Prof Brian H Cuthbertson
E-mail: b.h.cuthbertson@abdn.ac.uk
Tel: 01224 552730
Brian Cuthbertson leads the critical care theme in the Health Services Research Unit at the University of Aberdeen.
Improving Outcomes from Critical Illness
In this theme we have a number of active studies. These include the PRaCTICaL study which is a randomised controlled study to test whether ICU follow-up systems improve outcome after ICU discharge and is funded for £225,000 by the Chief Scientists Office for Scotland. The OSCAR study is a multi-centre trial of high frequency oscillation ventilation in ARDS which has £1.7M funding from the Health Technology Assessment Programme of NHS R+D. The TRACman study is a randomised controlled study of the effect of early tracheostomy on outcome from critical illness and is funded for £800,000 by the MRC. We also have a variety of cost-effectiveness studies for the Health Technology Assessment Programme. Further work includes studies of early warning scoring systems, validation of outreach critical care and a variety of quality of life studies in cohorts of intensive care patients.
Reducing the Risk of Major Surgery
In this theme we have a number of active studies. These include the FOCCUS study which is a multi-centre randomised controlled study of HDU versus ICU care and pre-operative fluid loading in high-risk surgical patients undergoing major elective surgery funded for £225,000 by the Chief Scientists Office for Scotland. Our biomarkers study group has undertaken many large prospective cohort studies on the prediction and modification of outcome in high risk surgery and critical illness. We have recently completed studies on the abilities of BNP to predict risk in cardiac and non-cardiac surgery patients funded for £127,000 by the BHF. After this large observational study we will move onto perform interventional studies to attempt to modify risk for this group of patients. We also have undertaken cost-effectiveness studies for the Health Technology Assessment on Oesophageal Doppler Monitoring in major surgery.
Patient Safety Research
Prof Cuthbertson is a co-founder of the Aberdeen Patients Safety Group with major research and teaching components. We were awarded a £1.5M Strategic Research Development Grant by the Scottish Funding Council in 2007 for a Scottish Patient Safety Research Collaboration. This work includes an active collaboration with the industrial psychology department in Aberdeen looking at team work in ICU teams.