backbone for clinical research in the city, the Western Clinical Trials Leadership Program is designed to strengthen another critical part of the ecosystem: training the next generation of trial leaders.
The program builds on the success of a $3.48 million training initiative, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and coordinated by Western University from 2024 to 2026, to address the need for clinical trials training across Canada.
Pavlos Bobos, PhD, an assistant professor in musculoskeletal health in Western’s Faculty of Health Sciences, was among the trial leaders trained through that pan-Canadian program.
During his participation, Bobos developed a trial protocol to test the most effective exercises for restoring mobility and reducing pain in knee osteoarthritis. He says the program provided “the basic knowledge around how to test exercise-delivered interventions, maximize external validity, outcome selections, and other elements of trial design that make it more pragmatic.”
By enabling more researchers and clinicians to design and lead high-quality clinical trials, the London research and health-care community is further establishing the city as a centre for excellence in clinical research leadership.
The Western Clinical Trials Leadership Program is now accepting applications. Interested faculty have until April 30, 2026 to apply.