PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Lamontagne, François
AU  - Masse, Marie-Hélène
AU  - Yarnell, Christopher
AU  - Camirand-Lemyre, Félix
AU  - Lévesque, Simon
AU  - Domingue, Marie-Pier
AU  - O’Hearn, Katie
AU  - Watpool, Irene
AU  - Hoogenes, Jennifer
AU  - Sprague, Sheila
AU  - Ménard, Julie
AU  - Lemaire-Paquette, Samuel
AU  - Hébert-Dufresne, Laurent
AU  - Cook, Deborah
AU  - Hébert, Paul
AU  - Rowan, Kathryn
AU  - Yada, Nicole
AU  - Menon, Kusum
AU  - Fowler, Robert
AU  - Fox-Robichaud, Alison
AU  - Boutin, Denis
AU  - Marshall, John
AU  - Kho, Michelle E.
ED  - ,
TI  - The response of Canada’s clinical health research ecosystem to the COVID-19 pandemic
AID  - 10.1503/cmaj.230760
DP  - 2024 Jun 17
TA  - Canadian Medical Association Journal
PG  - E779--E788
VI  - 196
IP  - 23
4099  - http://www.cmaj.ca/content/196/23/E779.short
4100  - http://www.cmaj.ca/content/196/23/E779.full
SO  - CMAJ2024 Jun 17; 196
AB  - Background: The response of Canada’s research community to the COVID-19 pandemic provides a unique opportunity to examine the country’s clinical health research ecosystem. We sought to describe patterns of enrolment across Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)–funded studies on COVID-19.Methods: We identified COVID-19 studies funded by the CIHR and that enrolled participants from Canadian acute care hospitals between January 2020 and April 2023. We collected information on study-and site-level variables from study leads, site investigators, and public domain sources. We described and evaluated factors associated with cumulative enrolment.Results: We obtained information for 23 out of 26 (88%) eligible CIHR-funded studies (16 randomized controlled trials [RCTs] and 7 cohort studies). The 23 studies were managed by 12 Canadian and 3 international coordinating centres. Of 419 Canadian hospitals, 97 (23%) enrolled a total of 28 973 participants — 3876 in RCTs across 78 hospitals (median cumulative enrolment per hospital 30, interquartile range [IQR] 10–61), and 25 097 in cohort studies across 62 hospitals (median cumulative enrolment per hospital 158, IQR 6–348). Of 78 hospitals recruiting participants in RCTs, 13 (17%) enrolled 50% of all RCT participants, whereas 6 of 62 hospitals (9.7%) recruited 54% of participants in cohort studies.Interpretation: A minority of Canadian hospitals enrolled the majority of participants in CIHR-funded studies on COVID-19. This analysis sheds light on the Canadian health research ecosystem and provides information for multiple key partners to consider ways to realize the full research potential of Canada’s health systems.