AIMS
- Establish an inclusive, nationwide network of experts to review published data, establish national priorities, vet hypotheses, write clinical protocols, and generate pilot data
- Promote interactions and synergy across established programs, both academic and non-academic, to improve the robustness (power) of clinical trials and test hypotheses in a US population
- Provide a venue to discuss education and training in the science of clinical trial design, conduct, analysis, and reporting for critically ill or injured patients
- Insure patient protection and privacy by addressing the ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) of research in the specialized circumstance of critical illness or injury
ORGANIZATIONAL APPROACH
The US Critical Illness and Injury Trials Group (USCIITG) will facilitate collaboration among experts with the goal of promoting clinical trials in the critically ill or injured. Scheduled meetings will foster the development of evidence-based clinical protocols and the subsequent preparation of applications for funding to test specific hypotheses. To maximize inclusiveness and the scientific rigor of the discussions, the meetings will be held annually at the NIH and held at annual critical illness and injury societal meetings (effectively, three times per year).
Starting a U.S. Critical Illness and Injury Trials Group (USCIITG) will require overcoming a number of organizational and logistical hurdles, including the
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lack of coordinated university and hospital support for critical illness and injury research, which is typically dispersed across multiple departments
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partitioning of NIH funding for critical illness and injury studies across a large number of institutes and centers
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large geographic distances separating major critical illness and injury research centers in the US
To address these challenges, the organizational approach emphasizes frequent, face-to-face meetings that are aimed at generating fundable, high-impact clinical research proposals. These proposals are expected to span the patient age and time care continuums (pre-hospital to recovery).