Project Overview

The overall goals of the Canadian Partnership for Stroke Recovery Clinical Trials Platform is to create a national network of stroke rehabilitation clinical trial sites, help train future researchers and test potential high impact new recovery approaches. Dr. Bayley and his team will do this by building upon their collective strengths including their strong, inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional research group, their standardized system for data collection and management, and by helping to train the next generation of stroke rehabilitation researchers. The team’s first joint interventional recovery approach will be a clinical trial. The FLuoxetine to Open the critical period time Window to improve motor recovery after stroke (FLOW Trial) has high impact potential and will be the first clinical trial to be completed using the collective infrastructure. Overall, the first year of the grant has focused on building the network, assessing infrastructure capabilities and limitations, and preparing for the launch of the FLOW trial, which they expect to have up and running by spring 2018. They have also been facilitating the training of the next generation of stroke researchers by engaging trainees from the partnering sites interested in stroke recovery research in the CPSR’s National Trainee Association. This association brings together trainees from all across Canada and provides a number of activities, such as mentoring, webinars, lab exchanges, and an annual Stroke Program in Neurorecovery (SPiN) workshop. The SPiN workshop is especially successful at cross-discipline training, of relevance to this project’s platform, by bringing together post-doctoral fellows and graduate students in basic science labs with clinicians and clinical trainees.

Principal Investigator

Mark Bayley , Toronto Rehabilitation Institute

Team Members

Dale Corbett, University of Ottawa

Sandra Black, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

William McIlroy, University of Waterloo

Michelle Ploughman, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Sean Dukelow, University of Calgary

Janice Eng, University of British Columbia

Stephen Strother, Rotman Research Institute

Marilyn MacKay-Lyons, Dalhousie University

Robert Teasell, Parkwood Institute

Partners and Donors

Heart and Stroke Foundation

Canadian Partnership for Stroke Recovery