Minutes

Notes concerning the First Annual Heart Failure Clinical Research Network Retreat
Friday, October 26th, 2007
1:00 – 4:00 pm
The New Research Building

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The first Research Network Retreat was held and 26 individuals attended.  As stated in our application to the NIH, “the Retreat will allow an opportunity for each fellow investigator to report to the site and participants their proposed and/or ongoing research progress.  In addition, the investigators will have the opportunity to hear about the progress being made in each of the on-going trials and learn more about new areas of investigation.”

After introductory welcome by Dr. Dec and Dr. Baughman, Dr. Lynne Warner Stevenson gave a Partners site overview.  This presentation outlined the sites of the Network and progress to date with four protocols already to IRBs for assessment and approval.  Importantly, a program has been created between fellows and faculty developing a parallel network.  This will allow investigators to visit other sites and for young investigators to attend national Heart Failure Network Meetings and establish their own committee for consideration of protocols.  This will allow them to develop skills in clinical research and leadership.  The fellows were polled concerning the usefulness of attendance at the recent Heart Failure Network Meeting.  All were impressed with the commitment on the part of the Network to train emerging investigators as well as with the intricacies of multi-center clinical investigation.

Fellows presented their current and anticipated work:

• Dr. Neal Lakdawala is working with Dr. Carolyn Ho and Dr. Cricket Seidman to unravel the genetic causes of dilated cardiomyopathy.
• Dr. Gregory Lewis is investigating the physiologic importance of exercise capacity in heart failure populations and correlating this with bioinformatics approach to metabolic alinanalilus.
• Dr. Garrick Stewart is evaluating devices in patients with heart failure.

Site protocols

Dr. Marc Semigran presented the RELAX protocol to evaluate phosphodiesterase inhibitors in patients with heart failure and normal systolic function.  Dr. Semigran also reviewed the SMMART protocol.  This protocol will evaluate the importance of mitral ring annuloplasty in patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy and mitral regurgitation.

Dr. Lynne Stevenson, substituting for Dr. Michael Givertz, presented the DOSE protocol.  This is a 2-by-2 factorial double dummy investigation of intravenous bolus vs. intravenous continuous Lasix in the treatment of patients admitted with congestive heart failure.  This was followed by the assessment of a protocol evaluation ultrafiltration vs. continued intravenous diuretic management.  This will evaluate a bi-variant response evaluating creatinine and weight changes.

Dr. Stevenson also reviewed the MODERN protocol.  This is a protocol assessing the dependence of patients on diuretics and their response to sodium challenge and diuretic dose reduction.
A brief discussion ensued concerning the interest of the group in developing a Continuing Medical Education program to allow these protocols to be distributed to members of the community, both for patient referral and to enhance local center participation.

At the completion of the retreat, closing remarks were offered by Drs. Baughman and Dec.