University Lecturer in Trials, Cambridge Clinical Trials Unit

 

Honorary Consultant Nephrologist

 

Email: tfh24@cam.ac.uk

Telephone: 01223 336817

 

Research portfolio

Clinical Trials

Dr Hiemstra is a clinical trialist and trials methodologist with the Cambridge Clinical Trials Unit. He leads a portfolio of trials and cohort studies in nephrology and related disciplines, including vitamin D supplementation in dialysis patients (ISCRTN 15087616), hydration in Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (NCT0203565) and s-Flt1 Apheresis in pre-eclampsia (NCT02923206). Previous work included interventional trials in vasculitis with the European Vasculitis Consortium (EUVAS) including the IMPROVE and MYCYC trials. Focusing on the development and delivery of definitive trials in nephrology and related specialties, his current research interests include innovative and efficient trial design including multi-arm multi-stage trials, the use of routine data sources and eHealth technologies to capture trial endpoints and events, and pragmatic trials. Dr Hiemstra chairs the UK Kidney Research Consortium Clinical Trials Network (UKRTN), and is a member of the KDIGO Clinical Trials working group and ISN-ACT.

The SIMPLIFIED registry trial

Dr Hiemstra is Chief Investigator for the SIMPLIFIED registry trial, an innovative pragmatic phase-IV trial in the UK dialysis population in collaboration with the UK Renal Registry. SIMPLIFIED is the largest interventional trial to be performed in the UK dialysis population, and is funded by the NIHR Health Technology Assessment (HTA) programme. It utilises novel approaches to capturing trial endpoints, including data linkage with NHS Digital datasets (including Hospital Episode Statistics) and the UK Renal Data Collaboration.

Patients or centres interested in the SIMPLIFIED trial can contact the trial office here.

Patient Led Research Hub

The Patient Led Research Hub (PLRH) aims to provide infrastructure, resources and expertise to patient groups to support the development and delivery of patient initiated research. Directed by Dr Hiemstra, the PLRH currently collaborates with the PKD Charity, the Kidney Care UK (KCUK) and Gitelman’s UK among others.

The PLRH can be contacted here.

Other Interests

Dr Hiemstra has an interest in the premature vascular ageing that occurs in CKD, and in interventions that may modulate the ageing phenotype. In collaboration with Prof Kathryn Lilley (Department of Biochemistry), he has employed emerging proteomics approaches (SRM, SWATH-MS) to quantify plasma and tissue proteins in several clinical cohorts and in clinical trials.

Selected Publications

1. Odudu A, Hiemstra TF. Improving the External Validity of Clinical Trials in Dialysis Populations. Perit Dial Int 2017;(37) in press
2. Baigent C, Herrington WG, Coresh J et al. Challenges in Conducting Clinical Trials in Nephrology: Conclusions from a Kidney Disease-Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) Controversies Conference. Kidney Int 2017 Aug;92(2):297-305
3. Hiemstra TF, Walsh M, Mahr A et al. Mycophenolate Mofetil vs Azathioprine for Remission Maintenance in Antineutrophil Cytoplasmic Antibody-Associated Vasculitis: A Randomized Controlled Trial. JAMA 2010 Dec 1;304(21):2381-8.
4. Galloway PA, El-Damanawi R, Bardsley V, Pritchard NR, Fry AC, Ojha SJ, Hiemstra TF. Vitamin K Antagonists Predispose to Calciphylaxis in Patients with End-Stage Renal Disease. Nephron 2015;129(3):197-201.
5. Hiemstra TF, Charles PD, Hester SS, Gracia T, Al-Lamki R, Gatto L, Robinson C, Floto RA, Skepper JN, Lilley KS, Karet Frankl FE. Exosomes in Human Urine as Innate Immune Effectors. J Am Soc Nephrol 2014(9)2017-2027.
6. Hiemstra TF, Casian A, Boraks P, Jayne DR, Schoenmakers I. Plasma Exchange Induces Vitamin D Deficiency. 2014;107(2):123-30
7. Hiemstra TF, Brown AJ, Chaudhry A, Walsh M. Association of Calcium, Phosphate and PTH with Renal Allograft Function. Am J Nephrol 2013;37(4):339-45
8. Robinson C, Hiemstra TF, Spencer S, Waller S, Daboo L, Karet Frankl FE, Sandford RN. Clinical Utility of PKD2 Mutation Testing in a Polycystic Kidney Disease Cohort Attending a Specialist Nephrology Out-Patient Clinic. BMC Nephrol 2012; 22(4):136-145
9. Hiemstra TF, Charles PD, Hester SS, Karet FE, Lilley KS. Uromodulin Exclusion List Improves Depth of Urinary Exosomal Protein Coverage by LC-MS/MS. J Biomol Tech 2011; 22(4):136-145.
10. El-Damanawi R, Kershaw S, Campbell G, Hiemstra TF. Successful Restoration of Vascular Access Patency after Late Intervention. Clin Kidney J 2015 Feb;8(1):82-6 .