J. Michael Dean, MD, MBA
Professor of Pediatrics
295 Chipeta Way RM 2S010
CAMPUS
(801) 588-3280
Email: mike.dean@hsc.utah.edu
Read more about Dr. Dean and the Intermountain Injury Control Research Center
My research centers around the direction of multi-institutional research networks funded by Federal and philanthropic sources. I also direct the Intermountain Injury Control Research Center (IICRC) at the University of Utah, and this Center encompasses a number of research activities, the major ones being listed below:
• Utah Crash Outcome Data Evaluation System (CODES)
• National EMSC Data Analysis Resource Center (NEDARC)
• National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS)
• Utah Trauma Registry
• National EMS Information System (NEMSIS)
• Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) Data Coordinating Center
• Collaborative Pediatric Critical Care Research Network (CPCCRN) Data Coordinating Center
• Hydrocephalus Clinical Research Network
To support these networks and their study protocols, we have used funds from the Benning Chair to support the development of a sophisticated, computerized query system for monitoring clinical trial data, in real time, sending automatic messages to all sites when data appear to have problems. In the past year, this system has sent over 10,000 data queries to the involved sites, and it is a key component of our operations. In addition, we continue to refine the Trial DB system, which we use to collect research data. Our programmer is partly supported by Benning funds. We are preparing a major upgrade upgrade to our hardware systems, and currently have several terabytes of data in the system.
In PECARN, a randomized clinical trial of steroids for bronchiolitis was recently completed, and published in the New England Journal of Medicine as the lead paper.
In the same network, we have completed the enrollment of 44,000 children with minor head injuries, and they are completing the statistical work to create a decision rule that will help emergency physicians decide whether to obtain a CT scan of the head. They have also just started a similar project that will enroll 14,000 children with abdominal injuries, targeted at a decision rule to help guide the use of abdominal CT scans. These are the largest pediatric cohorts of brain and abdominal injury patients in existence.
In CPCCRN, we have started enrollment in a prospective randomized trial of a combination of agents designed to provide "lymphocyte support", and the purpose of this study is to prevent nosocomial sepsis in ICU patients who require invasive catheters such as central IV catheters or urinary catheters.
Finally, these two networks are working together on the Therapeutic Hypothermia after Pediatric Cardiac Arrest (THAPCA) trial, which has been planned with the two networks, as well as a group of centers in Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. Benning funds have supported this planning activity, which has been on-going for nearly five years. The THAPCA Trials applications will be submitted to NHLBI in February 2008.