Study Recruitment

Principal Investigator: Dr. Roberta Woodgate 

Research Host Institution: University of Manitob

Study Aims: The INGAUGE team at the University of Manitoba, led by Dr. Roberta Woodgate, is currently running a research study ‘Advancing Patient-Centered Care in Young People Living with Chronic Pain’. The research study aims to detail the experiences, needs and preferred outcomes of young people with chronic pain and to co-design and evaluate arts-based knowledge translation products. 

Eligibility & Participation: We are currently looking for young people aged 12-34 years old, with lived experience of chronic pain (recurrent or persistent pain that has lasted at least 3 months) to participate in the study. Participation will involve one-on-one virtual (e.g., Zoom) interviews, a photography activity and the creation of arts-based products. The information from this study will be kept private and confidential (i.e., no one outside the researchers will know if you’ve participated and/or what you’ve said) and will be used to help us better support youth living with chronic pain.

There are no foreseeable risks to participating in this study and should any questions or activities make you uncomfortable, you are free to stop at any time with no consequence. Each phase of the study will take about 1-2 hours and to say thank you for your time, an honorarium will be provided. The study is currently running and will continue into mid-2024. Participants can live anywhere in Canada.

Contact Details: If you are interested in participating, or would like further information before deciding, please contact ingauge@umanitoba.ca or 204-481-4994. When emailing, please specify you are interested in the study on chronic pain.

Project Title: An Examination of the Well-Being Paradox Among Older Adults Living with Chronic Pain

Study Investigators: Amara Kohlert (Principal Researcher) and Dr. Natasha Galant (Supervisor) 

Research Host Institution: University of Regina 

Study Aims: Amara Kohlert (Principal Researcher) and Dr. Natasha Gallant (Supervisor) at the University of Regina are currently recruiting participants for a study on chronic pain and well-being. The survey is looking to learn more about about well-being and chronic pain in adults aged 60 years and older. The goal is to better understand the elevated well-being experienced by older adults despite their levels of chronic pain, the impact of certain coping factors, and if age of onset of chronic pain influences levels of well-being. 

Eligibility Criteria: To be eligible to participate in this survey, participants must be: 

• 60 years of age or older;
• Living with chronic pain (i.e., pain that persists or recurs for 3+ months and causes significant emotional distress or functional impairment)
• Residing in Canada.

Participation: Participation in this study would involve 1 online survey session of approximately 20 minutes. As a participant in this study, you would be asked to complete a series of anonymous self-report questionnaires. In appreciation for your time, you can elect to enter into a draw for a chance to win 1 of 5 $50 Amazon gift cards.

Click on the following link if you are interested in participating: https://bit.ly/3DX1S6S

Confidentiality Protocol: The study’s researchers and supervisor will be the only persons with access to the data and these persons will employ the strictest rules of anonymity and confidentiality. Electronic data will be kept in password-protected databases on password-protected computers. A Participant Consent Form is provided within the above-linked survey and is also available for download. 

Contact Information: If you have any questions, or would like more information about the study, please contact the Researchers or Supervisor at arcresearch@uregina.ca or (306) 585-4219.

Recruitment Stat and End Date: January 1, 2023 to August 31, 2023 

Project Title: Development of a new preference-based quality of life measure for osteoarthritis

Principal Investigator: Dr. Ayse Kuspinar, Associate Professor

Research Host Institution: McMaster University

Purpose of study: This research study is developing a quality-of-life measure for people affected by osteoarthritis (OA). The aim of this study is to understand what is important to people with OA in everyday life and develop an item pool for a new measure. 

Eligibility Criteria: The researchers are inviting all individuals aged 50 years and older who are diagnosed with hip or knee OA to participate. Participants can live anywhere in Canada.

What does the study involve: 
•    Participation in an online survey
•    The survey will ask you questions about your experience living with OA 
•    Total time 15 minutes

If you are interested, please click this survey link to read more about the study and to participate. If you have any questions, please email qualityofliferesearch@outlook.com. 

Confidentiality Protocol: All Information collected will be kept confidential and will be protected. Participation in this research is completely voluntary.

Recruitment Start and End Date: February 1, 2023 to December 1, 2023

This study has been reviewed by the Hamilton Integrated Research Ethics Board under Project #14895.

