Centre for Clinical Research in Emergency Medicine (CCREM)


http://www.ccrem.org.au

Emergency Medicine Research to Improve Patient Care

December, 2008

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CCREM Members and guests: [L to R] Jen Wurmel (RN), A/Prof Daniel Fatovich, Ellen MacDonald (A/Clinical Nurse Manager, Emergency Research), Holly Allen (BSc Hons Student), Claire Cotterell (Laboratory RA), Dr Craig Ellis (PhD Student), Patricia Wojtowicz (RN), Pauline van Eeden (Laboratory Manager), Dr Glenn Arendts (Senior Lecturer), Dr Susan Aulfrey (Research Associate), A/Prof Geoff Isbister (Menzies School of Health Research), A/Prof Simon Brown

Patients admitted to Royal Perth Hospital Emergency Departments will benefit from research being carried out at the new Centre for Clinical Research in Emergency Medicine (CCREM).

Head of CCREM and Emergency Medicine Consultant A/Prof Simon Brown said that for seriously ill people, medical care initiated within the first minutes to hours of arrival in ED can have a significant impact on survival and long-term morbidity.

"The care received in the ED can have a significant impact on quality of life and return to work, as well as impact on critical illness. EDs therefore play a major role in provision of acute health care to the Australian community," A/Prof Brown said.

"We aim to improve our understanding of acute illnesses by testing different approaches to diagnosis, treatment and wherever possible, prevention."

An inaugural research seminar was held in October to celebrate the official launch of CCREM with presentations from a number of CCREM academics and visiting guests.

CCREM currently oversees a number of collaborative multicentre studies focussing on anaphylaxis and immunotherapy, toxinology/toxicology, acute illnesses in the elderly and ED management of chest pain. These are funded by competitive grants from the NHMRC, state governments and other organisations. A number of these projects are managed in close collaboration with the Menzies School of Health Research (Darwin NT).

CCREM was established in July 2008 in collaboration with the University of Western Australia, Western Australian Institute for Medical Research (WAIMR) and Royal Perth Hospital.


For more information please contact:
Joanne Hill
Royal Perth Hospital Public Relations
Office: (08) 9224 2209