Funding aims to tailor atrial fibrillation care for Northern patients
Sudbury — A Sudbury-based cardiologist has been awarded a major federal research grant to study treatments for atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common heart rhythm disorder.
Dr. Mohammed Shurrab, who serves as HSN Foundation’s Cardiovascular Research Chair and is Chief and Medical Director of Cardiology at Health Sciences North, won a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Project Grant worth almost $150,000. The grant will fund a project that uses health records from across Ontario to compare real-world safety and effectiveness of AF treatment options.
The research is aimed at understanding how clinical factors that are common in Northern patients influence outcomes and treatment choices. According to the HSN release, the team will examine variables such as age, frailty and kidney disease, along with other medical conditions, to see how they affect both short- and long-term results for patients receiving different AF therapies.
“This award marks a defining milestone for cardiovascular research in Northern Ontario,” said Dr. Shurrab in a media release.
AF can cause fatigue, shortness of breath and dizziness, and it increases the risk of stroke, heart failure and death. While large clinical trials establish efficacy under controlled conditions, the CIHR-funded project aims to study how treatments perform in routine clinical practice — a question of particular relevance where patients are older, have more complex needs and often travel long distances to access specialist care.
Researchers say the study’s findings will help clinicians and patients make more informed choices about AF management, with the goal of reducing complications and hospital stays and advancing safer, more personalised care both locally and across Canada.
- Grant: CIHR Project Grant — almost $150,000
- Research focus: atrial fibrillation treatment safety and effectiveness in real-world practice
- Population emphasis: Northern Ontario patients, who tend to be older and have more complex conditions
CIHR Project Grants are among Canada’s most competitive research awards. In the most recent competition, CIHR received 3,344 applications, and roughly 13 per cent of applications were funded, the HSN release noted. That selectivity underscores the national significance attached to this kind of investigator-led research.
Local health-system observers say the award is notable not only for its scientific aims but also for what it signals about research capacity in the North. Historically, most major clinical research has been centred in larger southern Ontario institutions. The grant contributes toward building sustained research infrastructure in Sudbury and strengthening links between academic work and the day-to-day practice of regional clinicians.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Research lead | Dr. Mohammed Shurrab |
| Role | Cardiologist, cardiac electrophysiologist; Cardiovascular Research Chair, HSN Foundation; Associate Professor, NOSM University |
| Grant program | CIHR Project Grant |
| Applications received | 3,344 |
| Approx. funding awarded | ~$150,000 |
For patients in Northern Ontario, the practical impacts of the study could be wide-ranging. By analysing how factors such as frailty and co-existing kidney disease shape outcomes, the research may inform treatment pathways that reduce travel burdens and hospital readmissions. It may also guide local clinicians who routinely balance the limits of available resources and the complexities of rural and remote care settings.
HSN and its academic partners note that the project will be multidisciplinary, involving trainees, mentors and collaborators. In the release, Dr. Shurrab framed the award as reflecting a collective effort to demonstrate that "nationally significant research can be led from the North," signalling an ambition to raise the profile of Northern-led studies on the national stage.
As the project proceeds, Sudbury health leaders say they hope it will not only produce evidence to improve AF care, but also help retain and attract clinical researchers to the region — a benefit to patients who depend on locally available expertise and to the broader aim of building resilient rural and urban health systems across Ontario.
