August 4, 2006

Research best practice awards

Carlos Camargo, MD, of MGH Emergency Services, along with David Schoenfeld, PhD, and Taylor Thompson, MD, of the MGH Biostatistics Center, recently were honored at the National Institutes of Health-sponsored National Leadership Forum. The forum, organized by the Inventory and Evaluation of Clinical Research Networks (IECRN), was held to present the methods and findings from the IECRN Descriptive Survey and Best Practices Study and to honor 29 best practice research networks as well as create interaction within the research community.

Camargo is director of the Emergency Medicine Network (EMNet) at the MGH, a winner of one of the best practice awards. The EMNet includes 185 medical centers: 153 are within the United States and 32 are international. The network focuses on public health issues in emergency medicine and respiratory/allergy emergencies. Camargo founded the network and continues to direct the EMNet Coordinating Center at the MGH.

The Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) clinical network at the MGH, which is managed by Schoenfeld and Thompson, won a best practice award for coordinating multi-center clinical trials for patients with ARDS. The researchers have completed a number of pivotal clinical trials with the potential to improve care for patients with ARDS.