All photos courtesy of iBEST.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a transformative impact on health care, research, education and society at large. The multi-faceted and lasting impact of COVID-19 goes beyond the respiratory disease’s biological effects, influencing clinical research, mental health and social policies.
The need for collaborative, interdisciplinary and adaptive research to address the lasting effects of COVID-19 and to prepare for future pandemics was on display at the 2024 iBEST Symposium. Hosted by the Institute for Biomedical Engineering, Science and Technology (iBEST), the annual research symposium examined the lessons learned by clinicians and scientific researchers during the pandemic and asked how we can improve pandemic response and prepare for the future.
Held on May 30 at St. Michael’s Hospital’s Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, the symposium began by showcasing the success of iBEST, a collaborative partnership between Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) and Unity Health Toronto. iBEST brings together engineering and scientific experts at TMU with biomedical researchers and clinicians at St. Michael’s Hospital to develop timely solutions to critical health challenges.
iBEST’s executive committee, which includes representatives from Unity Health Toronto and TMU, highlighted iBEST’s history and successful partnerships in their opening remarks. “Many amazing projects have stemmed from this partnership since our modest beginnings in 2013,” said Dr. Ori Rotstein, Unity Health Toronto’s vice-president, research and innovation, reflecting on iBEST’s origins. He noted iBEST currently has 68 faculty members and over 150 trainees. Roberta Iannacito-Provenzano, TMU’s interim provost and vice-president, academic, highlighted the unique nature of this collaboration and how it continues to advance health research and development.
“Partnerships and collaborations are required for solving intractable problems from bench to bedside,” said Steven N. Liss, TMU’s vice-president, research and innovation. “To continue to drive health care innovations such as these forward, training the next generation of researchers is crucial.”
Throughout the day-long event, attendees heard from two keynote speakers about their expertise in COVID-19 clinical research and treatments. The symposium also included an interdisciplinary panel of researchers that highlighted the need to improve equitable access to health care as well as a poster competition featuring research from iBEST student trainees.
How COVID-19 is changing the world of clinical research
The symposium’s first keynote address was delivered by Dr. John Marshall, a global leader in COVID-19 clinical research, a scientist at Unity Health Toronto, the Unity Health Chair in Trauma Research and a University of Toronto professor of surgery. Dr. Marshall explained how researchers around the world were better positioned to conduct clinical research during the COVID-19 pandemic than they were during previous mass health emergencies. He also noted that the COVID-19 research conducted in 2020 and 2021 was “unprecedented but inadequate,” and offered ideas to improve clinical research for future pandemics.
During the outbreak of SARS in 2003, research was focused on understanding the disease, but no clinical trials for treatments were conducted during the outbreak due to the lengthy process of starting a clinical trial, explained Dr. Marshall. “The health-care system was not capable of responding in real time to a pandemic or health-care emergency,” he said.
In 2011, clinical researchers began thinking about what steps they could take to be better prepared for future pandemics. The result was a global platform trial, which is an adaptive type of clinical trial that can be modified to explore research as new diseases emerge. In 2020, clinical trials were the default method of research, allowing for treatments to be studied with unprecedented speed. The platform trial also allowed for multiple therapeutic interventions to be researched simultaneously and for early results to be embedded in the trial, helping researchers discover effective treatments more quickly.
Despite the success of clinical research during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the research was concentrated in the global north, leading to the issue of inequality. One way to improve access to research is through more global collaborations and networks of researchers, said Dr. Marshall. “The burden of disease is often greatest in areas where the resources to treat, and even measure the disease, are inadequate. We need to think about making research more equitable and democratic, and engage the very bright and dedicated researchers in the developing world.”
Dr. John Marshall delivers the first keynote at the 2024 iBEST Symposium.
The iBEST Symposium audience enjoyed a day of keynotes, panels, pitches and more.
Long COVID in 2024 – Where are we?