Project Title: Investigation of Light Therapy in the treatment of pain caused by osteoarthritis of the knee: A one-way crossover trial

Principal Investigators: Dr. Jason McDougall and Dr. Karim Mukhida

Research Host Institutions: Nova Scotia Health and Dalhousie University

Study Aims: LED Light therapy has been shown to improve some painful conditions. The purpose of this research is to better understand whether light therapy helps reduce pain caused by osteoarthritis of the knee. 

Eligibility Criteria: To be eligible for this study, participants must:

• Have a diagnosis of osteoarthritis 

• Speak English

• ​Reside in Nova Scotia 

Participation: We are testing to see if light therapy reduces the pain caused by osteoarthritis. Within this study, participants will be asked to:  

• Use LED lights in your home for 1-2 hours per day for 20 weeks.

• Complete surveys. You do not have to answer any questions you don't want to.

The length of this study for participants is approximately 26 weeks. The entire study is expected to take about 18 months to complete and the results should be known in 2 years. 

Potential Risks & Benefits: 

• Possible benefits include pain relief. The results of this study may help us think of better ways in the future to help other people with osteoarthritis pain.

• There have been no side effects reported with the use of this intervention. Researchers will continue to watch closely for side effects. 

• There is a small risk of breach out confidentiality. We use several strategies to protect your records. 

Confidentiality Protocol: Protecting your privacy is an important part of this study and every effort to protect your privacy will be made. However, complete privacy cannot be guaranteed. For example, the principal investigator may be required by law to allow access to research records. Your family doctor will be told that you are taking part in this study. If the results of this study are presented to the public, nobody will be able to tell that you were in the study.

If you decide to participate in this study, the research team will collect personal health information from you and your health record.  The research team will collect and use only the information they need for this study and to judge the safety and usefulness of the study treatment.  

Please note a consent form will be provided to all participants, which contains further details regarding the study's privacy and confidentiality protocols. 

Contact Information: If you are interested in participating in this study, please contact the acting research group designate, Sharon Amey, by phone at (902) 499-9167 or by email at LightStudy@nshealth.ca for more informtation. 

Recruitment Start and End Dates: March 14, 2023 to August 31, 2023. 

Principal Investigator: Professor Marius Henriksen, Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark 
Institution conducting the research: Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark 

Collaborators: 

• Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark (Drs. Tanja Schjødt Jørgensen, Cecilie Bartholdy, Thomas Bandholm and Mathias Ried-Larsen) 
• University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada (Drs. Lauren King and Esther Waugh)  
• University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia (Prof. Kim Bennell) 
• Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (Drs. Jos Runhaar and Dieuwke Schiphof) 

What is the study about? 

Exercise and physical activity is important for a healthy life. However, many people with painful knee osteoarthritis have difficulties doing exercise and being physically active due to limitations caused by knee pain and other symptoms. But not all types of physical exercise limit all people, and many people ask for inspiration for ways of doing exercise despite having a painful knee. 

This study aims to generate a catalogue of exercise types that are "knee-friendly" based on inputs from a large number of people with knee osteoarthritis from across the world. The catalogue will serve as an inspiration for people with knee osteoarthritis who can find activities that people with similar traits have rated as knee friendly. 

This study is part of an international collaboration with surveys collected in Australia, Canada, Denmark and Holland. The research collaboration involves researchers from University of Melbourne, University of Toronto, Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam and Copenhagen University Hospital. The research is funded by the Danish health insurance company Sygeforsikringen “danmark”. 

Who can participate? 

People with painful knee osteoarthritis who are interested in sharing their experiences and/or thoughts about doing physical exercises in a "knee-friendly" way. 

How do I know if I have knee osteoarthritis? 
If you have knee pain and your doctor has told you that you have osteoarthritis of the knee. 

 If you do not have a diagnosis from your doctor, you can participate if you 

• Are 45 years or older, and 
• Have knee pain with activity (e.g. walking, standing, exercising), and 
• Have either no morning knee joint stiffness or morning knee joint stiffness that lasts no longer than 30 minutes 

What will I have to do? 

This study consists of 3 phases 

PHASE 1: 

Initially you will be asked to complete a questionnaire regarding eligibility. 

Then, the survey will ask you to share your experiences and/or thoughts about physical exercises that you can imagine are feasible to engage in without provoking your knee symptoms to an unacceptable level. By unacceptable level, we mean that the exercise would cause symptoms that are severe and/or last for more than 24 hours. 

Please be aware that it can be OK to do physical exercise with some knee pain, but the knee pain should be no more than mild-to-moderate. It is well established that exercise will reduce knee pain over time. The survey will take approximately 30 minutes. 

