COVID-19 Critical Care Consortium meeting at
After years collaborating remotely via Zoom and emails alone, members of the COVID-19 Critical Care Consortium (COVID Critical) came together in London recently for a once in a lifetime celebration.
We spoke to COVID Critical members about how they came to be involved with the international, multidisciplinary collaboration and the lasting impact the project will have on medical research.
Take a look back at the celebration here.
In conjunction with the 10th Congress of the European Extracorporeal Life Support Organisation (EuroELSO), COVID Critical co-founder and Asia Pacific Extracorporeal Life Support Organisation (APELSO) Chair, #ProfJohnFraser hosted the reception as a place for researchers, clinicians and intensivists from across the globe to come together, many meeting for the first time.
"It had been too long between drinks – and it was great for old friends and colleagues to catch up, share a laugh, a cry and break bread together. Perhaps even more importantly, it was inspiring to finally see the friends with whom we would meet on Zoom, week after week in the darkness of 2020 and 2021 - but never face to face," said Professor Fraser.
The COVID-19 Critical Care Consortium acknowledges the support of Fisher & Paykel Healthcare who funded the event, and speakers Laura Merson from University of Oxford and ISARIC; Akram Zaaqoq, MedStar Washington Hospital Centre; and Professor Robert Bartlett, Founder, Extracorporeal Life Support Organisation.
ABOUT THE CONSORTIUM:
The COVID-19 Critical Care Consortium (COVID Critical) is an international alliance of healthcare professionals, dedicated to help treat the sickest COVID-19 patients. COVID Critical was established at the start of the pandemic, before coronavirus was identified by the World health Organisation, and since then co-founders #ProfJohnFraser #AssocProfGianluigiLiBassi and #DrJackySuen have brought together a collaboration of more than 400 hospitals and affiliated research centres from 64 countries.
Taking over 260,000 volunteered hours of data entry, COVID Critical members have built the world's largest database of information on treatment outcomes of critically ill COVID-19 patients. As we edge towards 20,000 patient records, the COVID Critical database now contains tens of millions of data points and will serve to support healthcare professionals for generations to come.
Through data modelling, COVID Critical generates clinical insights about a disease that was completely unknown before January 2020, revolutionising the way deidentified data can be safely and securely shared across the world.
The COVID-19 Critical Care Consortium is proudly headquartered at #ThePrinceCharlesHospital's Critical Care Research Group.
ABOUT THE CRITICAL CARE RESEARCH GROUP:
The #CriticalCareResearchGroup is a world leader in critical care research and biomedical engineering, developing technologies that improve outcomes for critically ill patients.
With a highly-skilled team of international researchers and a collaborative approach to medical advancements, our aim is to increase understanding of the many issues that face critically ill patients and find new or improved treatment methods for hard-to-treat diseases.
This research aims to increase survival rates and improve the quality of life for patients with life-threatening conditions.
Read more ccrg.org.au #ResearchSavesLives