What we do

We build capability and infrastructure to enable continuous improvement and innovation:

  • development of patient and consumer centric outcomes

  • undertake research of high importance to clinicians and consumers

  • provision of benchmarking and outcome reporting

 

Our objective

Construction of a National Critical Care Research Collaboration, with an initial focus on sepsis care in the ICU. The priority is to develop research infrastructure to leverage, enhance, and extend existing safety and quality initiatives. The platform will enable the conduct of prospective observational and interventional research into sepsis, with linked benchmarking and knowledge translation capabilities.

 

 
 

Partnering with consumers

Building consumer centric outcomes and capacity for the development and undertaking of joint research priority setting

 
 

accelerate evidence

Accelerating the development of new research though the development of sustainable data integration to drive better health outcomes and better value healthcare in Australia.

 
 

setting the standard

Providing clinicians with up to date information with benchmarking reporting, and Australian critical care centric clinical practice guidelines.


 

Leadership and governance

The National Critical Care Research Platform is a collaboration between clinician-researchers, patients and families, from Australia and New Zealand. They are connected through the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society’s Clinical Trials Group (CTG) and Centre for Outcomes and Resource Evaluation (CORE). The investigators are engaged through various organisations; School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University, The George Institute for Global Health, The University of Melbourne, The University of Queensland, University of Western Australia and Medical Research Institute of New Zealand.


Investigators

Professor Andrew Udy
Chair

Andrew is Head of Research at The Alfred ICU, Melbourne VIC, and Deputy Director, Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre - Monash University.

  • His research interests include sepsis, traumatic brain injury, neurocritical care, and extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation.

    He is passionate about supporting trainees/early-career clinician-scientists, and increasing diversity in clinical research. Andrew is Vice-Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS) - Clinical Trials Group (CTG), and is a proud product of Aotearoa New Zealand.


Professor Paul Young

Paul is an intensive care specialist and clinical researcher from Wellington, New Zealand.

  • He is the co-clinical leader at Wellington Hospital ICU, the Medical Director at Wakefield Hospital Private ICU, and the Deputy Director at the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand. He is an adjunct professor (Research) at Monash University and a Clinical Associate Professor in Critical Care at the University of Melbourne. He has published more than 250 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals. His research interests include everything related to critical illness and intensive care. He is involved in research collaborations with investigators from around the world.


Professor Edward Litton

Edward is an Intensive Care Specialist and Director of ICU research at Fiona Stanley Hospital, Perth.

  • He is a NHMRC Research Fellow (EL2) with research interests in anaemia and recovery after ICU, sepsis and the microbiome, cardiac surgery, sleep, and novel trial designs. He is a board director of the Intensive Care Foundation and Clinical Director of the ANZICS Critical Care Resources Registry. Prof Litton has received over $12M AUD in competitive grant funding as Chief Investigator and has published more than 150 manuscripts in the peer review literature.


Associate Professor Kimberly Haines

Kimberley (PhD, BHSc) is Physiotherapy Research Lead and Senior Critical Care Physiotherapist (Western Health) and Honorary Clinical Associate Professor (University of Melbourne, Department of Critical Care).

  • Since completing her PhD, A/Prof Haines has established a critical care research program at Western Health where she mentors clinician-researchers and research higher degree students. More recently, A/Prof Haines led an international team to evaluate post-ICU recovery programs established across the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, via the Society of Critical Care Medicine's THRIVE initiative.

    A/Prof Haines has co-authored >45 manuscripts in leading critical care journals. She has successfully obtained international and national grant funding (> $1million in grants). A/Prof Haines is regularly invited to present at premier scientific meetings and has delivered >15 invited speaker/key note presentations internationally.


Associate Professor Anthony Delaney

Anthony is a father of three and husband to a multi-talented anaesthetist. He is a Fellow of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and the College of Intensive Care Medicine.

  • He is currently a Professorial Fellow in the Division of Critical Care at the George Institute for Global Health, also holding appointments as Associate Professor at Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney and an adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre, in the Department of Epidemiology and Preventative Health at Monash University. He maintains a clinical role as Senior Staff Specialist in the Malcolm Fisher Department of Intensive Care Medicine at The Royal North Shore Hospital.

    Associate Professor Delaney’s major research interests are centred on improving methods of resuscitation of patients with sepsis and septic shock and improving outcomes for patients suffering acute severe brain injuries.


Associate Professor Naomi Hammond

Naomi is the Critical Care Program Head at The George Institute for Global Health. She also works part-time as the Intensive Care Clinical Research Manager at Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, Australia.