PHASE 2: 

The experiences and thoughts generated by all the participants will collected in a list of exercises. This list will be reviewed by experts in osteoarthritis and exercise physiology and each proposed exercise will be labelled with a frequency, intensity and duration to meet the requirements for increasing health. 

PHASE 3: 

The list will then be returned to the participants (you) who now will rate the exercises for "knee friendliness" based on the additional information from the experts. To be part of this phase, we need your email address, which you can provide in phase 1. 

There is no in-person contact during this study. Consent, questionnaires, and list generation/review are completed online and via email contact. There are no known risks to participating in this study. 

What are the benefits to participating? 

By participating you may get inspired by other participants to try new exercise types that you may find fun and beneficial for your health. Your participation will also provide wider benefits to the community by providing important information on how people like you can exercise despite having painful knee osteoarthritis and thereby maintain a healthy and active lifestyle. 

Confidentiality: 

If you chose not to provide us with our email address in phase 1, you will remain 100 per cent anonymous, but cannot partake in Phase 3. 

Only information necessary to meet the scientific goals of this study will be collected. To ensure the security and confidentiality of electronic data, data collected online will be stored on a secure server located at the Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark. For security issues, information that is transmitted will be sent securely via encrypted HTTPS connection, preventing interception by a third party. 

Contact: 

You can contact the research group by sending us an email: exercise-catalogue.bispebjerg-frederiksberg-hospitaler@regionh.dk 

Principal investigators: Debbie Feldman, PhD, Université de Montréal, Sasha Bernatsky, MD PhD, Université McGill, Linda Woodhouse, PhD, University of Alberta 

Project description and objectives: Our project, funded by the Canadian Initiative for Outcomes in Rheumatology Care (CIORA) of the Canadian Rheumatology Association focuses on the identification process by physiotherapists of newly affected patients with  inflammatory arthritis and the consequences of rapid referral of these patients to rheumatology care. The purpose of the focus groups is to explore how to facilitate appropriate referrals in rheumatology and optimize the care of a patient with inflammatory arthritis. The focus group will be composed of 4-8 patients and the main goal is to help optimize patient care in inflammatory arthritis. 

If you are interested in further details about this research, please contact Tatiana Rodriguez, Tatiana.orozco.rodriguez@gmail.com. 

Read the Invitation

Project Title: User Requirements for an In-Home, Augmented Reality, Physical Rehabilitation Tool for an Aging Population

Study Investigators: Dr. Afolasade Fakolade (Principal Investigator) and Dr. Manuela Kunz (Co-Investigator) 

Host Institution: Queen's University 

Purpose: The aim of the study is to explore how an augmented reality tool can be used to support in-home rehabilitation for older adults who have undergone a total joint replacement procedure. 

Participation: You will be asked to complete a brief online survey (approximately 20-minutes) if you agree to participate in this study. The survey will ask you to respond to demographic and background questions as well a provide your email address so you can be contacted to participate in an online focus group. The online focus group discussions will engage 3-4 stakeholders per group. You will be invited to join one stakeholder focus group discussion (approximately 90-minutes, over Zoom) based on your expertise in one or more of the following areas: 

• Lived experience as an older adult with total joint replacement

• Lived experience providing care for older adults with joint replacement

During the focus group, you will be asked to share your views about essential features and requirements to be included in an augmented reality tool that you can use at home to achieve your full exercise potential after a joint replacement. 

You can learn more about this study by watching the following video: 
Learn More

In appreciation for your time, you will receive a $20 online gift card for participating in the study. 

Eligibility: 
The study investigators are looking for: 

1. Adults who:
   Are at least 65 years old and have undergone a total joint replacement procedure 

2. Family caregivers who: 
   Provide unpaid assistance (e.g., physical, emotional, or informational help) for a family member or close friend with a total joint replacement.

All participants must have access to an internet-enabled computer, tablet, or smart-phone, and be able to participate in one online focus group in English. 

Confidentiality Protocols:
All responses will be kepy private and confidential. Information and data collected through this study will be coded to maintain confidentiality. Further information on the study's benefits, risks, and privacy policies can be directed to a.fakolade@queensu.ca. 

Contact Information: 
If you are interested in participating in this study, please contact: 
careco@queensu.ca 

Recruitment Start and End Dates: 
May 5, 2023 - September 30, 2023