Transforming Research to Improve Therapies for Trauma
2024 30 Apr
The impact of trauma on global health is significant, resulting in millions of deaths and disabilities annually, with a particularly high toll on young people. However, the elderly are also increasingly affected. Variances in trauma-related death patterns worldwide are influenced by factors such as prompt treatment availability and the prevalence...Read more
Ventilator-Associated Brain Injury - A Priority for Research in Mechanical Ventilation
2024 02 Apr
Mechanical ventilation can lead to complications like ventilator-induced lung injury and ventilator-induced diaphragm dysfunction. However, there may be other forms of ventilator-associated issues that require understanding to improve outcomes for patients on mechanical ventilation. In particular, ventilator-associated brain injury (VABI) should be...Read more
Change in Research Focus for Early Nutrition
2024 21 Mar
In an interesting session today at #ISICEM24, Dr Annika Reintam Blaser, an intensivist at Lucerne Cantonal Hospital in Switzerland, discussed future research on optimising feeding for critically ill patients. She highlighted the accumulating evidence over the past 15 years suggesting that feeding might have harmful effects on critically ill patients....Read more
World Sepsis Day - Let's Work Together to Encourage and Support Sepsis Research
2023 12 Sep
A woman came to see me a few days ago: her 44-year-old husband recently died from sepsis in another hospital, and she wanted to have a discussion about this tragic story. Her husband had had just some kind of blister on his foot. He didn’t seem very ill when he arrived at the hospital, but he quickly developed an extended area of fasciitis on his left...Read more
ICU telemedicine - why qualitative research matters
2018 27 Nov
ICU telemedicine traces its beginnings to the 1970s, when an intensivist at a university hospital connected to a single small ICU using audio-visual technology to remotely conduct daily patient rounds and weekly teaching rounds with the local staff. This technology-based strategy is intended to improve patient care and outcomes, by extending the reach...Read more
Key areas of current research in sepsis therapeutics
2017 21 Nov
Advances in sepsis therapeutics continue to be made on a regular basis and important avenues of current research include improving endothelial cell function to protect the endothelium and limit oedema formation, blood purification techniques to help restore immune homeostasis, and immunostimulatory therapies for patients with immune exhaustion, according...Read more
CRT Study: The Power of Flash Mob Research
2016 13 Dec
Dutch researchers studying the interobserver agreement on capillary refill time have demonstrated the effectiveness of using a novel methodology of research called "flash mob research" (FMR). They used FMR to recruit nearly 1,800 study participants in a single day, with the bulk of the data available for analysis within 24 hours. The results published...Read more
ISICEM15: Setting Research Priorities with Community Involvement
2015 20 Mar
Setting priorities for healthcare research involves a number of stakeholders, including patients and the public. Involving intensive care patients and families can be hard, but it can be done, and this was the theme of a talk by Stephen Brett (London, UK), speaking at the Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine Symposium in Brussels this week. In the...Read more
Philips to Give Researchers Access to Critical Care Data
2015 21 Jan
Royal Philips has announced a new initiative with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to give medical researchers access to one of the largest data sources available for research into critical care. The data from more than 100,000 patients have been collected and anonymised through the Philips Hospital to Home eICU telehealth programme. These...Read more
ESICM 2014: What Do ICUs in Research Networks Have in Common?
2014 15 Oct
Most published large critical care studies are conducted through national or international critical care research networks. But what are the characteristics of ICUs belonging to these networks? The Health Services Research and Outcomes (HSRO) section of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) set out to answer this question. Typically...Read more
CKD Research Could Benefit From Changes To Progression Measurements
2014 08 Jun
Clinical trials of chronic kidney disease (CKD) are slowed by current standards for estimating the disease’s progression to its end stages. Large sample sizes and long follow-up periods are required, making CKD one of the more difficult prominent public health problems to study in clinical trials. A new report suggests that changes to the way disease...Read more
ISICEM 2014: CytoSorbents to Sponsor CytoSorb® Research Symposium
2014 14 Mar
CytoSorbents Corporation, a critical care immunotherapy company using blood purification to treat life-threatening illnesses in the intensive care unit, announced that it will sponsor a research symposium entitled: "SIRS and SEPSIS – New Therapy with CytoSorb®" at the 34th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine...Read more
ESICM LIVES 2013: Critical Care Research Thinking Big
2013 08 Oct
Critical care researchers need to think big, and think global, said John Marshall (Canada), in his keynote lecture at ESICM 2013. Breakthroughs in the past were the result of quirky individuals who did a lot with very little. What of the future of research, now that low hanging fruit has been identified? Marshall noted that we are in an era...Read more
Researchers Uncover Keys to Antibiotic Resistance in MRSA
2013 06 Oct
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is shown in the background (in gray). This figure depicts domains and key ligands of the penicillin binding protein 2a — a key resistance enzyme. The red molecule on the right is ceftaroline, a drug recently approved by the FDA. (Credit: University of Notre Dame) University of Notre Dame researchers...Read more
Nestlé Nutrition Institute Supports 2013 Kinney Awards to Recognise Outstanding Nutrition Research
2013 03 Oct
The bi-annual Dr. John M. Kinney Awards recognise and support outstanding young researchers in the fields of nutrition and metabolism, in honour of Dr. Kinney’s extensive work in this field. The winners of this year’s awards were selected by three panels of leading international experts that carefully assessed impact of the work of many...Read more
Researchers Identify Biomarker for Smoker's Lung Cancer
2013 25 Sep
