Grant: Meetings, Planning and Dissemination Grant: Circulatory and Respiratory Health

An Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) is an electrical device that is capable of applying a high energy shock to a patient's heart in the event of a life-threatening rhythm disorder. These devices may be implanted in response to a previous cardiac arrest (secondary prevention) or in the high likelihood of a future event due to a variety of predisposing factors (primary prevention). ICDs have gained widespread and increasing acceptance in recent years. The Ontario ICD Database is a prospective clinical registry of Ontario patients who have been referred for consideration of an ICD implantation, producing one of the most comprehensive data sources for the effectiveness of ICD treatment. It was designed by the primary investigators at all of the implanting centres in the province of Ontario in conjunction with epidemiologists at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) in Toronto. The primary research questions of the Ontario ICD Database are to examine the use, complications, risks, effectiveness and long-term survival associated with the use of ICDs. To maximize the effectiveness of the Ontario ICD Database, there exists a need for a face-to-face meeting of all of the primary investigators to: discuss the progress of more than ten on-going subprojects of this database, drive the efforts of collaborative funding proposals currently being pursued within the context of this database, plan for the submission of an operating grant to continue funding for the database beyond its current termination date and provide a forum to discuss issues that have arisen as a result of the use of these data. ICES does not have the ability to fund the attendance of the primary investigators for the meeting due to new spending regulations. However, through a partnership with the Winter Arrhythmia School, there is a strategy in place to simultaneously reduce the cost associated with this meeting and ensure the participation of all stakeholders.