Lecture series shares ‘how to’ on designing, conducting, and publishing transfusion clinical trials in Canada

Launched in 2023 with funding from Canadian Blood Services, the Canadian Transfusion Trials Group (CTTG) is a national network of investigators focused on supporting high-impact clinical trials in transfusion medicine. Clinical trials provide the necessary basis of information for which decisions about blood products and recommendations for their use are made.

One of CTTG’s key activities is to build capacity in the transfusion clinical trial landscape. A key imitative is the CTTG Lecture Series that facilitates monthly knowledge sharing events designed to deepen understanding of clinical trial methods.

CTTG’s Lecture Series has offered 21 sessions to date, covering a curated list of topics relevant to the planning, design, conduct and publication of clinical trials. Each session is led by researchers with expertise in the transfusion medicine field. Past topics have included:  

• Pragmatic Trial Design by Dr. Dean Fergusson, 
• Data Integrity by Dr. Nadine Shehata, 
• Community-based Research & Retaining the Patient Perspective, both by Dr. Jennie Haw, 
• Statistical Considerations by Dr. Robert Balshaw, and many more.  

We reached out to Jacob Pendergrast, course director for the CTTG Research Methodology Lecture Series and vice-chair of the CTTG Education and Career Mentorship Working Group, for comments on how the series is designed, its impact on the transfusion research community, and what participants can anticipate in the coming months.  

What has the response to CTTG’s Lecture Series events been like so far? 

• Really positive. The speakers are experienced researchers themselves and seem to really embrace the opportunity to take some of the informal mentoring and guidance they’ve provided over the years and create a structured teaching session with it.  And the response from the attendees has been very enthusiastic: last year, when we asked for feedback regarding speaker expertise, the average score was 4.9 out of 5.  We continue to tweak the content of the course each year, both to ensure it is meeting the needs of our audience and to provide some variety. This year we’ll also be extending invitations to the membership of the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group (CCCTG) and the Canadian Perioperative Anesthesia Clinical Trials (PACT) Network. 

Why are learning opportunities like these so important to achieving CTTG’s mission?  

• If we are to achieve the CTTG mission, which is to accelerate the conduct of pan-Canadian, high-quality clinical trials to improve transfusion practice, then we have to ensure our membership is well-versed in the principles of good research methodology. This is an area where everyone truly has something to learn, both research coordinators and physicians, both early and late career investigators. The subject matter isn’t static: novel research methodologies are constantly emerging, for example, and strategies to obtain funding and achieve knowledge translation change regularly.   

How are the lecture series topics selected?  

• We try to have the topics of each lecture follow a general progression, starting with deciding what to research and how to frame your question and ending with how to ensure the results of your study are effectively communicated and applied. In between we cover areas where challenges in research conduct tend to emerge, such as assembling an effective research team and obtaining funding, to subjects our attendees have expressed curiosity about, such as qualitative research, quasi-experimental trial design, and adaptive and platform trials. The speakers invited are selected on the basis of their expertise and presentation skills, but we also make a real effort to ensure our speakers list is balanced and representative of the CTTG membership.   

Can you give us the inside scoop on what sessions are being planned to take place in the upcoming months?  

• We will be finishing off the 2024 - 2025 series in August 2025 with Dr. Paul Hébert, widely recognized within the transfusion medicine and critical care community as a giant of clinical research, and who now serves as the President of Canadian Institutes of Health Research; he’ll be speaking on strategies for getting your results published and communicated effectively. 
  
  We then begin the 2025/2026 session with Dr. Donnie Arnold, director of the Michael G. DeGroote Centre for Transfusion Research at McMaster and co-director of the CTTG, and also a highly respected and widely published researcher. He’ll be providing tips for effectively formulating your research question. We’re still finalizing the curriculum for the rest of the year, but based on feedback received so far we will definitely be including sessions on community engagement and knowledge translation and have received proposals for specific speakers on those topics.

The CTTG Lecture Series is preparing to launch its 2025 - 2026 program, with session details to be published on its newly updated website: CTTG Lecture Series - Canadian Transfusion Trials Group. Upcoming events will also be cross-posted on Canadian Blood Services’ professional education website, Profedu.ca.

Canadian Blood Services – Driving world-class innovation 

Through discovery, development and applied research, Canadian Blood Services drives world-class innovation in blood transfusion, cellular therapy and transplantation—bringing clarity and insight to an increasingly complex healthcare future. Our dedicated research team and extended network of partners engage in exploratory and applied research to create new knowledge, inform and enhance best practices, contribute to the development of new services and technologies, and build capacity through training and collaboration. Find out more about our research impact.

The opinions reflected in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Canadian Blood Services nor do they reflect the views of Health Canada or any other funding agency.