Kidney Research Lab A Canadian First

New Centre To Focus On Getting Patients Off Costly Dialysis

Dave Rogers

The Ottawa Citizen

Promising to improve the lives of kidney patients across the country and around the world, the Ottawa Hospital has established Canada's first kidney research centre at the hospital's General site.

Located in three laboratories on the ground floor of the University of Ottawa Health Sciences building, the research centre will focus on slowing the progress of diabetic kidney disease, making kidney transplants last longer than the average of 10 years and researching gene therapy to revive damaged kidney cells.

The centre expects to add five researchers to the three already doing similar work in the hospital, and it will build three new laboratories within five years. Dr. Kevin Burns, chief of nephrology at the General, said the hospital and the Kidney Foundation have raised more than $800,000 to launch the research centre.

The centre's $500,000 to $600,000 annual operating cost will come from the community and the federal and provincial governments. Hospital officials said kidney disease is the sixth most common cause of death in Canada. They added Canada has the lowest rate of organ donation in the developed world.

Medical statistics show 2,781 Canadians were awaiting kidney transplants in 1998, but only 992 transplants were performed that year. "The incidence of kidney disease requiring dialysis or transplantation is increasing by 10 per cent each year due to the tidal wave of the aging population," Dr. Burns said. "It is very costly in terms of the loss of quality of life and the financial burden of care.

"Still we have very few established treatments to improve the function of kidney transplants or to prevent the progression of kidney disease. The creation of this kidney research centre represents a unique initiative in Canada to focus on investigation into the causes and treatments of kidney disease."

Dr. Burns said the centre will attract world-class scientists to Ottawa to study the causes of kidney disease and ways of preventing it. He said the centre will also conduct clinical studies to improve patient care.

The Ottawa Hospital provides dialysis for about 450 patients. About 35 per cent suffer from diabetic kidney disease. Dr. Burns said researchers would like to make kidney dialysis easier by having patients do it themselves at home.

"One of the problems of kidney disease is that it is not the highest priority compared to heart disease," Dr. Burns said. "But the cost of kidney disease is enormous because dialysis costs $50,000 a year for each patient and their quality of life is severely compromised.

"Our ultimate goal is to get our patients off dialysis and prevent patients from requiring it. We are here to instill hope in our patients."

Dr. David Z. Levine (no relation to hospital president David Levine), a research scientist at the centre, said doing kidney research in Ottawa will mean new technology will be introduced faster here. "If you don't have the competence and experience to evaluate and apply new technology, you will be the last to use it and won't serve patients well," Dr. Levine said.

Kidney patient Jerry Lepage said his life has been transformed since he received a kidney transplant on Feb. 16, 1999. He said he is living proof that research directly benefits the quality of life of patients.

"Research conjures up images of pristine, sterile labs," Mr. Lepage said. "But for some people, research means making the intangible tangible, transforming hope into reality.

"Today, research is about chasing that elusive light at the end of the tunnel for so many people. With the establishment of the centre, we are all a little closer to capturing that light."

Copyright © 2000 Ottawa Citizen.