Centre for Trauma Sciences Autumn 2016 newsletter.

C4TS Newsletter Autumn 2016 Issue 11 Welcome to the C4TS Autumn 2016 newsletter. In this edition, we invite you to Transformation the UK’s first concert to raise awareness and funds for trauma research.

Our communications officer Nicole Skeltys explains what to expect at the event taking place on 19 November. Dr Karen Hoffman describes how she has developed the world’s first ICF core set for trauma rehabilitation in collaboration with international experts at a recent WHO consensus conference. Research fellow Paul Vulliamy gives a report on his trip to the 2016 American Association for the Surgery of Trauma conference. And Dr Elaine Cole talks about the first Pan London Major Trauma System Symposium coming up on 14 December. Enjoy!

Transformation: a concert to change lives On 19 November 2016, C4TS research efforts will be highlighted through a music and multimedia event at the Village Underground in Shoreditch.

Transformation will be the UK’s first concert dedicated to raising awareness of the prevalence and impact of traumatic injury and throwing a spotlight on the importance of research to improve survival and patient outcomes.

Transformation is being produced

by Barts Charity in collaboration with C4TS, with corporate sponsorship from solicitor firm Slater and Gordon. Mercedes Benson, a young music entrepreneur and Google UK social media manager, has secured the line-up and is helping promote the event.

Communications Officer Nicole Skeltys explains: “The event is targeted at young people because trauma is the biggest killer of people under the age of 40. However, few are aware of this fact or that medical research has been critical to improving survival rates.”

Centre for Trauma Sciences

www.c4ts.qmul.ac.uk

Nicole Skeltys, Communications Officer

social media campaign, which has engaged trauma survivors, young people and clinicians in supporting the event.

Advertising and blogs in New Musical Express are also helping get the trauma research message out to new and young audiences.

The Transformation concert features some of the UK’s best rising talent

In between acts, videos telling the stories of trauma survivors will be shown as well as a short piece by C4TS lead Professor Brohi explaining the importance of medical research in this underfunded area. The concert will be MCed by Sophie Morgan, a paraplegic TV presenter who recently co-hosted the Channel 4 coverage of the Paralympics.

The lead up to the event has featured the #TransformTrauma

Newsletter Autumn 2016

Trauma survivors, clinicians, researchers share #TransformTrauma selfies

After the event, the videos will be placed on the AfterTrauma site.

All money raised from Transformation goes to Barts Charity’s trauma appeal. You can find more information and buy tickets here.

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Measuring trauma survivor rehabilitation outcomes

by Dr Karen Hoffman, Research Fellow The problem Despite the fact that the incidence and prevalence of traumatic injury is increasing around the globe, often resulting in long recoveries and life changing disabilities, we know little about what rehabilitation interventions actually work.

One reason for this is that there has been no agreed international standard for categorising what are the health and functioning problems that trauma survivors most commonly face. This is essential before clinicians and researchers can decide what rehabilitation interventions to use and then measure and compare their impact on patients, across countries and across time.

My research in the last few years has concentrated on this problem, and I have conducted studies with trauma patients and clinicians to determine what is important to them in rehabilitation. This research formed the basis to develop an ICF set for trauma rehabilitation, which is a WHO endorsed tool to enable internationally standardised patient outcomes measures.

The ICF conference From the 13th-15th October 2016, an international group of 31 experts working with patients who sustained major traumatic injuries participated in a consensus meeting, held at Gatwick near London, to develop the first

Comprehensive and Brief ICF Core Sets for major trauma.

Experts representing all 6 WHO regions from various disciplines (doctors based in emergency departments, nurses, psychologists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, caregivers, patients, surgeons and rehabilitation physicians) followed a three stage decisionmaking process to decide on the ICF categories that should be included in the ICF Core Sets for major trauma.

The result The group debated for many hours to ensure that the categories represented in the ICF Core Sets were the most important and relevant for describing the functioning of adults who experienced a major traumatic injury in diverse contexts all over the world.

The resulting ICF Core set for major trauma contains 75 categories and the brief set 19 categories.

The sets will be available for downloading once the results of the conference are published shortly in a peer reviewed journal.

For more information, please contact Dr Karen Hoffman.

American Association for the Surgery of Trauma: 2016 conference

by Paul Vulliamy, Research Fellow AAST Conference The AAST hold annual conferences that are considered the premier international gatherings in trauma surgery and supporting research. I was lucky enough to attend this year, representing C4TS in the halcyon environs of Hawaii.

ICF trauma rehabilitation conference delegates, Gatwick, Oct 2016 Centre for Trauma Sciences

Newsletter Autumn 2016

I was there presenting our work on the effectiveness of platelet transfusions in the treatment of traumatic bleeding, our main finding being that giving platelets to trauma patients seems to reduce clot breakdown.

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My talk was in the first session on the first day, and over the next three days, I continued to be amazed at the huge breadth of trauma-related topics, ranging from surgery in space to coagulopathy after brain injury.

Highlights for me were presentations on American trauma surgeons’ views on gun crime (turns out 45% own guns, and a big chunk of them are opposed to any restrictions), the effect of blood product transfusion on the immune response to injury, and the rate of readmissions to hospital in trauma patients in the United States (which is more than 25%).

C4TS is gathering a group of trauma survivors and interested members of the public across the UK to help set the agenda and protocols for trauma research projects now and into the future. This group - called PAIR - (Public/Patient Advisors for Injury Research) is not limited to London research and clinical trials, but intended as a UK wide and international resource.

If you are interested in being involved, contact Dr Ross Davenport.

C4TS research input has featured of publications recently, addressing of trauma care:

in a key

number aspects

Does resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta (REBOA) work?

Indications for damage control surgery in civilian trauma patients Contemporary patterns of multiple organ dysfunction in trauma Paul Vulliamy discusses C4TS findings on platelets in transfusion at the 2016 AAST Conference

Pan London Major Trauma Symposium

CT screened arterial calcification as a risk factor for mortality after trauma On 12/11, C4TS lead Professor Karim Brohi was given the prestigious American Heart Association Lifetime Achievement Award for Trauma Resuscitation Science at the AHA16 conference in New Orleans

by Dr Elaine Cole, Director of Research and Innovation, London Major Trauma System On the 14 December 2016, the first Pan London Major Trauma System Symposium will be held at the Royal Geographical Society in Kensington.

Dr Cole explains: "Regional trauma systems take years to mature. In April 2010, we were the first system to go live in the UK, and this year we decided to share what we have learned, what works well and where we are heading.

"Speakers from across the whole spectrum of trauma care and research the system, from pre hospital care to, mass casualty planners to trauma rehabilitation are coming together to present some of our innovations, research and educational programmes. The symposium will be a great opportunity for networking with colleagues from within and outside of the regional trauma system."

- For more information and to register, click here Centre for Trauma Sciences

Newsletter Autumn 2016

AfterTrauma has been shortlisted for the Times Higher Education Award for Outstanding Contribution to Innovation and Technology. The THE Awards have been described as 'the oscars of higher education', winners announced 24/11.

On 1/11, trauma clinicians from around the UK gathered for the 2nd biannual conference on trauma rehabilitation.

The aim was to redesign hospital issued trauma rehabilitation pland to better suit the needs of patients including children. Work on this is continuing, and we welcome more contributions: Contact Dr Karen Hoffman You can contact us via our website, and follow us on Twitter @CommsC4TS. We’d love to hear from you!

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