Intensive Care Research Unit
Head: Associate Professor Vineet Sarode The Cabrini Intensive Care Unit admits approximately 1570 patients per year following procedures such as cardiothoracic and abdominal surgery as well as medical admissions requiring multi organ support. The average length of stay in our unit is 48 hours.
Director Intensive Care Unit Associate Professor Vineet Sarode Deputy Director Intensive Care Unit, Head of ICU Research Associate Professor David Brewster Intensive Care Physicians Professor Warwick Butt Dr Deirdre Murphy Dr Steve Philpot ICU Research Coordinator Shannon Simpson
Research in the intensive care unit (ICU) is particularly about questioning current practices and determining how we can get the best outcomes for our patients based on the evidence found. ICU research is increasingly trending towards examining patient outcomes post ICU discharge by following up patients for extended time periods to determine quality of life and disability as well as the standard outcome measures such as morbidity and mortality. Through this extended follow up of patients, we hope to ascertain the long term impacts an Intensive Care admission can have on both patients and their families – emotionally, physically, financially and socially. This would ultimately lead to standard practices and procedures possibly being changed or modified to ensure beneficial long term outcomes for our patients. The COVID-19 pandemic has presented challenges to all healthcare workers, and Cabrini ICU is no exception. It is through research that we can learn more about this virus, the immediate impact it has on patients and communities as well as the medium to long term impacts, giving us more knowledge in uncertain times.
Highlights Cabrini ICU landmark paper leads the country in national guidelines for the airway management of patients with COVID-19 A highlight for this year has been a major publication in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Associate Professor David Brewster first authored an influential medical research article in Australia for 2020. The national guidelines for the airway management of patients with severe COVID-19 disease has been the most viewed, downloaded and cited article in the Medical Journal of Australia (MJA) for 2020. This article has guided the doctors from anaesthesia, emergency medicine and intensive care units in all hospitals in Australia and New Zealand to manage extremely unwell patients as they are put onto a life-saving mechanical ventilator. It has also been used in numerous other countries as their guidelines. Associate Professor Brewster authored these guidelines along with 14 other national experts on airway management through his role on both the board and clinical council for the Safe Airway Society of Australia and New Zealand.
C A B R I N I I N S T I T U T E A N N U A L R E P O RT 2 0 1 9 -2 0
69