Dr. Angela Cheung is at the forefront of Canada’s research into Post-COVID-19 Condition, also known as Long COVID. A senior physician scientist at the University Health Network and the Betty Ho Chair of Integrative Medicine at the University of Toronto, she co-leads the Long COVID Web project. The Web is a pan-Canadian network examining the many facets of this condition, which impacts about 3.5 million people across the country. “This is actually quite a debilitating issue for many Canadians,” she said while delivering the day’s second keynote, calling Long COVID “the post-pandemic pandemic.”
She walked the Symposium audience through how she and colleagues developed a longitudinal cohort study of COVID-19, recruiting and continuing to follow patients from sites across Canada to collect a variety of data to determine the short- and long-term outcomes of a COVID-19 infection. They found impacts such as fatigue, brain fog, shortness of breath and other symptoms could linger for some patients for months to years. Dr. Cheung and collaborators started the Recovering from COVID-19 Lingering Symptoms Adaptive Integrative Medicine (RECLAiM) adaptive platform trial to test different therapies for patients.
Dr. Cheung shared the structure and governance of the Long COVID Web project, which has four pillars of research: biomedical, clinical, health services and population health. The project spans the country, with researchers, patients, clinicians and others working together to understand Post-COVID-19 Condition, knowledge that can help inform therapies for current patients and deepen understanding of post viral conditions.
There were three key messages Dr. Cheung highlighted for the audience. The first is that Long COVID is a “very real” multisystem physical condition with mental health consequences. The second was that while there is not yet a single cure for the condition, there are interventions that are available for many of the symptoms experienced by patients. “Yes, we don’t have all the answers, but we can treat the symptoms,” she said. Finally, she noted the result of these efforts including exciting research into the disease, the human body and treatments.
The second iBEST Symposium keynote, delivered by Dr. Angela Cheung, focused on Long COVID-19 research.
Panel – The full spectrum: Multidisciplinary perspectives on the impact of COVID-19
The symposium’s panel discussion explored the impact of COVID-19 on research, mental health care and communities. The panel was moderated by professor M. Natasha Rajah, TMU psychology professor and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Sex, Gender and Diversity in Brain Health, Memory and Aging.
The panellists included:
- Dr. Venkat Bhat, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto and Staff Psychiatrist, St. Michael’s Hospital and Toronto Western Hospital
- Simon Graham, Senior Scientist, Physical Sciences, Hurvitz Brain Sciences Research Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute
- Jude Kong, Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health and Mathematics Department, University of Toronto
- Dr. John Marshall, Scientist, Unity Health Toronto and Professor of General Surgery, University of Toronto
One theme that resonated with attendees was inequality both in terms of access to care during the pandemic and in regard to research and data that failed to include large swaths of the population. The panellists highlighted the need to partner with community organizations, include lived experiences and find methods of data collection that go beyond the normal avenues in order to serve more populations.
“The full spectrum: Multidisciplinary perspectives on the impact of COVID-19” panel members included (from left to right) Dr. John Marshall , Dr. Simon Graham, moderator Dr. Natasha Rajah, Dr. Venkat Bhat and Dr. Jude Kong.
Trainee poster competition and power pitches
Several iBEST trainees presented their research in a walk-about poster competition. The 55 entries showcased research covering a vast range of topics, including the development of a prototype for a novel visual prosthesis to improve vision loss, an examination of the therapeutic effects of nanobubbles, and an investigation into backrest optimization to improve the ergonomics of airplane seats. A panel of judges selected the top five posters. The awardees were: Alex D’Ippolito, Céline Dubroy-McArdle, Brock Hoard, Farshad Moradi Kashkooli and Vivian Tan.
During the power pitches, iBEST-affiliated faculty and trainees from TMU and Unity Health Toronto gave short presentations, offering high level overviews of their research efforts. These pitches gave insights into an array of projects, such as biomedical engineering innovations for catheter manipulation, using machine learning to train equations to predict blood flow, and using photoacoustics to measure damage to kidneys during transportation for donation.
Attendees check out this year’s iBEST trainee poster competition.
The top five entries in the iBEST trainee poster competition were recognized at the end of the Symposium.
