About CanCOLD
Get to know us a bit better
By following 1,500 healthy and COPD individuals across 9 Canadian sites for more than a decade, CanCOLD has assembled one of the most comprehensive data pools to answer questions related to COPD in the world.
Who We Are
CanCOLD is the first observational cohort study specific to COPD having recruited its participants from the general population rather than in clinical settings. This strategy better mirrors prevalent COPD populations at large and provides proper representation of typically underrepresented groups in COPD studies; early (mild) disease, female population, individuals who have never smoked (up to 30% of the COPD population) and those with physician undiagnosed disease (up to 70% of the COPD population). With three data collection waves since its launch in 2009 and detailed characterization of study subjects using a range of assessment tools, CanCOLD is an invaluable resource to catalyze COPD research.
Participants
Data Collection Sites
Data Collection Waves
Publications
Our Vision
To provide a rich resource and data platform to initiate innovative research on COPD in Canada and abroad, and serve the training of future generations of clinicians, researchers, students and qualified research staff.
Our Vision – Mission
Our Mission
To enhance the current understanding of COPD progression and burden, and to better advance COPD prevention, diagnosis and management.
Our Objectives
Main Objective
Identify potentially modifiable factors beyond tobacco smoking that impact COPD development and disease progression.
Secondary Objective
Identify combinations of disease and patient attributes that differentiate individuals with COPD and study the relationship of these attributes to relevant outcomes.
Secondary Objective
Evaluate past and current clinical practice for the care of mild and moderate COPD.
Our History
The CanCOLD study originated from the cross-sectional Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease (BOLD) study, an international initiative measuring the prevalence of COPD and its risk factors in different regions around the world, which included a data collection site in Vancouver. Expanding on this initiative nationally, the Canadian Obstructive Lung Disease (COLD) study was established and recruited a total of 6,551 non-institutionalized men and women aged ≥ 40 years in 9 Canadian cities. Finally, with the aim of following these participants through time, COLD study subjects were contacted to enroll in CanCOLD.
Public and private investments of more than $14,000,000 have allowed the CanCOLD study to produce policy-relevant knowledge and innovative solutions having impact on public health and clinical practice. For the past decade, CanCOLD leverages partnerships between researchers and organizations, and also provides opportunities for graduate students to be trained and young investigators to participate in innovative respiratory health research projects in many institutions across Canada.
Our Study Sites
CanCOLD data collection sites are located in university-affiliated hospitals across Canada. From coast-to-coast, CanCOLD sites are found in Vancouver, Calgary, Saskatoon, Toronto, Kingston, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, and Halifax. Each site is led by experienced investigators with international profiles in respiratory health research, and supported by a team of dedicated research coordinators.
Vancouver
Principal Investigator
Dr. Wan C. Tan
Dr. Wan C Tan is a Respirologist in the Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, BC, Canada and the Division of Respiratory Medicine, St Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Dr Tan has long standing involvement with global management guidelines for asthma and COPD and is an author of over 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals. She is the Co-Principal Investigator for the longitudinal CanCOLD [Canadian Cohort of Obstructive Lung Disease] Study, for measuring and phenotyping COPD in the community.
Collection site contact information
Dr. Wan C. Tan, Room 166
UBC Centre for Heart Lung Innovation
1081 Burrard Street
Vancouver, BC, V6Z1Y6
Canada
T: (604) 682-2344 ext. 62749
Calgary
Principal Investigator
Dr. Brandie Laurel Walker
Dr. Walker is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Division of Respirology at the University of Calgary and is the Respirology site lead at the Foothills Medical Centre. Her clinical practice and research focus is airways disease. She is the program director for the Severe Asthma Fellowship Program at the University of Calgary, Medical Director of the Severe Asthma Clinic and Calgary COPD and Asthma Program, and runs a multidisciplinary Severe COPD clinic.
Collection site contact information
Department of Medicine,
University of Calgary
HRIC Bldg., Room 4C60
3280 Hospital Drive NW
Calgary, AB, T2N 4Z6
Canada
Saskatoon
Principal Investigator
Dr. Darcy D. Marciniuk
MD, FRCPC, FCAHS, Master FCCP
CanCOLD Saskatoon site investigator and Chair of the Knowledge Translation and Dissemination Committee
Darcy D. Marciniuk, MD, FRCPC, FCAHS, Master FCCP is a Professor of Respirology, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, and Associate Vice-President Research at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada. Dr. Marciniuk serves as Deputy Editor – Outreach for the journal CHEST, is a past-President of CHEST and the Canadian Thoracic Society, past-Chair of the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) and was a founding Steering Committee member of Canada’s National Lung Health Framework.
Collection site contact information
Division of Respirology, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine
Royal University Hospital
Ellis Hall, Room 545
103 Hospital Drive
Saskatoon, SK, S7N 0W8
Canada
Quebec City
Principal Investigator
Dr. Francois Maltais
MD FRCPC
CanCOLD Quebec City site investigator and Chair of the Substudy and Ancillary Study (SAS) Committee
Doctor Maltais is director of the Department of pulmonology and thoracic surgery at the Quebec Heart and Lung Institute and professor at the Faculté de médecine de l’Université Laval. His major interests include the physiopathology of exercise intolerance in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and pulmonary rehabilitation. His researches, which are supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Canada’s premier funding agency for health research, also focus towards the understanding of the mechanism of limb muscle dysfunction in COPD. He became in 2009, the director of the Research Chair on COPD at Université Laval.
Research coordinator
Brigitte Jean, B.S. Inf.
