Cardio Kidney Metabolic Research Group
Key Contact
Name: Dr. Louise Moist
Email: louise.moist@lhsc.on.ca
Purpose
The CKM Research Group creates a coordinated multidisciplinary network to improve patient care, enable cross-clinic research access, and support collaborative grant development in real-world multimorbid populations. Patients with cardiovascular, kidney, and metabolic chronic diseases commonly present with overlapping conditions — including chronic kidney disease, diabetes, obesity, heart failure, hypertension, vascular disease, and metabolic liver disease. Multimorbidity is now the norm rather than the exception, yet clinical care and research often remain siloed. This fragmentation limits patient access to research opportunities, complicates care coordination, reduces recruitment efficiency, and decreases the applicability of clinical studies to real-world populations.
Core Functions
Cross-Clinic Research Areas and Recruitment
- Shared inventory of active CKM-relevant studies across participating clinics
- Standardized referral and recruitment workflows
- Collaboration between academic investigators, community clinicians, and research teams
- Recruitment feasibility assessments reflecting real-world multimorbidity populations
- Support for pragmatic and implementation-focused studies
Multimorbidity-Inclusive Research Design
Multidisciplinary review of inclusion and exclusion criteria
Input on protocol design and grant development
Guidance on pragmatic recruitment and monitoring strategies
Support for implementation science and real-world trial methodologies
Collaborative development of team grants and pilot studies
Clinical Education and Care Integration
Case-based multidisciplinary education sessions
Practical updates on evolving CKM therapies and risk stratification
Development of integrated referral pathways and shared-care workflows
Support for communication between specialists and primary care
Exploration of innovative clinic and triage models for multimorbid populations
Patient and Family Engagement
The Network integrates Patient-Oriented Research (POR) with active engagement to ensure clinical relevance. Patients and caregivers will be integrated into working groups to provide input on research feasibility and protocol design. Research and pilot initiatives will prioritize outcomes that matter to patients, including: reduced treatment burden, improved quality of life and functional status, and enhanced navigation support for patients and family caregivers moving between specialist and primary care.
