ACHIEVE - Infectious diseases, epidemiology & vaccines

ACHIEVE - Infectious diseases, epidemiology & vaccines

The Alberta Children’s Hospital Infectious Diseases, Epidemiology and Vaccine Evaluation Research Team

Principal Investigators:

Dr. Jim Kellner

Dr. Otto Vanderkooi

Co-Investigators:

Dr. Cora Constantinescu

Dr. Jia Hu

Dr. Mark Anselmo

Dr. Jessica Dunn

Clinical Trials Project Manager:

Joslyn Gray

Research Nurse:

Shannon Pyra

Research Coordinator:

Nicole McMillan

Emily Doucette

Research Assistant:

Payton Sayers

Charisse Dominski

Shahzeb Khan

Julie-Anne Lemay (student)

Epidemiologist:

Leah Ricketson 

Study Nurses: 

Heather Chieffo

Sylvia Kozlowski

Jennifer Crotts

The Alberta Children’s Hospital Infectious diseases, Epidemiology and Vaccine Evaluation (ACHIEVE) Research Team is affiliated with the University of Calgary, Alberta Health Services (Calgary Zone) and the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute (ACHRI). 

All the research we conduct has approval from the Conjoint Research Ethics Board and is conducted under Health Canada Good Clinical Practice Guidelines.

 

AB3C Study (Recruitment Complete)

The purpose of the Alberta Childhood COVID-19 Cohort (AB3C) research study is to measure immunity against COVID-19 infections in children over time, understand how children’s immune systems react to the COVID-19 virus and determine the clinical impact of COVID-19 infections in children across Alberta.

To find out more about the study and how to participate please visit: www.ucalgary.ca/covidinkids

 

COVID-19 Vaccine Monitoring Program

This monitoring program will collect information about health events after receiving COVID-19 vaccines using a web-based survey. We want to know about any health problems that develop after the COVID-19 vaccine which prevent you from going about your daily activities and/or cause you to seek medical care. The project is being conducted across Canada. Our goal is to have 50,000 Albertans complete the surveys for each COVID-19 vaccine.

Want to participate? Please visit https://rc.bcchr.ca/redcap/surveys/?s=LCJ478NYFY

 

Calgary Area Streptococcus pneumoniae Epidemiology Research Study VI (CASPER)

In 1998, we established a prospective, population-based surveillance study of all invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD, infections of normally sterile body sites such as meningitis and sepsis) in Calgary and area and the study has continued to the present. We have gathered extensive demographic, clinical and microbiologic data on over 2000 IPD cases since 2002. Studies have included evaluation of the epidemiology of disease before and after the introduction of polyvalent protein-polysaccharide pneumococcal conjugate vaccines in 2002 (PCV7) and 2010 (PCV13). We have also studied numerous aspects of the clinical course and outcome of invasive pneumococcal disease.

 

Impact of Routine Infant Immunization with the Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine on Streptococcus pneumoniae Nasopharyngeal Colonization and Invasive Disease (Pediatric NP) 

Starting in 2003, just after the introduction of the Prevnar vaccine (PCV7) we have conducted surveys in the Calgary Public Health clinics.  For the surveys we perform nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs on children (ages 12 months, 18 months and 4.5 years) to test for carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae (SP). Our goal of the NP study is to find out what strains of SP children are carrying now, and what is happening to carriage in relation the Prevnar 13 vaccine in order to help determine the impact pneumococcal vaccinations have on disease.

 

Other Studies:

IMPACT

JPIAMR