Wpg Free Press: Professor’s clinical trials put Manitoba on map

As the Winnipeg Free Press reports:

Manitoba’s role in an international study that is helping to change the way COVID-19 patients are treated in hospital could mean quicker and more frequent clinical trials post-pandemic.

The University of Manitoba’s Dr. Ryan Zarychanski led two of three large trial groups that pooled their data and found out the blood-thinner heparin can safely treat moderately ill COVID-19 patients. By the time the study’s final results were published Wednesday, they had already been put into practice at the U.K.’s National Health Service and were being adopted by doctors in Manitoba and elsewhere.

Manitoba has a “rich history” of science and lab research, and now local researchers are starting to be recognized for their clinical trial expertise, Zarychanski said.

“We do have mounting expertise, and I think these trials have helped to showcase what we have in our province. With that, I expect we’ll attract more physicians to come and train in clinical trial methods.”

The work was completed in a year with a first-of-its-kind level of collaboration: the research had more than 100 authors and involved patients from more than 300 hospitals in nine countries. A large randomized clinical trial such as this one would typically take at least five years, Zarychanski said, and many similar trials are never completed or don’t produce clear results.

“The trials that we’ve conducted, the trials that I’ve led and the methods that we’ve created have really put Manitoba on the map of clinical trials around the world for our ability to lead them and to finish them and to inform practice in general,” Zarychanski said.

Read the full Free Press story here.