We are conducting a study on explore the experiences of children and teens with chronic pain and their families accessing healthcare services in primary care settings. To do this, we are looking for young people (aged 10-21) with chronic pain, and their parent or primary caregiver, who would like to share their experiences. To participate, you, and your parent or child, will be asked to attend 2 virtual interviews that will take place over Zoom. These interviews with be conducted by a research team member to learn more about your experiences seeking chronic pain care in primary care settings (e.g., your family doctor's office, a walk-in clinic). The first of these interviews will last about 60-90 minutes. You can attend this interview on your own. What we learn will allow us to a draft a visual map of your experience accessing pain services, called a "patient journey map." The second and final interview will last about 45-60 minutes. You will attend, along with your parent or child, to review the journey map and discuss possible solutions to the challenges that your have illustrated along their your journey.

We are looking at activation of platelets (clotting factors in the blood) in women with pre-eclampsia or at risk of pre-eclampsia and comparing them to healthy pregnant controls. We are recruiting pregnant women who either have a low or high risk pre-eclampsia screen in the first trimester (between 11-14 weeks gestation), have a prior history of pre-eclampsia, have gestational hypertension or have been diagnosed with pre-eclampsia in this pregnancy

Pain is one of the most under-diagnosed and inadequately treated medical conditions. Pediatric chronic pain, defined as pain occurring 3 months or more is alarmingly prevalent in adolescence, affecting 1 in 4 Canadian youth. Moreover, it is a growing epidemic, costing upwards of $19 billion CAD/year. Unmanaged pain during childhood can lead to persistent pain and internalizing mental health conditions (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD], anxiety, depression) into adulthood. Therefore, pediatric chronic pain is a major public health concern. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are stressful or traumatic events occurring prior to age 18 years. Youth with chronic pain disproportionately report being exposed to more ACEs than the general population. Consequently, they are more likely to develop post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and PTSD. Concurrent pain and PTSS have been linked to increased pain intensity and sensitivity. However, despite support for a relationship between ACEs and chronic pain, the mechanisms underlying this association remain unclear. The present study will invite chronic pain-free youth aged 12-18 years from the community to undergo an MRI and pain sensory testing and reporting, annually during adolescence. We will examine the extent that ACEs and PTSS which occurred either prior to and/or during the assessment period are associated with altered brain structural and functional connectivity and the development of pain symptomology in youth. Early identification and appropriate pain management may prevent the transition from acute to chronic pain. Therefore, this research may lead to changes in assessment, access, and clinical practice across health centres. As well, it may be an important step in understanding the mechanisms underlying the development of chronic pain in youth. This could lead to targeted, evidence-based interventions preventing the persistence of pain and mental health problems into adulthood.

We are looking for people living with type 1 diabetes (T1D) to take part in a one-time interview. We want to know what you think about a new class of oral medications in use in addition to standard insulin treatment. Patients using Sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors may potentially see benefits such as lowered glucose, blood pressure, and body weight, and decreased risk of kidney failure and heart disease, but also have an increased risk of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). We would like to know from your perspective when do the perceived benefits outweigh the risk of DKA? We want to understand when and why patients find SGLT2 inhibitor use acceptable. In the interview, we will ask questions to learn about all the factors people living with T1D take into consideration when making these decisions. Please participate to share your thoughts on this important issue.

The purpose of this study is to find out if a drug called sotagliflozin (SOTA) can slow kidney function decline in persons with type 1 diabetes and moderate to severe diabetic kidney disease (defined as greater than 50% reduction in kidney filtering function and the leakage of increased amounts of protein in the urine) and to evaluate DKA risk mitigation protocols for people living with T1D taking SOTA. SOTA is currently approved in the US to reduce the risk of being admitted to the hospital due to heart failure, or dying of cardiovascular disease, in persons with type 2 diabetes and other conditions. Some studies have shown that drugs like SOTA may also slow progression of kidney disease in persons with type 2 diabetes. However, this has not yet been studied in persons with type 1 diabetes.

It can be hard to understand how what you eat can affect Crohn’s Disease. Some research has shown food can help control Crohn’s. More research needs to be done to understand how foods can help improve Crohn’s. The purpose of this study is to see if the food people eat affects your Crohn’s disease activity. The study will also look at how different foods affect the bacteria in your gut. The doctors in the GI clinic at the Foothills Hospital support this study and want to test new treatments to help patients with Crohn’s. The study takes 14 weeks to complete. If you join this study, you will be assigned to either the “conventional management” (CM) group or the “therapeutic diet intervention” (CD-TDI) group. If you are in the CM group, you will meet with the RD at baseline, week 7 and week 13 to complete their 24HR food recall twice on different days of the week. You will be advised to follow your habitual diet. At the end of the study, you will be offered the dietary intervention if you are still experiencing a disease flare. If you are not experiencing a flare you will be offered 2 appointments with the dietician for general counselling. Patients receiving CD-TDI will be offered patient-centred counselling for 12 weeks by a Registered Dietitian (RD) trained in the CD-TDI protocol. The dietician will conduct the interview using phone or Microsoft Teams every week. Your first meeting will take around 60 minutes. and follow-up meetings will take 15 minutes. The focus will be on using foods to reduce inflammation in your gut. You will also be given access to the LyfeMD mobile application. This application will help you track the foods that you are eating and record you symptom score weekly. You will be asked to fill nutrition assessment form at baseline, week 7 and week 13. For both groups treatment for your Crohn’s will continue as usual with your GI doctor.

Inflammatory arthritis affects connective tissues such as joints. Currently, there is no known cause or cure. This registry for inflammatory arthritis collects information from patients and their physicians. It will help us understand and manage these diseases better in the future. It will also help us understand how new treatments or tests could benefit patients. We will link registry information to information collected by the healthcare system. If you have participated in other research studies, we will ask to link this information too.

Spondyloarthritis (SpA) causes a significant amount of pain and disability to those who live with the disease. Though significant advances have been made in the treatment of SpA, a cure is not yet available, as the exact cause of the disease is not known. The main goal of this study is to gather information that may help us to understand the genetic basis of the disease, to better measure disease severity, activity, progression and disability factors, and to improve the care for SpA patients. Achieving these goals may help in the development of more cost-effective treatments and treatment programs that may lead to better patient quality of life, with earlier detection of disease, and ultimately a better prognosis for patients with SpA. However, a limiting factor in identifying the genes that cause disease is the large number of patients with the disease required to do these types of studies. Any single doctor’s office, clinic or hospital does not have enough patients to conduct these investigations alone. A multi-centre collaboration of rheumatologists and investigators from across Canada has therefore joined collectively as a team to “pool their resources”. This team will recruit a large number of patients diagnosed with the Spondyloarthritis and its related diseases, in order to help in the identification of genes that may cause the disease and/or influence its expression and severity.

We are recruiting women in Canada with type 1 diabetes who are currently pregnant or have been pregnant for a research study. We are asking women to participate in interviews to discuss their experiences and challenges while living with type 1 diabetes during pregnancy. Eligible participants from anywhere in Canada will be invited to take part in a focus group remotely over Zoom. Participation in this study will require about 1-2 hours.

We would like to understand how living with vasculitis affects your quality of life (QOL). This includes, for example, your well-being, physical activity, leisure, or work. We suspect that vasculitis lowers your QOL. This can cause emotional distress and lifestyle changes for you and your family. Researchers have conducted limited studies on the effect of vasculitis on the quality of life of patients. This information is even more limited for Canadian patients living with vasculitis. This study will help us understand how vasculitis affects your QOL. It will guide us in improving our care for you and others with vasculitis.