On September 20, 2024, the CVC was pleased to host the 11th annual CVC Colloquium in Edmonton, Alberta. The theme for this year’s meeting was “Shared Best Practices in Clinical Research”.
The session opened with a keynote address by Dr. Schuyler Jones (Duke Clinical Research Institute), who shared approaches to partnering with patients in clinical trials and recommended patient engagement activities for study teams. We then heard from Mr. Ginter Hilbrecht (patient partner), who shared his story as a patient and as a member of a patient advisory committee on a recent large CV outcomes trial. Rounding off this topic, we heard from Kim Robbins (York PCI / Southlake Regional Health Centre) and Brigita Zile (Queen’s University / Kingston Health Sciences Centre) who reflected on key aspects of the informed consent process and enacted these concepts in an (entertaining!) live demonstration.
We then transitioned into the topic of Mentorship – a highlight of the 2023 Colloquium – and circled back to the request from that meeting for CVC to provide a tool kit for new investigators/study coordinators to utilize as part of their onboarding. Through rich discussions in several breakout groups, each focused on a dedicated topic, attendees provided key reminders and tips to support personnel new to research and reflections on how best to do so. The CVC aims to finalize this toolkit over the coming months and will communicate when this resource is available.
Moving into the afternoon, Melisa Spaling and Jodi Parrotta (CVC Clinical Trial Project Leads) reviewed essential notes on regulatory compliance, focusing on tips for success completing delegation of authority logs and ensuring adequate and documented PI oversight. To close the afternoon session, we reviewed a number of templates and tools provided by Colloquium attendees designed to support our sites in maintaining both compliance and audit-ready files. We were also pleased to learn from Tracy Cleveland (Surrey Memorial Hospital Cardiology Clinical Trials) about her site’s experiences in implementing a site-based CTMS system.
Building off the success of the 2023 CVC Colloquium sessions, the CVC recently hosted a follow-up Virtual Colloquium on November 26, 2024 and shared key highlights from the face-to-face meeting with our wider network of site representatives and partners. We were pleased to continue important dialogue around shared best practices for patient engagement, informed consent processes and tools to optimize the day-to-day conduct of clinical research at sites.
We wish to thank the speakers for their valuable contributions, which enhanced our broader research knowledge and understanding. To those who joined us in-person or online, we appreciate your ongoing enthusiasm and thank you for your time!
We would also like to thank our sponsors, without whose support the 2024 CVC Colloquia would not be possible: Amgen, Astra Zeneca, Bayer, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, CSL Behring, Lilly, Merck, Novo Nordisk, and Roche.
For your reference, the 2024 CVC Colloquia presentation materials are available on our website here. Please contact Melisa (below) to request the password to access the archived presentations. We encourage you to browse through the materials and discuss them with your teams.
We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and look forward to sharing plans for the CVC Colloquium in 2025 with you over the coming months. If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to reach out to either Melisa Spaling (mspaling@ualberta.ca) or Tracy Temple (tracy.temple@ualberta.ca).
