MRINZ intensive care researchers are committed to the mission of the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society Clinical Trials Group which is “to promote excellence in Intensive Care medicine through collaborative clinical research focused on improving patient-centred outcomes”. The collaborative spirit and ideals that underpin this mission have led us to collaborate with like-minded researchers from all around the world. With the support of the Health Research Council of New Zealand the MRINZ has contributed to practice-changing trials in all aspects of intensive care medicine. International intensive care medicine trials that have been led by the MRINZ include:

The PEPTIC trial

Tthe largest randomised clinical trial ever undertaken in the field of intensive care medicine, is summarised below:

ICU-ROX trial

Conservative oxygen therapy was compared to standard oxygen therapy in patients who required invasive mechanical ventilation (life support) in the ICU and confirmed that conservative oxygen therapy was safe and likely to reduce mortality in some patient groups.

HEAT trial

The HEAT trial showed that using paracetamol to treat fever in ICU patients with infections was safe:

REMAP-CAP

We have also taken a leading role in the design and conduct of the REMAP-CAP trial, which was designed to optimise ICU treatments in the event of a pandemic, and set up before the emergence of COVID-19.

Leading Intensive Care Research

We have pioneered novel research methods in intensive care medicine including cluster-cross over registry embedded designs, and registry-embedded mega-trials. Such research methods are designed to allow large-scale trials to be conducted quickly and efficiently.

Our researchers have experience taking leading roles in all aspects of intensive care medicine research including in industry trials in patients with sepsis as well investigator-initiated trials in patients with acute kidney failure, traumatic brain injury, and admitted to the ICU after cardiac arrest. We also have experience running trials investigating intravenous fluid therapies and blood transfusion.

Our ICU researchers have published hundreds of papers in peer-reviewed journals and, currently, the intensive care group publishes a paper every one to two weeks.