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2006 Grant Awards
[2006] [2007] [2008]
The following departmental faculty were awarded competitive and
non-competitive research grants during calendar year 2006.
Debra A. Schwinn, M.D., is a recipient of the 2005 Futures grant from the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative (http://www.keckfutures.org) to support interdisciplinary research on genomics and infectious disease. Dr. Schwinn’s one-year project entitled “Creating an Inexpensive Diagnostic for Malaria Using Combined Nanotechnology and Genomic Approaches” proposes to develop an inexpensive field diagnostic to detect active malaria infection in a remote field setting where little electricity or medical expertise is available. The diagnostic tool uses microfluidics, nanotechnology, and genomics to diagnose the type and drug resistance of malaria parasites in humans. The 14 research projects that were awarded funding represent a wide range of approaches to the field, which was the subject of the third Futures conference, "The Genomic Revolution: Implications for Treatment and Control of Infectious Disease," held last November in Irvine, Calif.
Jeffrey M. Taekman, M.D., Melanie Wright, Ph.D., and Stuart Grant, M.B., CH.B., are the recipients of SBIR Phase I funds from Verefi Technologies to perform a heuristic review of the prototype of a regional anesthesia simulator called RAT-Regional Anesthesia Trainer to be conducted in the Human Simulation and Patient Safety Center.
W. Daniel Tracey, Ph.D., is the recipient of a three-year research award from the Whitehall Foundation, Inc. (http://www.whitehall.org/about/), entitled “Genetic Analysis of Nociception in Drosophila”. This proposal furthers the research goals of the Molecular Genetics of Pain Signaling Laboratory -- to understand the molecular mechanisms of nociception.
Melanie C. Wright, Ph.D., was awarded a grant from the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (http://www.apsf.org/) to study objective measures of performance in anesthesia care. Other research team members include Jeffrey Taekman, Co-PI, Jonathan Mark, Mark Stafford-Smith, Gene Hobbs, Barbara Phillips-Bute, and Bryan Andregg. The team will compare objective measures of anesthesia care performance with respect to their sensitivity to provider experience and simulated anesthesia case difficulty. The objective measures will include eye scan behavior and responses to situation awareness probes and will be compared to more commonly used measures such as observer ratings based on checklists.
Ellen M. Flanagan, M.D., was awarded the prestigious Dennis W. Jahnigen Career Development Scholar Award from the American Geriatrics Society (http://www.americangeriatrics.org/hartford/jahnigen.shtml) for her proposal entitled “Surgical Outcomes of Elderly Patients with DNR Orders”. This two year award will assist Dr. Flanagan in her research aimed at determining what elderly patients benefit most from surgical rather than medical intervention for palliative purposes.
Terri Monk, M.D., was awarded a Merit Award for her research proposal entitled “Intra-Operative Predictors of Adverse Outcomes”. This proposal was funded by the Health Services Research & Development Service (HSR&D) Scientific Review Board of the Veteran’s Administration (http://www.hsrd.research.va.gov/). Dr. Monk’s collaborators on this project are Dr. Michael Bishop, VA National Director for Anesthesia, and Drs. William Henderson and Karl Hammermeister of the National Surgery Quality Improvement Data Coordinating Center at the Colorado Health Outcomes Program. This proposal will analyze archived intraoperative data from approximately 19,000 patients from seven VA Medical Centers.
Richard Vann, PhD, was awarded a Research Grant from the Naval Sea Systems Command to conduct a three year study entitled “The Relationship of Predicted Decompression Sickness (DCS) Probability, Dive Conditions, and DCS Severity in Dive Trial and Open-Water Dive Data.” This investigation will develop probabilistic DCS models, an efficient system for model parameter optimization, and a combined database of empirical diving experience for use in model calibration and evaluation. The results will be applied to the specification of decompression procedures for humans in hyperbaric and hypobaric environments.
Melanie C. Wright, Ph.D., was awarded an NIH Independent
Scientist Award for her five year study entitled "Information Management in the Perioperative
Environment". In addition to the potential to improve patient safety through better information management in the
perioperative environment, the results of this effort will have implications for (1) training in the perioperative
environment and for (2) system design in other dynamic, safety-critical health care environments.
Dr. Neal Pollock of the Division of Hyperbaric Services received a three-year $317,021 research contract from the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) entitled “Mechanisms of Musculoskeletal-Induced Nucleation
in Altitude Decompression Stress”. Musculoskeletal activity has the potential to both improve and compromise
decompression safety, depending on the intensity, sequence, and level of tissue supersaturation. Exercise enhances inert gas elimination during oxygen breathing prior to decompression and it may also promote bubble nuclei formation, which can lead to gas phase separation and growth resulting in increased DCS risk. This proposal aims to show that for exercise prebreathe protocols, decompression stress is related to musculoskeletal nucleation,
and that nucleation can be controlled to reduce decompression stress.
