Alfred ICU wins one of 3 prestigious Alfred Health Research Grants.
7 September 2011
A research team from the Alfred ICU was recently announced as the recipient of a $500,000 research grant from the Alfred Research Trusts. A/Prof Andrew Davies, A/Prof Alistair Nichol, Dr Carol Hodgson, A/Prof David Tuxen, Prof Jamie Cooper and Mrs Alisa Higgins are the Chief Investigators of the project entitled “PHARLAP - A multi-centre randomised controlled trial (RCT) of Open Lung Strategy including Permissive Hypercapnia, Alveolar Recruitment, and Low Airway Pressure in patients with ARDS”. This funding will be provided over 3 years to assist with the conduct of a trial involving 340 patients. The trial will assess the risks and benefits of the PHARLAP ventilator strategy, which was pioneered by David Tuxen, and which was found to have beneficial effects on cytokines in a smaller 20 patient study lead by Carol Hodgson and Alistair Nichol, and published earlier this year1. The trial will be conducted in 25 ICUs around Australia and New Zealand, lead by these clinician-researchers at the Alfred Intensive Care unit, and has been endorsed by the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society Clinical Trials Group (ANZICS CTG).
The Alfred ICU team received the sole grant in the category of Clinical Research - Respiratory or Cardiovascular, and was 1 of 13 applications for this grant. Two other teams, lead by Prof Peter Cameron (Emergency and Trauma Centre) and Prof Paul Fitzgerald (Psychiatry), received the grants in the other 2 categories, Research in Patient Safety and Quality, and Clinical Research - Other than Respiratory or Cardiovascular. More than 40 applications were received overall.
A randomised controlled trial of an open lung strategy with staircase recruitment, titrated PEEP and targeted low airway pressures in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome. Hodgson CL, Tuxen DV, Davies AR, Bailey MJ, Higgins AM, Holland AE, Keating JL, Pilcher DV, Westbrook AJ, Cooper DJ, Nichol AD. Crit Care. 2011;15(3):R133. Epub 2011 Jun 2.
PHARLAP Team Photo
