Critical care

The Department of Critical Care Medicine has a clinical research program whose overarching objective is to improve the understanding of critical illness and deliver the best possible patient care. Our clinician-scientists have expertise in a range of health services methodologies, including observational studies (using clinical data and large administrative datasets), surveys, meta-analyses, qualitative evaluations and randomized controlled trials. Our team includes clinician-scientists, a biostatistician, a research manager and two research coordinators.

We participate in a broad range of research, including projects initiated within our department and those led by other academic investigators and the health care industry. Our researchers are supported by and have received peer-reviewed grants from many sources, including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Projects include those in the following areas:

• Neurocritical care
• Trauma, including in geriatric patients
• Perioperative care of patients undergoing cardiac surgery
• Sepsis
• Acute kidney injury
• Prehospital interventions to prevent or mitigate the effects of critical illness
• Prevention of complications acquired in the intensive care unit (ICU)
• Quality improvement in the delivery of care in the ICU
• Medical and interprofessional education and practice
• Communication with patients and their families
• End-of-life care
• National and international comparisons of care
• Organization of trauma and critical care services within health systems
• Critical illness and care delivery in resource-constrained settings

For details, see individual faculty pages.