Dr. Madhav Swaminathan of the Division of Cardiothoracic and Critical Care Medicine received a two-year $120,000 research grant from the American
Heart Association (AHA) entitled “The Role of Circulating Progenitor Cells in Renal Outcomes
after Coronary Bypass Surgery.” The grant will allow the investigators to study patterns of mobilization of bone marrow-derived progenitor cells in cardiac
surgical patients and determine their role in adverse renal outcomes.
Dr. J. Jake Freiberger of the Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Environmental Physiology received $466,481 to conduct
a 3½ year clinical trial sponsored by Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation entitled “Hyperbaric Oxygen for Osteonecrosis
of the Jaw”. The objective of the study is to prospectively evaluate the efficacy of the hyperbaric oxygen therapy as an adjunct to conservative treatment of Osteonecrosis of the jaw and will also assess the effect of hyperbaric oxygen on routine and established biochemical measures on bone turnover in patients with Osteonecrosis of the jaw.
Gavin Martin, MB, ChB, DA, FRCA (Regional Division)
became the new Principal Investigator of a 2-year study
funded by Organon Pharmaceuticals, Inc., entitled “Neostigmine as Reversal Agent of a Neuromusclar Block
Induced by Maintenance Dosing of Rocuronium.”
Jeffrey Taekman, MD (Division of Otolaryngology,
Head, Neck/Neuroanesthesiology
[OHN] and Director of
the Human Simulation
and Patient Safety Center
[http://simcenter.duhs.duke.edu/]) and Melanie Wright.
PhD (Human Factors Specialist in the Human Simulation
and Patient Safety Center) received a 1-year $249,530
award from the Telemedicine and Advanced Technologies
Research Center (TATRC- http://www.tatrc.org/), a division
of the United States Army Medical Research & Materiel
Command (USAMRMC) to conduct a study entitled “3DiMD: Gaming Environment for Training Healthcare Team
Coordination Skills.” This proposal plans to develop a prototype
3-dimensional interactive networked computer-gaming
environment for the training of team coordination skills. This
gaming environment will expand the scope and reach of
team coordination training to the continuum of healthcare
personnel. This research will provide information needed
to support a long term goal of developing health care team
training that will be exportable beyond Duke. More importantly,
the improvements in health care team training that
result from this research are expected to have a broader
impact on public health through the reduction of health care
adverse events and enhancement of patient safety.
Madhav Swaminathan, MD of the Division
of Cardiothoracic and Critical Care Medicine
received a two-year $80,000 Clinical
Scholar Research Award from the International
Anesthesia Research Society (IARS)
entitled “The Role of Circulating Progenitor
Cells in Renal Outcomes After Cardiac
Valve Surgery.” The study will allow the
investigators to study progenitor cells cardiac surgical patients
undergoing valve surgery and determine their role in
adverse renal outcomes, and move forward towards their
long-term objective of reducing the incidence of post-cardiac
surgery renal dysfunction.
Richard Moon, MD, Medical Director of the
Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Environmental
Physiology received a three-year
$387,216 grant from US Naval Sea Systems
Command entitled “Immersion Pulmonary
Edema: Its Cause and Prevention”.
This study proposes to test the effects of
cold water immersion and exposure of the
face to cold water on pulmonary vessels.
Dr. Huaxin Sheng of the Division of Basic Sciences and member of the Multidisciplinary Neuroprotection Laboratory received a consortium award ($96,635) from Cognosci, Inc., an established pharmaceutical company with proprietary anti-inflammatory compounds based on apolipoprotein-E. The award is funded through a Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) entitled “Novel Restorative Therapy for Spinal Cord Injury”. The main goal of this phase 1 project is to determine whether COG133, an anti-inflammatory/neuroprotective peptide derived from the receptor-binding region of apolipoprotein E (apoE) can improve behavioral outcome and pathological readout and become a candidate therapy for spinal cord injury.
Clinical Research Award Recipients
The department is pleased to announce the awardees of the 2006 Clinical Research Awards. Ellen Flanagan, MD, David McDonagh, MD and Anthony Roche, MD will each receive $20,000 to conduct their 2 year research projects, listed below. We congratulate them.
Ellen Flanagan, MD - proposal entitled "Postsurgical Outcomes of Elderly and Old Elderly Patients with DNR Orders, an Analysis of the NSQIP Database."
David McDonagh, MD - proposal entitled "Hypertonic saline vs. mannitol for
the control of intracranial hypertension"
Anthony Roche, MD - proposal entitled "A prospective, randomized
comparison of a technique maintaining low central venous pressure vs. acute
normovolemic hemodilution vs. standard practice in patients undergoing
radical retropubic prostatectomy"
Other Awards
Dr. Ma Qing has been selected as recipient of a Travel Award by the Society of Neurosurgical Anesthesia and Critical Care (SNACC). This was based on her abstract submission to the upcoming
34th SNACC meeting (October 13th in Chicago)
entitled “Effect of Mean Arterial Pressure on Cerebral Outcome in a Rat Model of Cerebral Air Embolism During Cardiopulmonary Bypass.” Other authors include Drs. H.P. Grocott, C. Sulzer,
K. Yoshitani, H. Sheng and G.B. Mackensen.
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