E: Brigitte.Jean@criucpq.ulaval.ca
T: (418) 656-8711, ext. 2637
Collection site contact information
Centre de Recherche
de l’Institut Universitaire de Cardiologie
et de Pneumologie de Québec
2725, Chemin Sainte-Foy, local U-1749
Québec, QC, G1V 4G5
Canada
Ottawa
Principal Investigator
Dr. Shawn Aaron
Dr. Shawn Aaron is a Professor in The Department of Medicine at the University of Ottawa and a Senior Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. He is a respirologist at the Ottawa Hospital. Dr. Aaron conducts clinical and health services research focused on 3 respiratory diseases: COPD, asthma and cystic fibrosis. Dr. Aaron leads the Canadian Respiratory Research Network, a Canadian airway disease research network.
Research coordinator
Kathy Vandemheen
Program Manager
E: KVandemheen@ohri.ca
T: (613) 737-8259
Susan Deveau
Research Assistant
E: sdeveau@ohri.ca
T: (613) 737-8899 ext. 72873
Collection site contact information
The Ottawa Hospital
501 Smyth Rd
Ottawa, ON, K1H 8L6
Canada
Montreal
Principal Investigator
Dr. Jean Bourbeau
Dr Jean Bourbeau is a Professor, Department of Medicine, and associate member of the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, at McGill University. He is a Respirologist at the Montreal Chest Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), the Director of the Montreal Chest Institute’s COPD clinic and pulmonary rehabilitation program and the Director of the Center of Innovative Medicine (CIM) at the Research Institute of the MUHC. He has been devoted to COPD research since the 1990s. His research focuses on epidemiology and outcomes of COPD using different methodological approaches, which has led to the creation of the Canadian Cohort of Obstructive Lung Disease (CanCOLD) and an integrated mode of treatment, Living Well with COPD (LWWCOPD) self-management program, combining pharmacologic and lifestyle changes that is innovative in directly involving patients as partners in their own care.
Collection site contact information
Montreal Chest Institute
Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC)
1001 Decarie Boulevard, Room C040119
Montreal, QC, H4A 3J1
Canada
Toronto
Principal Investigator
Dr. Kenneth R. Chapman
Dr. Chapman is Director of the Asthma and Airway Centre of the University Health Network, President of the Canadian Network for Respiratory Care and Director of the Canadian Registry for Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency. A Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto, Dr. Chapman is an internationally respected researcher and lecturer in the fields of asthma and COPD. With more that 20,000 citations to his published work, he is in the top 1% of cited medical researchers.
Collection site contact information
Toronto Western Hospital
399 Bathurst St EW7, Room 444
Toronto, ON, M5T 2S8
Canada
T: (416) 603-5800 ext. 3438
Kingston
Principal Investigator
Dr. Denis E. O’Donnell
Dr. Denis O’Donnell is a Professor of Medicine at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario with cross appointments to the Departments of Biomedical & Molecular Sciences (Physiology), Rehabilitation Medicine and Kinesiology & Health Studies. He is a Senior Clinician Scientist and Director of the Respiratory Investigation Unit, Kingston Health Science Centre. Dr. O’Donnell’s research is primarily focused on clinical integrative physiology including the physiological mechanisms of dyspnea and exercise limitation across the severity spectrum of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Research coordinator
Sandra Vincent, BScH, MSc
Senior Research Associate/Lab Manager
E: VincentS@queensu.ca
T: (613) 549-6666 ext. 4890
Collection site contact information
Respiratory Investigation Unit
Douglas 5, Room 08
536A 76 Stuart Street,
Kingston, ON, K7L 2V7
Canada
E: RIU@queensu.ca
T: (613) 549- 6666 ext. 4890
Halifax
Principal Investigator
Dr. Paul Hernandez
Dr. Paul Hernandez is a Respirologist and Head/Chief, Division of Respirology (Central Zone, Nova Scotia Health), Medical Director of the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program and medical co-lead of the 3-Intermediate Care Unit at the QEII Health Sciences Centre. He is a Professor of Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Dr. Hernandez is president of the Canadian Thoracic Society (CTS), past chair of the Adult Respirology Examination Board of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and past chair of the CTS COPD Clinical Assembly. His main clinical and research areas of interest are COPD, asthma, pulmonary rehabilitation, and pulmonary hypertension.
Research coordinator
Denise Wigerius
Research Coordinator
E: Denise.Wigerius@nshealth.ca
T: (902) 473-1114
F: (902) 473-6202
Scott Fulton
Research Coordinator
E: Scott.Fulton@nshealth.ca
Collection site contact information
Denise Wigerius
Halifax Infirmary
1796 Summer Street, Room 4465
Halifax, NS, B3H 3A7
Canada
Our Study Organization
CanCOLD relies on a multidisciplinary team of researchers, staff, and external advisors. Each committee and group outlined below play an important role in advancing the CanCOLD mission and achieving our objectives.
Scientific Advisory Board (SAB)
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RI-MUHC Accountability Oversight
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Tactical
Advisory Council (TAC)
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Standing Research Committees |
Thematic Working Groups |
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Science Steering Team (SST)
The CanCOLD Science Steering Team (SST) is the principal CanCOLD decision-making body, providing overall scientific leadership and primary responsibility for oversight of all activities. The SST decides on all strategic planning aspects of on-going and future study protocol modifications or integration of emerging science, and resolves operational issues relating to communication and knowledge translation, finances, ethics, quality control, security management, data access and privacy.
Dr. Brandie Laurel Walker
Dr. Wan C. Tan
Dr. Kenneth R. Chapman
Dr. Denis E. O’Donnell
Dr. Darcy D. Marciniuk
Dr. Jean Bourbeau
Dr. Francois Maltais
Dr. Paul Hernandez
RI-MUHC Accountability Oversight
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