With the help of the Duke Clinical Research Institute and the International Anesthesia Research Society, Duke is now home to one of only two research centers with a primary focus on anesthesiology.
Dr. Mark Newman, Duke professor and vice chair of anesthesiology and chief of cardiothorasic anesthesiology, will direct the new center, whose goal is to design and conduct large-scale clinical trials in order to further research to improve the outcomes and quality of life for surgical patients.
"A year ago, after a report from the IARS strategic planning committee, the idea was brought up to expand our mission," said Anne Maggiore of the IARS. Soon after, the IARS Board of Trustees issued a request for proposals from any anesthesiology department at a major medical school that would like to house the new center. After receiving several bids and narrowing the pool to just Duke and John Hopkins universities, the committee finally decided on the North Carolina location.
Maggiore, who spoke on behalf of the institute, said that the pre-existing infrastructure of the DCRI made the decision much easier. "Rather than having to start from scratch in trial management, at Duke we have that infrastructure," she said.
Newman, who has worked in Duke's anesthesiology department for nine years, said Duke is already a frontrunner in coordinating large-scale clinical trials for anesthesiology-making this an easily manageable task. Newman said that under his direction, a 40-university consortium has already submitted a request for a nationwide clinical trial to be sponsored by the National Institute of the Humanities. "That showed the IARS that we could do this.... And it showed there was a high probability that we could do this well," he said.
Dr. Lee Fleischer, vice chair of anesthesiology at Johns Hopkins University, will serve as the center's co-director.
Having worked together on previous research projects, Newman and Fleischer decided before the final announcement that wherever the center would be housed, it would be best that they continue collaboration.
"He and I are complementary," Fleischer said. "We have areas where we directly overlap-in the cardiovascular region-but he does neurological research and I do health services and outreach patients.... Together, we cover the gamut of preoperative care."
Newman said he and his staff will guide research initiatives in conjunction with a steering committee of anesthesiologists and the IARS board of directors.
"[Anesthesiology research] is moving toward a second phase, and this is intervention," said Newman. "In some individuals, [even if] they survive and do very well after surgery, there are some complications that alter their quality of life.... We are working so that those are no longer an issue in surgery."
Newman explained that surgeries sometimes result in increased kidney and cognitive dysfunction and long-term cognitive decline.
Although the IARS and the DCRI have yet to iron out all the details, some questions about oversight have been resolved. In particular, Newman will report directly to the IARS Board of Trustees, who will provide about $1 million of initial funding through a limited-liability corporation. "The obvious goal is to bring in preoperative clinical trials from the NIH and other groups so that soon we will be self-supporting," Newman said.
At the start, the new center will be heavily integrated with the DCRI, with much of the staff sharing responsibilities.
"I think it is the combination of space and infrastructure that will allow us to start at a run," Newman said. "I won't have to hire to do this research.... I will be able to start right ahead in this process."
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