Grant: Catalyst Grant: SPOR Innovative Clinical Trials (iCT)

Each time a surgeon interacts with a patient, they make countless decisions; for example, the location of an incision, the choice of medication(s) to help prevent an infection and the type of stitches to use. In surgery, these decisions are much less likely to be based on high-quality evidence as compared to other areas of medicine. The type of comparative study that gives the most high-quality evidence is a randomized controlled trial (RCT). While important to help guide decision-making, these trials are rarely done in surgery, in large part due to practical reasons. We are developing a program called IMPACTS (The Innovative, Multicenter, Patient-centered Approach to Clinical Trials in Surgery) to address many of the challenges that are associated with carrying out RCTs in surgery. We have assembled a committee that includes patients, surgeons, and policy-makers and will follow a systematic and patient-oriented approach to choose trials to carry out as part of the IMPACTS program. This grant will support our team in collecting questions to study, examining the evidence for each question, and holding a workshop with members of key groups to prioritize the questions. We will also develop the components (e.g., databases) needed to carry out trials in the future. The IMPACTS program will provide evidence to help surgeons make important decisions; minimizing healthcare inefficiency and improving the quality of patient-centred care.