  • Naomi holds several other appointments including NHMRC Emerging Leader Fellow; Conjoint Associate Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales; an Editorial Board Member for Australian Critical Care Journal; Chair of the Australian Critical Care Nurses Research Advisory Panel; and Senior Research Fellow with the Australian Sepsis Network.

    Naomi is a clinical nurse researcher and has led a program of sepsis research through international collaborations including facilitating 4 clinical trials in COVID-19 in India. She leads the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society Point Prevalence program. She has also undertaken international point prevalence studies including a large epidemiological study of patients with sepsis in Indian ICUs. Called the SIPS (Sepsis in India Prevalence) study, it has provided vital insights into changing epidemiology with different sepsis definitions, bacteriology, and antimicrobial resistance patterns.


Dr Alisa Higgins

Lisa is a senior research fellow and lead of the health economics program at the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre (ANZIC-RC) at Monash University

  • She is an NHMRC Emerging Leader Fellow whose research focuses on long-term follow-up of patients, evaluating the costs of care in critical illness and conducting economic evaluations alongside clinical trials in critical care. Lisa has authored over 100 publications (including in the New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA), and has received over $50 million in competitive grant funding. Lisa is a member of the Australasian Clinical Trials Alliance’s (ACTA) Health Economics alongside Trials (HEAT) group and was a key member of ACTA’s Research Prioritisation Reference Group. She also serves on the Victorian ECMO Service’s Strategic Research Working Group and was a member of the ANZICS CORE Patient Reported Outcomes and Experience Measures Working Party.


Dr Alex Poole

Alex is the program manager of NCCR at the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre at Monash University

  • Alex holds a PhD from the school of medicine at Adelaide University for research of blood glucose control in critically ill patients with Type 2 diabetes, which received a dean’s commendation for excellence. He is interested in gastrointestinal and metabolic function during critical illness. He has been a Research and Project Manager of critical care research projects and programs with studies published in high impact journals.

    Alex also has a keen interest in translating research in to practice and has working in evidence synthesis as a methods chair and senior evidence officer with the National Clinical Evidence Taskforce at Monash University part of the team producing both the COVID-19 and MPX guidelines.


Associate Professor Zoe Mc Quilten

Zoe is a Consultant Haematologist, Monash Health, and Deputy Director of the Transfusion Research Unit, Monash University.

  • She is an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow with a research focus on interventions to improve blood product use in critical care, trauma and haematology. Prof McQuilten has an international profile as a leader in transfusion supportive care, and expertise in immunoglobulin use for infection prevention in haematologic malignancies.


Dr Manoj Saxena

Manoj is a senior intensive care physician (St. George Hospital, Sydney) and a senior lecturer (The George Institute for Global Health, UNSW).

  • Manoj’s research interest is in large-scale clinical trials that provide robust and reliable patient-centred evidence on thermoregulation and circulatory management in patients with acute serious illness requiring invasive organ support. He has completed a PhD and NHMRC Early Career fellowship on Thermoregulation for Acute Critical illness, including sepsis and acute brain injury.


Dr Ary Serpa Neto

Ary is a physician and researcher from São Paulo, Brazil. Ary earned his credentials as an intensivist at Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein while concurrently pursuing a PhD in Pulmonology at the University of São Paulo.

  • Additionally, he achieved a second PhD at the University of Amsterdam, graduating cum laude in the fields of Intensive Care and Anesthesiology. In 2019, Ary became Associate Professor in the Division of Pulmonology at University of São Paulo and attained the status of Full Professor at the Albert Einstein Graduate School of Health Sciences. Presently, Ary holds the position of Senior Research Fellow at the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care-Research Centre (ANZIC-RC) at Monash University, and serves as an Intensivist at Austin Health. Ary Serpa Neto is an investigator and epidemiologist involved in numerous international multicenter clinical trials, including SODa-BIC, TEAM, PReVENT, PROBESE, RELAx, and ACTiVE trials.


Dr Glenn Eastwood

Glenn is the Intensive Care Research Manager at the Austin Hospital and an adjunct Senior Research Fellow in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University

  • Dr Eastwood was the Chief Principal Investigator of the NEJM published Targeted Therapeutic Mild Hypercapnia After Resuscitated Cardiac Arrest randomised controlled trial (TAME Cardiac Arrest Trial). He holds a Research Doctorate (PhD) with Deakin University in research dedicated to oxygen therapy for patients at risk of respiratory dysfunction. His research program is focused on the impact and outcome of gas management (oxygen and carbon dioxide) in critically ill patients and he has published widely in this area.


Associate Professor Daryl Jones

Daryl is an Intensive Care Specialist at Austin Health and is an adjunct Professor at Monash University, and the University of Melbourne

  • He has completed a Doctor of Medicine in aspects of the Rapid Response Team (RRT). He has also completed a PhD on the RRT that assessed the characteristics and outcomes of patient who are reviewed by the RRT, and details of resource utilization of the MET in ICU-equipped hospitals throughout Australia.

