$32M invested in new national research network to help people with heart failure

Canada announced funding of $5 million to support a new national research network that will focus on improving the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care of heart failure across the country.

The network, called the Canadian Heart Function (CHF Alliance) will include the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI) of McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences.

McMaster says $27 million is being invested by other academic, foundation and industry partners nationally, totally $32 million in funds.

According to McMaster University, one in five Canadians experiences heart failure- which is when the heart muscle doesn’t pump blood as well as it should- impacting people of all ages. About 35 to 40 per cent of people with heart failure die within five years.

“We will be expected to make transformative discoveries in the next five years,” said Salim Yusuf, PHRI’s executive director and professor of medicine at McMaster, in a statement.

PHRI says it is setting up translational clinical trials centre in Hamilton to explore whether approaches such as anti-inflammatory drugs, supplementation with the vitamin thiamine and reducing weight in obese people with heart failure will be beneficial, in addition to currently proven treatments.

The federal government says the CHF Alliance will be led by Dr. Jean Rouleau at Montreal Heart Institute.

The network will also include Indigenous-led research that will focus on priorities identified by Indigenous leaders and elders, as well as First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples with lived heart failure experience.

“As a leading cause of chronic illness and death in Canada, heart failure is a condition that affects at least 750,000 Canadians and that requires renewed research and treatment plans,” said Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos, in a statement. “This funding will support an extraordinary team of over 100 health researchers who will improve the quality of life for Canadians suffering from heart failure.”