Research update from Dr. Richard Kim

In this spring issue of our Department of Medicine Newsletter, I want to share with you the remarkable success of our faculty members during the recent Fall 2020 AMOSO Innovation and Opportunity Fund grant competition. In the Innovation Fund category alone, our DoM faculty members managed to garner more than $1 million in funding. Furthermore, nearly 75 per cent of the Innovation Fund applications submitted by our faculty members resulted in funding success. In addition, two of our junior faculty members were also successful in obtaining the AMOSO Opportunity Fund. Shown in the table below is the list of our DOM faculty members who were successful in obtaining AMOSO funding.

AMOSO Innovation Fund

Project Name  PI Amount
Denosumab for the prevention of fragility fractures in hemodialysis: a pilot study for an innovative, randomized-controlled trial, embedded in routine care (PREFERRED-1) Dr. Kristin Clemens & Dr. Amit Garg $40,881
Integrating genomic medicine into the clinical care of patients with chronic kidney disease Dr. Dervla Connaughton $155,104
Endoscopic nodal staging in oligometastatic non-small cell lung cancer being treated with stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (ENDO-SABR) Dr. Inderdeep Dhaliwal & Dr. David Palma $44,790
Development and validation of a Resuscitation Preferences Video Decision Aid at the London Health Sciences Center (LHSC) Dr. Mark Goldszmidt & Dr. Ravi Taneja $144,263
Genetic diagnosis of dyslipidemia Dr. Robert Hegele $140,000
Moving Towards Personalized Management of Food Allergy Dr. Samira Jeimy $111,002
Reduction Or Elimination Of Radiation During Implantation of Cardiac Devices Using Ultrasound (RADICAl USe) Dr. Habib Khan $25,000
Building the Evidence for Biomarker Testing for Drug Safety and Efficacy in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Personalizing Patient Care Dr. Aze Wilson $148,800
Reducing Readmission of Patients Admitted to Clinical Teaching Unit at Victoria Hospital- Quality Imrovement Intervention Study Dr. Saira Zafar $25,000
Reliability of MRI Indices for Evaluating Perianal Fistulizing Crohn's Disease Activity in a Pediatric Cohort Dr. Eileen Crowley & Dr. Vipul Jairath $74,335
Real Time Continuous Non-Invasive Monitoring and Classification of Peripheral White Blood Cells Dr. Michael Rieder & Dr. Alejandro Lazo Langner $149,600

AMOSO Opportunity Fund

Project Name PI Amount
Best Practices Clinic in Psoriatic Arthritis Dr. Tristan Boyd $97,500
The Association of Orthostatic Hypotension and Cognitive Performance in older adults with Cognitive impairment (OHCog): A sub-study of the Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging (CCNA) Dr. Jaspreet Bhangu $97,500

In addition, I would like to note that we will be holding the DoM Research Competition this year. Due to various challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, it was not feasible to hold the Competition in 2020, but we are delighted and excited to be able to hold this competition for 2021. The focus will be on providing research funding support for our faculty members in their first to seventh year of appointment, to enable their program of research and lead to success at national granting agencies such as CIHR. The Department will provide a total of $400,000 to support four top ranking applications (~$100,000 each). All the submitted grant applications will undergo in-depth peer-review. The deadline for submission is July 5, 2021. We hope to announce the winners of the DoM research competition by August 2021.

Although this past year has been challenging for all of us, I take great pride in our faculty members who have not only provided best patient care and medical education, but also continued their pursuit of unbridled research excellence.

Richard B. Kim, MD, FRCPC
Associate Chair, Research
Department of Medicine