Research
The UNC Division of Neurocritical Care is enthusiastically committed to improving care for our patients and their families through impactful research and scholarship. We believe in a team approach to science and feel strongly that neurocritically ill patients throughout the state of North Carolina deserve access to participation in cutting edge studies that aim to ultimately improve care. In addition to support from multiple sources within the UNC School of Medicine, we are fortunate to have had our projects made possible by the NIH, the American Academy of Neurology, the International Neuropalliative Care Society, the Neurocritical Care Society and Neurocritical Care Foundation, the Society of Critical Care Medicine, industry partners, and philanthropy.
Major Research Focus Areas
- Clinical trial efficiency and quality improvement
- Determination of death by neurologic criteria
- Functional MRI and PET applications in neurointensive care
- Long-term cognitive and psychiatric recovery from severe brain injury
- Neurocritical care in low- and middle-income countries
- Optimization of patient transitions out of intensive care units
- Post-acute symptomatic seizures and status epilepticus
- Prognostication of brain injury patient functional outcomes
- Psychosocial support of caregivers and families of critically ill patients
- Serum and imaging biomarker associations with intracranial pressure and need for neurosurgical procedures
- Value-based methods for care improvement in inpatient settings
Neurocritical Care Clinical Trials
With support from the NIH, Duke University and UNC have formed the Eastern North Carolina and Southern Virginia Regional Stroke Trial Consortium (ENVISION), a regional coordinating center for the StrokeNet clinical trials network. In addition to providing access to stroke clinical trial enrollment for patients in North Carolina and Virginia, ENVSION sponsors a one-year stroke research training fellowship for fellows and junior faculty.
Faculty from our Division also provide expertise and effort towards the NIH-funded Trial Innovation Center at Johns Hopkins University that aims to promote efficiency and quality for clinical trials; as well as the Post-Acute Symptomatic Seizure Investigation and Outcomes Network (PASSION), which aims to improve care for patients with brain injury and acute symptomatic seizures.
Aside from our investigator-initiated research as described above, the UNC Neurocritical Care Division is currently enrolling patients and families admitted to our Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit into the following randomized multicenter clinical trials:
- Anticoagulation for Stroke Prevention and Recovery after Intracerebral Hemorrhage (ASPIRE)
- Brain Oxygen Optimization in Severe Traumatic Brain Injury (BOOST-3)
- LT3001 (Combined Thrombolytic/Neuroprotectant) for Acute Ischemic Stroke (Lumosa Therapeutics)
- Randomized Trial of a Scalable, Interactive Tool to Support Surrogate Decision-Makers of Elderly Critically Ill Patients
- Statin Use in Intracerebral Hemorrhage Patients (SATURN)
Other resources with the UNC Health Care System
