The ability to effectively study the epidemiology, pathophysiology and potential innovative treatments for neurological emergencies has been difficult, since many occur infrequently. The rarity of these events often lessens the ability to enroll sufficient numbers of patients into clinical trials. The current therapies for many neurologic emergencies are often understudied or unsatisfactory. With these issues in mind, and because of a sincere desire to improve emergency care of patients with neurological emergencies, the Neurological Emergencies Treatment Trials (NETT) network has been proposed. This proposal is for the establishment of a NETT network Hub at the University Of Minnesota School Of Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine. As the coordinating center for several urban and rural, academic and community ED Spokes, the Hub will promote and ensure the successful recruitment and enrollment of patients into clinical trials proposed by the national NETT Network. The Hub will promote dissemination of the resulting relevant research findings with the goal of directly impacting the care of patients with neurological emergencies.
The Specific Aims for Year One of this proposal are to;1. Create the Hub infrastructure at the University Of Minnesota Department Of Emergency Medicine to promote and conduct neurological clinical trials, with the goal of determining effective new treatments for otherwise devastating pathologies. This will include the development of 1) Hub leadership and administrative infrastructure;2) collaborative agreements with proposed Spokes regarding research logistics;3) necessary support systems, policies and procedures for Spoke research;4) training modules for Spokes related to principles and practice of research, human subjects protection in research and specific research protocols. 2. Engage emergency and neuro- clinicians in clinical research trials. This includes support of collaboration and communication between Spoke emergency physicians and neuroclinical colleagues, education regarding best clinical practices and research trial designs, and development of seamless research processes for patient identification and study enrollment. 3. Engage pre-hospital providers in the research effort. This will include active promotion of communications across several emergency medical service systems and providing feedback on enrollment performance. 4.4. In Years 2-5, implement and successfully execute two clinical trials, as determined by the NETT network.
