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Are you ready for 2000? |  |
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| Christmas is a busy time… | |||||
| MOST
OF THE PATIENTS enrolled in the CRASH trial are the victims of road traffic
crashes
(44%), falls (12%) or assaults. Alcohol is a strong risk factor
for each of these types of injury and for this reason Christmas and the
New Year is going to be a busy time for the CRASH trial. It was recognised
from the outset that the collaborating nurses and doctors would be busy
and working in emergency situations and so the trial was designed to be
as simple as possible. The next few weeks will be the real test.
Throughout the holiday period we will monitor the number of treatment packs at each centre and will do our best to ensure that each centre is well supplied. Don’t forget that between Thursday 30th December and Tuesday 4th January randomisation involves taking the lowest numbered treatment pack available, filling in the patient entry form putting the pack number at the bottom, and faxing the form back to the co-ordinating centre. Thanks to you all for getting the trial off to such a good start! |
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2000 patients in 2000? |
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| "Encouraging
colleagues to join a multi-centre trial is for me a new experience. Initially
apprehensive on this "CRASH Roadshow" and on occasion having to address
some piercing questions, I have, I think, earned my CME (in both neuroscience
and trial design) the hard way. More recently I have been encouraged by the willingness to accept that we really don't have the evidence to pronounce on the value of steroids in the management of traumatic brain injury.
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The tide
of apathy seems to have turned although we have a little way to go before
we can report a surge of enthusiasm of ISIS proportions. But as I write this travelling through Oxford I feel sure that, with your support, we will achieve our objectives. Keep randomising and keep evangilising!" David Yates
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What’s
happening where … Naren Nathoo and his Neurosurgical team in South Africa have got off to a speedy start to recruitment. And … a lot is now happening with CRASH in Sri Lanka with Sunil Perera at the National Hospital, Colombo receiving ethics committee approval earlier this month and at long last (due to customs hold ups) Véronique Laloë having received treatment packs at the Teaching Hospital in Batticaloa. We look forward to the first patient being randomised there! |
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Also … Welcome to Belgium. Docteur Guy Mazairac, the co-ordinator of the mobile intensive care service at the Centre Hospitalier Régional De Namur has now received approval for the study to proceed at his hospital and the patient information sheets are in Flemish and French and a FREEPHONE line to the randomisation service is being set up – another centre ready to start. |
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And finally, look out for the new treatment packs coming through. We have now used up nearly all the first batch of treatment packs that were made. The new treatment packs have been designed to be even more practical (slightly smaller) and more attractive (more visible crash logos). |
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CRASH Co-ordinating Centre, FREEPOST LON 14211, LONDON WC1N 1BR Tel: + 44 (0)20 7299 4684 Fax: + 44 (0)20 7299 4663 email: CRASH@lshtm.ac.uk |
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