    Daryl is the medical director of critical care outreach at the Austin Hospital and is the immediate past president of the international society for Rapid Response Systems. His major research interest is in the recognition of, and response to clinical deterioration, particularly during sepsis in the emergency department and hospital wards.


Associate Professor Kiran Shekar

Kiran is a Senior Intensive Care Specialist and Director of Research at the Prince Charles Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. He holds academic appointments as Adjunct Professor at Queensland University of Technology and Associate Professor at University of Queensland.

  • Shekar is passionate about addressing the global variability in intensive care and extracorporeal life support (ECLS) outcomes through innovation, research, and education. His research interests include pathophysiology of cardiorespiratory failure and ECLS. His ongoing research program “The No Tube Project” aims to integrate less invasive respiratory supports with ECLS to provide more personalized respiratory support and to minimise the burden of invasive mechanical ventilation.

    Shekar is an active contributor to the Extracorporeal Life Support Organisation (ELSO) through his research and educational engagements. He is a member of the Asia-Pacific ELSO Education Committee and is the Course Director of an ELSO endorsed ECMO course. He is the research lead for ELSO Education Taskforce (ELSOed) and as a member of the scientific committee of the International ECMO Network, he contributes to global collaborative research in ECMO.


Dr Kelly Thompson

Kelly is a National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, Emerging Leader with The George Institute for Global Health. Concurrently she is Director of Research Operations at Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District.

  • She holds a Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Public Health from the

    School of Population Health within the Faculty of Medicine at UNSW,

    Sydney. She is a Registered Nurse, with a Bachelor of Nursing from the

    University of Newcastle, with clinical experience in intensive care.

    Kelly’s primary research interest is in health and gender equity in the

    clinical area of infection and sepsis. She uses population level data to

    understand and improve equity in health outcomes for survivors of sepsis

    and critical illness.


Associate Professor Adam Deane

Adam is an Intensivist and internationally recognised researcher. Adam currently serves as Deputy Director of the Intensive Care Unit at The Royal Melbourne Hospital, where he is Head of Research at the RMH ICU.

  • He has considerable interest in clinical trials and outcomes from critical illness. He is also a Principal Research Fellow in Intensive Care with the University of Melbourne, where he is the Clinical Lead for the MISCH Clinical Trials Node Adam is the Postgraduate Coordinator for the Department of Critical Care He holds a Career Development Fellowship with the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and was the top-ranked applicant in the 2017 Level 2 (Clinical) round.


Professor Rinaldo Bellomo

Rinaldo is Professor of Intensive Care Medicine, University of Melbourne; Honorary Professor of Medicine, Monash University, Co-director of the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre

  • He is also Director of Intensive Care Research at the Austin Hospital and Senior Research Advisor in Intensive Care Research at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. He has produced >1800 PubMed cited publications, is the most published biomedical investigator in the history of Australian medicine and the most published intensive care investigator in the world.


Professor Jamie Cooper

Jamie is a NHMRC Level 3 Investigator Fellow, Sir John Monash Distinguished Professor, and Co-Director of the Monash University ANZ Intensive Care Research Centre

  • In 2017, he was awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to intensive care medicine in the field of traumatic brain injury as a clinician, and to medical education as an academic, researcher and author. In 2021, he was jointly awarded the Research Australia GSK Award for Research Excellence in recognition of his global leadership and innovative research in critical care medicine that has helped transform approaches to the treatment of critically ill patients worldwide. He has >400 publications including 18 in NEJM, Lancet, and JAMA. He has peer reviewed research grants exceeding $91M including 45 NHMRC/MRFF grants.


Professor Carol Hodgson

Carol is Head of the Division of Clinical Trials and Cohort Studies in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, and Deputy Director of the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre, Monash University

  • She has held NHMRC or Heart Foundation funding throughout her career, currently with an Investigator Grant (2020-2024). She is a Specialist Physiotherapist in Intensive Care at The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science and of the Australian College of Physiotherapists. She has expertise in rehabilitation and long-term outcomes of critically ill patients, and the use of invasive life support such as mechanical ventilation and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).


Professor Steve Webb

Steve is an ICU specialist, a Professor of Critical Care Research at Monash University, Director of Research for St John of God Healthcare, and Chair of the Australian Clinical Trials Alliance

  • He is a past-Chair of the ANZICS Clinical Trials Group.