Mayo Clinic researchers have shown that a specific protein pair may be a successful prognostic biomarker for identifying smoking-related lung cancers. The protein — ASCL1 — is associated with increased expression of the RET oncogene, a particular cancer-causing gene called RET. The findings appear in the online issue of the journal Oncogene. "This...Read more
Researchers Identify a New Pathway that Triggers Septic Shock
2013 18 Sep
Cells called macrophages explode when bacteria enter them and trigger an immune response through a sequence of events that UNC researchers uncovered. Credit: Jon Hagar and Ine Jørgensen. The body’s immune system is set up much like a home security system; it has sensors on the outside of cells that act like motion detectors — floodlights —...Read more
The UK Is Not Investing Enough In Research Into Multi-Drug Resistant Infections, Say Researchers
2013 18 Sep
Study of funding awarded to antimicrobial resistance research projects in the UK calls for political leadership and sustained and targeted spending. Although emergence of antimicrobial resistance severely threatens our future ability to treat many infections, the UK infection-research spend targeting this important area is still unacceptably...Read more
Researchers Create Tool to Predict Kidney Failure or Death after Injury
2013 04 Sep
Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) have developed a risk score calculation that can help predict which patients with rhabdomyolysis (a condition that occurs due to muscle damage) may be at risk for the severe complication of kidney failure or death. Rhabdomyolysis occurs when muscles are crushed and rupture, leaking toxic compounds...Read more
Covidien Opens US$21 Million Research & Development and Training & Education Center in South Korea
2013 29 Aug
Covidien, a leading global provider of healthcare products, today announced the opening of the Covidien Center of Innovation Korea (CCI Korea), its first research & development (R&D) and training & education center in Korea. With a total investment of US$21 million over a three year period, CCI Korea is a high-tech medical training center focused on...Read more
For Lung Transplant, Researchers Surprised to Learn Bigger Appears to Be Better
2013 14 Aug
Johns Hopkins-led research finds larger lungs associated with 30 percent increase in survival at one year. Transplant teams have long tried to match the size of donor lungs to the size of the recipient as closely as possible, concerned that lungs of the wrong size could lead to poor lung function and poor outcomes. But new Johns Hopkins-led research...Read more
Research Targets Bacteria Behind Hospital-associated Infections
2013 18 Jul
Kansas State University researchers are defeating persistent bacteria known for causing infections in hospitals. The bacteria, Enterococcus faecalis, are the second-leading cause of hospital-associated infections in the U.S., said Lynn Hancock , associate professor of biology and leader of the research. His team has discovered how a regulatory...Read more
Use Redistricting Maps to Make Organ Allocation More Equitable, Johns Hopkins Researchers Advocate
2013 12 Jul
Using the same type of mathematical formulas used to draw political redistricting maps, Johns Hopkins researchers say they have developed a model that would allow for the more equitable allocation of livers from deceased donors for transplantation. Currently, in the United States, where you live dictates the availability of a liver transplant. Studies...Read more
Promise, Caution Shown in Research into Stem Cell Treatment of Strokes
2013 11 Jul
While stem-cell therapy offers great promise for the treatment of stroke, much research remains to be done to show its long-term effectiveness and to understand the potential for dangerous side effects. These are the conclusions drawn by Henry Ford Hospital neurologists Jing Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., and Michael Chopp, Ph.D., scientific director of the Henry...Read more
New Non-Invasive Method for Brain Research
2013 26 Jun
Neuroscientists at the University of Tübingen have become the first to record neuromagnetic activity in the millisecond-by-millisecond range while the brain of a human subject was under stimulation by electric current. Electric brain stimulation has successfully been used in the treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders for many decades....Read more
Rates of Infection in ICUs in England Show Impressive Fall – and We Can Explain Why, Researchers Say
2013 26 Jun
Hospitals across England reduced the rate of serious bloodstream infections in intensive care units (ICUs) during a two-year programme, research has shown. More than 200 ICUs in England participated in the National Patient Safety Agency’s Matching Michigan programme, which aimed to bring down infections linked to central venous catheters to...Read more
The Body Electric: Researchers Move Closer to Low-Cost, Implantable Electronics
2013 12 Jun
A silicon circuit, coated with a protective layer and immersed in fluid that mimicks human body chemistry. Photo courtesy of Ohio State University. Aiding Organ Transplants to be First Application of New Technology New technology under development at The Ohio State University is paving the way for low-cost electronic devices that work...Read more
Interventional Stroke Therapy Needs Further Study in Clinical Trials, Mayo Clinic Researchers Say
2013 05 Jun
Devices snaked into the brain artery of a patient experiencing a stroke that either snatch and remove the offending clot or pump a dissolving drug into the blockage should primarily be used within a clinical trial setting, say a team of vascular neurologists at Mayo Clinic in Florida. In a commentary published in the May 29 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings...Read more
Research Shows Improvement in Survival Rates for Patients Receiving Blood Stem Cell Transplants
2013 29 May
Survival rates have increased significantly among patients who received blood stem cell transplants from both related and unrelated donors, according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology today on May 28, 2013.. The study authors attribute the increase to several factors, including advances in HLA tissue typing, better supportive...Read more
New Research Identifies Infection & Sepsis-Related Mortality Hotspots Across the U.S.
2013 16 May
Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have created the first U.S. map that pinpoints hotspots for infection and severe sepsis related-deaths. (Credit: Penn Medicine) First Map of Its Kind Reveals Key Areas for Additional Research and Support Services In the past, researchers have sought to determine...Read more
