Who are we? – CCPCRN

The CCPCRN is a comprehensive and unified structure that supports Canadian pediatric cardiology investigators in the planning, designing and coordination of efficient multi-site studies to ultimately implement meaningful and significant research projects in Canadian pediatric institutions. By establishing and maintaining a national data centre to improve data standardization and facilitate secondary use of research data, the CCPCRN serves as a national hub for data analysis, sharing and dissemination.

Mission and objectives

Our mission is to advance the health of children with heart disease through enhanced collaboration in planning, designing, and conducting multicenter studies and to facilitate sharing, dissemination and meaningful knowledge translation of study results.

Our main objectives are:

To build

A pan-Canadian multidisciplinary network of researchers with an interest in pediatric and congenital cardiology

To identify

National shared research interests

To develop

Strategies to facilitate inter‐institutional collaborations

To establish

Efficient and flexible methods for developing and implementing study protocols in Canadian pediatric institutions

To promote

A transparent and structured approach to determine data ownership acknowledge contributions

To maintain

A national data centre in order to improve data standardization, increase sample sizes and facilitate secondary use of collected data.

Team

The CCPCRN is led by a steering committee comprised of members from across Canada with expertise in pediatric cardiology, methodology, and study coordination. The Scientific Director is Dr. Frédéric Dallaire. The CCPCRN is supported by a research coordinator.

The current steering committee members are:

Frédéric Dallaire

MD PhD, pediatric cardiologist, scientific director of the CCPCRN, Centre de recherche du CHUS of the CIUSSS de l’Estrie – CHUS and Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke

Paul Khairy

MD, PhD, FRCPC, EP and ACHD cardiologist, Institut de cardiologie de Montréal, Montreal

Kevin Harris

MD PhD, pediatric cardiologist, Children’s Heart Centre, BC Children’s Hospital, Vancouver

Andrew Mackie

MD SM, pediatric cardiologist, Stollery Children’s Hospital, Edmonton

Marisha McClean

MD, pediatric cardiologist, LHSC Children’s Hospital, London

Marie-Claude Battista

PhD, Adjunct professor, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke

Jasmine Grewal

MD, FRCPC, FACC, ACHD cardiologist, St.Paul Hospital, UBC, Vancouver

Lindsay Freud

MD, FASE, pediatric cardiologist, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto

The steering committee ensures that research projects within the CCPCRN are of high scientific value, are feasible, and designed to improve the lives of children with congenital heart disease and their families. The CCPCRN assists investigators at each step of the research process, i.e., enrollment of study sites, ethics review, data collection, data analysis, research communication and data banking.