    He has been an investigator on trials with an accumulated sample size of more than 60,000 patients, is a named investigator on more than $150 M of competitive research funding and has published more than 250 manuscripts, including multiple manuscripts in NEJM (11) and JAMA (12), that have been cited more than 60,000 times. He has experience with Bayesian adaptive platform trials and other innovative designs such as cluster cross-over trials. He was the global leader of the REMAP-CAP platform trial that reported the treatment effect of 15 different interventions for patients with severe COVID-19 infection. Results from his trials have been incorporated rapidly into international guidelines and implemented into clinical practice saving many lives.

    His vision is that research will be purpose driven for impact, focusing on generating and implementing evidence that will improve patient outcomes and performance of the healthcare sector.


Associate Professor Jeremy Cohen

Jeremy qualified from Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School in 1990. He undertook a post graduate career in clinical medicine and anaesthesia before moving to Australia to pursue a career in Intensive Care Medicine.

  • Besides his clinical duties, A/Prof Cohen is an established researcher in the field of critical care endocrinology. He has authored numerous research articles in the field of adrenal function in critical illness and is a CI on the NHMRC funded ADRENAL trial, an international multi-centre trial. His work has focussed on the measurement of adrenal function and mechanisms of glucocorticoid resistance in septic shock and has led numerous publications in this and related areas. He is currently an Associate Professor in the University of Queensland, an Honorary Professorial Fellow at The George Institute, and an elected member of the Board of the College of Intensive Care Medicine.


Associate Professor Craig French

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Professor Sandra Peake

Sandra (BM BS, BSc(Hons), PhD, FCICM) is a Senior Clinician in the Department of Intensive Care Medicine at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Adelaide, Professor in the School of Medicine at the University of Adelaide and Professor in the School of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University

  • She is the Immediate Past Chair of the ANZICS CTG Executive Committee. She was Chair of the Management Committee for the NHMRC-funded, ANZICS CTG-endorsed Australasian Resuscitation In Sepsis Evaluation (ARISE) multi-centre trial of early resuscitation in sepsis and co-Chair of the Management Committee for the NHMRC-funded, CTG-endorsed multi-centre TARGET trial. She is currently Chief Investigator of the NHMRC-funded, CTG-endorsed multi-centre ARISE-Fluids Trial.


Professor David Pilcher

David is an Intensive Care specialist at The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne and Chairman of the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS) Centre for Outcome and Resource Evaluation (CORE). He is an Adjunct Clinical Professor with Monash University, the Vice-President of ANZICS and recently stepped down as Clinical Lead for the Safer Care Victoria Critical Care Clinical Network.

  • His interests include ICU outcome monitoring, severity of illness assessment, organ donation, lung transplantation, ECMO and ICU informatics research.

    He has co-authored 350 publications, six book chapters, supervised nine PhD students and received over $25 million in competitive and government grants since 2000 but what he really enjoys doing when not in the ICU, is burying himself deep in data with biostatisticians, data scientists and clinicians.


Professor Lewis Campbell

Lewis is an Intensivist in Darwin and Alice Springs, having trained in Glasgow, Sydney, and Edinburgh. He has interests in cultural safety and causal inference. He holds appointments with Flinders University, Charles Darwin University, and Menzies School of Health Research.

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Professor Simon Finfer

Simon a Professorial Fellow in the Critical Care Division at The George Institute for Global Health, Adjunct Professor, University of New South Wales and Chair in Critical Care, School of Public Health, Imperial College London.

  • Simon was a founding member and is a past-Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS) Clinical Trials Group, is a past chair of the International Sepsis Forum, and past Vice President of the Global Sepsis Alliance. He is the Director of Sepsis Australia and the Asia Pacific Sepsis Alliance.

    A Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, Simon was appointed an Officer (AO) in the Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2020 for “distinguished service to intensive care medicine, to medical research and education, and to global health institutes”


Rose Messiha

Project Officer – National Critical Care Research Platform Sepsis Program. She worked with the Australian New Zealand Consortium in Paediatric Oncofertility (ANZCO) guidelines group. She also worked as Administration Officer for the Monash University Clinical Trial Centre (MUCTC).

  • She has experience coordinating primary endpoints for the ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE XT) trial and holds a First-Class Honours in the field of Cardiovascular Pharmacology at Monash University. Rose studied a Bachelor of Pharmacy at Heinrich Heine University, Germany.

 


Partners and funders

Partners

Government Support

The project is funded by Federal Government through the MRFF scheme and administrated by ANZIC Research Centre, Monash University


Our Partner organisations

Collaborators are not-for-profit, Australian-based organisations that have a shared agreement to:

  • Support the mission, to establish a large-scale interdisciplinary research program.

  • Drives implementation of substantial improvements to health care and/or health system effectiveness

  • Collaborate to support mid-career researchers to transform health practice and/or policy