Message from Dr. Brian H. Rowe: Canadian Intensive Care Week and World Stroke Day

Dear colleagues,

The pandemic has affected everyone; however, the burden for caring for critically ill patients with acute COVID-19 has consumed emergency medical services (EMS), emergency departments (ED), hospital in-patient services and intensive care units (ICUs). With recent reports of EMS offloading delays and ED closures throughout the Summer and Fall, the capacity strain on our health care systems is a national concern. Canadians depend on their health care system to be there at critical moments; whether it relates to EMS, ED, hospital, or ICU services, timely access to evidence-based care ensures the best possible outcomes. Our lives literally depend on these care settings and the staff who work there.

Canadian Intensive Care Week, October 23 to 29, is a time to reflect on the importance of our ICUs and the incredible work that health care professionals do there. As an emergency physician, I have witnessed first-hand the importance of inter-disciplinary coordination across the care journey for patients with critical illness and the dedication and skill of the staff in hospital ICUs. I understand that it takes long hours, hard work, and emotional fortitude. During the COVID-19 pandemic, health care staff have been more strained than at any other time in recent history. Research is part of the solution to these problems—research to better understand how to improve the health care system and find new ways to address urgent health challenges.

This week, the CIHR Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health (CIHR-ICRH) reaffirms its commitment to supporting critical care research. This includes transitions in care and research into conditions associated with the heart, lung, brain (stroke), blood, blood vessels, and sleep, as these conditions often require ICU stays and careful, compassionate, and multi-disciplinary management.

CIHR is proud to have invested more than $207 million in research funding to the critical care sciences since its inception in 2000. Currently, the Institute is investing in the Policy Research for Health System Transformation Catalyst Grants to support research that will provide policymakers with evidence-informed options to strengthen our health system and improve health care delivery. CIHR-ICRH also continues to support Sepsis Canada, a multidisciplinary research network focused on reducing the burden of sepsis. This support is part of Canada's response to the call by the World Health Assembly and the World Health Organization for nations to address sepsis.

October 29 also marks World Stroke Day, bringing public awareness to the high rates of stroke and the essential measures needed to improve stroke prevention, treatment, and recovery. Reflecting this, CIHR is currently funding research into new ways of preventing stroke using pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions, improving diagnosis by advancing MRI and other imaging methods, optimizing treatments and examining novel treatments such as stem cell therapy, and improving patient recovery following stroke.

Evidence is increasingly pointing to the important relationship between cerebrovascular diseases, such as stroke, and cognitive impairment. Stroke is identified as a powerful predictor of dementia; one-third of dementia risk is attributed to stroke. Reducing modifiable stroke risk factors such as cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and physical inactivity has been shown to help prevent dementia. As such, CIHR-ICRH continues to support the Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging (CCNA), through the leadership of the CIHR Institute of Aging (CIHR-IA), as it continues to accelerate progress in research on age-related neurodegenerative diseases.

Alongside CIHR-IA and the CIHR Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction (CIHR-INMHA), CIHR-ICRH sponsors a project within the Health Research Training Platform (HRTP) to build capacity and unravel the complexity of changes to blood flow to the brain as it relates to vascular cognitive impairment, including vascular dementia in ageing populations. The HRTP pilot continues to bring together researchers from different hospitals and universities to support the skill development of high-caliber trainees and early career researchers. Our Institute is also supporting international research projects through the European Research Area Network on Cardiovascular Diseases (ERA-CVD) that are focused on preventing vascular cognitive impairment through early detection of cardiovascular disease.

I'd like to conclude by thanking those of you who advance the science in these areas, health care professionals who provide care for critically ill patients, and those patients and families recovering from acute conditions.

Sincerely,

Dr. Brian H. Rowe
Scientific Director, CIHR Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health
Professor, University of Alberta

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