The Intensive Care Foundation
The Intensive Care Foundation is the research arm of the Intensive Care Society. The Foundation was established in June 2003 to facilitate and support critical care research in the UK through the network of collaborating intensive care units.
What does the Intensive Care Society do?
The Intensive Care Society is the leading UK professional organisation focusing on standards of care, patient safety and staff career development in intensive care.
How does the Intensive Care Foundation help patients?
The Foundation critically evaluates existing and new treatments used in intensive care units.
Why is the Intensive Care Foundation needed?
Most charities focus on specific diseases such as stroke or heart disease, and are less likely to fund research in intensive care which is involved in the treatment of a wide variety of diseases and life-threatening conditions.
What has the Intensive Care Foundation achieved so far?
The Foundation determined important but unanswered research questions in critical care. These include:
1) A trial examining the relative benefits of helping patients, who are unable to breathe on their own, to breathe on a ventilator with a tube inserted directly in their wind-pipes (a tracheostomy) or a tube inserted down their mouths.
2) A world’s largest study exploring the long-term outcomes of patients after discharge from ICU. This particular study measures not just long-term survival but concentrates on patient outcomes and quality of life.
3) A trial examining the effectiveness of a new method of ventilation for serious ill patients with badly damaged lungs.
4) Continued funding for a study of a new treatment for acute severe lung disease.
5) Support for two studies selected by over 200 members of the intensive care community.
6) Funding of research generated by the 2008 Caudwell Xtreme Everest Expedition.
How does the Foundation run?
Foundation is an integral a part of the Society and although it is answerable to Council, it has its own Board which is responsible for managing its activities and expenditure. The Board has two main roles; one is financial supervision of the Directors of Research and the other is general fund-raising for critical care research.
Who pays for the Intensive Care Foundation?
The Foundation is supported by generous donations from the Intensive Care Society’s Patron, HRH The Princess Royal and B Braun Ltd.
The Intensive Care Foundation
The Intensive Care Foundation is the research arm of the Intensive Care Society. The Foundation was established in June 2003 to facilitate and support critical care research in the UK through the network of collaborating intensive care units.
What does the Intensive Care Society do?
The Intensive Care Society is the leading UK professional organisation focusing on standards of care, patient safety and staff career development in intensive care. The Society was founded in 1970 and was the first national society for consultants specialising in intensive care medicine to be established anywhere in the world. Over the years the Society’s membership has grown to over 2,400 and now includes the full range of healthcare professionals working in intensive care units.
How does the Intensive Care Foundation help patients?
The Foundation critically evaluates existing and new treatments used in intensive care units. Such research is essential, since better evidence is needed to allow us to choose between existing treatments, and to identify and evaluate new treatments to ensure patients receive the best, life-saving care.
Why is the Intensive Care Foundation needed?
While a variety of bodies fund medical research, most charities focus on specific diseases such as stroke or heart disease, and are less likely to fund research in intensive care which is involved in the treatment of a wide variety of diseases and life-threatening conditions.
Our experience tells us that effective research in intensive care needs the cooperation of many intensive care units, so that complex studies can be carried out across large numbers of patients. It is not cost effective for such collaborations to be created each time we plan a new research study, but it is difficult to find funding to maintain the networks that allow this kind of research to thrive.
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What has the Intensive Care Foundation achieved so far?
The Society appointed its first Director of Research, Dr Duncan Young (Oxford) in 2003. One of the Director’s first tasks was to determine important but unanswered research questions in critical care. Subsequently, a large multi-centre trial involving 51 intensive care units was started. This trial is examining the relative benefits of helping patients, who are unable to breathe on their own, to breathe on a ventilator with a tube inserted directly in their wind-pipes (a tracheostomy) or a tube inserted down their mouths.
In 2005, the Director set up a study exploring the long-term outcomes of patients after recovery and discharge from ICU. This particular study will not just measure long-term survival but concentrate on patient outcomes and quality of life. This study is now the world’s largest registry of patients who have survived critical illness.
In 2006, the Medical Research Council (MRC) agreed to continue the funding for the second three years of the tracheostomy trial (£750,000). In 2007, the NHS Health Technology Assessment Unit awarded the Director £1.7 million to examine the effectiveness of a new method of ventilation. This summer, another pilot study funded by the Foundation received £2.1 million from the MRC to continue its study of a new treatment for acute severe lung disease. In all of these applications, the grant awarding bodies were impressed by the initial financial commitment made by the intensive care community (through the Foundation), the scientific rigour of the projects and the support of the study by the Foundation’s network of intensive care units.
In 2008, the Foundation was able to appoint two Deputy Directors of Research. Dr Danny McAuley (Belfast) and Dr Gavin Perkins (Birmingham). One of the Deputies’ first tasks was to identify the next major trial that should be undertaken by the Foundation. In early 2008, fourteen projects were submitted for consideration at the Priority Setting Exercise. Over the summer these were reduced to six after consultation with the Society’s members and finally two were chosen as the best at the Winter State of the Art Meeting. The final selection process was attended by nearly 200 delegates who all clearly felt that this was sufficiently important to warrant their involvement.
In 2008, The Foundation was also able to support the research efforts of the Caudwell Xtreme Everest Expedition. This research has helped to understand why and how the human body uses oxygen when its supply to the cells is reduced. Already the importance of genetics in oxygen usage is beginning to be understood.
Foundation scientific achievements
The Foundation is an integral apart of the Society and although it is answerable to Council, it has its own Board which is responsible for managing its activities and expenditure. The Board has two main roles; one is financial supervision of the Directors of Research and the other is general fund-raising for critical care research.
General fund raising is undertaken by the Board members. This most commonly involves working with industry, especially those companies supporting the Society via its Industry Membership Scheme. Activities include organising introductory receptions hosted by the Society’s Patron, Her Royal Highness, The Princes Royal, at Buckingham Palace, raising public and political awareness of the importance of critical care research at receptions at the Houses of Parliament. The Foundation has funded (in conjunction with B Braun) a ten year programme to allow trainees in critical care to undertake MSc distant learning courses in clinical trails at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The first B Braun Intensive Care Foundation MSc Fellow was appointed in 2006 and this programme will be funded for a further nine years.
Who pays for the Intensive Care Foundation?
The Director’s post and the initial phases of the tracheostomy trial were funded by generous donations from the Intensive Care Society’s Patron, HRH The Princess Royal and B Braun Ltd. In the short time since its inception he Foundation has become the largest provider of funds for intensive care research in the UK. There is no Government support and relies on support from industry, the Intensive Care Society and other donors.
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