The MRC CRASH Trial International Collaborators Meeting will be held on 8 & 9 December 2000 at the CRASH Co-ordinating Centre, University College London. 

Following a very successful start-up phase, the Medical Research Council has now provided funding for the main phase of the CRASH trial. This meeting will be an opportunity to celebrate the success of the start-up phase and to re-focus our energies for the main phase of the trial. The meeting will bring together CRASH trial collaborators from all around the world, whether they are actively recruiting patients or preparing to take part. 

The meeting will combine a stimulating scientific programme with an opportunity to meet up and have fun with old and new friends. We will send out details of the meeting programme closer to the date. In the meantime, please mark the dates in your diary – we look forward to seeing you here!!!

Pavlos Myrianthefs and George Baltopoulos of KAT Hospital of Athens, Greece, randomised their first patient and plan to recruit many more in the coming months - welcome aboard Greece.

Hesham El-Sayed at the Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt
and
Siah Heng Tan at the Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore have ethics approval and will soon be ready to start randomising patients.

Birmingham Heartlands was the highest recruiting centre this month due to a great recruitment drive by Shiela Pantrini.

The CRASH Trial was presented at the 5th International Neurotrauma Symposium by David Yates, lead clinician for the CRASH Trial, Ian Roberts, clinical co-ordinator, Jonathan Wasserberg, Consultant Neurosurgeon at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham and member of CRASH Management Group and Petr Svoboda, national co-ordinator for the Czech Republic.  The symposium was held in Garmisch- Partenkirchen, Germany in October 2000.

Guy Mazairac, Centre Hospitalier Regional de Namur, Belgium presented the CRASH trial in Neurological Emergencies Conference in Rome in September and was very well received.

SIX MONTH FOLLOW UP Catherine Godward is the six-month follow-up co-ordinator for the CRASH trial. Having responsibility for identifying patients’ outcomes at six months after randomisation in the UK, Catherine will also work with National Co-ordinators to minimise loss to follow-up for patients worldwide, while ensuring patient confidentiality.  We aim to achieve a 100% response rate from patients.  The response rate is reliant on patients’ co-operation. To  make contacting patients easier, which will help ensure high response rates, please complete patient data on Early Outcome Forms carefully.